BS  1515  .C534  1884 

Cheyne,  T.  k. 

The  prophecies  of  Isaiah 


THE 

PROPHECIES    OF    ISAIAH 

VOL.   I. 


THE 


PROPHECIES    OF    ISAL\H 

A    NEW    TRANSLATION 
WITH    COMMENTARY   AND    APPENDICES 

BY    THE 

REV.  T.   K.^HEYNE,  MA. 

Hi)NORARV    D.D.    EDINBURGH  ;    RECTOR    OF   TENDRING,    ESSEX  ;   AND 
LATE    FELLOW    AND    LHCTURF.R   OF    HALLIOL    COLLEGE,    OXFORD 


IN     TWO     VOLUMES 
VOL.  1. 


TIIIR D    EDI  no N,     R  E  VISE D 


NEW    YORK 
THOMAS      \V  H  I  T  T  A  K  E  R 

2   &   3    BIBLE    HOUSE 
1884 


r /. 


a;. 


CHRONOLOGICAL   TABLL. 


(On  the  complicated  question  of  the  chronology  of  this  period,  sec 
Vol.  II.  of  Duncker's  History  \  Wellhausen,  'Die  Zeitrechnung  des 
lUichs  dcr  Konige  seit  der  Theilung  des  Reiches,'  in  Jahrbiicher  fiir 
dcHtsche  Theolo:iie,  Vol.  XX.  (1875),  PP-  607-640;  Schrader,  K.  A.  7'., 
cd.  2,  pp.  458-468  ;  Kamphausen,  Die  Chnvwlogie  der  hebrdischen 
Konige  (1883);  Robertson  Smith,  The  Prophets  of  Israel,  pp.  1 44-1 5'' 
402,  413-419.) 

740?  Death  of  Uzziah.  (So  too  Dunckcr ;  Wellhausen,  750;  Kamp- 
hausen, 736.) 

734.  Expedition  of  Tiglath-Pileser  against  Damascus,  Israel,  and 
Philistia  ;  tribute  of  YahukJinzi  Yahiidai,  i.e.  Jehoahaz 
(  =  Ahaz)  the  Judahite,  to  Assyria. 

727.     Accession  of  Shalmancser. 

724?    Accession  of  Hezekiah.     (D.,  728  ;  W.  and  K.,  714-) 

722.     Accession  of  Sargon  and  fall  of  Samaria. 

720.     Great  defeat  of  Egypt  at  Raphia. 

713?    Merodach  Baladan's  embassy  to  Hczckiah. 

711.  Sargon's  siege  of  Ashdod,  and  (probably)  invasion  of  Judah  ; 
Hezekiah's  illness. 

710.     Sargon's  conquest  of  liabylon. 

709.     Capture  of  Merodach  Baladan. 

705.     Accessioi>  of  Sennacherib. 

701.     Sennacherib's  invasion  of  Judah. 

681.     Accession  of  Esar-haddon. 

672.     Esar-haddon's  conquest  of  Egypt. 

586.     Nebuchadnezzar's  capture  of  Jerusalem. 

539.     Capture  of  Babylon  by  Cyrus. 
536.     First  return  of  Jewish  exiles. 


PRINCIPAL   ABBREVIATIONS. 


II.  haidh.     Sccoml  pail  of  the  FUiok  of  Isaiah. 
/.  C.  A.       '  Tlic  ISook  of  Isaiah  CliionoloL;ically  Arranged  '  (by  ihe 
present  writer). 

Q.  P.  B.  'The  Holy  Bible,  &c.,  with  Various  Renderings  and 
Readings'  (published  by  Messrs.  Eyre  and  Spottiswoode,  I'rintcis  to 
the  Oueen). 

K.  A.  T.  '  Die  Keilinschriften  und  das  Alte  Testament,  von  Ebcr- 
iiard  Schrader'  (2nd  cd.,  (iiessen,  1S83). 

A'.  G.  F.  'KeilinschriflcMi  und  (icschiclUsforschung.'  Same  author 
((iiessen,  1878). 

A.  E.     Aben  Ezra  (also  referred  to  in  the  commentary  as  Ibn  Ezra). 
/>/.     BickcU.  La.     Lagarde. 

Calv.     Calvin.  '  /.o.     Lowth. 


Del.     Delitzsch. 

Eiv.     Ewald. 

Gcs.     Gcscnius. 

Gcsth.     Geschichtc. 

Hcnd.     Henderson. 

Hengst.     Hengstenljcrg. 

}lilz.     llitzig. 

Iloub.     Houbiganl. 

Ktioh.     Knobel. 

Kr.     Krochmal.  i 

A'.  /'.     Records  of  the  Past  (12  vols.,  Bagstcr). 

7'.  .s'.  /.'.  A.     Transactions  of  .Society  of  IJiblical  Arclueology. 

I'Ur.     \ilringa.  |  ' /'/<,'•     \'ulgate. 

/..  /'.  M.  (!.   /eili.chi  ill  dcr  dculN(  hen  moi'-cnlindisclicn  ( ie^'Cllschaft 


/./!/.,  Lus.     Luzzatlo. 
Xaeg.     Naegelsbach. 
Ols/i.     Olshausen. 
Pcs/i.     Peshito. 
SepL     Scpluagint. 
Syijuii.     .Symmachus. 
I'nrg.     Targurn. 
Tlicod.     Theodotion. 
//v.,   Wclllt.     Wcllhauscn, 


''  TO    THE 

REV.     BROOKE     FOSS     WESTCOTT,     D.D. 

REGUS    PROFESSOR   OF    DIVIXITV    IN    THE    UNIVERSITY    OF    CAMRRIDGE 

THIS  ATTEMPT  TO  COMBINE  MODERN  METHODS  OF  EXEGESIS 

WITH    FIDELITY    TO    ANCIENT   TRUTH 

IS    CY    PERlVnSSION 

DETHCATED 


viii..         :.;t 


v_  i.  \y  *. . 


PRE  F  ACE. 


The  first  edition  of  this  first  volume  appeared  in  1880, 
the  second  in  1882.  I  have  done  my  best  to  make 
the  third  edition  worth  procuring  even  for  those  who 
already  possess  the  first.  Very  many  passages  will 
reveal  traces  of  a  revision  which,  if  not  so  thorough 
as  that  which  Delitzsch  is  in  the  habit  of  giving,  is 
yet  not  superficial,  and  which  witnesses  to  the  author  s 
belief  that  in  the  study  of  the  prophets  nothing  is 
trivial  or  insignificant.  The  results  of  Assyriological 
research  have  again,  to  the  best  of  my  power,  been 
sifted  and  utilised,  so  that  M.  Maspero's  complaint 
that  '  les  hebrai'sants  rejettent  systematiquement  I'aide 
que  pourrait  leur  offrir  I'antiquite  egyptienne  et 
assyrienne '  less  than  ever  applies  to  the  present 
work.  I  may  have  erred,  but  it  seemed  worthier  of 
a  student  of  the  Old  Testament  to  qualify  himself  to 
some  extent  for  a  personal  judgment,  than  either  to 
stand  aloof  and  wait  for  others,  or  to  transfer  in 
pellmell  confusion  all  the  various  illustrations  of  the 
Old  Testament  proposed  by  Assyriologists.  Something, 
too,  has  been  attempted  for  the  further  correction  of 
the  text ;  the  slowness  with  which  I  have,  since  my 
first  contributions  in  1868,  moved  towards  critical  inde- 
pendence will,  I   hope,  be  a  guarantee  that  I  have  no 


VIII  TREFACE. 

parti  pris  against   tradition.      The   'critical   notes'   in 
the  second  vohimc  have  received  numerous  additions  ; 
and  if  I  am  to  a  o^reat  extent  eclectic,  yet  there  will 
be  found  evidence  of  personal  judc^ment  and  mature 
principle.      How  far  any  fresh  light  has  been  thrown 
in   this   edition  on  the   meaning  and   the   progress  of 
religious  ideas  I   cannot  venture  to   say,      I   have,   at 
any  rate,  proved  my  continued  adherence  to  the  his- 
torical  principles  gained   long  since  from   Ewald.      A 
not    unfriendly    reviewer,    from    the    secure   vantage- 
ground  of  a  German   university,   has,   I   observe,  ac- 
cused   me   of  theological    bias   in   some   parts  of  the 
exegesis   in   the  second  volume,   though   he  as  good 
as  acquits  me  of  any  in  the  first.      I  have  re-examined 
the  sentences  in  which  such  a  bias  may  be  detected 
in  the  first,  and  will  make  some  reply  to  him  in  the 
preface  to  the  second  volume.     It  will  be  easy,  for 
there  is  no  fundamental  difference  between  us.     But 
I    ma)-  at   least  ask  here,   W^here   is  the  commentary 
entirely  free   from   theological   or   philosophical   bias  ? 
It  has,  at  any  rate,  been  my  own  object,  as  a  com- 
mentator,  to   confine   my  theological   bias  within   the 
narrowest    possible    area,  and    to    meet    the    curiosity 
which  in  England  is  so  generally  felt  as  to   the  ten- 
dencies of  an  author  in  one  of  the  essa)  s  attached  to 
the  commentary.     The    same    remark   applies   to  my 
critical  bias.      I  cannot  pretend  to  be  without  at  least 
provisional    conclusions.      I   am   not   so   modest  as  to 
think  that    1    have    made   no  contributions   to  critical 
thought.      These    conclusions    or   contributions     may 
here  and  there  have  influenced  my  exegesis,  but  not, 
as  I  think,  undiil\-  ;  and  certainly  not  so  much  as  the 


PREFACE.  IX 

bias  of  more  orthodoxly  critical  commentators  both 
of  the  '  right '  and  of  the  '  left '  has  affected  their 
exegesis.  My  constant  effort  has  been  to  suppress 
myself  as  a  critic  as  much  as  possible,  though  I  con- 
sidered myself  bound,  as  far  as  I  could,  to  acquaint 
the  student  (see  Essay  VI.)  with  the  present  state  of 
one  important  part  of  the  critical  controvers}-.  In 
this  connection  I  may  quote  a  sentence  or  two  from 
the  preface  to  the  first  edition  of  this  volume.  '  It 
appears  to  the  author  that  a  more  thorough  exegesis 
must  (in  England  and  America)  precede  the  fruitful 
investigation  of  critical  problems.  It  is  the  interest 
of  all  parties  to  ascertain  the  exegetical  data,  and 
these  he  has  endeavoured  to  set  down  impartially, 
without  allowing  himself  to  be  deterred  by  accusa- 
tions of  inconsistency,  such  as  even  his  earlier  work^ 
was  exposed  to  from  the  Speakers  Coiumentary  on 
Isaiah.  If  it  is  a  fact  that  the  exegetical  phenomena 
are  conflicting,  let  them  be  fairly  represented  as  such  ; 
the  final  critical  solution  will  have  to  take  account  of 
all  tlie  data  of  the  problem.' 

The  prospects  of  Old  Testament  study  in  England 
are  more  hopeful  now  than  when  I  first  began  to 
write.  Free  and  reverent  investigation  is  at  least 
sincerely  tolerated,  though  within  my  own  range  of 
observation    It    has    not    received    much    countenance 

'  This  work  on  Isaiah,  published  in  1870,  contained  an  amended 
version,  which  aimed  at  reconciling  in  some  degree  EngHsh  style  and 
Hebrew  scholarship.  Mr.  Matthev/  Arnold  (in  his  Isaiah  of  Jerusalcvi) 
censures  the  translation  in  the  present  work  precisely  as  if  its  object  was 
the  same  as  that  of  my  earlier  attempt.  I  have  not  recalled  the  latter  ; 
indeed,  it  partly  supplements  the  present  work,  especially  in  the  intro- 
duction, which  contains  a  moderate  statement  of  the  anti-traditional 
point  of  view  scarcely  as  yet  superseded. 


X  TRKFACE. 

from  tlie  authorities.  Wo  have  still  to  live  in  hope 
in  this  as  in  so  many  other  respects.  A  single  pro- 
fessorship at  each  of  our  national  universities  will  not 
always  be  held  sufticient  for  a  study  which  ramifies 
in  so  many  directions  as  that  of  the  Old  Testament.^ 
If  I  may  refer  to  but  one  of  its  departments,  Old 
Testament  Exeo^'esis  has,  so  far  as  I  am  aware,  no 
official  recognition  in  the  English  universities,  though, 
at  Oxford  at  least,  the  interpretation  of  the  New 
Testament  is  not  unfairly  represented  by  two  learned 
professors.  Isolated  students  of  this  and  other  sections 
of  the  subject  may  no  doubt  be  found,  but  what  the 
study  requires  is  a  small  band  of  qualified  scholars 
who  are  at  the  same  time  teachers,  and  who  have 
distributed  among  themselves  the  different  depart- 
ments of  this  wide  field  of  research.  As  yet  we  hear 
little  said  about  these  things  in  the  organs  of  Church 
and  University  opinion,  and  it  may  therefore  be  unfair 
to  expect  much  help  from  those  who  officially  have 
the  means  of  eivinsf  it.  But  the  horizon  is,  as  I  said, 
not  without  gleams  of  hope.  Men  of  the  younger 
generation,  trained  in  a  more  historic  school  than 
their  ciders,  are  at  least  friendly  to  critical  investiga- 
tions; and  if  the  energies  of  most  of  them  are  absorbed 
by  the  questions  of  the  hour,  yet  there  are  some  left 
who  can  give  more  than  a  friendly  regard,  and  to 
those  I  appeal,  out  of  my  unwilling  seclusion,  to  take 

^  I  am  most  glad  to  be  able  to  refer  to  the  Inaugural  Lecture  of 
Professor  Driver  at  Oxford  (as  reported  in  the  Times),  which  expresses 
all  that  I  could  wish.  Compare  also  the  sketch  of  the  field  of  Old 
Testament  study  in  my  own  Essay  on  the  Maintenance  of  the  Study 
of  the  Bible  in  Essays  on  the  Endoivjneitt  of  Research  (Lond.,  1876). 
To  the  ])ractical  suggoslions  of  that  essay  I  should  not  now  commit 
myself. 


PRliFACE.  XI 

their  part  distinctly  and  ungrudgingly,  in  spite  of  all 
discouraorements,  in  a  work  of  which  few  can  estimate 
the  beneficial  results,  and  for  the  want  of  which  not 
only  philology,  but  theology  and  the  Church  in  general 
suffer — the  application  of  modern  methods  to  the 
criticism  and  exegesis  of  the  Old  Testament. 


*^*  The  reader  will  kindly  refer  to  the  '  Critical  Notes '  and 
'  Last  Words '  in  the  second  volume,  which  sometimes  explain  or 
illustrate  the  translation  and  commentary,  and  especially  to  the 
emendations  of  the  text  due  to  the  late  Dr.  Weir,  Professor  of 
Hebrew  in  the  University  of  Glasgow.  Specimens  of  Dr.  \\'eir's 
exegesis  have  also  been  given  ;  but  this,  though  generally  sober, 
and  sometimes  very  clear-sighted,  is  by  no  means  so  remarkable  as 
his  criticism  of  the  text.  I  am  much  indebted  to  Dr.  ^Velr's  repre- 
sentatives for  permission  to  examine  his  note-books,  and  am  glad 
thus  to  honour  the  memory  of  a  singularly  fresh  and  candid  mind. 


Addendum.— On  nHv.  4  (\\  283).  There  is  great  doubt  whethci 
the  best  Massoretic  reading  is  |35  'amidst  '  (?),  or  |53  'as  amidst  ' 
('being  defective)  or  'as  young  (grass).'  The  Sept.  reading  is 
preferable. 


ISAIAH. 


CHAPTER   I. 

'  The  Great  Arraignment '  is  the  title  appropriately  suggested  by  Ewald 
for  this  prophecy.  Jehovah  is  the  plaintiff,  Israel  the  defendant,  the 
prophet  a  deeply  interested  bystander  and  interlocutor.  Hence  the 
prophecy  naturally  falls  into  four  symmetrical  stanzas  or  strophes,  divid- 
ing at  vv.  lo,  1 8,  24  (Ewald,  Drechsler).  Str.  I.  contains  the  charge,  with 
an  appeal  to  the  witnesses  ;  11.  meets  a  preliminary  objection  of  Israel's 
to  the  production  of  a  charge  ;  in.  offers  reconciliation  on  condition  of 
Israel's  amendment  ;  iv.  fulminates  the  judgment  which  the  rejection  of 
this  gracious  offer  renders  inevitable.  The  prophecy  begins  by  addressing 
the  whole  people  as  equally  guilty  ;  then  directs  itself  more  especially 
to  the  higher  classes  ;  and,  last  of  all,  anticipates  that  some  will  be  con- 
verted, and  so  escape  destruction.  There  is  no  finer  specimen  of  pro- 
phetic oratory  than  this  (see  on  v.  id). 

It  is  difficult  to  say  when  this  prophecy  was  most  probably  composed, 
or  rather,  it  was  difficult  in  the  infancy  of  Assyrian  studies.  Hence  we 
find,  among  the  elder  critics,  Caspari  ^  referring  to  the  period  of  Uzziah 
and  Jotham  ;  Ges.  and  Knob,  to  that  of  Ahaz ;  Vitr.,  Hitz.,  Ewald,  to 
that  of  Hezekiah.  The  fact  is  that,  in  some  respects,  it  might  have  been 
written  almost  equally  well  in  any  one  of  these  periods,  which  suggests 
that  it  was  designed,  in  its  present  form,  as  a  preface  to  a  larger  or 
smaller  collection  of  Isaiah's  prophecies.  Still  it  would  be  strange  if 
Isaiah  had  been  able  altogether  to  exclude  references  to  passing  events, 
nor  does  he  appear  to  have  done  so.  He  tells  us  that  the  land  of  Judah 
has  been  flooded  with  a  foreign  soldiery—'  your  land,  strangers  devour 
it '  {v.  7),  a  description  which  points  rather  to  the  Assyrians  than  to  an 
army  partly  composed  of  Israelites  (vii.  i).  There  are  no  points  of  con- 
tact between  this  prophecy  and  those  composed  (see  e.g.  chap,  xxxiii.) 
with  reference  to  Sennacherib's  invasion.  It  must  therefore  have  been 
composed  before  that  event,— not  after  it  (Oort),  as  there  is  no  allusion  to 
the  collapse  of  the  Assyrian  enterprise.  There  seems  no  aUernative  but 
to  suppose  Isaiah  to  refer  to  the  first  Assyrian  invasion  of  Judah,  viz.  that 
of  Sargon.-     He  wrote,  probably,  after  the  stress  of  the  stoi-m  had  passed, 

1  See  especially  his  Beitrdge  zur  Eiiil.  in  das  Buck  Jesaja,  part  \. 

2  Why  such  an  invasion  is  held  to  be  probable,  if  not  certain,  is  explained  in  intro- 
duction to  chap,  X.  5-xii.  6 

VOL.  I.  .  B 


ISAIAH. 


[CHAP.  I. 


or  even  when  the  inv^asion  was  over,  for  during  a  calamity  it  was  not  his 
wont  to  speak  so  roughly  and  discouragingly.  Indeed,  he  speaks  quite 
as  much  to  the  next  generation  as  to  the  men  of  his  own  time  ;  it  is 
a  purely  literary  product  that  we  have  before  us.  As  he  depicts  the 
sufferings  caused  by  the  invasion  {vv.  7-ci),  he  deepens  the  shadows  to 
impress  the  future  readers  of  his  prophecies.  He  offers  not  so  much  a 
realistic  account  of  what  actually  took  place,  as  what  might  and  must 
result  from  a  continued  neglect  of  true  religion.  (From  this  point  of  view, 
comp.  the  eyKaTaXeKpdrjaeraL  of  LXX.  and  the  derelbiqiietiir  of  Vulg.) 
And  yet  his  description  is  based  upon  facts,  and  is  not  entirely  imagina- 
tive. The  sketch  of  the  moral  and  religious  condition  of  Judah  applies 
at  any  rate  to  some  extent  to  the  reign  of  Hezekiah,  whose  reformation 
was  only  superficial.  The  crimes  imputed  to  the  princes  in  vv.  15,  18, 
21  (only  mentioned  again  in  Isaiah's  earliest  discourses,  iv.  4,  v.  7),  and 
the  openness  of  the  '  apostasy,'  are  no  less  characteristic  of  the  reign  of 
Ahaz,  to  which  Delitzsch  still  refers  it.  The  theory  that  chap,  i.,  though 
written  in  the  reign  of  Hezekiah,  was  designed  as  an  introduction  to 
prophecies  of  various  periods,  enables  us  to  reconcile  all  the  conflicting 
data. 

1  Vision  of  Isaiah,  son  of  Amoz,  which  he  saw  concerning 
Judah  and  Jerusalem  in  the  days  of  Uzziah,  Jotham,  Ahaz, 
and  Hezekiah,  kings  of  Judah.     ^  Hear,  O  heavens,  and  give 


1  The  heading,  in  its  present 
form,  belongs  to  the  whole  of  the 
prophecies  of  Isaiah.  There  may, 
however,  have  been  a  time  when  it 
stood  at  the  head  of  a  smaller  por- 
tion of  prophecy,  for  the  words 
'concerning  Judah  and  Jerusalem' 
do  not  suit  all  the  prophecies. 
Vitringa  supposes  the  heading  to 
have  been  originally  written  for 
chap,  i.,  and  to  have  had  the  con- 
cluding words  ('  in  the  days  of,' 
&c.)  added  to  it  by  the  scribes 
who  collected  Isaiah's  works  into  a 
volume.  But  as  the  very  similar 
heading  to  chap.  ii.  belongs  to  a 
group  of  prophecies  (ii.-v.),  it  is 
reasonable  to  suppose  that  the 
heading  of  chap.  i.  once  did  like- 
wise. It  cannot,  indeed,  have  been 
penned  by  Isaiah,  if  (as  is  most 
probable)  none  of  the  prophecies 
were  really  written  in  the  reign  of 
Uzziah.  Here,  as  in  the  case  of 
the  headings  of  the  Psalms,  we 
seem  driven  to  assume  the  handi- 
work of  the  scribes  during  the  Exile, 
a  period  when  the  study  of  the  re- 
hgious   writings    formed    the    chief 


consolation  of  the  pious.  The  same 
writer,  or  writers,  may  have  pre- 
fixed the  headings  of  Hosea  and 
Micah,  and  perhaps  of  some  of  the 
other  books,  also  of  Isaiah  ii.  and 
xiii.  (note  the  similarity  of  form). 
Vision]  Perhaps  collectively 
for  '  visions '  ;  occurs  again  in  the 
headings  of  Nahum  and  Obadiah. 
A  technical  term  for  the  prophetic 
intuitions  or  inward  perceptions. 
A  synonymous  phrase  is  'hearing' 
(xxviii.  22  ;  comp.  xxi.  10).  He 
who  '  makes  to  see '  is  of  course 
Jehovah  (Am.  vii.  i),  through  the 
objective  influence  of  His  Spirit 
(see  on  viii.  11).  Thus 'vision  '  = 
prophetic  revelation  (comp.  i  Sam. 
iii.  15),  just  as  'seer' =  prophet  ; 
but  while  'seer'  was  early  sup- 
planted by  '  prophet '  {tiabl),  i  Sam. 
ix.  9,  '  vision'  held  its  ground  till  a 
much  later  time  (Dan.  ix.  23,  i  Chr. 
xvii.  15).  'Prophecy'  {ribudh)^ 
only   occurs  thrice  (2  Chr.  ix.  29, 

XV.   8,  Neh.  vi.   12). And  Jern- 

saleni]  i.e.  especially  Jcrus.,  Isaiah 
being  distinctively  a  city-prophet. 
'■'  Hear,  O  heavens]  i.e.,  either  : 


CHAP.  I.] 


ISAIAH. 


ear,  O  earth,  for  Jehovah  speaketh :  sons  I  have  made  great 
and  high,  and  they  have  broken  away  from  me.  ^  The  ox 
knoweth  his  owner,  and  the  ass  its  master's  crib  :  Israel  is 
without  knowledge,  my  people  is  without  understanding, 
■*  Alas  for  the  sinful  nation,  the  people  burdened  with  guilt, 
the  seed  of  evil  doers,  the  sons  that  do  corruptly  :  they  have 
forsaken  Jehovah,  they  have  spurned  Israel's  Holy  One,  they 
have  withdrawn  backward.     ^  Why  ^  will  ye  be  still  smitten, 

*  On  what  part,  Vulg.,  Lowth,  Ew. 


Bearvvitnessto  the  judicial  sentence 
which  Jehovah  is  about  to  deHver 
(of.  Deut.  iv.  26,  XXX.  19,  xxxi.  28, 
Ps.  1.  4,  Jer.  vi.  19) ;  or,  since  Je- 
hovah is  speaking  rather  in  sorrow 
than  in  anger,  Listen  with  reverence 
to  Jehovah  your  Creator,  whom  His 
rational  creatures  refuse  to  hear,  cf. 
Jer.  ii.  12.  Many  find  here  an  al- 
lusion to  Deut.  xxxii.  i,  but  (apart 
from  the  question  as  to  the  date 
of  Deuteronomy)  there  is  so  much 
greater  depth  of  feeling  in  the 
passage  of  Isaiah  that  one  is  loth 
to  admit  an  imitation.  The  expres- 
sions (see  Lowth)  are  the  common 
property  of  poets.  The  tenderness 
of  these  opening  verses  reminds  us 
of  Hosea,  as  the  section  7'?/.  10-20 
reminds  us  by  its  severity  of  Amos. 

Sons]     This  word  is  placed  in 

the  forefront  to  account  for  the 
singular  favours  about  to  be  men- 
tioned.    What  can  a  loving  parent 

refuse    to    his    sons  ? x    have 

made  great  andhig:Ii]  i.e.,  I  have 
reared  Israel  to  maturity,  and  set 
him   on   high  among  the  nations. 

Comp.    Hos.    I.     10 Rebelled] 

The  highest  degree  of  sin.  '  For  he 
addeth  unto  his  sin  rebellion,'  Job 
xxxiv.  27,  ^ .  .  .  sons  of  the  living 
God'  (xi.  I,  Ex.  iv.  22). 

^  The  ox  ...  ]  So  Jeremiah 
(viii.  7)  contrasts  the  insensibility  of 
Israel  with  the  sagacity  of  the  stork. 

*  Seed  of  evil  doers]  i.e.,  a  seed 
(or  race),  consisting  of — not  de- 
scended from^evil  doers.  Comp. 
xiv.  20,  Ixv.  23,  where  the  context 

is  clearer  than  here. Forsaken 

.  .  .  spurned  .  .  .  withdrawn 
backward]    Observe  the  climax — 


alienation,  insult,  idolatry.  On  the 
implication  in  the  last  phrase,  see 
Ezek.  xiv.  i.  It  is,  however,  not  so 
much  outward  idolatry  which  is 
referred  to,  as  the  idolatry  of  the 

heart;    see  on  v.  21. Israel's 

Holy  One]  i.e..  He  who  shows 
himself  holy  in  the  midst  of  Israel. 
Holiness  is  an  idea  which  has  had 
a  long  history,  and  it  is  not  easy  to 
realize  it  in  its  original  simplicity. 
In  Isaiah's  mind,  however,  it  evi- 
dently stood  in  close  relation  to  the 
conception  of  the  Divine  glory.  In 
vi.  3  the  Trisagion  is  accompanied 
by  'The  whole  earth  is  full  of  his 
glory.'  But  Isaiah  himself  indi- 
cates a  distinction  already  developed 
between  God's  glory  and  His  holi- 
ness. The  sense  of  creaturely 
weakness  is  awakened  by  the 
thought  of  the  one  (vi.  5,  first 
clause),  the  consciousness  of  trans- 
gression by  that  of  the  other  (vi.  5, 
second  and  foil,  clauses)  ;  and  this 
because,  whereas  the  glory  of  God 
extends  overall  nature,  His  holiness 
is  specially  exhibited  in  judicial 
interpositions  within  the  sphere 
of  His  kingdom.  And  yet  the 
Israelites,  who  owed  so  much  to 
these  mterpositions,  displayed,  not 
contrite  awe  but  insulting  contempt, 
(On  Holiness  see  Oehler,  TJieology 
of  the  Old  Tcstaniciit^'\.  154,  &c., 
Duhm,  Die  TJieoIogieder Propheten, 
169-172  ;  Baudissin,  Studien  ziir 
sciiiit.  Religioiisgescliicli  /£-,  i  i .  i  - 1 42 , 
Delitzsch,  art.  '  Heiligkeit  '  in 
Herzog-Plitt's  Real-Encyclopddze, 
Kriiger,  Essai  sur  la  tJieologie 
d'Esaie  xl.-lxvi.,  pp.  19-26.) 

'"  vrhy   will    ye  ...  ]       Why 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  I. 


going  on  in  apostasy  ?  Every  ^head  is  sick,  and  every  "^  heart 
faint.  "  From  the  sole  of  the  foot  even  to  the  head  there  is 
no  sound  part  in  it ;  wounds  and  wales  and  festering  sores  — 
not  pressed,  and  not  bound  up,  and  not  softened  with  oil. 
'  Your  land — a  desolation,  your  cities — burnt  with  fire,  your 
tillage — in  your  face  strangers  devour  it  ;  even  a  desolation, 
like  the  overthrow  of  "^  Sodom.  *  And  the  daughter  of  Zion  is 
left  as  a  booth  in  a  vineyard,  as  a  lodging-place  in  a  cucumbcr- 


*  The  whole,  Ew. 


So  Ew.,  Studer,  Lagarde.     Text  has,  strangers. 


bring  down  fresh  judgments  upon 
your  head  through  persisting  in 
your  infidelity  .''  Kay  well  compares 
Ezek.  xviii.  31.     (On  the  rend,  see 

Del.  and  Kay.) Every  bead  is 

sick  .  .  .  ]  Instead  of  descending 
from  the  public  to  the  private 
calamity,  the  prophet  adopts  the 
more  striking  plan  of  ascending 
from  the  individual  to  the  body 
corporate.  He  singles  out  the  two 
noblest  members  of  the  body,  the 
seats  of  the  intellectual  and  moral 
life.  There  is  not  a  head  nor  a 
heart  which  has  escaped  the  infec- 
tion of  sin.  Cf.  Jer.  xvii.  9.  '  The 
heart  is  .  .  .  wofully  sick,'  Gen.  viii. 
21. 

®  From  the  sole  ■  .  •  ]  It  is  the 
state  which  is  thus  characterised 
(cf.  X.  16,  xvii.  4).  The  meaning  of 
the  figures  is  determined  by  that  of 
the  figures  in  v.  5.  The  inward 
sickness  of  the  individual  produces 
a  mass  of  moral  corruption  in  the 
nation,  and  no  attempt  has  been 
made  to  apply  a  remedy.  '  Binding 
up  '  is  a  well-known  figure  for  spi- 
ritual regeneration,  Hos.  xiv.  4,  I's. 
xli.  4.  '  To  heal'  (fd/ci)  in  Hebrew 
means  properly  to  sew  up  a 
wound. 

^  The  condition  of  the  land  is  as 
sad  as  that  of  the  people.  The 
wild  soldiery  of  Sargon  has 
wrought  a  ruin  only  comparable  to 
that  of  Sodom.  But  the  men  of 
Sodom  were  foreigners,  Israel  is  a 
'son.'  It  was  a  painful  surprise  to 
the  Israelites  that  their  land  could 
become  the  prey  of  the  (icntiles, 
comp.  Ixiii.  19,  Jer.  .\.  25.     [(^n  the 


reading,  see  crit.  note.  The  text- 
read,  seems  to  me  scarcely  translat- 
able. The  conjecture  '  ...  of  a 
rain-storm  '  is  plausible  (comp.  Ps. 
xc.  5)  ;  but  I,  the  verb  'overturn'  is 
specially  appropriated  to  the  '  cata- 
strophe' of  Sodom  and  Gomorrah 
(xiii.  19,  Am.  iv.  11,  Jer.  xlix.  18, 
I.  40,  Deut.  xxix.  23  [22],  and  2,  we 
should  not  expect,  in  so  artistically 
composed  a  chapter,  to  find  zi'roii 
so  close  to  sdrim — a  confusion 
would  be  unavoidable.] 

■*  There  is  one  qualification  to 
be  made  ;  the  capital  remains,  but 
how   forlorn   and    helpless  !       See 

Notes    and    Cri/icisDis^    p.    2. 

The  daugrhter  of  Zion]  A  highly 
poetical  phrase,  here  and  in  general 
a  personification  of  the  city  and 
inhabitants  of  Jersusalem.  Some- 
times, however,  it  seems  to  mean 
the  city  without  the  inhabitants 
(Lam.  ii.  8)  ;  sometimes  the  in- 
habitants without  the  city  (iMic.  iv. 

10). A.S  a  booth  ...  a  lodgr- 

ingr-place]  Temporaiy  shelters 
for  the  watchmen.  See  xxiv.  20, 
xxvii.  3  (note),  Job  xxvii.  18  ;  also 
Trench's  instructive  note,  Parables, 
p.  195,  and  Wetzstein's  in  Delitzsch, 

Hiob,   p.    318. As   a    besieged 

city]  This  is  very  difficult  to  har- 
monise with  the  preceding  figures. 
Can  Isaiah  have  written  thus.-'  Ur. 
Weir's  conjecture  is  very  ingenious. 
True,  Jerusalem  had  walls,  but  it 
might  as  well  have  been  without 
them,  for  the  Assyrian  '  despiscth 
cities  '  (or  citadels),  xxxiii.  8.  See 
the  Hel)r.  of  Prov.  xxv.  28,  2  Chr. 
xxxii.  5. 


CHAP.  I.] 


ISAIAH. 


field,  as  a  ^besieged  city.'^  ^  Had  not  Jehovah  Sabdoth  left  us 
a  remnant,  [almost  ^]  like  Sodom  should  we  be,  Gomorrah 
should  we  resemble ! 

'"  Hear  the  word  of  Jehovah,  ye  judges  of  Sodom  ;  give 

<' Fort  of  watch  (comp.  2  Kings  xvii.   9),  Hitz. ,  Ges.   {T/wsaur/es). — City  broken 
through,  i.e.  defenceless,  Weir(conj.). 
<■  Omitted  in  Sept.,  Pesh.,  Vulg.  ;  comp, 


^  The  first  revelation  closes  with 
a  reflection  in  the  name  of  the 
people.  It  is  touching  to  see  how 
the  prophet's  human  feelings  force 
•  an  utterance.  He  seems  to  feel 
that  the  statement  in  v.  7  was  too 
strong  :  —  '  not  yet  quite  like 
Sodom.'  ffehovali     Sabaot^] 

The  phrase  is  used  as  a  kind  of 
seal  or  attestation  to  a  specially 
solemn  prophecy.  This  has  be- 
come almost  a  rule  with  most  of 
the  prophets.  Yet  there  are  some 
exceptions,  as  Ewald  remarks. 
Hosea,  Ezekiel,  and  Micah  (if,  as 
many  critics  think,  iv.  1-4  is  quoted 
by  Micah  from  another  prophet) 
avoid  it  altogether.  Jehovah  Sa- 
b^oth  is,  I  think,  a  fuller,  and  more 
expressive  proper  name  for  the  God 
(primarily)  of  Israel  :  more  expres- 
sive than  Jehovah  alone  in  that  it 
lays  special  stress  on  his  supra- 
mundane  being,  thus  becoming 
equivalent  to  the  latter  phrase  '  the 
God  of  heaven,'  2  Chr.  xxxvi.  23, 
Neh.  i.  4,  5,  Ps.  cxxxvi.  26,  (Gen. 
xxiv.  3,  7  ?),  &c.  See  also  Appen- 
dix to  this  chapter. 

'°  Yet  strange  to  say,  the  princi- 
pal men  of  Jerusalem  think  they 
have  completely  discharged  their 
religious  obligations.  A  second 
revelation  dispels  this  illusion. 
By  an  apostrophe  which  Stein- 
thal  the  philologist  pronounces 
unequalled,  the  prophet  addresses 
them  as  Judgres  of  SoUom  (comp. 
iii.  9,  and,  with  Dr.  Kay,  Deut. 
xxxii.  32).  Into  this  short  phrase 
he  condenses  the  philosophy  of 
their  misfortunes.  So  severe  a 
punishment  argues  a  more  than 
commonly  heinous  offence.  Out  of 
this  passage  perhaps  the  Arabs  have 
distilled  the  proverb,  '  More  unjust 
than  a  kadee  of  Sodom '  {kadi  = 
kdtsin,   the  word   used  by   Isaiah, 


Rom.  ix.  29  (after  Sept.).     So  Geiger. 

and  in  a  similar  context  by  Micah 
iii.  9).  Obs.,  no  mention  is  made 
of  the  king.  The  judges  seem  to 
have  acquired  the  whole  executive 
power,  and  to  have  greatly  impaired 
the     royal     prerogative     (cf     Jer. 

xxxviii.    5). The  instruction  of 

our  God]  A.  V.  renders  '  the  law,' 
implying,  as  usual,  a  reference  to 
the  Mosaic  law.  This,  however, 
is  doubtful  at  best.  The  word 
( Torah),  rendered  'teaching,' means 
etymologically,  '  direction,'  or  '  in- 
struction,' and  hence  was  the  suit- 
able term  for  the  authoritative 
counsel  given  orally  by  the  priests 
(Deut.  xvii.  11)  and  prophets  to 
those  who  consulted  them  on  points 
of  ritual  and  practice  respectively. 
It  is  unsafe,  therefore,  in  the  ma- 
jority of  passages  to  render  Tordh 
'law'  (with  A. v.),  when  'instruc- 
tion '  or  '  revelation  '  will  suit  all  the 
requirements  of  the  context.  See 
Isa.  ii.  3,  viii.  16,  xlii.  4,  Jer.  xviii. 
18,  Ezek.  vii.  26,  Hag.  ii.  11,  Zech. 
vii.  12  ;  and  especially  Jer.  xxvi.  4, 
5,  where,  '  to  walk  in  my  Turah  ' 
is  parallel  to  '  to  hearken  to  the 
words  of  my  servants  the  prophets.' 
There  are,  indeed,  a  few  passages 
where  some  modern  critics  render 
Tordh  '  law.'  '  The  written  law  of 
Moses  had  come  into  general 
acceptance  from  the  days  of  Josiah,' 
and  '  the  "  law  "  already  presented 
itself  during  the  Exile  as  the  one 
lofty  object  which,  despised  and 
rejected  now,  would  in  the  future 
once  more  win  from  all  mankind  a 
lofty  reverence  and  unique  acknow- 
ledgment.' So  writes  Ewald, 
referring  to  Isa.  xlii.  4,  21,  Ii.  4,  7, 
Lam.  ii.  9  (20),  Ezek.  vii.  26  {His- 
tory of  Israel,  v.  133).  Even  here, 
however,  the  sense  '  (prophetic) 
revelation'  is  quite  satisfactory. 
The  Ijook  of  II   Isaiah  is  not  con- 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  I. 


ear  to  the  instruction  of  our  God,  ye  people  of  Gomorrah. 
•'  Of  what  use  is  the  multitude  of  your  sacrifices  to  me  ?  saith 
Jehovah  ;  I  am  satiated  with  the  burnt-offerings  of  rams,  and 
the  fat  of  fed  beasts,  and  in  the  blood  of  bullocks  and  lambs 
and  he-goats  I  have  no  pleasure.  ^^When  ye  come  to  ^see 
my  face,^  who  hath  required  this  at  your  hands— to  trample 

f  So   Pesh.   Luz.,  Geiger. — Appear  before  me,    Ew.,    Del.,   Naeg.   (after  Hebrew 
vowel-points). 

ram  in  Leviticus.  Or,  if  our 
Leviticus  be  of  late  date,  the 
'  rams '  may  be  a  vestige  of  the 
high  estimate  of  rams  in  primitive 
times  (cf  Gen.  xxii.  13).  'Fat'  is 
mentioned  because,  except  in  burnt- 
offerings,  the  fat  pieces  were  burnt ; 
'  blood,'  because  in  all  the  sacrifices 
of  this  class  the  blood  was  sprinkled 
on  the  altar. 

'-  To  see  my  face]  (On  reading, 
see  crit.  note.)  To  '  see  God,'  men 
must  be  'pure  in  heart'  (Matt.  v. 
8),  or,  in  the  words  of  a  Psalmist, 
'  the  upright  shall  behold  his  coun- 
tenance '  (Ps.  xi.  7).  It  is  therefore 
a  purely  formal  and  imaginary  see- 
ing which  the  prophet  refers  to — a 
vestige  probably  of  that  unspiritual 
stage  when  the  Israelites  wor- 
shipped God  under  the  form  of 
images  (Judg.  xvii.  3,  4,  i  Kings 
xii.  28,  29).  The  prohibition  of 
idolatry  did  not  extinguish  this 
merely  formal  religion,  for  the 
invisible  God  could  still,  it  was 
thought,  be  propitiated  through  the 
Temple-ritual.  It  was  not  every- 
one who  could  reconcile  the  sanc- 
tity of  the  Temple  with  the  illimit- 
able character  of  the  Divine  Being 
as  it  is  reconciled  in  the  beautiful 
'  prayer  of  Solomon'  (i  Kings  viii. 
27-30).  The  phrase,  '  to  see  God,' 
is  therefore  a  relic  of  what  may  be 
called  roughly  the  pre-prophetic  or 
pre-Mosaic  age.  It  is  not  merely, 
as  Hupfeld  thinks,  a  metaphor  from 
a  royal  court,  into  which  only  a 
select  few  could  have  ingress.  The 
'  face  of  God '  was  no  doubt  a  sym- 
bolic expression,  but  one  of  a  less 
commonplace  order  than  the  emin- 
ent critic  sujiposes.  It  represents 
in  the  old  Semitic  religious  systems 
generally  that  aspect  of  the  Divine 


cerned  with  legal  ordinances  ;  Ezek. 
vii.  26  is  explained  by  Deut.  xvii. 
1 1  ;  and  in  Lam.  ii.  9  Tordh  is 
parallel  to  '  (prophetic)  vision.'  The 
only  absolutely  certain  reference  to 
the  Pentateuch  is  in  Mai.  iv.  4. 
(Am.  ii.  4,  and  Hos.  viii.  12  appear 
to  allude  to  early  compends  of 
laws.)  The  context,  however,  shows 
that  such  a  reference  cannot  be  in- 
tended here,  and  that  T5rah  means 
the  revelation  which  Isaiah  is  about 
to  communicate. 

"  The  'judges  of  Sodom'  may 
multiply  sacrifices,  but  Jehovah 
attaches  no  value  to  them.  Not 
that  Isaiah  intends  to  condemn 
ritual  altogether,  any  more  than  St. 
James  does  (i.  26,  27).  His  utter- 
ance must  be  qualified  by  what  he 
tells  us  himself  of  his  early  vision 
(see  vi.  6),  and  by  a  consideration 
of  his  circumstances.  He  was  not 
only  a  prophet,  but  a  reformer,  or 
at  any  rate  the  friend  of  a  reform- 
ing king,  and  it  is  not  probable  that 
he  was  inwardly  hostile  to  the  very 
foundations  of  the  established  order 
of  things.  It  is  true,  however,  that 
the  duties  of  religion  which  he 
most  inculcates  are  the  moral  ones, 
and  that  he  is  no  friend  to  the  exist- 
ing priesthood  (xxviii.  7).  He 
seems  rather  to  tolerate  forms  than 
to  recommend  them.  For  state- 
ments of  contemporary  prophets, 
see  Am.  v.  21-24,  Hos.  vi.  6  ('and 
not  sacrifice '  =  'more  than  burnt- 
offerings'),  Mic.  vi.  6-8. Sacri- 
fices] Isaiah  means  those  in  which 
the  life  of  a  victim  was  taken.  Of 
this  class,  the  most  important  were 
the  burnt-offerings.  The  mention 
of  rams  may  perhaps  point  to 
guilt-offerings  (see  on  liii.  10),  the 
only  kind  of  sacrifice  limited  to  a 


CHAP.  I.] 


ISAIAH. 


my  courts  ?  '^  Bring  no  more  false  ^  offerings :  a  sweet 
smoke s  is  an  abomination  to  me;  the  new  moon  and  the 
sabbath,  ^  the  calHng  of  a  convocation.  ...  I  cannot  bear 
wickedness  together  with  a  solemn  assembly.^  '"*  Your  new 
moons  and  your  set  days  my  soul  hateth  ;  they  are  an  en- 
cumbrance to  me,  I  am  weary  of  bearing.  '^  And  if  ye 
spread  forth  your  bands,  I  will  hide  mine  eyes  from  you  ; 
even  if  you  make  many  prayers,  I  will  not  hear :  your  hands 
are  full  of  blood.  ^^  Wash  ye,  make  you  clean,  take  away  the 
evil  of  your  works  from  before  mine  eyes  ;  cease  to  do  evil, 

e  Meal-offerings  ;  incense,  Evv. ,  Del. ,  Naeg. 

•>  So  the  accents  and  most  moderns.     Auth.  Vers,  (and  Kay)  follows  Sept.,  Aq., 
Symm.,  Theod. ,  Vulg.     See  crit.  note. 


Being  which  was  turned  towards 
man  ;  and  this  aspect,  it  may  be 
added,  was  regarded  as  personal 
(comp.  Ex.  xxxiii.  14).  Does  not 
this  seem  to  explain  the  prayer  in 
Ps.  xvii.  15,  'May  I  be  satisfied, 
when  I  awake,  with  thine  image' 
(comp.   Ps.  xH.  12).''     See  also  on 

lix.  2. To  trampjte  my  courts] 

Like  the  oxen  led  in  to  sacrifice  ; 
so  formal  is  your  attendance. 

^^  False  ofiFerin^s]  i.e.,  hypo- 
critical sacrifices,  contrasted  with 
'  right '  ones  in  Ps.  iv.  5,  li.  20. 
Miiikhdh  is  here  taken  in  its  pri- 
mary sense  of  '  gift,'  as  in  Gen.  iv. 
3,  5,  I  Sam.  ii.  17,  Mai.  i.  10  ;  and 
in  the  comnion  phrase,  '  the  even- 
ing sacrifice.'  Dr.  Kay,  with  Ew., 
Del.,  &c.,  adopts  the  secondary 
and  more  common  sense  of  '  meal- 
offering.'  But  why  should  the  least 
important  kind  of  sacrifice  be 
singled  out  ?  After  the  mention  of 
the  '  courts,'  we  expect  at  least  an 
implicit  reference  to  bloody  offer- 
ings. The  reason  why  so  many 
adopt  the  less  natural  rendering  is 
the  supposed  reference  to  incense 
in  the  next  clause  (see  Lev.  ii.  2). 
But  the  word  they  render '  incense ' 
(k^toreth)  means  properly  'a  siveet 
smoke,'  as  in  Ps.  Ixvi.  15,  'with  the 
sweet  smoke  of  rams'  (see  Hupfeld 
\ad  loc\  Deut.  xxxiii.  10  [where 
parallel  to  '  whole  burnt  offerings ']). 
The  new  moon  .  .  .  convo- 
cation] This  corresponds  to  the 
division  in  a  much  later  book,  '  the 


sabbaths,  the  new  moons,  and  the 
solemn  feasts'  (2  Chr.  viii.  13). 
The  calling  or  proclaiming  of  con- 
vocation belonged  properly  to  the 
great  festivals  (Lev.  xxiii.  4),  though, 
apparently  by  an  afterthought,  to 
give  greater  honour  to  the  Sabbath, 
the  weekly  festival  also  receives 
the  name  of  '  convocation '  {ibid.  v. 
3).  '  Convocations '  form  an  integral 
part  of  Isaiah's  sketch  of  a  regene- 
rated Zion  (iv.  5).  For  the  new  moon, 

see  Num.  x.   10,  xxviii.   11-16. 

I  cannot  bear  •  .  .  ]  Before  he 
has  completed  one  construction,  he 
begins  another ;  he  is  carried  away 
by  indignation.  Such  strictness  in 
ritual  combined  with  such  moral 
laxity  !  ( Utrinnque  sii/iul,  as  de 
Dieu  puts  it.) 

^°  IMany  prayers]  Forms  of 
prayer  are  nowhere  directly  or- 
dained in  the  existing  Pentateuch, 
though  patterns  of  prayer  are  given 
for  special  occasions.  Num.  vi.  23- 
26,  Deut.  xxvi.  5-10,  13-15.  'The 
men  of  the  Great  Assembly'  (i.e., 
the  Scripturists  who  succeeded 
Ezra)  were  the  first  to  prescribe  a 
definite  form  of  prayer  ('  Berachoth 

f.  281^,  29^z'). Full  of  blood]  i.e., 

guilty  of  judicial  murders  (comp. 
V.  7).  Perhaps,  however,  'blood- 
shed '  may  be  put  by  synecdoche 
for  '  violent  conduct  leading  to  the 
ruin  of  others,'  the  '  soul '  or  vital 
principle  being  '  in  the  blood.'  This 
view  may  be  supported  by  lix.  3, 
Deut.   xxxii.   40,  Mic.  iii.   10,  Prov. 


8 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  I. 


'^  learn  to  do  well,  seek  out  justice,  righten  the  violent  man, 
do  justice  to  the  orphan,  plead  for  the  widow. 

'^  Come  now,  and  let  us  bring  our  dispute  to  an  end,  saith 
Jehovah.  Though  your  sins  be  as  scarlet,  they  shall  become 
white  as  snow  ;  though  they  be  red  as  crimson,  they  shall 
become  as  wool.  ^^  If  ye  be  willing  and  obey,  the  good  of 
the  land  shall  ye  eat ;  ^°  but  if  ye  be  unwilling  and  defiant, 
by  the  sword  shall  ye  be  eaten,  for  the  mouth  of  Jehovah  hath 
spoken  it.     ^^  How  hath  become  a  harlot  the  faithful  city,  she 


i.  II.  Comp.  with  caution  Hupfeld 
on  Ps.  ix.  13. 

'^  HigliteR]  Bring  into  the  right 
way.  In  these  verses  we  seem  to 
have  an  echo  of  the  justice-loving 
Amos  (see  chap,  v.)  who  was  sem'or 

to  Isaiah. Plead  for  tbe -widow] 

i.e.,  let  not  the  want  of  an  advo- 
cate (no  uncommon  thing  in  the 
court  of  a  modern  kadee)  prevent 
you,  the  judges,  from  doing  justice 
to  her. 

'®  Ii8t  US  brlngr  our  dispute  to 
an  end]  '  Let  us  reason  together' 
(A.V.)  is  a  misleading  translation  ; 
the  Divine  Judge  in  this  passage 
does    not    reason,    but    commands 

amendment. ThougU     .     .     . 

white  as  snow]  We  must  not  ex- 
plain this  on  the  analogy  of  a 
passage  in  a  much  later  work,  Ps. 
li.  7.  There,  no  doubt,  a  free  and 
unconditional  pardon  is  attached 
to  an  unreserved  repentance  and 
humble  trust  in  God's  mercy.  But 
the  repentance  required  by  Isaiah 
is  a  trifle  compared  with  that  of 
Ps.  li.  ;  it  is  comparatively  external, 
and  does  but  touch  the  surface  of 
the  conscience.  It  is  not  spiritual 
joy  (as  in  Ps.  li.  8,  12)  which  is 
promised  in  Isaiah,  but  the  enjoy- 
ment of  the  fruits  of  the  land. 
This  is  guaranteed  on  condition 
of  a  reformation  in  practice.  The 
promise  in  v.  18  is  conditioned  by 
7K  iga,  just  as  the  promises  in 
Iviii.  8,  ga  are  conditioned  by  vv. 
gb,  10.  There  is  a  curious  appli- 
cation of  this  passage  to  the  times 
of  the  last  good  high  priest,  Simeon 
the  Just,  in  tlie  Talmud  ;  see  De- 
renbourg,  Hist,  de  la  Palestine.,  p. 


48.  On  the  use  of  crimson-red  for 
'  dark,'  comp.  Song  of  Sol.  vii.  5, 
and  see  Del.'s  note  here. 

J 9,20  ^jjg  g.QQ^  Of  i-ije  land]  All 

outward  blessings  shall  be  yours, 
Obs.  the  antithesis,  '  shall  ye  eat ' 
.  .  .  '  shall  ye  be  eaten.'  The 
sword  is  personified,  as  in  xxxiv. 
5,6. 

*^  How  hatb  becoxne  .  .  .  ]  This 
short,  plaintive  strain  need  not  be 
a  verse  of  a  current  song  (Roorda), 
for  lyric  snatches  are  not  uncommon 
in  the  Prophets,  and  the  idea  is  that 
of  v.  7.  Comp.  for  the  form,  Lam. 
i.  I.  It  is  the  prophet  who  speaks, 
in  the  manner  of  a  Greek  chorus, 
to  fill  up  the  pause,  while  the  by- 
standers are  anxiously  waiting,  but 
waiting  in  vain,  for  Israel's  reply. 
A  barlot]  Even  heathen  reli- 
gions supposed  a  mysterious  union 
to  exist  between  a  god  and  his  wor- 
shippers (see  on  xliv.  11),  symbol- 
ised by  the  marriage  relation.  To 
the  heathen,  however,  this  union 
was  a  hereditary  physical  one  ;  to 
the  Old  Test,  writers  it  was  more 
than  this — a  devotion  of  the  heart 
to  Jehovah.  Hence  every  moral 
delinquency  could  be  described  as 
adulter)'.  It  is  in  a  moral  sense 
that  Jerusalem  is  called 'a  harlot ' 
by  Isaiah,  as  the  context  proves. 
So  tn  Ps.  Ixxiii.  26,  27  (quoted  by 
Oehler),  the  pious  man  who  says, 
'  My  heart's  rock  and  my  portion 
is  God,'  is  opposed  to  'those  who 
commit  whoredom  away  from  thee;' 
and  so  our  Lord  calls  the  .Scribes 
and  Pharisees  an  '  adulterous  gener- 
ation'(Matt,  xii.   39). Faithful 

city]  i.e.,  faithful  to  her  divine  hus- 


CHAP.  I.] 


ISAIAH. 


that  was  full  of  justice  ;  righteousness  was  wont  to  lodge  in 
her,  but  now  assassins  !  ^2  xhy  silver  is  become  dross,  thy 
choice  drink  thinned  with  water.  '^^  Thy  law-makers  are  law- 
breakers and  in  partnership  with  thieves  ;  every  one  loveth  a 
bribe,  and  pursueth  rewards  ;  to  the  orphans  they  do  not 
justice,  and  the  cause  of  the  widow  cometh  not  unto  them. 

24  Therefore — it  is  an  oracle  of  the  Lord,  Jehovah  Sabaoth, 
the  Hero  of  Israel  :  Ha  !  I  will  appease  me  through  mine 
adversaries,  and  avenge  me  on  mine  enemies,  ^'^  and  will 
bring  back  my  hand  upon  thee,  smelting  out  as  with  lye 
thy  dross,  and  will  take  away  all    thy  alloy  ;    ^e  and  I  will 


band  ;  comp.  Hos.  ii. To  lodg-e] 

i.e.,  to  find  a  hospitable  reception 
(lit.  to  pass  the  night). Assas- 
sins] The  word  indicates  that 
they  made  murder  an  art  or  pro- 
fession (so  Hos.  vi.  9). 

^'-  Thy  silver  .  .  .  ]  'Silver' 
and  '  choice  drink  '  are  figures  for 
the  great  men  of  Jerusalem.  The 
former  occurs  again  in  Jer.  vi.  28, 
30,  Ezek.  xxii.  18.  The  other  side 
of  the  figure  is  given  in  v.  25. 

-*  Paronomasia,  as  in  Hos.  ix.  1 5, 
law-breakers]  With  reference  to 
the  Torah,  or  (not  so  much  '  law ' 
as)  directions  given  from  time  to 

time  by  the  prophets. Thieves] 

i.e.,  the  unjust  rich  who  appeared 
before  their  tribunal  and  bribed 
them  with  a  share  of  their  plunder 
(comp.  iii.  13).  Dr.  Kay  well  com- 
pares Ps.  1.  18. A  bribe]  Comp. 

Mic.  vii.  3  (an  expansion  of  Isaiah's 
phrase). 

-^  Oracle]  Etymologically,  whis- 
per ;  a  phrase  possibly  mythic 
in  its  origin  (comp.  on  viii.  19),  but 
no  doubt  retained  as  an  apt  symbol 
of  the  hidden  action  of  the  super- 
natural.    Comp.  Job  iv.  12-16. 

Of  the  Iiord  .  .  .  ]  Such  an  accu- 
mulation of  Divine  names  is  found 
nowhere  else  in  Isaiah  (Del.).  They 
express   the    manifoldness    of    the 

Divine    power.  The    Hero    of 

Israel]  '  Hero,'  an  uncommon 
word  in  the  Hek  (see  crit.  note), 
only  found  in  combination  with 
Israel  (as  here),  and  with  Jacob,  as 
in  xlix.  26,  Ix.  16  ;  also  in  the 
original  passage,  Gen.  xlix.  24,  and 


in  Ps.  cxxxii.  2,  5 1  will  ap- 
pease myself]  In  the  next  clause 
we  have  '  avenge  myself  In  fact, 
the  two  verbs  are  almost  the  same 
in  pronunciation,  and  spring  from 
the  same  root,  meaning  '  to  fetch 
one's  breath,'  'to  give  vent  to  a 
strong  emotion.'  The  context 
clearly  shows  that  the  relation  of 
God  to  man  thus  indicated  is  not, 
in  the  sense  of  the  prophet,  occa- 
sioned by  caprice,  but  by  the  holi- 
ness of  the  Divine  nature  (comp. 
Ps.  xviii.  26,  27).  '  The  standpoint 
of  the  inspired  writers  is  a  spiritual 
realism,  alike  removed  from  both 
spiritualism  [in  the  philosophical 
sense]  and  materialism'  (Mar- 
tensen.  Christian  Ethics^  p.  71). 

25-J7  With  a  few  pen- strokes  the 
prophet  sums  up  the  spiritual  fu- 
ture of  Israel.  First  of  all,  he  cor- 
rects the  description  in  vv.  22,  23. 

Bring-  back   my  hand  upon 

thee]  The  phrase  is  generally 
used  of  punishment  (Ps.  Ixxxi.  14, 
Amos  i.  8)  ;  here,  however,  as  in 
Zech.  xiii.  7,  a  favourable  sense 
predominates,  though  the  Divine 
favour  was  necessarily  preceded  by 
the  removal  of  the  causes  of  indig- 
nation. '  Quod  dicitur,  y-cducam 
niajmm  ineam  ad  ie,  si  in  te  spectes, 
vel  ad  castigantem  vel  ad  sanan- 
tem  et  beneficam  manum  referri 
potest.  Sed  posterius  hie  obtinet, 
quicquid  alii  reclament.'     Vitringa. 

As  with  lye]  or  potash  (Job  ix. 

30),  which  was  used  as  a  flux  in 
purifying  metals. 

•'^  As    aforetime]     '  I     remem- 


lO 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  I. 


bring  back  thy  judges  as  aforetime,  and  thy  counsellors  as  at 
the  beginning :  afterwards  thou  shalt  be  called,  Citadel  of 
righteousness,  Faithful  city.  -^  Zion  shall  be  delivered 
through  justice,  and  her  converts  through  righteousness. 
^*  But  a  demolition  of  rebels  and  sinners  together  !  and  they 
who  forsake  Jehovah  shall  perish.  -^  For  'ye  shall  be 
ashamed  because  of  the  terebinths  which  ye  had  pleasure  in, 
and  blush  for  the  gardens  which  ye  chose  :  ^°  yea,  ye  shall  be 

i  So  Targ.,  3  Heb.  MSS.— Lo.,  Houb.,  &c.,— Text,  they. 


ber  to  thy  good  the  kindness  of 
thy  youth,  the  love  of  thy  bridal 
state,  thy  following  of  me  in  the 
wilderness,  in  a  land  unsown  '  (Jer. 
ii.  2).  The  regeneration  of  Israel 
is  to  be  as  great  an  event  as  its  first 
foundation  on  a  religious  basis  by 
Moses,  Joshua,  and  Samuel.  In 
support  of  this  explanation  of  the 
phrase,    see    lii.    4,    Jer.    vii.    12. 

Citadel  of  rigrbteousness]  Vi- 

tringa  and  Naeg.  see  a  connection 
between  this  passage  and  the  names 
of  Melchizedek  (Gen.  xiv.  18)  and 
Jehovah  Tsidkenu  (Jer.  xxxiii.  15; 
of.  xxiii.  6).  But  in  both  names 
the  righteousness  spoken  of  has  a 
different  shade  of  meaning  from 
the  righteousness  mentioned  here. 
The  former  is  God's  righteousness. 
His  faithful  adherence  to  his  re- 
vealed principles  of  action  (Mel- 
chisedek  means  '  King-righteous- 
ness,' the  King  being  God)  ;  the 
latter,  the  righteousness  of  man  to 
man,  civil  justice. 

^^  Shall  be  delivered]  A.V. '  re- 
deemed '  ;  but  this  is  not  the  pri- 
mary meaning  of  the  word  {padali) 
and  is  often  unsuitable  ;  comp.  Job 
vi.  23.     The  idea  is  that  of  cutting 

loose. Tbroug-h     justice    .   .  . 

tbroug:b    rigrbteousness]  This 

may  mean  either  the  judicial  mani- 
festation of  God's  righteousness  (so 
Del),  cf.  V.  16,  or  the  righteousness 
of  the  people  of  Zion,  especially  of 
their  new  judges  (so  the  Rabbis, 
followed  by  Ew.,  Hitz.,  Knob.). 
The  latter  is  favoured  by  the  con- 
text (see  esp.  v.  21),  and  is  in  har- 
mony with  Isaiah's  severe  advocacy 
of  the  moral  law.     Vitr.  calls  this 


'  doctrina  damnabilis  superbiee,'  but 
forgets  Matt.  v.  20. Her  con- 
verts] Lit.  her  turning  ones  ;  i.e., 
the  escaped  remnant  which  shall 
turn  unto  '  God-the-Mighty-One  ' 
(x.  21),  'when  the  Lord  shall  finish 
his  whole  work  upon  mount  Zion, 
(x.  12).  Isaiah's  first  allusion  to 
this  great  doctrine.  From  v.  21 
it  is  clear  that  the  remnant,  in  the 
mind  of  Isaiah,  was  to  consist  of 
the  poor  and  weak,  who  alone  had 
the  germ  of  humility  required  by 
the  fear  of  Jehovah.  A  clearer 
statement  still  in  xxix.  19,  20. 

""  The  first  clause,  having  no 
verb,  is  to  be  taken  as  an  exclama- 
tion ;  it   is  explained  in  the  more 

complete  clause  which  follows. 

Kebels]  or  renegades.  Those 
who  have  inwardly  and  outwardly 
'  broken  away  from  '  Jehovah  (same 

word    V.    2). Sinners]      Those 

who  lead  a  life  of  open   sin. 

Together]  i.e.,  without  exception. 
Tbcse  wbo  forsake  J'ebovah] 
Those  who  in  the  one  way  or  the 
other  have  alienated  themselves 
from  God. 

'-'^  iksbamed]  Not  in  the  sense 
of  Rom.  vi.  21  ;  it  is  the  disap- 
pointingness  of  nature-worship 
which  is  indicated. Tbe  gar- 
dens] or,  the  groves.  These  are 
hardly  pleasure-gardens  (Hitz.), 
for  there  is  a  contrast  between 
•  forsaking  Jehovah'  and  'choosing 
the  gardens.'  Groves  were  the 
scenes  of  the  worship  of  Asht'rah, 
the  Canaanitish  goddess  of  fer- 
tility and  good  fortune  (xvii.  8) ; 
see  Ivii.  5,  Ixvi.  17,  2  Kings  xvi.  4  ; 
and  comp.  Juvenal,  Sat.  lii.  13,  vi. 


CHAP.  I.]  ISAIAH.  II 

as  a  terebinth  whose  leaves  are  withered,  and  as  a  garden  that 
hath  no  water  ;  ^i  and  the  strong  one  shall  become  tow,  and 
his  work  a  spark,  and  they  shall  both  burn  together,  and  none 
quencheth. 

545.     Votive  offerings  may  still  be  work]  i.e.,  his  idol,  cf.  xli.  29,  Ivii. 

seen   hanging   upon   trees    on  the  12    (synonymous   word).      Or,  his 

east  side  of  the  Jordan   (Peschel,  gains  (Caspari).     The  meanmg  is, 

V6lkcrkunde,T^.ib\).  his  sin  contains  the  germ  of  his 

31  The  strong  one]  The  mighty  ruin  :  '  per  quod  quis   peccat,   per ' 

and  rich  (the  word  will  cover  both  idem  punitur  et  ipse.'     See  further 

meanings)  will  refuse   conversion,  on  v.  18. 

and      suffer     destruction. His 


APPENDIX    ON    'JEHOVAH    SABAOTH,' 

This  remarkable  but  obscure  phrase,  expressive  of  the  almightiness 
of  God  and  His  distinctness  from  nature,  occurs  forty-nine  times  in  the 
acknowledged  prophecies  of  Isaiah,  and  only  thirteen  times  (including 
xxi.  10)  in  those  of  questioned  authorship. 

i.  As  to  its  meaning. — {a).  The  theory  which  has  met  with  the  widest 
acceptance  till  recently,  is  that  of  Ewald,'  who  regards  the  'hosts'  as 
primarily  the  angels.  According  to  him,  the  phrase  arose  on  the  occasion 
of  some  great  victory,  when  it  seemed  as  if  the  armies  of  Jehovah  had 
come  down  to  the  relief  of  His  people.  He  finds  an  allusion  to  this 
origin  in  Isa.  xxxi.  4,  and  even,  which  seems  more  venturesome,  in  Judges 
V.  20.  The  rise  of  the  name  is  traced  to  the  close  of  the  period  of  the 
Judges  (it  occurs  first  in  i  Sam.  i.  3,  11),  on  the  ground  of  its  evident 
popularity  in  the  time  of  David  ;  Ewald  refers  especially  to  Ps.  xxiv.  7-10 
(the  only  Psalm-passage  in  which  the  phrase  occurs  outside  the  Korahite 
psalms),  which  he  regards  as  occasioned  by  the  solemn  entrance  of  the 
ark  into  the  city  of  David.  He  admits,  however  (referring  to  Isa.  xl. 
26)  that  the  phrase  was  in  later  times  probably  explained  of  the  stars. 
The  usus  loquendi  is  to  some  extent  undoubtedly  in  favour  of  this  view. 
The  angels  are  called  'Jehovah's  hosts'  in  Ps.  ciii.  21,  cxlviii.  2  (see 
below),  'the  host  of  heaven '  in  i  Kings  xxii.  19,  Neh.  ix.  6,  and  (a  certain 
number  of  them)  'a  camp  of  Elohim,'  Gen.  xxxii.  2  ;  and  in  Isa.  vi.  3 
there  may  be  an  allusion  to  this  meaning  of  'Jehovah  Sabdoth.'  There 
is  no  doubt  a  large  element  of  truth  in  this  view  of  Ewald's. 

{b)  Herder  and  Schrader'-  think  the  'hosts'  were  originally  the  armies 
of  Israel,  of  whom  Jehovah  is  represented  as  being  the  leader,  Ex.  vii. 
4,  xii.  41,  51  ;  comp.  Josh.  v.  14.  The  explanation  in  a  speech  of  David, 
I  Sam.  xvii.  45,  is  favourable  to  this  view,  as  also  is  the  fact  that  nisn^* 

1  Ewald,  Hist,  of  Israel,  iii.  62,  Germ.  ed.  iii.  87  ;  Die  Lehrc  dcr  Bibcl  von  Gott, 
ii.  1,  pp.  339,  340. 

"  Herder,  Vom  Geisf  der  Ebrdische/i  Poesie,  ii.  84,  85  ;  Schrader,  Jahrb.  fur 
protestaiit.  Thcologie,  1875,  pp.  316-320  ;  conip.  Delitzsch,  Luther.  Zcitsckrift,  1874, 
p.  217,  &c.,  and  note  on  Ps.  xxiv.  10. 


I  2  ISAIAH.  [CHAP.  I. 

everywhere  else  means  '  earthly  armies.'  '  Lord  of  Armies  '  will  then  be 
the  best  translation  ;  so  already  Aquila,  Symm.,  Theod.,  Vulg.  Herder 
grants,  however,  that  the  meaning  gradually  expanded  till  it  included  first 
the  stars,  and  then  the  whole  fulness  of  the  Divine  glory  in  creation 
(comp.  use  of  S3^*  in  Gen.  ii.  i).  Schrader  further  remarks,  that  the 
celestial  hosts  of  Jehovah  are  constantly  expressed  by  N2V  (sing.)  ;  in 
two  places  only,  Ps.  ciii.  21,  cxlviii.  2,  we  find  VN^V  ^"d  1X3V  1  but  these 
readings,  Schrader  thinks,  are  due  to  a  pedantic  grammatical  objection, 
the  authors  of  the  points  having  taken  ofTence  at  the  incongruity  of  a 
singular  noun  with  a  plural  verb.  In  both  places  we  should  read  iX3V 
which  indeed  is  the  K'ri  reading  in  Ps.  cxlviii.  2.  To  this  remark  Delitzsch 
replies,  Why  should  not  XIV  have  two  plurals,  just  as  13^  has  both 
D''X3V  and  mXZlV .''  The  received  reading  in  the  Psalms  should  stand. 
I  cannot,  any  more  than  Delitzsch,  accept  Schrader's  explanation  as 
adequate,  even  admitting  his  view  of  the  meaning  of  'V-  It  is  clear  to 
me  from  Isa.  xiii.  4  that  the  prophets  sometimes  interpreted  the  word 
with  reference  to  non-Israelitish  armies,  when  those  were  under  com- 
mission, so  to  speak,  from  Jehovah.  But  even  thus  we  have  not  expanded 
the  meaning  sufficiently. 

(c)  The  original  meaning  of  '  Sabdoth,'  as  critics  are  more  and  more 
coming  to  see,  is  probably  the  stars.  So  Kuenen,  Tiele,  Baudissin,  and 
even  Delitzsch.'  Whence  comes  it,  asks  the  latter,  that  the  title  Jehovah 
Sabdoth  comes  specially  before  us  in  the  regal  period  ?  There  were 
armies  of  Israel  before  this  ;  must  there  not  be  some  connection  with 
the  astrolatry  of  the  neighbouring  nations  (especially  the  Aramaeans) 
with  whom  the  Israelites  then  came  into  contact?  The  stars,  too,  are 
constantly  referred  to  as  *  the  host  of  heaven  '  (Deut.  iv.  19,  xvii.  3,  2  Kings 
xvii.  16,  xxi.  3,  5,  xxiii.  4,  5,  Isa.  xxxiv.  4,  Jer.  viii.  2,  xix.  13,  xxxiii.  22, 
Zeph.  i.  5,  Dan.  viii.  10,  2  Chron.  xxxiii.  3,  5) ;  in  Job  xxv.  3  (comp.  5)  as 
Jehovah's  'bands'  ;  and  in  Isa.  xl.  26  as  the  'host'  which  He  musters. 
Considering  that  the  roots  of  Mosaism  lay  in  a  popular,  primitive  Semitic 
religion  (though  its  life-giving  spirit  came  from  another  source) ;  or, 
in  other  words,  that  the  prophets  did  not  introduce  an  entirely  new 
phraseology  corresponding  to  their  new  ideas,  it  seems  most  probable 
that  when  the  stars  were  first  called  the  hosts  of  God  it  was  with  the 
notion  that  they  were  animated  creatures.  In  later  times  the  belief  in 
the  angels  threw  the  belief  in  the  stars  as  animated  beings  into  the  back- 
ground ;  the  angels,  however,  were  evidently  connected  very  closely  with 
the  stars,  as  appears  from  Job  xxv.  5  (comp.  iv.  18),  and  especially 
xxxviii.  7.  Comp.  also  Judges  v.  20,  Dan.  viii.  10,  11,  and  the  symbolic 
language  of  Luke  x.  18,  Rev.  xii.  7  ;  notice  too  the  place  of  the  stars 
between  vegetables  and  animals  in  Gen.  i.  16.  Our  own  Marlowe  has  a 
phrase  pointing  to  a  similar  idea  : 

(The  moon,  the  iiliinets,  and  the  meteors  light,) 

These  aiii^els  in  their  crjstal  armour  fight 

A  doubtful  battle,  &c. — [Tamburlaine,  Act  V.,  So.  2), 

'  It  is  strange  that  Hermann  Schultz,   in  ed.   2  of  his  valuable  Ali/eslamcntlic/'ic 
Theologie  (1878,  p.  492),  should  still  adhere  to  the  opposite  view. 


CHAP.  I.]  ISAIAH.  1 3 

and  Wordsworth,  in  his  sonnet  on  the  stars,  indulges  in  the  same  fanciful 
supposition. — It  is  only  of  the  original  meaning  of  the  phrase  that  I  am 
now  speaking.  In  later  times  different  writers  may  have  used  it  in  other 
senses,  some  thinking  of  the  angels,  others  of  the  armies  of  Israel,  others 
in  all  senses  combined  ;  hence  LXX.'s  iravTOKpaTcop,  in  2  Sam.,  i  Chron., 
Minor  Prophets,  and  eight  times  in  Jeremiah  (according  to  Gesenius). 
For  the  latter  use,  comp.  the  parallel  phrase  about  Nebo  quoted  below. 

ii.  Parallel  7-eligioiis  phrases. — The  Assyrian  and  Babylonian  paral- 
lels are  not  verbally  so  close  as  might  be  supposed  from  the  translations 
sometimes  given,  as  kissatu,  plur.  kissdti,  is  not  exactly  a  '  legion  '  (Oppert, 
Lenormant)  in  a  militaiy  sense,  but  '  a  multitude,  or  mass  of  men '  (Aram. 
k'jtash,  coUegit).  Still  they  agree  in  ascribing  to  the  supreme  gods  the 
lordship  over  the  celestial  as  well  as  the  earthly  populations.  Assur,  for 
instance,  is  called  '  the  king  of  the  multitudes  of  the  great  gods  '  {Obelisk 
of  Nimrfid,  line  i.)  ;  Nebo,  '  the  king  of  the  multitudes  of  heaven  and 
earth'  ('  Annals  of  Sargon,'  Records  of  Past,  vii.  46,  amending  the  trans- 
lation) ;  while  to  Marduk,  the  other  great  Babylonian  deity,  is  ascribed 
the  empire  of  'the  spirits  of  the  multitudes  of  heaven  and  earth.'  ^  The 
phrase  '  spirits  of  heaven '  will  include  the  three  hundred  spirits,  who, 
though  not  gods  properly  so  called,  were  supernatural  beings,  and  were 
closely  attached  to  the  stars  (a  similar  theory  to  that  noticed  above).- 
On  the  parallel  Persian  belief  in  the  Fravashis,  see  Spiegel,  Eranische 
Alterthiimer,  ii.  94. 

iii.  Constructiott.  There  are  three  views,  {a)  that  of  Gesenius  :  'i*  is 
in  the  direct  relation  of  a  genitive  to  'n,  comp.  Aram-Naharaim,  '  Aram  of 
the  two  rivers,'  and  in  Arabic  '  Antar  of  the  horsemen';  {b)  that  of 
Ewald  :  There  is  an  ellipsis  of  *n'^N  ;  thus  '  Jehovah  (the  God  of) 
Hosts'  (this  is  confirmed  by  the  occurrence  oi'^  nin''  and  'v  vn'px  niH''  in 
the  same  book — Jeremiah)  ;  {c)  '^  has  become  a  proper  name,  as  it  was 
evidently  taken  by  the  author  or  corrector  of  Ps.  Ixxx.  8,  15  'v  D\~1^N,  by 
the  translators  of  parts  of  the  Sept.  version  {Kvpios  ^aj-iaa>6  constantly  in 
Isaiah),  by  St.  Jerome  once  (Jer.  xi.  20,  Vulg.),  and  Luther  constantly, 
and  as  in  the  Sibylline  Oracles,  and  sometimes  in  (Christian)  Ethiopic. 
Comp.  also  Rom.  ix.  29  (quotation  from  Isa.  i.  9),  James  v.  4.  '  It  is  at 
least  a  noteworthy  coincidence,'  remarks  Dr.  Plumptre,  '  that  it  is 
through  the  liturgy  which  is  ascribed  to  [St.  James],  that  it  has  passed 
into  the  devotional  language  of  Christendom'  {Biblical  Studies,  p.  15). 
An  incidental  confirmation  of  the  view  of  which  we  are  speaking  is 
furnished  by  Valerius  Maximus,  who,  being  a  mere  compiler,  doubtless 
took  his  statement  from  a  much  older  authority.  He  relates  that  a 
praetor  expelled  certain  Jews  from  Rome, '  qui  Sabazii  Jovis  cultu  Romanos 
inficere  mores  conati  erant'  (i.  3,  3).  It  is  difficult  to  avoid  seeing  here 
a  confusion  of  the  Phrygian  deity  Sabazius  with  the  Sab^oth  of  the  Jews. 
If  we  are  puzzled  to  account  for  Sabdoth  as  a  proper  name,  Luzzatto  is 
at  hand  with  an  answer  (note  on  Isa.  i.  9) ;  he  accounts  for  it  in  the  same 
way  as  for  the  use  of  Elohim  for  the  true  God,  the  separate  objects  of 

1  Jahrb.  fur pjvtestdiit.  Tkeologie,  1875,  p.  340;  Lenormant,  L(7  Magie,  p.  176  ; 
Boscawen,  T.S.B.A.  12.77,  P-  299. 

^  Comp.  Tylor,  PriniHivc  Culture,  i.  263. 


14 


ISAIAH.  [CHAP.  II. 


heathen  worship,  so  far  as  they  had  a  real  existence,  being  concentrated 
in  Jehovah.  The  combination  of  two  proper  names  is  paralleled  in  the 
Corpus  Inscr.  Semit.  (i.  y^  by  the  Astar-Kemosh  of  the  Moabite  Stone 
(1.  17),  though  the  parallel  is  incomplete,  as  there  is  no  evidence  that 
Sab^oth  was  ever  used  without  another  name  for  God  being  prefixed. 
At  the  very  least,  Sabaoth  is  in  process  of  becoming  a  proper  name,  and 
there  is  good  ancient  authority  for  the  rendering  here  adopted, /i?/;^z/«^ 
Sabdoth. 


CHAPTER  II. 


There  is  clearly  no  connection  between  chaps,  i.  and  ii.,  whereas  ii.-iv. 
form  a  continuous  prophecy.  There  is  a  difference  between  Ewald  and 
Delitzsch  as  to  whether  chap.  v.  ought  to  be  regarded  as  part  of  the  same 
work  as  chaps,  ii.-iv.  The  moral  and  social  state  described  agrees  with 
that  in  the  foregoing  chapters,  but  the  prediction  of  the  judgment  differs 
by  introducing  human  instruments,  viz.  the  Assyrians.  Ewald's  conclusion, 
that  'these  pieces  belong  to  one  great  oration'  {Prophets^  ii.  18),  seems  to 
me  correct,  provided  it  be  clearly  understood  that  chaps,  ii.-iv.  represent, 
at  any  rate  in  part,  earlier  discourses  than  chap.  v.  I  have  given  a  full 
analysis  in  /.  C.  A.  pp.  3,  4.  Suffice  it  to  say  here,  that  the  burden  of  the 
prophecy  is  the  necessity  of  a  grand  vindication  of  God's  holiness,  which 
will  lead  to  a  realisation  of  Israel's  destiny  such  as  is  at  present  impossible. 
As  to  the  date  of  these  four  chapters.  Two  points  referred  to  by  the 
prophet  are  of  importance,  (i)  the  taste  for  foreign  fashions,  particularly 
in  religion  ;  and  (2)  the  weak  character  of  the  king.  Both  suggest  the 
reign  of  Ahaz,  who  was  specially  fickle  in  religion  (2  Kings  xvi.  2-4,  10), 
whereas  Uzziah  and  Jotham  were  strict  worshippers  of  Jehovah,  and  who, 
according  to  vii.  i-i2,was  both  timid  and  a  prey  to  ignoble  superstitions. 
But  what  part  of  the  reign  of  Ahaz  1  From  ii.  16  ('  ships  of  Tarshish  ')  it 
appears  that  Elath  was  still  in  the  possession  of  Judah.  Now  this  port  was 
lost  by  Ahaz  during  the  period  of  the  Syro-Israelitish  invasion.  Hence  the 
prophecies  summed  up  in  chaps,  ii.-iv.,  or  ii.-v.,  must  be  placed  either  very 
early  indeed  in  the  reign  of  Ahaz,  or  else  the  prophecies  of  two  successive 
periods  (Jotham  and  Ahaz)  have  been  fused  together.  See  also  on  ix.  8-x.  4. 

'  The  word  which  Isaiah,  son  of  Amoz,  saw  concerning 
Judah  and  Jerusalem.     2  <  And  it  shall  come  to  pass  in  the 

'  The  heading  evidently  belongs  few  variations  and  one  additional 

to  chaps,  ii.-iv.,  or  ii.-v.,  which  are  verse  in  Mic.  iv.  1-4.     The  varia- 

thought  to  have  formed  a  separate  tions   have    a    more   rugged    look, 

collection  of  prophecies. The  and  therefore  are  perhaps  closer  to 

word]     i.e.,     the     revelation     (so  the  original  text,  and  certainly  the 

Jer.    xviii.    18).     There    cannot  be  verses  fit  in  better  there  with  the 

any  special  reference  to  the  actual  context    than    in     Isaiah.      Micah 

words   of  the    prophecy,  for  it    is  therefore  can  hardly  have  borrowed 

added   'which  Isaiah  saw'  (see  on  it  from  Isaiah.     Neither  can  Isaiah 

j    j-j     '  have  borrowed  it  from   Micah,  for 

"  ^  ■'  This   passarje  occurs  with   a  the  prophecy  to  whi<.h  it  is  attached 


CHAP.  II.]  ISAIAH.  15 

after-days  that  the  mountain  of  Jehovah's  house  shall  become 


(see  Mic.  iii.)  was  delivered  in  the 
time  of  Hezekiah  (Jer.  xxvi.  18). 
The  force  of  this  argument  has 
been  doubted  by  Del.,  who  observes 
that  Micah  may  have  composed 
the  prophecy  long  before  he  pub- 
lished it  in  Hezekiah's  reign,  and 
that  Isaiah  may  have  taken  the 
passage  from  Micah's  lips,  though 
not  from  his  book.  (Similarly  Cas- 
pari,  Micha,  p.  447  ;  but  see,  on 
the  other  side,  Kuenen,  Oiidersoek^ 
ii.  348.) — It  is  a  minute  and  delicate 
question.  My  iinp7-ession  is  that 
Mic.  iv.  1-4  is  not  in  the  tone  of 
Micah,  and  that  v.  5  is  a  skilful 
attempt  of  that  prophet  to  work  a 
fragment  of  an  older  prophecy  into 
his  own  work  : — Isa.  ii.  5  has  no 
doubt  a  similar  object.  Both  Isaiah 
and  Micah  were  charged  with  mes- 
sages of  a  predominantly  gloomy 
character.  Their  hearers,  how- 
ever, were  familiar  wiih  an  old  and 
truly  Divine  word  of  promise,  which 
seemed  to  some  inconsistent  with 
the  terrible  judgment  which  later 
prophets  so  earnestly  announced. 
Isaiah  and  Micah,  prophets  of  a 
kindred  spirit,  have  both  quoted 
this  prophecy  with  the  view  of 
showing  its  essential  agreement 
with  their  own  graver  revelation. 
Similar  quotations  from  older  works 
occur  (probably)  in  Isa.  xv.,  xvi., 
Jer.  xlix.  7-22. — It  is  significant 
that  Isaiah  leaves  out  one  verse 
of  the  fragment  which  Micah  pre- 
serves. Such  an  idyllic  picture  was 
out  of  harmony  with  the  awful 
prospect  before  Isaiah  (Duhm). 

^  And  it  sball    come  to  pass] 
These  words  nowhere  else  occur  at 

the  beginning  of  a  prophecy. 

In  the  after-days]  Literally,  in 
the  sequel  of  the  days.  A  much- 
debated  phrase,  which  occurs  here 
only  in  Isaiah,  but  four  times  in  the 
Book  of  Jeremiah  (xxiii.  20,  xxx. 
24,  xlviii.  47,  xlix.  39),  once  in 
Hosea  (iii.  5),  once  in  Micah  (iv.  i 
=  Isa.  ii.  2),  once  in  Ezekiel 
(xxxviii.  16),  once  in  Daniel  (x.  14), 
and  four  times  in  the  PenTalFiich 


(Gen.  xlix.  i.  Num.  xxiv.  14,  Deut. 
iv.  30,  xxxi.  29) ;  in  Ezek.  xxxviii. 
8,  we  have  the  parallel  phrase  '  in 
the  sequel  of  the  years.'  The  ren- 
dering adopted  above  is  based  on 
philological  grounds.  '  After,'  in 
the  term  '  after-days,'  corresponds 
to  a  Hebrew  word  {ak/t'rith),  mean- 
ing— not  '  end,'  but — '  latter  part ' 
or  '  sequel,'  as  Bildad  says  in 
the  Book  of  Job,  '  Thy  early  time 
was  a  trifle,  but  thy  latter  time 
(thy  future)  shall  be  very  great ' 
(viii.  7).  Precisely  the  same  phrase 
occurs  in  Assyrian,  and  its  meaning 
is  certain  from  the  context  {ana 
akhrat  yitmi  irib,  '  for  a  future  time 
I  deposited.')  In  the  Old  Test,  the 
phrase  '  in  the  sequel  of  the  days,' 
or  '  in  the  after-days,'  occurs  only 
in  prophecies— mostly  (not  always, 
as  Kimchi  asserts),  referring  to  the 
glorious  Messianic  period  which 
should  ensue  upon  the  ' day '  or 
assize  '  of  Jehovah,'  and  so  here,  but 
sometimes  used  quite  vaguely  of 
future  time,  e.g.  Jer.  xxiii.  20,  '  The 
anger  of  Jehovah  shall  not  turn 
back,  till  he  have  executed,  and  till 
he  have  carried  into  effect  the  pur- 
poses of  his  heart  :  in  future  days 
ye  shall  duly  consider  it'  (Hender- 
son's translation)  ;  also  Deut.  iv. 
30,  xxxi.  29,  where  a  reference  to 
the  Messianic  period  is  excluded 
by  the  context.  The  rendering  of 
A.V.  '  the  last  days  '  is  misleading, 
for  the  Messianic  period  (described 
in  the  following  verses)  has  no 
'  last  days '  ;  it  is  without  an  end 
(ix.  7).  A  similar  mistake  occurs 
in  the  A.V.  of  i  Tim.  iv.  i,  where 
iv  var('pois  Kaipols  '  in  later  times ' 
(Revised  Version),  is  rendered  '  in 

the  latter  times.' The  mountain 

of  Jehovah's  house.  .  .  .  ]  An 
implied  contrast  to  Sinai,  whence 
the  earlier  and  more  limited  reve- 
lation proceeded.  Mount  Zion, 
where  Jehovah's  merciful  presence 
constantly  abides,  is  to  be  the 
centre  of  religious  unity  to  the 
world.  So  much  is  intelligible 
enough,  but  the   physical   pheno- 


;-6<;>5 


.",■  >%■ 


i6 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  II. 


fixed  at  the  head  of  the  mountains,  and  be  exalted  above  the 
hills,  and  all  the  nations  shall  stream  unto  it.  ^  And  many 
peoples  shall  set  forth  and  shall  say,  "  Come,  let  us  go  up  to 
the  mountain  of  Jehovah,  to  the  house  of  the  God  of  Jacob, 
and  let  him  teach  us  out  of  his  ways,  and  we  will  walk  in  his 
paths."  For  from  Zion  shall  go  forth  the  instruction,  and  the 
word  of  Jehovah  from  Jerusalem.  *  And  he  shall  judge  be- 
tween the  nations,  and  arbitrate  for  many  peoples  :  and  they 
shall  beat  their  swords  into  coulters,  and  their  spears  into 
pruning- knives,  nation  shall  not  lift  up  sword  against  nation, 
neither  shall  they  learn  war  any  more.' 

menon  connected  with  this  state- 
ment seems  paradoxical  ;  and  Vi- 

tringa   asks,  '   Quid   sibi   veHt,    et 

quod    sub    cortice    lateat    myste- 

rium?'      But  the    prophet    means 

just   what   he  says.     It  is  for  the 

spirit  of  revelation  at  each  succes- 
sive stage  of  prophecy  to  strip  off 

the  worn-out   form  received  from 

the  past,  until  the  fulfilment  shows 

the  depth  of  spiritual  meaning  un- 
derneath the  letter.     It  was  an  old 

belief  in  Eastern  Asia  that  there 

was    a    mountain    reaching    from 

earth  to  heaven,  on  the  summit  of 

which    was   the    dwelling    of    the 

gods  (see  onxiv.  13).     The  prophet 

is,  perhaps,  alluding  to  this  belief, 

which   he    recognises    as    true    in 

substance,  though  attached  by  the 

heathen  to  a  wrong  locality.  At  any 

rate,  mount  Zion  is  to  be  physically 

raised,  and  to  become  fixed  at 
the  bead  of  the  lower  mountains, 

which  radiate,  as  it  were,  in  all 
directions  from  it.  A  similar  phy- 
sical change  is  anticipated  for  Jeru- 
salem in  Zech.  xiv.  10,  and  for 
the  Valley  of  Jchoshaphat,  in  con- 
nection with  the  '  day  of  Jehovah,' 
in  Joel  iii.  12.  Ezekie',  too,  speaks 
of  having  been  transported  in  an 
ecstatic  state  to  '  a  very  high  moun- 
tain '  (xl.  2),  evidently  alluding  to 
this  passage.  The  view  adojjted 
has  the  further  method  of  explain- 
ing a  similar  phrase  in  xi.  9  (see 
note).  The  alternative  rendering, 
*  on  the  top  of  the  (piled  up)  moun- 
tains'  (Vitr.,  Ew.,  Luz.,  Caspari), 
requires  to  be   taken  in  a  figura- 


tive sense,  and  so  introduces  an 
inconsistency  into  the  description. 

And  all    the    nations  .  .   .  ] 

This  great  mountain  shall  become 
their  rallying-point,  like  the  ban- 
ner in  xi.  10.  Parallel  passages, 
Isa.  Ix.  3,  Jer.  iii.  17,  Zech.  ii.  11, 
viii.  22,  23. 

^  Shall  say,  Come  .  .  ]   Simi- 
larly   Zech.    viii.     20,    21. let 

him  teach  us]  viz.  by  his  pro- 
phets (called  '  teachers,'  xxx.  20). 
The  revelation  of  the  '  prophet- 
people,'  Israel,  was  reserved  for  II 

Isaiah. Out  of  his  ways]  God's 

ways  here  are  not  His  dealings 
with  man  (as  Iv.  8),  but  the  rules 
of  moral  and  religious  conduct.  So 
7)  ndoi-  is  used  in  the  New  Test,  for 
Christianity  viewed  on  its  practical 
side,  and  sadf/ '  way  '  in  the  Koran, 
These  rules  are  described  as  a  store 
out  of  which  the  divine  teacher 
draws  his    instruction  (comp.    Ps. 

xciv.  12  Del.). Shall  go  forth 

the  instTuctlon]  i.e.,  the  revela- 
tion of  divine  truth  shall  be  like  a 
perennial  stream. 

*  Thus  Israelites  and  non- 
Israelites  shall  be  united  in  one 
great  spiritual  empire  under  Je- 
hovah. No  satraps  nor  Tartans 
are  necessary,  for  the  nations  have 
the  full  rights  of  citizenship  (Ps. 
Ixxxvii.),  and  the  only  precedence 
of  Israel  is  that  coveted  by  Milton 
for  England,  of  '  teaching  the  na- 
tions how  to  live.' They  shall 

beat  their  s\irords  ...  J  The 
same  image  reversed  Joel  iii.  (iv.) 
10.     Comp.  also  ix.   5  (4),  Hos.  ii. 


CHAP.   II.l 


ISAIAH. 


17 


^  O  house  of  Jacob !  come,  let  us  walk  in  the  light  of 
Jehovah.  ^  For  thou  hast  cast  off  thy  people,  the  house  of 
Jacob,  because  they  are  replenished  *  from  the  East,"^  and  are 
diviners  of  the  clouds  like  the  Philistines,  and  make  con- 
tracts with  the  sons  of  aliens.     '^  And  his  land  is  become  full 

a  With  sorcery,  Sept.,  E\v.  (var.  read.). 


18,  Zech.  ix.  10,  'the  battle-bow 
shall  be  cut  off;  and  he  shall  speak 
peace  unto  the  nations.' 

*  ViUt  alas  !  the  ideal  time  de- 
scribed by  the  prophet  is  still  very 
far  off.  Israel  himself  must  first  be 
brought  into  the  right  way.  There- 
fore, in  accents  of  an  appealing 
tenderness  rare  with  Isaiah,  he  ex- 
claims, O  house  of  Jacob  !  come, 
let  us  walk  (comp.  '  Come,  let  us 
go  up,  7'.  3),  in  the  li^ht  of 
Jehovah,  i.e.  in  the  light  of 
Jehovah's  revelation.  '  Thy  word 
is  a  lamp  unto  my  feet,  and  a 
light  unto  my  path '  (Ps.  cxix. 
105). 

^  The  connection  is  a  little  diffi- 
cult to  trace,  and  it  is  very  possible 
that  the  text  is  in  some  disorder. 
As  the  text  stands,  we  had  best  ex- 
plain it  thus.  The  invitation  in 
V.  5  implies  that  the  people  were  at 
present  not  'walking  in  the  light  of 
Jehovah '  ;  in  fact,  that  they  had 
more  or  less  completely  forsaken 
Jehovah.'  But  instead  of  con- 
tinuing, '  For  thou  hast  forsaken 
thy  God,  O  house  of  Jacob,'  the 
prophet  expresses  the  correspond- 
ing fact  from  the  point  of  view  of 
revelation  :  For  thou  (O  Jehovah  !) 
hast  cast  off  thy  people,  and  then 
the  cause  of  this  change  in  the 
Divine  revelation,  because  they 
are  replenished  from  the  East. 
(*  House  of  Jacob  \'  in  v.  6  a  is  re- 
peated to  link  this  section  with  the 
last.)  The  East  here  undoubtedly 
means  Aram  (i.e.,  Syria  and  Meso- 
potamia), which  in  ix.  12  (comp. 
xi.  14)  is  antithetically  parallel  to 
Philistia,  and  in  Num.  xxiii.  7,  pa- 
rallel synonymously  to  '  the  moun- 


tains of  the  East.'  All  forms  of 
culture,  especially  religious,  are 
covered  by  Isaiah's  phrase.  The 
prevalence  of  magic  in  Syria  is 
shown  by  the  narrative  of  Balaam 
(Num.  xxii.-xxiv.),  and  the  Aramaic 
affinities  of  three  of  the  special 
names  for  sorcerers  in  iii.  2,  3  con- 
firm the  accuracy  of  the  prophet's 
statement.  Babylonia,  however, 
not  Syria,  was  the  earliest  home  of 
magic.  The  very  next  phrase, 
diviners  of  the  clouds,  re- 
minds us  that  the  clouds,  both  of 
the  day  and  of  the  night,  were 
studied  by  the  Chaldean  diviners." 
Another  possible  rendering  is 
cloud-makers  (Del.),  which  re- 
minds us  of  the  common  name  of 
sorcerers  in  savage  tribes,  '  rain- 
makers.'  Iiike  the  Philistines] 

With  whom  the  victories  of  Uzziah 
and  Jotham  had  brought  them  into 
contact.  They  had  a  recognised 
order  of  diviners  (i  Sam.  vi.  2),  and 
a  famous  oracle  at  Ekron  (2  Kings 

i.    2). nSake     contracts    -with 

.  .  .  ]  Alluding  probably  (if  the 
rendering  be  correct)  to  the  com- 
mercial activity  of  the  reigns  of 
Uzziah  and  Jotham  (2  Kings  xiv. 
22,  xvi.  6).  The  prophets  were  op- 
posed to  this,  because  it  opened  the 
door  to  influences  unfavourable 
to  a  pure  religion.  See  xxiii.  17, 
Zeph.  i.  8. 

^  Is  become  full  of  silver  and 
gold  •  .  .  ]  Comp.  the  account  of 
Hezekiah's  tribute  to  Sennacherib 
on  the  Taylor  cylinder  :  —  '30 
talents  of  gold,  800  talents  of  sil- 
ver, cast  metal  (.''),  .  .  .  large 
precious  stones,'  &c.,  (Schrader, 
a;  a.  T.  p.  293. 


1  On  the  relative  proportion  of  heathenish  elements  in  the  popular  religion  of  N. 
and  S.,  see  Robertson  Smith,   The  Prophets  of  Israel,  pp.  200-203. 
^  Lenormant,  La  divination  chez  Ics  Cliakiicns,  pp.  63-64. 

VOL.   I.  C 


i8 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.   II. 


of  silver  and  gold,  and  without  end  arc  his  treasures  ;  ^  and 
his  land  is  become  full  of  horses,  and  without  end  are  his 
chariots  ;  ^  and  his  land  is  become  full  of  not-gods  ;  to  the 
work  of  their  hands  they  do  homage,  to  that  which  their 
fingers  have  made.  '°'' Therefore  must  the  earth-born  be 
bowed  down,  and  the  man  be  brought  low,''  and  thou  canst 
not  forgive  them.     Go  into  the  rock,  and  hide  thee  in  the 


'J  And  the  man  is,  &c.,  Ew. 


^  Horses    .    .    .  cbariots]     The 

chariots  were  not  merely  for  use 
in  war,  l)ut  for  state  ;  comp.  2  Sam. 
XV.  I  ;  2  Kings  v.  9,  15;  Eccles.  x. 
7  (Hitz.).  Horses  were  first  im- 
ported from  Egypt  by  the  worldly- 
wise  Solomon  (i  Kings  iv.  26,  x. 
28,  29)  ;  and  Ahab  seems  to  have 
cared  more  for  them  than  for  his 
suffering  people  (i  Kings  xviii.  5). 
The  prohibition  in  Dent.  xvii.  16 
was  therefore  not  uncalled  for,  and 
it  was  no  idle  feature  in  the  de- 
scription of  the  Messianic  King, 
that  he  was  to  ride  upon  an  ass 
(Zcch.  ix.  9).  The  statement  about 
the  chariots  must  be  taken  with 
the  qualifications  required  by 
XXX.  I,  xxxvi.  8.  Ritter  thinks  that 
chariots  were  mostly  used  in 
Ephraim,  and  horses  without 
chariots  in  Judah  (as  being  more 
hilly)  ;  comp.  Zcch.  ix.  10. 

'•*  N-ot-ffods]  i.e.,  idols,  possibly 
including  symbols  of  Jehovah. 
Similar  "complaints  are  made  by 
Isaiah's  contemporaries,  Amos  (ii. 
4),  Hosea  (xi.  12),  and  Micah  (i.  5, 
v.  13).  The  uniqueness  of  the 
divinity  of  Jehovah,  and  the  in- 
adequacy of  any  symbol,  were  their 
special  revelation.  Isaiah  seems 
to  have  chosen  or  coined  a  sijccial 
word  (^cli/lm)  for  the  dethroned 
idol-gods  ;  as  if  he  would  say, 
They  are  not  c/i'in  'strong  ones' 
=  gods,  but  ^cllliin  '  nonentities.' 

10  Therefore  must  .  .  .]  By  a 
necessity  of  (iod's  moral  law  (this 
is  implied  in  the  Hebrew,  comp. 
Ps.  cix.  16-18),  such  open  infidelity 
must  be  chastised.  Whether  the 
chastisement  is  past,  present,  or 
uture  is  not  expressed  in  the  words 


themselves  ;  it  is  the  context  which 
proves  it  to  be  future  (comp.  v.  15). 
Many  of  the  older  expositors,  how- 
ever, and  among  the  moderns  Ewald, 
take  the  '  bowing  down '  and  the 
'  bringing  low '  to  refer  to  the  idola- 
ters of  the  preceding  verse  ('  Thus 
the  earth-born  abaseth  himself,  and 
the  man  boweth  low'),  the  transition 
to  the  judgment  being  formed  by  the 
second  half  of  the  verse  ('  And  for- 
give them  not ').  The  objection  is 
(i)  that  the  idolatrous  worship  has 
been  sufficiently  treated  in  v.  9,  and 
(2)  that  there  is  no  evidence  that 
V.  9  b  marks  a  transition — in  order 
to  do  so,  it  should  run  '  And  thou 

— forgive  them    not '  (Naeg.). 

Tlie  earth-ljora]  There  is  prob- 
ably an  allusion  to  a  popular  ety- 
mology for  dddm  '  man  '  (comp. 
Ps.  cxlvi.    3,  4),  as  a  Latin  writer 

might  take  homo  from  hiDiuis. • 

And  thou  canst  not  forg^ive 
them.]  Lit.,  and  forgive  them 
not.  Why }  Because  theirs  is  a 
'sin  unto  death'  (comp.  xxii.  14). 
'  Forgive  me  my  foul  murder  ? 
That  cannot  be '  {Ha/n/ct,  act  iii. 
sc.  3). 

A  brief  pause  must  be  sup- 
posed here,  after  which  the  divine 
Judge  is  seen  approaching,  accom- 
panied by  the  earthquake  and  the 
storm  (?'.  25  ;  comp.  Mic.  i.  4,  Hab. 
iii.)     Obs.   nothing  is  said  as  yet 

of  the  Assyrians. Go  into  the 

rock]  Similarly  Hosea  x.  8,  Rev. 
\i.  16.  The  limestone  caverns  of 
Palestine  were  frequently  used  as 
strongholds  and  hiding-places, 
Judges  vi.  2,  XV.  8,  i  Sam.  xiii.  6, 
xiv.  1 1,  xxiv.  3  (especially),  i  Kings 
xviii.  13. 


CHAP.   11.] 


ISAIAH. 


19 


dust  from  before  the  terror  of  Jehovah  and  from  his  excellent 
majesty.  '^The  haughty  eyes  of  the  earth-born  must  be 
brought  low,  and  the  loftiness  of  men  bowed  down,  and 
Jehovah  alone  be  exalted  in  that  day. 

^2  For  a  day  hath  Jehovah  Sabaoth  upon  all  that  is 
proud  and  lofty,  and  upon  all  that  is  raised  up  that  it  may 
be  brought  low  ;  ^^  and  upon  all  cedars  of  Lebanon  that 
are  lofty  and  raised  up,  and  upon  all  the  oaks  of  Bashan  ; 
•'*  and  upon  all  the  lofty  mountains,  and  upon  all  the  up- 
raised hills  ;  '-5  and  upon  every  high  tower,  and  upon  every 
fortified  wall  ;  "^  and  upon  all  the  ships  of  Tarshish,  and  upon 


'^  Alone      shall     be    exalted] 

'  Alone  shall  stand  a  high  and  safe 
asylum  (as  the  word  means)  ;  like 
an  impregnable  rock- fortress  (comp. 
Ps.  xlvi.  7,  11)'  Dr.  Kay. 

^"^  Por  a  day  hatU  .  .  .]  'A 
day '  for  displaying  his  power  in 
wrath  and  in  mercy  (see  on  xiii.  6), 
hence  followed  by  '  upon.'  '  Hath 
it,'  viz.  in  readiness — every  day  has 
a  kind  of  pre-existence  in  the  super- 
sensible world  (Job  iii.  i-io).  It  is 
the  world's  judgment-day  which  is 
here  referred  to,  one  act  of  which 
is  the  judgment  upon  Jerusalem, 
see  on  chap.  xxiv.     The  same  form 

of  phrase  in  xxii.    5,  xxxiv.  8. 

Proud  and  lofty]  The  ideas  of 
eminence,  pride,  and  opposition  to 
Jehovah  melt  into  each  other  in 
the  Old  Test.  ;  comp.  Job  xl.  11, 
12,  Gen.  iii.  22. 

'^  XTpon  all  cedars  of  Ziebanon 
.  .  .]  It  has  been  asked  whether 
the  various  items  of  the  following 
description  are  to  be  taken  literally 
or  figuratively.  They  must  be  all 
taken  in  the  same  way  ;  there  is 
nothing  to  indicate  a  distinction 
(made  by  Calvin  and  Hitzig)  be- 
tween 7'v.  13,  14,  and  the  rest  of 
the  passage.  The  mention  of  arti- 
ficial as  well  as  natural  objects 
pleads  strongly  in  favour  of  a  lite- 
ral interpretation  ;  only  we  must 
not  suppose  the  judgment  of  Jeho- 
vah to  be  confined  to  the  objects 
here  specified.  We  have  before 
us  nothing  less  than  the  germ  of 
the  prophecy  of  the  '  regeneration ' 
of  nature  (Matt.    xix.    28),    which, 


though  probably  affected  in  some 
of  its  Jewish  and  JudcXO-Chris- 
tian  expressions  by  the  analogous 
Persian  belief,  is  in  idea  an  essen- 
tial part  of  the  old  prophetic 
teaching.  Actual  nature  has  be- 
come too  closely  wedded  to  man's 
sinful  pride  to  be  suitable  for  the 
regenerate  people  of  the  glorified 
theocracy.  The  forests  of  Lebanon 
and  Bashan  tempted  Solomon  and 
Uzziah  to  build  those  palaces  and 
towers  which  corrupted  the  sim- 
plicity of  Israelitish  faith.  They 
are  therefore  to  be  taken  as  re- 
presentatives of  the  condemned 
features  of  the  existing  order  of 
things,  just  as  towers  are  taken 
in  XXX.  23, 

^^  mountains  .  .  ,  hills]  Comp. 
Koran,  Sur.  xx.  105-6  (Rodwell), 
'  and  they  will  ask  thee  of  the  moun- 
tains :  Say  :  scattering  my  Lord  will 
scatter  them  in  dust  ;  And  he  will 
leave  them  a  level  plain  :  thou  shalt 
see  in  it  no  hollows  or  jutting  hills.' 
Mohammed  is  speaking  of  the  Day 
of  Resurrection. 

'•^  Hig-a  tower]  Referring  to  the 
buildings  of  Uzziah  and  jotham, 
2  Chron.  xxvi.  9,  10,  xxvii.  3,  4. 
Comp.  Hosea  viii.  14,  Mic.  v.  ii. 

'"  Ships  of  Tarshish]  Deep 
sea  ships,  such  as  were  built  for 
the  foreign  trade,  especially  with 
Tartessus  and  Ophir  (i  Kings  xxii. 
48).  At  this  time,  then,  the  Jews 
still  possessed  a  fleet,  the  station 
of  which  was  at  Elath,  on  the  Red 
Sea.  In  the  reign  of  Ahaz  the 
Arameans  '  recovered  Elath  for 
c  2 


20 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  II. 


all  delightful  works  of  imagery  ;  '^  and  the  highness  of  the 
earth-born  shall  be  bowed  down,  and  the  loftiness  of  men 
brought  low,  and  Jehovah  alone  shall  be  exalted  in  that 
day,  '^And  the  not-gods — the  whole  shall  pass  away.  '^And 
men  shall  go  into  caverns  of  rocks  and  holes  of  the  ground, 
from  before  the  terror  of  Jehovah  and  from  his  excellent 
majesty,  when  he  shall  arise  to  shock  the  earth,  ^°  In  that 
day  shall  a  man  cast  his  not-gods  of  silver  and  his  not-gods 
of  gold,  which  were  made  for  him  to  worship,  to  the  moles 
and  to  the  bats,  2'  in  order  to  go  into  the  clefts  of  the  rocks, 
and  into  the  rents  of  the  crags,  from  before  the  terror  of 
Jehovah  and  from  his  excellent  majesty,  when  he  shall  arise 
to  shock  the  earth. 

2^  °  O  cease  ye  from    man,  in  whose  nostrils  is  a  breath  ; 
for  at  how  much  is  he  to  be  valued  ?  ° 

•■  Omitted  in  Sept.,  and  (as  late  marginal  note)  by  Diestel  and  Studer. 


Edom'  (2  Kings  xvi.  6  Q.  P.  B., 

compare      xiv.      22). Precious 

'works  of  imagrery]  Such  as  the 
merchant-ships  brought  from  far 
countries  to  furnish  the  houses  of 
the  great.     See  crit.  note. 

^^  And  the  not-^ods  .  .  .]  A 
verse  of  three  words  in  the  Hebrew, 
suggestive  of  a  swift  and  sudden 
catastrophe. 

^^  To  shock  the  earth]  A  tho- 
roughly Isaianic  paronomasia — ^' ut 
terreat  terram.'     So  in  Ps.  x.  18. 

"^  Shall  a  man  cast  .  ,  .]  Or, 
shall  (the  whole  tribe  of  them)  cast 
(Dr.  Weir).  Like  an  African  fetish- 
worshipper,  disappointed  of  some 
desired  good.  It  is  remarkable 
that  neither  here  nor  in  the  partly 
parallel  passages,  xxx.  22,  xxxi.  7, 
does  Isaiah  say  anything  against 
the  high  places  or  local  sanctuaries  ; 
it  is  only  idolatry  against  which  he 
thunders.  Nor,  in  fact,  do  Amos, 
Hosea,  or  Micah — at  least  so  far  as 
Judah  is  concerned.  In  Mic.  i.  5 
we  should  certainly,  I  think,  read 


not  '  high  places '  but  '  sin,'  see 
Q.  P.  B.  ;  '  high  places '  is  a  gloss 

from  Hosea  x.  8. Which  were 

made]  viz.  for  a  very  different  pur- 
pose. Lit.  'which  they  made,' viz, 
the  manufacturers  of  idols. 

^-  Xn  whose  nostrils  is  a  breath] 
'  Jehovah  Elohim  ,  .  ,  breathed 
into  his  nostrils  breath  of  life' 
(Gen.  ii.  7).  This  verse  connects 
very  badly  with  what  precedes. 
'  Cease  ye  from  idols '  would  be  a 
much  more  natural  exhortation. 
The  style,  too,  is  very  inferior.  Omit 
the  verse,  and  the  effect  of  the  se- 
quel is  enhanced.  We  then  have  a 
striking  transition  from  the  general 
description  of  the  effects  of  the  day 
of  Jehovah  to  the  special  details 
connected  with  Jerusalem  :  the  cap- 
tivity of  Jerusalem  becomes  the 
earnest  of  the  overthrow  of  all 
'  proud  and  lofty '  things.  The 
tone  of  V.  22  reminds  us  of  the 
post-exile  period.  Comp.  Ps.  cxlvi. 
3,  4  (in  a  Psalm  of  Haggai  and 
Zechariah,  according  to  Sept.). 


CHAP.    III.] 


ISAIAH. 


21 


CHAPTER   III. 

Having  established  the  certainty  of  a  judgment,  the  prophet  goes  on  to 
describe  it  in  detail.  Probably  we  have  here  a  summary  of  a  fresh  series 
of  discourses.  Kx.  v.  i6  it  is  probable  that  the  summary  becomes  a  little 
fragmentary,  for  the  introductory  formula  is  elsewhere  confined  to  cases 
in  which  Jehovah  in  person  is  the  speaker.  This  is  not  the  case  here. 
The  unusually  lax  application  of  the  formula  suggests  that  here,  as  in 
chap,  ii.,  a  later  editor  has  been  at  work,  and  that  the  formula  is  merely 
inserted  to  bridge  over  a  lacuna  in  the  notes.  Still  the  position  of  iii. 
16-24  is  not  at  all  unsuitable.  There  are  clearly  points  of  contact  in  it 
with  what  precedes.  Haughtiness  and  luxury  are  rebuked  in  chap,  ii., 
and  the  prominence  given  to  the  women  is  in  harmony  with  the  feminine 
form  of  the  word  'staff'  (see  on  v.  i),  and  with  the  statement  respecting 
the  women  in  v.  12. — At  v.  25  there  is  an  abrupt  transition  from  the  fate 
of  the  women  to  that  of  Zion  as  a  whole. 

^  For  behold,  the  Lord,  Jehovah  Sabaoth,  taketh  away 
from  Jerusalem  and  from  Judah  stay  and  staff,  '^  [every  stay 
of  bread,  and  every  stay  of  water] '^  ;  ^hero  and  warrior,  judge 

a  Omitted  as  gloss  by  Hitz.  and  Knobel. 


^  For  behold,  the  lord  .   •   •  ] 

Notice  the  solemnity  of  the  intro- 
duction.    Comp.    i.   24,    X.   16,   33, 

xix.    4. Removeth  .  .  .  ]     i.e., 

mediately,  through  war  and  cap- 
tivity.  Stay  and  staff]  i.e.,  all 

those  classes  and  orders  mentioned 
in  w.  2,  3,  on  which  the  outward 
and  inward  life  of  the  community 
depends  (ch.  xix.  10;  'the  pillars' 
=  the  nobles).  '  Staff'  in  the  Heb. 
is  the  feminine  form  of 'stay'  (cf 
Mic.  ii.  4,  Nah.  ii.  11,  Del.).  Ob- 
serve the  importance  still  enjoyed 
by  women  among  the  Israelites, 
though  less  now  than  in  the  '  patri- 
archal '  period. Every  stay  of 

bread  .  .  .  ]  It  would  be  strange 
if  the  prophet  used  the  same 
phrases  in  parallel  members  of  the 
verse  in  totally  different  senses.  If 
the  classes  referred  to  in  zm.  2,  3 
were  merely  those  of  bread-win- 
ners, the  productive  classes  as  we 
call  them,  the  second  interpretation 
might  perhaps  pass.  But  with  the 
exception  probably  of  the  last  but 
one,  it  is  not  bread-winning  but 
valour  and  wisdom  which  charac- 
terise these  classes.  It  is  probably 
one  of  those  marginal  glosses  which 


the  scribes  and  editors  of  the  pro- 
phecies inserted  during  or  after 
the  exile  (see  any  critical  edition 
of  Jeremiah).  Inattentive  to  the 
context,  a  scribe  interpreted  '  stay 
and  staff'  by  the  light  of  the 
phrases,  'staff  of  bread'  (Ps.  cv. 
16,  Ezek.  iv.  16,  v.  16,  Lev.  xxvi. 
26),  and  '  to  stay  the  heart  with 
bread'  (Gen.  xviii.  5,  Ps.  civ.  15). 

^  First  in  order  among  the  props 
of  the  state  came  the  warriors.  The 
prophet  puts  himself  at  the  popular 
or  unbelieving  point  of  view.  Then 
comes  a  medley  of  different  offices. 
Obs.,  in  the  mention  of  the  elder, 
how  the  idea  of  the  family  still 
governs  the  social  organisation. 
The  '  elders '  were  originally  heads 
of  families,  and  have  their  analogue 
in  the  council  of  the  Aryan  village 
communities  (comp.  Sir  H.  Maine). 
References  to  their  parliamentary 
status  (if  the  phrase  may  be  used) 
occur  in  Ex.  iii.  16,  2  Sam.  xix.  !i, 
I  Kings  viii.  i,  xx.  7.  The  institu- 
tution  lingered  on  during  and  after 
the  Babylonian  exile,  Jer.  xxix.  i, 
Exek.  xiv.  i,  xx.  i,  Ezra  v.  5,  vi. 
7,  X.  14  ;  Matt.  xxvi.  3,  47,  Mark 
xiv.  43,  Acts  iv.    5,  &c.     In  v.    14 


22 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  III. 


and  prophet,  and  soothsayer  and  elder ;  ^  the  captain  of  fifty 
and  the  man  of  repute,  and  the  counsellor  and  the  skilful 
^  artificer,  and  the  expert  enchanter.  *  And  I  will  make  youths 
to  be  their  princes,  and  with  wilfulness  shall  they  rule  over 
them.  ^  And  the  people  shall  oppress  one  another,  man 
against  man,  and  neighbour  against  neighbour;  they  shall 
behave  boisterously,  the  child  towards  the  old  man,  and  the 
mean  man  towards  the  honourable.  ^When  a  man  shall  take 
hold  of  his  brother  in  his  father's  house,  '  Thou  hast  clothing, 
thou  shalt  be  our  judge,  and  let  this  ruin  be  under  thy  hand  :' 

•^  Magician,  Ew.,  Weir, 
(see  note)  they  are  referred  to  as      '  tythings.'     See  ChiircJi  Quarterly 


'  princes'  or  '  principal  men '  ;  they 
are  also  included  under  the  term 

'  counsellor '  in  v.    2. Propliet 

and  soothsayer  are  classed  to- 
gether, like  '  mighty  man  and  man 
of  war '  ;  they  are  nearly  the  same 
in  meaning,  at  any  rate  from  the 
point  of  view  which  the  prophet 
here  assumes.  So  Jer.  xxix.  8  ;  cf. 
Mic.  iii.  II,  Ezek.  xxii.  28.  It  does 
not  appear  that  the  prophets  denied 
the  reality  of  magical  powers,  though 
they  did  assert  that  the  use  of  them 
without  the  direction  and  assistance 
of  Jehovah  was  an  act  of  rebellion 
against  the  God  of  gods  (see  further 
on  vii.  11).  Nor  does  Isaiah  ap- 
pear to  have  denied  the  prophetic 
character  to  those  who  held  lower 
views  of  the  Divine  nature.  He 
classes  the  degenerate  prophets 
\\  ilh  the  degenerate  priests,  and  up- 
braids the  former  because,  when 
they  might  have  prophesied  '  right 
things,'  they  uttered  'deceits' (xxx. 
10).  Jeremiah,  however,  has  had 
it  revealed  to  him  that  there 
are  false  prophets  (xxiii.  25-32), 
though  the  invention  of  the  phrase 
'  false  prophet,'  is  due  to  the  Sept. 
(e.g.  xxxiii.  1-16  Sept.). 

^  Captain  of  fifty]  The  leader 
of  the  smallest  di\ision  of  the  army 
(2  Kings  i.  9),  but  also  apparently 
a  civil  officer  (comp.  Ex.  xviii.  21, 
25),  just  as  in  Jer.  xxvi.  21  Xho.  gib- 
borim  or  '  mighty  men  '  are  treated 
as  men  of  weight  in  civil  affairs. 
The  fifty  was  a  technical  term, 
analogous  to  our  'hundreds'  and 


Review  (July  1880,  p.  429). 
Skilful  artificer]  Artisans  are 
particularly  mentioned  as  sharing 
the  captivity  of  Jehoiachin,  2  Kings 
xxiv.  14,  Jer.  xxiv.  i.  Alt.  render- 
ing is  no  doubt  plausible.  (Ps.  Iviii. 
6,  Hebr.)  Magic  practices  were 
highly  developed  in  the  Semitic 
East,  and  even  as  it  would  seem  in 
Jerusalem.  Still,  we  have  already 
two  designations  of  soothsayers, 
and  we  can  hardly  spare  the  arti- 
ficers, on  whom  so  much  depended 
in  times  of  war  (for  machines)  as 
well  as  of  peace. 

'^~''  Thus  deprived  of  its  ilfna-Toi, 
Judah  will  become  a  prey  to  an 
anarchy  such  as  had  already  be- 
fallen    Israel. Youths    their 

princes]  Only  youths  would  desire 
such  a  miserable  kingdom ;  and 
their  childish  capriciousness  would 
contribute  to  the  general  misery. 
A  specimen  of  the  latter  was  given 
by  Ahaz  (see  on  v.  12),  and  after 
him  by  Manasseh  (king  at  12). 

''  The  distress  shall  be  so  great 
that  any  one  who  is  still  possessed 
of  a  respectable  outer  garment  shall 
be  importuned  to  accept  thegovern- 
mcnt,  and  shall  protest  against  the 
dubious  honour.— — in  his  father's 
house]  Where  brothers  would 
naturally  meet,  opposed  to  'my 
house'  afterwards. A  hinder- 
up]  One  to  hold  together  the  frag- 
ments of  the  state  ;  comp.  xxx.  26, 
'  bindeth  up  the  breach  of  his 
people '  ;  or,  a  bindcr-up  of  wounds, 
a  surgeon. 


CHAP.    III.] 


ISAIAH. 


23 


Lo, 


^  he  shall  lift  up  (his  voice)  on  that  day,  saying,  *  I  will  not  be 
a  binder-up,  for  in  my  house  is  neither  bread  nor  clothing  ;  ye 
shall  not  appoint  me  to  be  a  judge  of  the  people.' 

**  For  Jerusalem  is  sunk  into  ruin,  and  Judah  is  fallen,  be- 
cause their  tongue  and  their  deeds  have  been  against  Jehovah, 
to  defy  the  eyes  of  his  glory.  ^  '^  Observation  of  their  face 
witnesseth  against  them,  and  their  sin  they  have  declared 
like  Sodom,  undisguisedly  :  alas  for  themselves,  for  they  have 
achieved  for  themselves  misfortune.  ^'^  (^  Happy  is  the  right- 
eous !  for  "^  it  is  well,  for  the  fruit  of  their  deeds  they  shall  eat. 
1^  Alas  for  the  wicked  !  Ill !  for  the  achievement  of  his  hands 
shall  be  given  him.)  '^  My  people — his  governor  is  a  wilful 
child,  and  women  rule  over  him  :  my  people — thy  guides  are 
misleading,  and  the  way  of  thy  paths  they  have  swallowed  up. 
^^  Jehovah  is  stationed  to  plead,  and  standeth  to  judge  the 

<=  So  Ges.,  Weir,  Naeg. — The  expression,  Del. 
•1  So  Duhm  ;  pronounce  ye  liappy,  &c., 

^  The  prophet  now  justifies  the 
foregoing  gloomy  description.  He 
speaks  of  Judah,  chiefly  as  repre- 
sented  by  the  ruling  classes. 

Kath  come  to  ruin]     The  perfect 

of   prophetic    certainty. -Their 

tong-ue]  i.e.,  their  language.  Obs. 
the  importance  attached  to  words 
as  revelations  of  character,  both  in 
O.  and  N.  T.,  Iviii.  9,  13,  Ps.  xciv., 

4,  Matt.  V.  22,  xii.  36,  ^7. Tfee 

eyes  of  liis  glory]  Jehovah's 
glory  is  the  outward  manifestation 
of  his  invisible  essence.  Through 
this  glory  he  enters  into  relation 
with  the  world,  which  is  described, 
anthropomorphically,  as  '  looking 
out  upon  the  children  of  men.' 

^  Observation  of  their  face] 
Their  character  may  be  read  by  a 
keen  glance  at  their  face.  Alt.  rend, 
is  rather  too  distant  from  the  pri- 
mary meaning  of  the  Hebrew,  but 

the  difference  is  unimportant. 

Sodo£n]  An  example  of  shame- 
lessness.  Gen.  xix.  5. 

^°>  '1  These  verses  rather  inter- 
rupt the  connection,  but  supply  a 
beautiful  example  of  parallelism. 
They  assert  the  doctrine  of  '  future 
rewards  and  punishments '  in  a 
spiritual  and  not  a  mechanical 
sense.      Good    deeds    ripen    into 


say  ye  of  the  righteous  that,  Text. 

happiness,  as  evil  deeds  into  misery. 
Comp.  Ps.  Iviii.  11  Q.  P.  B. 

^-  His  g-overnor  is  a  wilfuJ 
cMld]  Isaiah  means  a  child  in 
character  rather  than  in  age,  for 
Ahaz  was  probably  twenty- five  (i.e., 
five  years  older  than  Solomon, 
Ewald,  iii.  208  ;  comp.  iv.  167)  when 
he  came  to  the  throne.  His  timidity 
was  shown  in  the  Syro-Israelitish 
invasion  (vii.  2,  2  Kings  xvi.  5,  7)  ; 
his  effeminacy  appears  from  the 
next  clause  of  this  verse,  and  his 
hankering  for  novelties  from  2  Kings 

xvi.   10. Thy  gruides  .  .  .]   Lit. 

'  thy  righteners,'  those  who  should 
lead  thee  in  the  right  way,  a  duty 
commended  to  the  ruling  class  in 
i.  23.  A  delicate  irony  !  So  ix.  16. 

Swailo-wed   tap]   i.e.,   effaced. 

Similarly  xxv.  7,  8. 

12  No  effect  has  been  produced 
by  the  friendly  pleadings  of  the 
prophet.  Now  the  scene  changes. 
Jehovah  standeth  to  plead  judi- 
cially. The  same  phrase  is  used  in 
the  same  sense  in  Ps.  Ixxxii.  i, 
though  critics  doubt  whether  the  ob 
jects  of  the  judgment  are  human  or 
superhuman  beings.  Elsewhere  we 
read  that  Jehovah  'sitteth  (i.e.,  on 
his  heavenly  throne)  to  judge  (Joel 
iii.  12,  Ps.  ix.  4).     Here  the  figure 


24 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.   III. 


peoples.  "  Jehovah  will  enter  into  judgment  with  the  elders 
of  his  people,  and  its  princes  :  '  So  then  ye  have  eaten  up 
the  vineyards,  the  plunder  of  the  afflicted  is  in  your  houses. 
'^  What  mean  ye  that  ye  crush  my  people,  and  grind  the  face 
of  the  afflicted  ? '     Oracle  of  the  Lord,  Jehovah  Sabaoth. 

'^  And  Jehovah  said,  Because  the  daughters  of  Zion  are 
proud,  and  go  with  outstretched  throat  and  ogling  eyes — go 
is  different.     Jehovah  stands  in  a       It  concerns  the  ladies  of  Jerusalem 


menacing  attitude  ready  to  hurl  his 
bolt  ;  whether  in  heaven  or  on  earth 
(comp.  Mic.  i.  2)  the  prophet  does 
not  say.  The  peoples]  Jehovah 
has  revealed  himself  as  the  God, 
and  consequently  as  the  Judge,  of 
all  the  nations  of  the  world.  But 
Isaiah  merely  hints  at  this,  and 
devotes  himself  rather  to  the  case 
of  Jerusalem,  which  has  such  griev- 
ous need  of  purification,  before  the 
'  many  nations  '  can  go  up  thither 
for  spiritual  teaching.  We  might 
express  the  relation  between  w. 
13,  14  thus:  'Jehovah,  when  setting 
himself  to  judge  the  world,  shall 
first  enter  into  the  case  of  the 
princes  of  his  chosen  people  Israel' 
(Roorda).     Comp.  Ps.  ix.  7,  8. 

^■^  Elders  .  .  .  princes]  See  on 
V.  1.  From  Ex.  xviii.  13-26  it  ap- 
pears that  the  'elders'  originally 
performed  judicial  functions.— — So 
then  ye  .  .  .]  The  prophet  skips 
over  the  examination  of  the  wit- 
nesses, and  gives  only  the  latter  part 
of  the  summing  up  of  the  judge. 
'  Ye '  is  emphatic.  Ye,  from  whom 
such  different  conduct  was  to  be 
expected,  have  '  eaten  up  the  vine- 
yard' (see  V.  7).  'He  that  toucheth 
you  toucheth  the  apple  of  his  eye,' 
is  Jehovah's  word  elsewhere  (Zech. 
ii.  8). 

'^  Grind  the  face]  Isaiah  uses 
the  strongest  of  metaphors  to  de- 
scribe the  cruel  injustice  of  which 
the  poor  were  the  subjects.  Its  op- 
posite is  'to  smooth  the  face,'  i.e.  to 
entreat  the  favour  (Ps.  xlv.  12  A.  V.). 
A  similar  metaphorical  passage  in 
Mic.  iii.  2,  3. 

"'  JELnd  Jehovah  said]  Here  a 
new  discourse  begins,  which  these 
words  loosely  connect  with  the 
toregoing  prophecy  (see    Introd.),. 


(comp.  xxxii.  9-12),  whose  love  of 
dress,  expressing  their  inward  pride, 
is  threatened  with  condign  punish- 
ment. Twenty-one  articles  are  men- 
tioned (some  of  which  are  still  very 
general  among  Syrian  ladies),  and 
the  difficulty  of  explaining  all  the 
names  from  the  Hebrew  shows 
that  this  toilette-luxury  was  not 
of  native  origin  ;  comp.  Zeph.  i. 
8  :  'all  such  as  are  clothed  with 
forcigti  clothing.'  To  judge  from 
the  names  we  should  suspect  Syrian 
and  Arabian  influences,  though  it 
must  be  admitted  that  modern 
Arabic  names  of  clothing  do  not  at 
all  correspond  ;  nor  has  any  light 
as  yet  been  derived  from  the  Assy- 
rian. Quantity,  it  is  evident,  was 
as  much  sought  after  as  quality,  by 
the  fashionable  ladies  of  Jerusalem, 
Rings  and  chains,  head-dresses  and 
veils,  upper  and  under  garments, 
occur  in  a  profusion  which  it  is 
difficult  to  represent.  All  this  was 
doubtless  alien  to  primitive  simpli- 
city, though  Judges  v.  30  warns  us 
that  the  deflection  from  simplicity 
began  long  before  Isaiah. ^There  is 
a  somewhat  parallel  passage  in  the 
Koran  (Sura  xxiv.  31)  beginning 
with  the  words,  '  And  speak  to  the 
believing  women  that  they  refrain 
their  eyes,  and  observe  continence,' 
and  ending,  'And  let  them  not  strike 
their  feet  together,'  &c.  (referred  to 
by  Drechsler).  Comp.  also  the  tirade 
of  Sacchetti,  the  Italian  novelist, 
against  the  fashions  of  the  Flo- 
rentine women  of  the  fourteenth 
century'  (he  mentions  inter  alia, 
feet-chains),  by  which  Longfellow 
illustrates  the  prophetic  denuncia- 
tion of  Dante,  /'un^af.  xxiii.  106- 
1 1 1. — The  only  monographs  on  the 
Israelitish  toilette  are  still  those  of 


CHAP.  III.] 


ISAIAH. 


25 


tripping  along  and  tinkling  with  their  feet  :  ^^  therefore 
Jehovah  will  smite  with  a  scab  the  crown  of  the  head  of  the 
daughters  of  Zion,  and  Jehovah  will  make  bare  their  secret 
parts.  '^  In  that  day  Jehovah  will  take  away  the  finery  of 
the  anklets,  the  ^  wreaths  and  the  crescents  ;  ^^  the  ear-drops 
and  the  arm-chains  and  the  fine  veils  ;  ^^  the  diadems  and  the 
stepping-chains  and  the  girdles  ;  and  the  scent-bottles  and 
the  amulets  ;  ^^  the  seal-rings  and  the  nose-rings  ;  ^^  the  state- 
dresses  and  the  tunics,  and  the  wrappers  and  the  purses  ; 
2'  the  ®  mirrors,  and  the  linen  shifts  and  the  turbans  and  the 

"*  Little  suns,  Ew.,  Naeg.  "  Gauzes,  Ew. 


Schroder  and  Hartmann,  the  one 
entitled  Cotnineiitatio  philologico- 
critica  dc  vestitu  inulieiiim  Hebrcr- 
artfm  (Lugd.  Bat.  1745);  the  other, 
Die  Hebrderin  am  Futztische  und 
ah  Braut  (3  vols.  Amsterd.  1809). 
Part  of  the  latter  has  been  repro- 
duced in  a  popular  form  by  De 
Ouincey  {Works,vo\.  xi.). — Ewald 
thinks  there  is  a  method  in  the 
order  of  the  catalogue  ;  first  the 
ornaments  of  the  feet,  then  those 
of  the  head,  then  {vv.  22,  23)  the 
larger   dresses  ;    but  this  requires 

some  violence  to  carry  it  out. 

Tripping  and  tinkling-] 

'  The  melodious  chime  of  the 
silver  ankle-bells,  keeping  time 
with  the  motions  of  the  feet,  made 
an  accompaniment  so  agreeable 
to  female  vanity,  that  the  stately 
daughters  of  Jerusalem,  with  their 
sweeping  trains  flowing  after  them, 
appear  to  have  adopted  a  sort  of 
measured  tread,  by  way  of  impres- 
sing a  regular  cadence  upon  the 
rnusic  of  their  feet '  (De  Ouincey, 
xi.  123). 

'*  The  anklets]  i.e.,  rings  of  sil- 
ver or  some  other  metal  worn  round 
the  ankles  ;  hence  the  verb  ren- 
dered   'tinkling'    in     v.     16. 

"Wreaths]  Explained  in  the  Talmud 
of  a  wreath  worn  round  the  forehead, 
from  one  ear  to  the  other  (Buxtorf). 
LXX.  TO  fjjLTrXoKLa.  Alt.  rend,  is 
also  plausible,  but  involves  com- 
parison of  the  Arabic  ('wreath'  is 

from  the  Aramaic). Crescents] 

Lit.  little  moons.  These  were 
hung  upon  the  neck,  Judg.  viii.  21, 


26  (Midianitish).  Originally,  per- 
haps, talismans.  They  still  find  a 
place  in  the  Arab  toilette. 

^*  Ear-drops]  See  Judges  viii.  26 
(Midianitish). 

-°  Diadems]  The  words  used  for 
the  tiaras  of  priests,  Ex.  xxxix.  28  ;  of 

bridegrooms,  Ixi.  10. Stepping-- 

chains],  connecting  the  anklets, 
and  so  enabling  their  wearers  to  go 

'tripping  along'  v.  16. Girdles] 

Costly  girdles  such  as  brides  wore, 
Jer.  ii.  32,  conip.  Isa.  xlix.  18. 
JUmulets]  These  were  evidently  in 
the  form  of  ornaments.  Probably 
ear-rings  are  meant  here,  such  as 
those  which  Jacob  took  away  and 
buried  (Gen.  xxxv.  4,  Targ.  ^'dd- 
shdyyd,  '  holy  things ').  Similar 
amulets  are  still  worn  by  Eastern 
women. 

-^  Seal-ring:s]  Worn  on  the  fin- 
ger (Jer.  xxii.  24).  Levy's  mono- 
graph {Siegeliiiid  Geuiinen,  Breslau, 
1869)  includes  an  account  of  extant 
seals  and  gems  from  the  pre-exile 
period. 

^■-  State-dresses]  Named  in 
Hebr.  from  their  being  put  off  when 
the  occasion  for  their  use  was  over. 
In  Zech.  iii.  4  the  word  is  used  of 
the    splendid    high-priestly  robes. 

Tunics]  i.e.,  the  uppermost  of 

the  two  under-dresses,  richly  em- 
broidered, and  bound  with  a  superb 

girdle. -"Wrappers]  such  as  Ruth 

put  on  over  her  best  clothes  when 
she  went  to  Boaz  (Ruth  iii.  15). 

2''  IVEirrors]  i.e.,  hand-mirrors, 
made  of  polished  metal  (probably- 
copper)  plates  ;  comp.  Ex.  xxxviii. 


26  ISAIAH.  [CHAP.  IV. 

large  veils.  ^^  And  it  shall  come  to  pass  :  instead  of  perfume 
there  shall  be  rottenness  ;  and  instead  of  a  girdle,  a  rope  ; 
and  instead  of  artificial  curls,  baldness,  and  instead  of  a 
mantle,  a  girding  of  sackcloth,  a  brand  instead  of  beauty. 
^^  Thy  people  shall  fall  by  the  sword,  and  thy  forces  in  war. 
"^^  And  her  gates  shall  sigh  and  lament,  and  she  shall  be 
emptied,  sitting  upon  the  ground.  IV.  ^  And  seven  women 
shall  take  hold  of  one  man  in  that  day,  saying,  '  Our  own 
bread  will  we  eat,  and  our  own  clothing  will  we  wear  :  only 
let  us  be  called  by  thy  name  ;  take  away  our  disgrace.' 


CHAPTER   IV.  2  ETC. 


2-6.  A  short  section  full  of  glorious  promises.  Why  so  short .''  Be- 
cause the  proper  subject  of  the  discourse  to  which  this  section  belongs  is 
not  promise  but  threatening.  The  two  passages  which  have  a  difiierent 
scope  (ii.  2-4,  and  iv.  2-6)  are  evidently  inserted  to  relieve  the  dark  tints 
of  the  picture.  They  describe  the  fair  future  of  the  purified  Jerusalem, 
the  one  from  without,  the  other  chiefly  from  within. 

2  In  that  day  shall  the  ^growth  of  Jehovah  be  for  beauty 

»  Sprout,  E\v.,  Del. 

8,  Job    xxxvii.  ,18,    and    the    com-  xxx.    23),    immortality    being    re- 

mentators  on  i  Cor.  xiii.  12.    Glass  garded  as  a  family,  not  a  personal, 

indeed    may   possibly   have    been  privilege. 

known  ^    through     the    Phci:nician  ^  in  that  day]  That  is,  after  this 

traders.     Bottles  and  vases  of  that  destruction,   says    Alexander,  with 

material  have  been  found  both  at  most  of  the  commentators.     This, 

Nimrud    and  at  Khorsabad  (Lay-  however,  is  a  superficial  view.     It 

ard's  Discoveries^  I9S-6),  while  in  will  be  observed    that    the  phrase 

Egypt  glass-blowing  was  known  at  has  been  used  five  times  since  '  the 

least  as  early  as  the  reign  of  the  first  day  of  Jehovah  '  was  first  mentioned 

Osirtasen  (Wilkinson,  iii.  88). in  ii.  12,  and  in  very  different  con^ 

Iiargre  veils]  Comp.  Cant.  v.  7.  texts.     Hitherto  it  has  pointed   to 

''■''• -''Ttay  people  .  .  .  her  gates]  some  feature  in  the  divine  punish- 

referring  to  Zion.  ment    of  the  sinners,    but    now  it 

IV.  '  Seven   women   .    .    .    ]  '  A  refers  to  the  mercies  of  the  saved, 

companion  picture  to  iii.  6,  where  How  can  we  account  for  this  diver- 

the  surviving  men  lay  hold  on  one  sity  of  scope  ?     Only  on  the  theory, 

who  has  bread  and  clothing  to  make  forced  upon  us  by  a  wide  examina- 

him  their  kadi.     The  male  popula-  tion  of  prophecy,  that  the  contents 

tion  are  in  search  of  a  ruler  ;  the  of  the  prophetic  revelations  of  the 

women    in   search   of  a   husband'  Messianic  period  are  unconditioned 

(Dr.  Weir). Our  disgrace]  The  by  time  (comp.  2  Pet.  iii.  8).     It  is 

disgrace  of  being   childless  (Gen.  not   a   series  of  successive  events 

1  I  do  not  quote  Job  .\xviii.  17,  '  gold  and  glass,'  as  the  poem  of  Job  cannot  be  as 
early  as  Isaiah. 


CHAP.  IV.] 


ISAIAH. 


27 


and   honour,   and  the   fruitage  of  the  land  for  a  pride  and 

granted  to  the  soil  should  prevent 
any  evil  consequences  from  the 
previous  desolation  of  the  land  of 
Judah. 

I  have  still  to  justify  my  explan- 
ation of  these  two  expressions  on 
phraseological  grounds,  i.  The  two 
expressions  in  the  Hebr.  are  clearly 
parallel  ;  they  may  of  course  be 
either  synonymous  or  antithetical ; 
but  considering  that  exactly  the 
same  quality  is  predicated  of  each 
of  them,  it  is  more  natural  to  sup- 
pose them  to  be  synonymous,  or 
nearly  so.  2.  The  fact  that  the 
context  is  entirely  connected  with 
the  land  of  Judah  shows  that  we 
must  render  the  Hebr.  ha-areq  'the 
land,'  and  not  'the  earth.'  Now 
the  phrase,  '  fruit  of  the  land,'  and 
the  synonymous  one  '  fruit  of  the 
ground,'  occur  twelve  times  in  the 
O.  T.,  and  always  with  reference  to 
vegetation.  3.  The  Hebr.  (;c/nakh, 
though  singular,  is  almost  always 
used  collectively.  See  especially 
Ixi.  1 1  and  Gen.  xix.  25.  The  ex- 
ceptions are  Jer.  xxiii.  5,  xxxiii.  15 
(though  even  here  Graf  and  Kuenen 
take  qemakh  collectively);  and  Zech. 
iii.  8,  vi.  12.  It  must  be  observed, 
however,  that  in  Jer.  the  phrase  is 
'  Plant  (A.  V.  branch)  of  David.' 
This  is  clear,  and  therefore  allow- 
able ;  '  plant  of  Jehovah '  is  not 
clear — indeed,  it  would  almost  in- 
fallibly be  misunderstood,  with  such 
a  phrase  as  '  fruit  of  the  land '  in 
the  parallel  line.  The  only  clear 
rendering  is  '  plantation  (  =  plants) 
of  Jehovah,'  for  which  comp.  Ps. 
civ.  16.  'The  trees  of  Jehovah  are 
satisfied  (with  rain) ;  the  cedars  of 
Lebanon  which  he  hath  planted.' 
[Ew.  and  Del.  both  render  '  Sprout 
of  Jehovah,'  but  the  former  explains 
this  collectively  =  '  products,'  the 
latter  personally  of  the  Messiah. 
Del.  fully  admits  that  '  fruit  of  the 
land '  must  be  taken  as  synonymous 
with  this,  and  therefore  explains 
'  fruit  'as  a  personal  designation,  for 
which  he  comps.  Ezek.  xvii.  5  :  'he 
took  of  the  seed  of  the  land  (i.e., 
Zedekiah)  and  planted  in  a  fruitful 


which  is  unfolded  before  us,  but 
rather  processes  which  may  in  fact 
be  going  on  simultaneously,  though 
one  may  be  more  prominent  at 
one  time  and  another  at  another. 
The  punishment  of  the  sinners 
and  the  mercies  of  the  saved  are 
different   aspects  of  one    and   the 

same  eternal  purpose  of  God. 

The  growth  of  Jehovah  .  .  .  the 
fruitag-e  of  the  land]  'And  Jeho- 
vah their  God  shall  deliver  them 
in  that  day  as  the  flock  of  his 
people.  .  .  .  For  how  great  is  his 
goodness,  and  how  great  is  his 
beauty  !  corn  shall  make  the  young 
men  stalwart,  and  new  wine  ihe 
virgins  ;' Zech.  ix.  16,  17.  'And  I 
will  raise  up  unto  them  a  plantation 
as  (a  matter  for)  renown,  and  they 
shall  no  more  be  consumed  with 
hunger  in  the  land  ; '  Ezek.  xxxiv. 
29.  These  two  passages  may  serve 
to  dissipate  two  objections  which 
may  be  urged  against  the  above 
rendering.  First,  it  may  be  said, 
that  a  reference  to  the  natural  pro- 
ducts of  Canaan  strikes  a  jarring 
note  in  the  prophecy.  But  it  equally 
seems  to  jar  in  Zechariah,  and  yet 
all  interpreters  admit  the  necessity 
of  it.  The  truth  is  that  a  lengthened 
fertility  of  the  soil  is  one  of  the 
most  frequently  recurring  Messianic 
features — see,  besides  the  above 
passages,  Isa.  xxx.  23,  Am.  ix.  13, 
Hos.  ii.  21,  22,  Joel  iii.  18.  It  may 
be  objected,  secondly,  that  such  a 
reference  lacks  any  point  of  contact 
with  the  foregoing  and  the  follow- 
ing prophecy  (for  few  will  agree 
with  Ewald  and  Hofmann  that 
there  is  a  contrast  suggested  be- 
tween the  natural  beauty  of  the 
divine  gifts  and  the  artificial  luxu- 
ries of  the  Hebrew  women).  The 
answer  is,  that  we  have  here  only 
an  imperfect  summary  of  Isaiah's 
discourses.  In  all  probability,  v.  2 
is  merely  a  condensed  abstract  of 
a  long  section,  and  what  that  sec- 
tion contained  may  be  guessed  from 
the  passage  quoted  from  Ezekiel. 
The  idea  of  it  probably  was  that 
the  supernatural  fertility  suddenly 


28 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  IV. 


adornment  unto  the  escaped  of  Israel.  ^  And  it  shall  come 
to  pass  :  he  who  is  left  in  Zion,  and  remaineth  in  Jerusalem, 
shall  be  called  holy,  everyone  who  is  written  down  for  life  in 
Jerusalem,  '*when  the  Lord  shall  have  washed  off  the  filth 
of  the  daughters  of  Zion,  and  cleansed  the  blood  of  Jerusalem 
from  her  midst  by  a  blast  of  judgment,  and  a  blast  of  ex- 
termination.    ^And  Jehovah  shall  create  upon  the  whole  site 


field.'  But  I  would  ask,  Could 
Zedekiah  have  been  called  '  seed 
of  the  land'  except  in  a  detailed 
allegory  ?  Calvin  interprets  liter- 
ally as  above,  but  thinks  that  the 
unwonted  temporal  blessings  are 
types  of  spiritual  ones,  comp.  xlv. 
8.  But  there  is  nothing  to  indicate 
this  in  our  passage.  So  too  H. 
Schultz,  Alttest.  Thcologie,  ed.  i,  ii. 
244.  Naeg.'s  view  is  too  farfetched 
to  quote.  Lagarde,  Sei/iitica,  i.  8, 
takes  the  qemakh  to  be  'a  de- 
scendant of  the  Davidic  house, 
whom  in  a  dark  age  Yahwe  will 
cause  to  be  born,  in  antithesis  to  the 
natural  descendants  now  become 
unprofitable,'  and  compares  the 
Talmudic  phrase  '  field  of  Baal ' 
=  ' field  nourished  by  rain.'  But 
the  opposite  of  this  in  the  Talmud  is 
— not  '  fruit  of  the  land  ' — but  '  field 
of  fountains,'  i.e.,  irrigated  land. 
See  further  in  Last  lVo7-ds^  vol.  ii.] 
•'  The  character  of  the  surviving 
citizens  of  Jerusalem  shall  be  in 
harmony  with  their  outward  pro- 
sperity.  Shall    be    called]      A 

name,  according  to  the  primitive 
belief,  being  a  symbol  of  character, 
and  almost  a  part  of  personality. 
In  the  Messianic  period,  this  pri- 
mitive belief  will  be  uniformly  veri- 
fied  by   facts   (xxxii.   5). Holy] 

i.e.,  free  from  the  contaminations 
of  sin  (see  v.  4),  with  the  collateral 
idea  of  inviolability,  comp.  vi.  13, 

Ps.  xciii.  5. 'Written  dovirn  for 

life]  Their  survival,  then,  was  no 
mere  ?i.Q.c\CL&w\.^h\\\. predestined.  The 
belief  in  predestination,  observes 
Ewald,  was  a  'powerful  lever' of 
Hebrew  prophecy  {G/aifbcfis/c/nr, 
ii.  208).  For  the  '  book  of  Jehovah,' 
or  '  the  book  of  life.'  comp.  Ex. 
xxxii.  32,   Ps.  Ivi.  8,  Ixix.  28,  Mai. 


iii.  16,  Dan.  xii.  i,  Phil.  iv.  3,  Rev. 
xiii.  8,  xxi.  27. 

^  ■W/^hen  the  lord  .  .  .  ]  This 
is  to  be  connected  with  ■?/.  5  ;  it 
supplies  the  conditions  on  which 
the  fulfilment  of  the  promise  de- 
pends.  The  filth]  i.e.,  the  moral 

defilement. The    bloodshed] 

refers  chiefly  to  judicial  murders  (i. 
15),  but  also  perhaps  to  sacrifices 
of  children  to  Moloch.  'And  they 
shed  innocent  blood,  the  blood  of 
their  sons  and  of  their  daughters, 
whom  they  sacrificed  unto  the  idols 
of  Canaan  ;  and  the  land  was  pol- 
luted with  blood'  (Ps.  cvi.  38 ;  comp. 

Isa.    Ivii.    5,  Ezek.  xxii.   2,  3). 

A.  blast  of  judgment]  i.e.,  of 
punishment  for  the  wicked.  The 
same  Hebrew  phrase  in  xxviii.  6 
means  '  spirit  of  judgment.'  The 
meaning  '  blast,'  however,  is  re- 
quired here  by  the  context,  'judg- 
ment ''  being  synonymously  parallel 
to  '  extermination.'  It  is  indeed 
still  the  Divine  energy,  but  being 
exercised  in  the  physical  and  not 
the  moral  sphere,  the  rendering 
'spirit'  is  inappropriate.  Comp. 
XXX.  27,  where  '  lips'  and  a  '  tongue  ' 

are  spoken  of;  also  xi.  4  (end). 

Extermination]  A  common  ex- 
pression for  the  putting  away  of 
idolatry  from  the  theocratic  com- 
munity;  Deut.  xiii.  5(6),  xvii.  7,  &c. 

*  God's  felt  presence,  the  pledge 
of  Zion's  security.  The  sign  of  this 
presence  shall  be  some  new  and  spe- 
cial exhibition  of  the  Divine  pt)wer, 
hence  the  statement,  Jehovah  shall 
create  : — '  Nam  verbum  crcandi, 
quo  hie  usus  est  Esaias,  indicat  ip- 
sissimum  esse  Dei  opus,  non  ho- 
minuni  '(Musculus).  'Yhewovdbara 
does  not  occur  again  in  I.  Isaiah 
(see    cril.    note).  Upon    the 


CHAP,  v.]  ISAIAH.  29 

of  mount  Zion,  and  upon  her  convocations,  a  cloud  by  day, 
and  smoke  with  the  brilliance  of  a  flaming  fire  by  night. 
For  upon  all  (the)  glory  a  ^  canopy  .  .  .  .  ^  And  it  shall  be  a 
pavilion  for  shade  [by  day]  from  the  heat,  and  for  a  refuge 
and  for  a  shelter  from  storm  and  from  rain, 

^  Is  (or,  shall  be)  a  canopy,  Ew.,  Del.     (See  below.) 


CHAPTER  V. 


Israel's  ripeness  for  judgment,  expressed  first  under  the  veil  of  a  parable, 
then  in  a  Hst  of  the  national  sins,  to  which  the  corresponding  punish- 
ments are  specified.  The  chapter  bears  evident  marks  of  artistic  arrange- 
ment. Ewald,  who  on  very  plausible  grounds  attaches  parts  of  chaps, 
ix.  and  x.  to  it,  proposes  to  distribute  it  thus, — Introduction,  w.  1-7  ; 
section  I,  vv.  8-10,  17;  II.  11-16;  III.  18-24.  He  makes  a  fresh  dis- 
course begin  at  7/.  25  (the  Introduction),  after  which  follows  ix.  8-12  (sec- 
tion I.),  13-17  (section  II.),  18-21  (section  III.),  x.  1-4  (section  IV.),  and 
as  a  finale  v.  26-30. 

*  Come,  let  me  sing  about  my  friend,  ^  a  love-song  ^  about 
his  vineyard.     A  vineyard  had  my  friend  On  a  richly  fruit- 

a  Lit.  a  song  of  love,   Lowth,   supposing  the  sign  of  abbreviation  to  have  been 
overlooked.     Heb.  text  has,  a  song  of  my  friend. 

whole  site  •  .  .  ]     Strictly,  upon  end),  but  rather  divined  from  the 

every    (part    of   the)    site.      '  Site '  context  than  unfolded  from  the  five 

(maion)  here,  as  xviii.  4  and  often,  Hebrew    words.      See    crit.    note 

=    'sanctuary'    (compare     Arab.  (vol.  ii.). 

viaqdm). A  cloud  by  day  .  .  .]  "^  It  (Zion)  shall  be  a  pavilion 

The  first  of  a  long  series  of  refer-  •  •  •  ]  Comp.  Ps.  xxvii.  5,  xxxi.  20. 

ences  to  the  Exodus  (see  Ex.  xiii.  '  There  shall  be  protection  not  only 

21,22).     The  powers  of  the  world  against    greater    evils,    but     even 

will  be  as  impotent  for  harm  as  the  against   lesser    inconvenience  :    so 

Egyptians  were  at  the  Exodus. perfect  shall   be  the  happiness  of 

Vpon  all  (the)  g-lory  .  .  .]     The  God's  people  in  those  days  ;  comp. 

phrase  is  so  abrupt  as  to  be  hardly  xlix.  10'  (Dr.  Weir).  'By  day 'seems 

explicable  ;    have  not  some  words  to  me  to  have  intruded  by  a  clerical 

fallen  out  ?      Dr.    Weir   remarks  :  error  from   the    preceding   verse  ; 

'  There  is  an  evident  contrast  be-  otherwise  we  should  have  a  corre- 

tween  the  true  glory  (that  of  Jehovah  sponding  'by  night'  in  the  next  line, 

and  that  which  he  gives)  and    all  ^-  The  parable  takes  the   form 

false  glory.     Over  the  glory  which  of  a  song,  which  from  its  melody 

is   not    of  Jehovah — such    as  that  and  its  dancing  rhythm  might  well 

described  in  chap.  ii. — there  is  no  be    a   drinking-song,    did   not   the 

covering.      It    cannot    endure.      It  bitter  irony  of  the  close  dispel  the 

speedily  fades.     But  over  the  glory      illusion. my  friend]  i.e.,  Jeho- 

of  Jehovah  and  his  redeemed  there  vah.      Comp.    the   proper    names 

is  a   covering.'     This  is  a  worthy  David  (i.e.,  friend,  viz.  of  Jehovah), 

meaning,   I  admit  (comp.  xxiv.  23  Jedidiah,    '  beloved    of    Jehovah.' 


30 


ISAIATI. 


[chap.  V. 


ful  height,  "^  And  he  digged  it  over,  and  cleared  it  of  stones, 
And  planted  it  with  choice  vines.  And  built  a  tower  in  its 
midst,  Yea,  and  hevvcd  out  a  wine-vat  therein.  And  he  hoped 
for  it  to  bear  grapes.  But  it  bore  wild  grapes. 

^  And  now,  O  inhabitants  of  Jerusalem  and  men  of  Judah  : 
judge,  I  pray,  between  me  and  my  vineyard.  ■* '  What  is  there 
still  to  be  done  to  my  vineyard  which  I  have  not  done  in  it  ? 
why,  when  I  hoped  for  it  to  bring  forth  grapes,  brought  it 
forth  wild  grapes  }  ^  And  now,  let  me  tell  you,  I  pray,  what 
I  will  do  to  my  vineyard  :  take  away  its  hedge,  that  it  become 
grazing-land  ;  break  down  its  walls,  that  it  serv-e  for  tramp- 
ling upon  :  ^  and  I  will  make  an  end  of  it,  it  shall  neither  be 
pruned  nor  hoed,  and  shall  grow  up  in  thorns  and  briars  ;  and 
to  the  clouds  I  will  give  a  charge  that  they  rain  no  rain  upon 
it.     "^  For  the  vineyard  of  Jehovah  Sabaoth   is  the  house  of 


A  love-song]  By  this  read- 
ing '  we  avoid  the  gx&is.\.  impropriety 
of  making  the  author  of  the  song, 
and  the  person  to  whom  it  is  ad- 
dressed, to  be  the  same'  (Lowth). 
Height]  Lit.  horn  ;  an  expres- 
sion, common  in  Arabic  for  a  small 
isolated  eminence.  Comp.  the 
famous  Kurim  Hattin  (horns  of 
Hattin),  tlie  scene  of  Saladin's  vic- 
tory over  the  last  Crusaders  ;  also, 
perhaps,  Ashteroth-Karnaim  (Gen. 
xiv.  5).  Apertos  Bacchus  amat 
colics,  Virg.  Gcprg.  ii.  113. 

*  See  the  striking  parallel  in  the 
Synoptic  Gospels  (Matt.  xxi.  33-41, 
&c.),  and  the  allusion  in  Ezra  ix.  9, 
end.  Ps.  Ixxx.  is  also  probably 
composed  with  reference  to  Isaiah's 

allegory. Clioice   vines]  Same 

word  as  in  Jer.  ii.  21  :  'Vet  I  had 
planted  thee  a  noble  vine'  (A.V.)  ; 
other  forms  in  xvi.  8,  Gen.  xlix.  11. 
The  deep  red  colour  of  the  grapes 
was  the  origin  of  the  name  in  Hcbr. 
Tower]  i.e.,  a  watch-tower;  see 

on  71.  5. 

•■'  The  application.  The  prophet 
loses  himself  in  the  thought  of  his 
Divine  sender.  He  first  calls  upon 
his  hearers  to  act  as  arbitrators  ; 
but  they  are  condemned  (sec  v.  5) 
by  their  evil  conscience  (comp. 
Luke  XX.  16),  and  listen  silently  to 
their   sentence,  viz.  that  the  vine- 


yard be  left  to  itself,  without  any 
fostering  care,  either  from  earth 
or  from  heaven.  For  heaven,  too, 
is  concerned,  the  mention  of  the 
clouds  in  v.  6  preparing  the  way  for 
the  solemn  statement  in  7/.  7.  The 
picture  can  still  be  recognised  as 
drawn  to  the  life.  Southern  Pales- 
tine, especially  '  the  bare  slopes 
of  Hebron,  of  Bethlehem,  and  of 
Olivet,'  abounds  in  enclosures  of 
loose  stone,  each  with  a  square  grey 
tower  at  the  corner  (Stanley,  Sinai 

and  Pal.,  ist  ed.,  p.  413). And 

he  hoped  .  .  .  ]  The  assonances 
of  the  following  words  in  the  Hebr. 
are  inimitable. 

"  Bloodshed]  Lit.  shedding. 
Some  have  objected  to  this  rend., 
because  murder  is  not  expressly 
mentioned  in  the  subsequent  com- 
plaints. But  chap.  V.  cannot  be 
treated  by  itself.  The  develop- 
ments are  new,  but  all  the  funda- 
mental ideas  are  those  of  chaps  i.- 
iv.  Now  murder  is  certainly  a  preva- 
lent sin,  according  to  these  cliaptcrs 
(i.  15,  21,  iv.  .\),  not  to  mention 
that  'laying  ficKl  to  field'  some- 
times involved  bloodshed  (i  Kings 

xxi. A   cry]    either    from    the 

blond  of  the  murdered,  according 
to  the  striking  symbolic  language 
of  Gen.  iv.  10,  Job  xvi.  18,  or  from 
the  oppressed  (James  v.  4). 


CHAP,  v.] 


ISAIAH. 


31 


Israel,  and  the  men  of  Judah  his  darling  plantation  ;  and  he 
hoped  for  justice,  but  behold  bloodshed,  for  righteousness, 
but  behold  a  cry. 

^  Woe  unto  those  who  join  house  to  house,  who  add  field 
to  field,  till  there  is  no  room  left,  and  ye  are  made  to  dwell 
alone  within  the  land.  ^  In  mine  ears  Jehovah  Sabaoth  [hath 
spoken  concerning  them]  :  Surely  many  houses  shall  become 
a  desolation  ;  great  ones  and  fair  without  inhabitants.  '^  For 
ten  days'  work  of  vineyard  shall  yield  one  bath,  and  the  seed 
of  a  homer  shall  yield  an  ephah  ;  '^  and  lambs  shall  graze 
^upon  their  wilderness,  and  their  ruined  places  kids  shall  de- 
vour.''    "  Woe  unto  those  who  rise  up  early  to  follow  strong 

^  Text,  as  was  said  concerning  them,  and  sojourners  shall  devour  the  ruins  of 
the  fat  (Targ.). — Kids  (for  'sojourners  '),  Sept.,  E\v.     (See  further  crit.  note.) 


®  Here  begins  the  evidence  of 
Israel's  criminality  before  Jehovah. 
One  by  one  the  national  sins  are 
counted  up,  and  each  receives  an 
exactly  suitable  punishment.  The 
first  sin  is  the  attempt  to  concen- 
trate   the    landed    property   in    a 

few  hands. "Who  join  house  to 

bouse  .  .  .  ]  i.e.,  by  violently  ex- 
pelling the  poorer  proprietors,  see 
Job  XX.  19,  Mic.  ii.  1-5,  Ezek. 
xlvi.  18  ;  and  comp.  Deut.  xix.  14, 
Job  xxiv.  2.  Whatever  be  the  date 
of 'jubilee' as  a  law  of  the  state, 
the  accumulation  of  landed  proper- 
ties was  diametrically  opposed  to 
the  spirit  and  early  practice  of  the 
traditional  Israelitish  law  of  land- 
tenure  (comp.  I  Kings  xxi.  4). 
Comp.  Mr.  Kenton's  illustrations  of 
this  land-law  from  the  systems  of 
Village  Communities,  Early  He- 
brew Life,  1880.  Pliny's  complaint 
that  the  latifundia  had  ruined  Italy 
has  only  a  distant  relation  to  our  pas- 
sage.  To    dwell    alone]    Comp. 

Ps.  xlix.  II:  '  They  have  called 
lands  by  their  own  names  '  (Del.) ; 
Job  xxii.  8  :  '  And  the  man  of  force, 
to  him  belongeth  the  land,  and  he 
who  is  respected  shall  dwell  therein.' 

^  In  mine  ears  •  .  .  ]  All  agree 
that  some  word  or  words  are  neces- 
sary to  complete  the  text.  Jewish 
scholars  suggest '  The  cry  of  the  op- 
pressed hath  come  up,'  and  '  saith,' 
or    '  for    I    am '    (before    '  Jehovah 


SabAoth  ')  : — so  A.E.,  Kimchi,  Luz- 
zatto.  The  moderns  mostly  under- 
stand 'And  hath  revealed  himself 
(viz.  Jehovah  Sabaoth),  comparing 
xxii.  14  (a  doubtful  passage,  how- 
ever). But  I  do  not  feel  certain 
that  such  important  words  can  be 
left  to  be  understood  ;  my  own 
impression  is  that  some  words 
have  dropped  out  of  the  text. 
The  kameg  in  be'osjiai  shows  that 
those  who  affixed  the  points  sup- 
posed an  ellipsis. 

10,17  Retributive  justice  :  barren- 
ness sent  upon  the  ill-gotten  land. 

Ten  days'  -work]  i.e.,  so  much 

ground    as    a    yoke   of   oxen    can 

plough  in  a  day. One  bath]  A 

liquid  measure  =  about  7  gallons, 
4  pints. A  homer]  A  dry  mea- 
sure =  32  pecks,  I  pint.     Assyrian, 

zmer. An    ephah]     The   tenth 

part  of  a   homer. And   lambs 

.  .  .  ]  The  transference  of  these 
words  was  suggested  by  Ewald. 
'  Lambs  '  and  '  sojourners  '  in  alt. 
read,  were  probably  meant  to  be 
taken  as  descriptions  of  the  meek- 
spirited  Jewish  sojourners  in  Baby- 
lon. If  we  once  admit  that  '  lambs  ' 
is  to  be  taken  literally,  we  must  give 
up  'sojourners,'  which  can  no  longer 
be  explained  naturally.  (Comp.  ed. 
2,  where  '  sojourning  '  was  adopted, 
with  reference  to  the  '  lambs '  of 
the  nomad  pastoral  tribes.) 

"  "'Second  woe:  on  the  luxuri- 


32 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  v. 


drink  ;  who  sit  long  in  the  twilight,  the  wine  inflaming  them  ; 
^'- and  lute  and  cymbal,  timbrel  and  flute,  and  wine,  is  their 
feast,  but  the  work  of  Jehovah  they  regard  not,  and  the 
operation  of  his  hands  they  do  not  see.  ^^  Therefore  my 
people  goeth  into  exile  unawares,  and  his  honourable  ones 
are  "^sucked  out  with  hunger,*"  and  his  tumultuous  ones 
parched  with  thirst.     ^*  Therefore  Sheol  enlargeth  her  greed, 

c  S^  nitz.,   Ew.,  Bottcher  (see  crit.  note).     Hebr.  te.\t,  '  men  of  hunger, '  'starve- 
lings' (or,  de;id  [mi'f /id]  from  hunger,  Sept.,  Pesh.,  Vulg.,  Targ.,  A.E.). 


ous. "Who  rise  up  early  .  .  •  ] 

'  Tempestiva  convivia  '  ;  comp. 
Eccles.  X.  1 6,  17-  'Strong  drink' 
{slickar,  Ass.  sikarie),  means  arti- 
ficial wine,  made  of  dates,  apples, 
pomegranates,  honey,  barley,  and 
sometimes  spiced  or  of  mixed  in- 
gredients (hence  '  to  mix  strong 
drink,'  v.  22). 

'-  Iiute  and  cymbal]  Comp. 
Am.  vi.  5,  6.  On  the  nature  of 
these  instruments  see  an  excursus 
by  Wetzstein,  in  Delitzsch's/?i-^?zVz, 

2nd  ed. The  work  of  Jehovah] 

History  being  the  realisation  of 
God's  eternal  purposes  (comp. 
xxxvii.  26,  ii.  1 1),  whether  of  grace, 
or,  as  the  next  verse  shows  them  to 
be  here  ('unawares')  of  punishment. 
"  Croeth  Into  exile]  In  the 
Hebr.  it  is  the  perfect  of  prophetic 

certitude. iJnawares]    Without 

their  having  foreseen  the  divine 
judgment. 

"  Therefore  Sheol  .  •  •  ]  To 
understand  this  passage,  we  must 
remember  that  there  was  a  twofold 
conception  of  Sheol  or  Hades. 
First,  it  was  localised  underground. 
Hence  one  of  the  synonyms  for 
Hades  both  in  Hebrew  and  Assy- 
rian is  '  the  pit.'  Hence  too  perhaps 
'the  valley  of  deadly  shade'  (Ps. 
xxiii.  4),  and  still  more  certainly 
phrases  in  Ps.  Ixiii.  9,  Ixxxvi.^  13. 
Comp.  note  on  xxxviii.  10.  Next, 
it  was  conceived  of  as  a  person  ; 
comp.  xiv.  9  (note),  xxviii.  15,  Hos. 
xiii.  14,  Jon.  ii.  2,  Cant.  vni.  6, 
Prov.  i.  12,  XXX.  16,  Rev.  yi.  8,  xx. 
13,  14.  The  two  conceptions  are 
very  closely  connected  ,  thus  the 
Greek  Hades  and  the  Teutonic 
Hel  were  variously  applied  to  the 


infernal  ruler  and  to  his,  or  her, 
kingdom  ;  comp.  too  the  notion 
of  the  stars  as  both  material  and 
spiritual,  Job  x.xxviii.  7.  The  Jews 
also,  like  the  Greeks,  spoke  of  a 
'king  of  terrors'  (Job  xviii.  14), 
and  the  Apocalypse  gives  us  this 
king's  name — Abaddon  (Rev.  ix. 
11),  which  is  a  synonym  for  Sheol 
in  Prov.  xv.  11. — Sheol  is  here 
treated  as  a  feminine  (like  the 
names  of  countries) ;  in  xiv.  ()[) 
(see  note)  it  becomes  a  masculine. 

Down  groeth  her  splendour] 

'Splendour'  =  nobility.  The  phrases 
chosen  form  a  striking  contrast 
with  the  still,  dim,  and  mournful 
life  of  Hades.  It  has  been  in- 
ferred from  the  Biblical  descrip- 
tions {e.g.  Job  iii.  13,  &c.)  that  the 
shades  {Ref>hdiiit)  in  Sheol  share 
a  common  lot,  but  against  this  may 
be  urged  (i)  that  the  Hades  of  the 
N.  T.  comprehended  two  large 
divisions  for  the  good  and  the  bad 
respectively  ('  Abraham's  bosom  ' 
and  Geenna),  though  of  course  the 
distinction  may  not  have  been 
known  to  Isaiah,  and  may  have 
been  affected  by  non-Jewish  in- 
fluences ;  and  (2)  that  the  I>aby- 
lonians  and  Assyrians  seem  to  have 
recognised  a  difference  among  the 
shades  corresponding  to  their  con- 
duct upon  earth  (comp.  on  xiv.  9). — 
The  parallel  Assyrian  view  of 
Hades  may  be  best  gathered  from 
the  Legend  of  Ishtar  in  the  sixth 
tablet  of  the  Izdubar  Series  (see 
Schrader,  Die  H'oUcnfahrt  Isiars, 
1874,  Smith's  Chaldean  Genesis,  ed. 
Sayce,  1880,  pp.  239-246).  It  is, 
however,  only  Assyrian  by  adop- 
tion ;  its  origin  is  Accadian.     This 


CHAP,  v.] 


ISAIAH. 


and  opcneth  her  mouth  without  measure,  and  down  goeth 
her  splendour  and  her  tumult  and  her  uproar,  and  that 
which  is  jubilant  in  her.  '"'  So  the  earth-born  is  bowed  down, 
and  the  man  brought  low,  and  the  eyes  of  the  haughty  are 
brought  low,  ^''  but  Jehovah  Sabaoth  is  exalted  in  judgment, 
and  the  holy  God  showeth  himself  holy  through  righteous- 
ness. .  .  . 

^*  Woe  unto  those  who  '^  draw  iniquity  ''  with  cords  of  un- 
godliness, and  sin  as  with  cart-ropes  ;  '^  who  say,  Let  his  work 
hasten,  let  it  speed,  that  we  may  see  it,  and  let  the  counsel 
of  Israel's  Holy  One  draw  near  and  come,  that  we  may  know 
it.  ^"Woe  unto  those  who  call  evil  good,  and  good  evil  ; 
that  put  darkness  for  light,  and  light  for  darkness  ;  who  put 
bitter  for  sweet,  and  sweet  for  bitter,  ^^  Woe  unto  those 
who  are  wise  in  their  own  eyes,  and  in  their  own  view  are  un- 
derstanding. 2^  Woe  unto  those  who  are  mighty  ones — for 
drinking  wine,  and  valiant  men — for  mixing  strong  drink  ; 
^^  who  declare  the  wicked  righteous  for  a  bribe,  and  take  away 

<•  Draw  guilt  near,  Ew.,  Naeg. — Draw  punishment  near,  Ges. 


accounts,  as  Schrader  remarks,  for 
its  non-occurrence  among  those 
Semitic  nations  which,  Hke  the 
Arabs,  preserved  the  freshness  of 
their  individuahty. 

'^  The  words  of  this  and  the  fol- 
lowing verse  are  mainly  taken  from 
ii.  9,  II,  17,  but  with  a  modification 
in  the  meaning. 

^'^  The  holy  Cod  .  .  .  ]  Since 
Israel  will  not  'count  Him  holy' 
(viii.  13)  by  obeying  His  messages 
and  His  word,  Jehovah  must  restore 
the  balance  by  a  judicial  display  of 
His  righteousness. 

18-23  yhort  woes  on  various  sorts 
of  impiety,  connected  by  their  com- 
mon share  in  the  retribution  de- 
scribed in  V.  24.  The  first,  on  those 
who  draiv  iniquity  with  cords  of 
ungrodliness.  '  Ungodliness  '  is  the 
disposition  which  deliberately  seeks 
for  opportunities  of  committing 
'  iniquity.'  Literally,  it  means  'emp- 
tiness.' In  their '  emptiness '  of  true 
religion,  these  men  allow  them- 
selves to  be  yoked  to  sin  like  beasts 
of  burden.  The  same  figure  in  the 
Rii^-\'cda^  ii.  48,  'undo  the  rope  of 

VOL.    I. 


sin '  (transl.  Max  Miiller).  Alt.  rend, 
means,  in  one  form,  that  they  not 
only  fall  into  sin,  but  actually  court 
it  ;  or,  in  the  other  form,  that  by 
persisting  in  sin  they  invite  punish- 
ment (comp.  the  Hindu  and  Bud- 
dhist doctrine  of  karma). 

'^  The  climax  of  their  sin  : — 
scoffing  unbelief  in  the  Divine 
retribution  (comp.  Am.  vi.  3,  Jer. 

xvii.   1 5). That  we  may  know 

it]     Viz.,  by  experience  (ix.  9}. 

'^^  The  second  short  woe  on  those 
who  confound  or  rather  reverse  the 
distinctions  of  good  and  evil,  who 
say  '  Fair  is  foul,  and  foul  is  fair.' 
Comp.  Job  xvii.  12. 

'-'  The  third,  on  those  who  are 
w^ise  in  their  o^vn  eyes,  and  do 
not  fear  Jehovah  (Prov.  iii.  7).  Per- 
haps an  allusion  to  the  indifferentist 
or  humanist  section  of  the  class  of 
'  wise  men,'  who  had  no  positive 
religious  beliefs. 

--'•  '^  The  fourth,  on  corrupt 
judges  who  sacrifice  justice  to  meet 
the  demands  of  an  expensive  luxu- 
riousness. — —"Who  are  raig-hty 
ones  .  .  .  ]  '  \'ery  valiant  trencher- 
D 


34 


ISAIAH. 


[CHAP.  V. 


the  righteousness  of  the  righteous  from  him.  2'  Therefore, 
as  the  fire's  tongue  devoureth  stubble,  and  hay  sinkcth  in 
a  flame,  so  their  root  shall  become  as  rottenness,  and  their 
blossom  go  up  as  dust,  because  they  despised  the  instruction  of 
Jehovah  Sabaoth,  and  spurned  the  word  of  Israel's  Holy  One. 
2-^  Therefore  the  anger  of  Jehovah  is  kindled  against  his 
people,  and  he  stretcheth  out  his  hand  over  it,  and  smiteth  it, 
men  ! '     Comp.  Jer.  xxiii.   10,  end 


((2-   P-   ^■) "Pot  mixing;  stron? 

drink]  The  phrase  means,  not  '  to 
dilute  wine  with  water,'  but  to  com- 
pound rightly  artificial  wine  (see  on 
7'.  1 1  ),which  was  apparently  stronger 
than  the  natural  wine. 

'-"  All  these  sins  have  one  com- 
mon characteristic— the  obstinate 
rejection  of  that  word  which  is  the 
only  source  of  happiness.  Their 
punishment  will  be  sudden  and  self- 
evolved.  This  is  expressed  by  a 
combination  of  two  figures,  the  first 
borrowed  from  the  custom  of  burn- 
ing part  of  the  stubble,  the  ashes 
being  used  for  manure  ;  the  second 
from  a  decaying  tree.     Comp.  Job 

xviii.  16. The  fire's  tongue]  A 

vivid  and  natural  personification, 
comp.  I  Kings  xviii.  38,  Acts  ii.  3. 

25-30  j!^  further  development  of 
the  preceding  woe.  The  language 
is  vague,  but  there  seems  no  rea- 
sonable doubt  that  the  Assyrians 
are  the  people  referred  to  ;  the 
Assyrian  policy  of  deportation  has 
already  been  alluded  to  in  v.  13. 
It  is,  however,  very  uncertain 
whether  these  verses  originally 
stood  at  the  end  of  this  prophecy. 
Ewald  (and  so  /.  C.  A.)  regards 
them  as  containing  the  prologue 
{v.  25),  and  the  epilogue  (t'?'.  26- 
30),  of  a  new  prophecy,  which  was 
the  third  and  last  part  of  a  prophetic 
work  beginning  at  ii.  2,  and  the 
body  of  which  proplie(.y  was  formed 
by  ix.  8-x.  4.  There  are  too  many 
examples  on  a  smaller  scale  of  pas- 
sages being  misjjlaced  in  MSS.,  for 
us  to  consider  this  at  all  an  improb- 
able hypothesis  ;  and  while  the 
section  v.  1-24,  is  no  loser  by  vy. 
25-30  being  thus  removed  from  it, 
there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  pro- 
phecy ix.  8-x.  4  is  greatly  the  gainer 


by  it.  As  it  stands,  that  prophecy 
is  thoroughly  enigmatical ;  but,  with 
the  addition  of  v.  25  and  7/7'.  26- 
30,  it  becomes  both  well-rounded 
and  fairly  intelligible.  Obs.,  the 
closing  words  of  v.  25  occur  four 
times  over  in  ix.  8-x.  4.  —  It  is  just 
possible,  however,  that  the  passage 
in  question  (v.  25-30),  has  a  double 
right  of  existence,  and  that  though 
originally  written  for  the  place 
where  Ewald  would  put  it,  Isaiah 
himself  appended  it  to  chap,  v., 
without  intending  to  remove  it  from 
its  original  place.  He  certainly 
does  not  mind  repeating  himself, 
at  any  rate  on  a  smaller  scale,  see 
on  T.  15,  and  comp.  x.  22  with 
xxviii.  22. 

^*  Is  kindled]  The  prophetic 
perfect,  if  the  verse  be  read  in  its 
present  context,  but  the  historical 
one,  if  read  as  Ewald  would  have  it. 
According  to  him,  the  prophet's 
discourse  rises  here  to  a  wide  histo- 
rical survey,  extending  into  the  past 
and  the  future.  '  Once  (during  the 
present  generation)  Yahve  mani- 
fested himself  also  in  Jerusalem  as 
the  God  who  inflicts  rigorous  chas- 
tisement .  .  .  but  that  was  only  a 
first  stroke  ;  he  threatens  to  strike 
still  further.  In  the  last  words  we 
have  the  fundamental  utterance 
...  of  the  four  following  larger 
strophes,  in  which  the  discourse 
takes  new  starts  in  order  to  follow 
out  this  thought '  {Prophcis^  ii.  54). 
Other  critics  regard  the  judgment 
as  belonging  to  the  near  future. 
Ewald  naturally  thinks  of  the  earth- 
quake of  Uzziah,  Am.  i.  i,  Zech. 
xiv.  5  ;  but  earthquakes  probably 
were  no  rarity  in  Palestine  (see 
Dr.  Pusey  on  Am.  iv.  11,  and 
comp.  Plumptre,  Biblical  Studies^ 
P-  '3(J)- 


CHAP,  v.] 


ISAIAH. 


35 


SO  that  the  mountains  tremble,  and  their  carcases  become  as 
refuse  in  the  midst  of  the  streets.  For  all  this  his  anger  turneth 
not  back,  but  his  hand  is  stretched  out  still. 

^''And  he  lifted  up  a  signal  to  °a  distant  nation,  and 
hisseth  to  him  from  the  end  of  the  earth  ;  and,  behold,  hastily 
swiftly  he  cometh  ;  "  there  is  none  weary  and  none  that 
stumbleth  therein,  he  slumbereth  not  and  sleepcth  not ;  the 
girdle  of  his  loins  is  never  loosed,  nor  the  thong  of  his  shoes 
torn  :  ^^  whose  arrows  are  sharpened,  and  all  his  bows  bent, 
his  horses'  hoofs  accounted  as  flint,  and  his  wheels  as  the 
whirlwind  :  ^^a  roar  hath  he  like  that  of  the  lioness,  he  roareth 
like  the  young  lions,  moaning  and  catching  the  prey  and 
carrying  it  off  safe,  and  none  can  rescue.  ^'^  And  there  is  a 
moaning  over  him  in  that  day  like  the  moaning  of  the  sea, 
and  if  he  look  unto  the  earth,  '"behold  distressful  darkness, 
yea,  the  light  becomes  dark  through  the  clouds  thereof.*" 

«  So  La.,  We.  Text  in  plural. 

*■  So  Viilg.,  Weir,  Naeg.,  (thick  darkness,  &c.,  Ew.). — Lo,  darkness — (now)  dis- 
tress, and  (now)  light— it  becometh  dark  in  the  cloudy  sky  thereof,  Del.  (but  see  crit. 
note). 


26-30  Yj^e  future  described  as  in 

prophetic  vision. A  signal]  So 

in  both  parts  of  Isaiah,  xi.   lo,  12, 

xviii.  3,  xiii.  2,  xlix.  22,  Ixii.  10. 

To  a  distant  nation]  For  Jeho- 
vah is  the  governor  of  the  world. 
The    '  nations '    are   those   of    the 

Assyrian  empire. Hisseth]  The 

Assyrians  hkened  to  bees,  as  in  vii. 

18. To  him]  because  the  various 

elements  of  the  Assyrian  army  are 
directed  by  a  single  will,  comp. 
xvii.  13.  Obs.  the  effective  myste- 
riousness  of  the  description  ; — the 

invaders   are   not  yet  named. 

Swiftly]  The  Assyrians  and  Baby- 
lonians (Hab.  i.  6,  8)  were  famous 
for  their  rapid  marches. 

^'^  ITone  that  stumbleth]  The 
description  given  of  Israel  in  Ps. 
cv.  37. 

-^  All  his  bows  bent]  The 
chief  weapons  of  the  Assyrians 
(comp.  the  engravings  in  Layard). 

So    xxi.   15. As   flint]    Shoeing 

being  unknown,  the  solidity  of  a 
hoof  was  of  prime  importance. 
Comp.  //.  V.  329.  Hence  Am.  vi. 
12  '  speaks  of  it  as  a  thing  as  much 
impracticable  to  make  horses  run 
upon  a  hard  rock,  as  to  plough  up 


the  same  rock  with  oxen'  (Lowth). 
See  also  Ges. 

^'•'  A   roar  .  .  .  moaning^]    The 

roar  comes  from  the  lion  in  quest 
of  prey,  the  moan  or  growl  as  he 
springs  upon  his  victim. 

°°  And  there  is  a  moaning:  over 

him  .  .  .  ]  Ewald  understands  this 
of  thunder,  as  a  sign  of  the  Divine 
displeasure.  But  considering  that 
the  word  used  is  the  same  as  that 
in  the  preceding  verse,  it  would 
seem  that  the  subject  of  the  verb 
must  be  still  the  lion,  i.e.  the  enemy 
(Jer.  vi.  23).  Ew.'s  object  in  so 
explaining  was  to  provide  an  anti- 
thesis to  the  words  '  and  if  he  look 
unto  the  earth,'  comp.  the  parallel 
passage,  viii.  21,  22.  But  we  have 
no  right  to  interfere  with  the  natural 
meaning  of  the  text.  It  would  be 
better  to  suppose  that  something 
has  dropped  out,  especially  as  the 
last  words  of  the  verse  are  probably 

more  or  less  corrupt. Through 

the  clouds  thereof]  i.e.,  clouds  of 
misfortune,  which  hang  over  the 
earth,  darkening  the  bright  day  of 
prosperity.  A  figure  from  eclipses, 
comp.  viii.  22  ;  Joel  iii.  (iv.)  15, 
Am.  V.  18-20,  Job  iii.  5. 

D  2 


36  ISAIAH.  CHAP.  VI. 


CHAPTER    VI. 

TilK  vision  and  prophetic  call  of  Isaiah,  and  an  accompanying  revelation 
of  the  mingled  prospects  of  Israel. 

In  several  ways  a  noteworthy  chapter,  but  open  to  various  interpret- 
ations. That  which  will  here  be  given  assumes  the  absolute  sincerity  of 
the  writer,  and  that  his  narrative  is  generically  different  from  the  poetical 
fictions  of  Goethe  and  Burns  (the  '  Zueignung  '  and  the  '  Vision  '),  and  even 
from  the  more  naive  imaginations  of  William  Blake.     The  Old  Testament 

not  to  mention  the  records  of  other  religions— abounds  in  accounts  of 

experiences  which  were  only  possible  to  the  inner  eye  (2  Kings  vi.  17), 
but  which  were  not  the  less  founded  on  facts.  It  may  suffice  to  mention 
the  two  visions  of  Micaiah  (i  Kings  xxii.  17,  19-22).  If  these  are  poetical 
fictions,  then  it  is  impossible  to  discriminate  between  the  naive  truthful- 
ness of  primitive  tradition  and  the  scenic  illusions  of  the  contemporary 
novelist.  And  so,  too,  it  is  in  the  passage  before  us.  Isaiah  simply  and 
sincerely  claims  to  describe  his  personal  experience.  No  doubt  there  may 
have  been  a  psychological  starting-point  for  the  vision  in  the  early  visits 
of  Isaiah  to  the  temple  of  Jerusalem.  The  pealing  trumpet  on  festival 
days,  and  the  Hallelujahs  of  the  choir  would  produce  a  powerful  impres- 
sion upon  his  lively  imagination.  This  is  far  from  explaining  the  peculiar 
experience  which  followed,  but  an  impression  of  this  kind  would  naturally 
determine  the  general  form  of  the  vision. 

It  is,  however,  quite  consistent  with  a  belief  in    Isaiah's  veracity  to 
hold  that  the  significance  of  the  vision  was  not  at  first  realised  by  him  in 
all  its  fulness.     As  Tholuck  has  remarked,  the  intelligibility  of  what,  a 
prophet  saw  and  heard  in  his  inner  man  did  not  of  itself  involve  his  com- 
prehension of  its  meaning.     The  difference  between  Moses  and  the  ordi- 
nary prophet  consists,  we  are  told,  in  this,  that  Jehovah  spoke  with  the 
former  'mouth  to   mouth,  even  visibly,  and  not   in  dark   speeches  (or 
eni^mias)' (Num.  xii.   8),  and  the  revelation  connected  with  Isaiah's  in- 
augural vision  must,  unless  communicated  magically,  have  been  a  '  dark 
speech '  to  him  at  first.     The  youth,  whose  '  fervid  zeal  breaks  forth  on 
the  first  word  of  encouragement,'  could  not  surely  have  at  once  realised 
that  his  mission  would  only  lead  to  the  confirmation  of  his  people  in  their 
unbelief.     As  a  matter  of  fact,  we  find  that  Isaiah's  hopefulness  varies  at 
different  stages  of  his  career,  but  that  he  only  once  again  paints  the 
future  in  colours  of  such  a  lurid  hue,  viz.  xxxii.  13,  14.     Now,  if  at  the 
very  outset  he  had  received  a  distinct  assurance  that  his  ministry  would 
be  one  'of  condemnation,'  would  he  have  been  justified  in  indulging  and 
expressing  hopes  which  God  had  told  him  could  not  be  realised  ? '    That 
he  was  at  any  time  addicted  to  rose-coloured  dreams  of  the  future  is  of 
course  entirely  out  of  the  question.  But  it  is  in  perfect  harmony  with  '  the 

1  C!oiiip.  /•  C.  A.,  pp.  21,  22.     The  position  there  asserted  I  Iiave  here  snbstan- 
tiallv  maintained,  though,  as  I  hope,  with  greater  clearness  and  deeision.     Tlio  doe- 
trine  of  'a  gracious   proportion  ijetwicn  the  revelation  vouchsafed   and  the  nicnial 
slate  of  the  person  receiving  it "  is  adniitted  even  by  orthodox  critics  in  (ierniany,  and 
'may  be  hoped  thit  it  will  soon  hccomc  more  prevalent  in  JCngland. 


CHAP.  VI.] 


ISAIAH. 


C>7 


analogy  of  faith  '  to  suppose  that  the '  dark  speech "  or  'enigma  '  of  Isaiah's 
early  vision  lay  in  his  mind  and  fructified,  till  at  length  he  attained  that  full 
insight  into  its  meaning  which  is  expressed  in  V7>.  9-13.  The  immediate 
object  of  the  vision  was  to  set  before  Isaiah  the  ideal  of  prophecy  as  a 
life-work,  as  opposed  to  the  primitive  view  connecting  it  too  closely  with 
isolated  ecstatic  moments.  Isaiah  stands,  in  consequence  of  this  revela- 
tion, between  two  schools  of  prophecy.  To  his  predecessors,  the  source 
of  inspiration  was  more  or  less  external  and  intermittent  ;  to  him,  it  was 
internal  and  perennial.  Even  Amos  (if,  at  least,  chaps,  vii.-ix.  are  to  be 
interpreted  literally)  seems  to  have  needed  to  be  occasionally  rapt  into 
the  ecstatic  state  ;  Isaiah,  so  far  as  we  know,  had  but  one  vision,  but  that 
one  gave  him  a  stimulus  and  a  theme  for  his  whole  ministry. 

Compare  the  inaugural  visions  of  Jeremiah  and  Ezekiel,  the  form  of 
which  was  presumably  influenced  by  the  vision  of  Isaiah.  The  superior 
genius  of  the  latter  is  unmistakeable. 

It  is  a  probable  conjecture  that  chap.  vi.  originally  formed  the  preface 
to  a  small  collection  of  prophecies  of  Isaiah,  viz.  either  chaps,  ii.-v.,  or 
more  probably  vii.  i-ix.  7. 

•  In  the  death-year  of  King  Uzziah,  I  saw  '^Jehovah  sitting 
upon  a  high  and  exalted  throne,  and  his  train  filled  the  palace. 
'^  Seraphim  were  standing  above  him  ;  each  one  had  six  wings, 

•■^  So  many  MSS.  ;  the  Lord,  Baer's  ed.  of  Massoretic  text.      (I  have  not  every- 
where marked  such  changes). 


^  In  the  death-year  .  .  .]  B.C. 
740.  It  has  been  doubted  whether 
the  vision  took  place  before  or  after 
the  death  of  Uzziah.  But  if  the 
latter,  should  we  not  expect '  in  the 
first  year  of  king  Jotham'.''  The 
heading,  too,  in  i.  i  favours  the 
view  that  the  vision  dates  from  the 
reign  of  Uzziah.  At  any  rate,  our 
present  account  of  the  vision  be- 
longs to  a  later  reign. 1  saw- 
Jehovah  .  .  .]  The  received  text 
bears  witness  to  the  arbitrary  pro- 
cedure of  the  scribes  of  the  pre- 
Massoretic  age,'  who  sought  to 
mitigate  the  naive  boldness  of  the 
e.arly  writers  (comp.  o  Ku^ios  of 
Sept.).  Generally  the  Massoretic 
critics  restored  the  true  reading, 
saving  their  conscience,  doubtless, 
by  the  rule  of  pronouncing  Adonai 
where  the  text  read  Yahveh  (Je- 
hovah). Now,  as  to  the  picture 
presented  by  Isaiah,  which  is  that 
of  a  king  on  his  throne,  attended 
on  each  side  by  courtiers  (comp.  i 
Kings  xxii.    19).     Isaiah  stands  at 


the  threshold  of  the  palace  (see 
7'.  4),  and  sees  no  more  than  '  the 
skirts '  of  the  royal  mantle  (comp. 
Ex.  xxxiii.  20-23).  The  two  rows, 
of  courtiers  alternately  raise  a  cry 

of  praise. The   palace]     Heb. 

[ha)  hckal  =  Ass.  '■ikallu  =  great 
house  (through  Accadian).  A  great 
hall  must  have  been  the  primary 
conception  of  a  temple.  Jehovah's 
heavenly  palace  or  temple  is  meant 
here  (Ps.  xi.  4,  xxix.  9,  Hab.  ii. 
20),  which,  whatever  may  have 
been  the  case  with  the  temple  at 
Jerusalem,  had  no  distinction  be- 
tween the  Holy  and  the  Holy  of 
Holies. 

''■  Seraphim]  This  is  the  only 
place  in  the  Bible  where  the  Sera- 
phim are  described  as  supernatural 
beings.  The  word  s'rdphim  does, 
it  is  true,  occur  in  Num.  xxi.  6,  but 
there  it  means  a  species  of  venom- 
ous serpents  (called  s'raphuii  from 
their 'burning' bite),  which  attacked 
the  Israelites  in  the  desert ;  and 
the  singular  sdrdph  occurs  in  the 


1  Geiger,  Urschrift  11.  s.  w.,  p.  267. 


-.8 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  VI. 


with  two  he  covered  his  face,  and  with  two  he  covered  his  feet, 
and  with  two  he  flew.  ^  And  the  one  kept  crying  to  the  other 
and  saying,  Holy,  holy,  holy  is  Jehovah  Sabaoth,  The  whole 


same  sense  in  Num.  xxi.  8,  Deut. 
viii.     15,     Isa.    xvi.   29  (see  note), 
XXX.  6.     Now,  althoufj^h  it  is  quite 
conceivable  (considering  the  ana- 
log>'^  of  Ezekiel's    Cherubim)  that 
animal  forms  might  be  introduced 
into  a  description  of  heaven,  it  does 
not  ai)pear  that  Isaiah  did  regard 
tlie  seraphim  as  animals  in  form,  as 
there  is  nothing  but  their  wings  and 
their  loud  voice  to  distinguish  them 
physically  from  ordinary  men.     It 
is  his  practice,  moreover,  as  of  the 
Old  Testament  writers  in  general, 
to  use  familiar  phrases  of  mythical 
origin,  giving  them  a  new  turn  or  a 
deeper,  or  at  least  a  harmless,  mean- 
ing.    No  class  of  myths  is  more, 
abundant    than    that    of    serpent- 
myths,'  and  it  would  be  strange  if 
no  trace  of  their  currency  in  Pales- 
tine  could   be    found    in   the    Old 
Testament.     But    how   are    we   to 
reconcile    the  differences    between 
the  two  Biblical  uses  of  the  word 
'  seraphim'.''     We  may,  I  think,  get 
some  light  by  considering  the  func- 
tion   of  the    Seraphim    in    Isaiah. 
They   are    essentially    the    divine 
guards,  who  keep  everything  that 
is  profane  or  unclean  at  a  distance. 
In  this  respect,  they  are  strikingly 
analogous  to  the  Cherubim.     Now 
the  Cherubim,  as  I  have  sought  to 
show  on  philological  and  analogical 
grounds,-  are  almost  certainly  (I  am 
speaking    of   course  of  the   extra- 
I)iblical,  popular,  mythic  Cherubim) 
the  clouds  of  the  storm  or  of  the 
sunset,  comp.  I's.  xviii.  10,  1 1,  Ezek. 
xxviii.    13  ;    it   is   but  reasonable, 
therefore,    to   conjecture    that    the 
popular,  mythic  Seraphim  are  the 
serpent-like  lightning.     Isaiah  uses 
the  popular  form  of  speech  quite 
freely  as  a  symbol  (the  'dragon'  in 


xiv.  29  is  also  a  symbol).  Except 
in  the  name  and  the  supernatural 
colouring,  there  is  nothing  here  to 
remind  us  of  the  mythic  origin  of 
the  Seraphim.  Perhaps  it  was  at 
Isaiah's  suggestion  that  Hezekiah 
put  down  the  '  brazen  serpent '  to 
which  the  children  of  Israel  used 
to  burn  incense.^  At  any  rate,  this 
reform  of  Hezekiah's  accounts  for 
our  hearing  no  more  of  the  Sera- 
phim after  this  vision  of  Isaiah. — 
The  popular  notion  of  the  Seraphim 
as  angels  is  of  course  to  be  rejected. 
They  are  not  called  '  angels,'  and 
differ  widely  from  the  angels,  as 
described  elsewhere.  They  are  in- 
deed more  like  Titans  than  placid 
Gabriels  and  Raphaels. — It  is  note- 
worthy that  the  '  living  creatures  ' 
of  Rev.  iv.  7,  8,  are  an  original 
fusion  of  the  Cherubim  of  Ezekiel 
with  the  Seraphim  of  Isaiah.  On 
these  kindred  forms  and  their 
Oriental    analogues  see  further  in 

£ss(ij'S,  vol.  ii. 'Were  standing 

above  bim]  i.e.,  hovering,  for  with 
two  of  his  wings  each  of  them  flew. 
Covered  bis  face]  in  adora- 
tion. More  strictly  'used  to  cover.' 
^  Kept  crying-J  Comp.  Rev.  iv.  8  : 
'  They  rest  not  day  and  night,  saying 

Holy,  holy,  holy.' Holy]  Comp. 

Ps.  xxix.  9 :  '  In  his  palace  every  one 
saith.  Glory  ! '  Holiness  and  glory 
are,  in  fact,  correlative  conceptions. 
Jehovah  in  Himself  is  '  holy,'  and 
His  manifestation  of  Himself  is 
'glory.'  Nor  is  Jehovah  only  Is- 
rael's God  ;  hence  the  Seraphim 
add,  that  the  fulness  of  the  whole 
earth  is  bis  grlory  (his  glory  is  the 
predicate).  The  cry  of  '  Ploly'  is 
uttered  three  times,  either  because 
three  is  a  favourite  number  of  the 
Hebrews  (comp.  Jer.  vii.  4),  or  be- 


1  See  Bftiidissin,  S/ut//e»  zur  seviit.  Religion sgeschichie  (x^-jd),  no.  iv. 

-  F.ncyclopirdiii  HritiUinira  (1876),  art.  'Cherubim';  comp.  Ticle,  I'ergelijkcmle 
Ge.u hieiienis  (1^72),  p.  701,  Friedr.  Dclitzscii,    Wo  lag  das  Paradies  f  {\^%\),  p.  155. 

"'  Ndmslitan.  tlic  .student  will  romeinher,  is  not  a  name  of  contempt,  but  the 
jiopnl.nr  name  of  ihc  image  ('men  tailed  it  NchuslUun,'  i.e.  '  copper '-image,  2  Kings 
xviii.  4). 


CHAP.  VI.] 


ISAIAH. 


39 


earth  is  full  of  his  glory.  ''  And  the  foundations  of  the  thresh- 
olds shook  at  the  voice  of  him  that  cried,  and  the  house 
became  full  of  smoke.  ^  And  I  said,  Woe  is  me  !  surely  I  am 
undone,  for  I  am  a  man  of  unclean  lips,  and  I  dwell  in  the 
midst  of  a  people  of  unclean  lips,  for  the  King,  Jehovah 
Sabaoth,  mine  eyes  have  seen.  "^And  there  flew  unto  me 
one  of  the  seraphim,  with  a  stone  in  his  hand,  which  he  had 
taken  with  the  tongs  from  off  the  altar.  ^  And  he  touched 
my  mouth  with  it,  and  said,  Lo,  this  hath  touched  thy  lips, 
and  forthwith  gone  is   thy   iniquity  and   thy   sin   is  forgiven. 


cause  it  is  first  uttered  by  the  two 
choruses,  and  then  taken  up  by  the 
whole  body  of  Seraphim  (so  H. 
Schultz,  Alttect.  Tlieologie^  first  ed., 
i.  345).  Of  the  ancient  Trinitarian 
interpretation,  Calv.  remarks, '  Quo- 
rum sententiam  ego  non  improbo  : 
sed  si  mihi  res  cum  hereticis  esset, 
mallem  firmioribus  testimoniis  uti.' 
If  indeed  we  admit  the  Trinity  in 
this  Hebrew  passage,  why  should 
we  not  also  in  the  Assyrian  pas- 
sages referred  to  in  Last  J I  ''ords  (end 

of  vol.  ii.)  ? Tehovali  Sabaotb] 

Specially  appropriate  in  the  mouth 
of  the  Seraphim  (see  on  i.  9). 

^  Of  him    tliat    cried]     i.e.,    of 

each    one   who   cried. Became 

full  of  smoke]  The  smoke  indi- 
cates the  coming  into  view  of  the 
dark  side  of  the  self-manifesting 
God,  viz.  His  anger  against  sin 
(Naeg.).  Comp.  Rev.  xv.  8,  where 
the  heavenly  temple  becomes  full 
of  smoke  from  the  glory  of  God  im- 
mediately after  '  the  seven  angels ' 
have  received  the  '  golden  vials  full 
of  the  wrath  of  God.'  Del.'s  view 
seems  to  me  farfetched. 

*  I  am  undone]  He  is  awe- 
struck as  he  realises  God's  glory 
and  holiness  and  his  own  weak- 
ness and  sin  ;  comp.  i  Sam.  vi.  20, 
Luke  V.  8.  The  widow  of  Zarephath 
is  afraid  of  contact  with  Elijah 
as  one  who  could  '  call  sin  to  re- 
membrance' before  God  (i   Kings 

xvii.    18). A    man    of   unclean 

lips  .  .  .  ]  Comp. 'apurelip,'Zeph. 
iii.  9.  The  pure  lips  of  the  Sera- 
phim painfully  reminded  Isaiah  of 
his  own  sins  of  the  lips.     He  may 


have  been  conscious  of  no  others  : 
these  he  could  not  but  have,  accord- 
ing to  James  iii.  2,  and  yet  his  guilt 
must  be  purified,  before  he  could 
receive  a  prophet's  commission 
from  Jehovah.  He  feels  his  guilt 
enhanced  by  his '  solidarity '  with  his 

people. Tor  mine   eyes  have 

seen  .  .  .  ]  Isaiah's  second  motive 
for  fear.  It  is  the  same  which  is 
expressed  in  the  familiar  phrase  of 
the  primitive  people,  that  'no  man 
can  see  God,  and  live';  comp.  Ex. 
xxxiii.  20. 

•^  One  of  the  seraphs  brings  a 
stone  from  the  never-extinguished 
fire  of  the  altar  of  incense  to  purge 
the  lips  of  the  predestined  apostle 
from  their  earthly  dross.  (Dr.  Weir 
quotes  Ps.  li.  15.)  So  Jeremiah 
tells  us  that  Jehovah  touched  his 
mouth  (Jen  i.  9)  as  an  '  outward 
and  visible  sign'  of  his  commission. 
But  Isaiah  shows  a  keener  sense  of 
his  sinfulness  than  Jeremiah,  and 
consequently  is  purged  from  that 
infirmity  of  will  which  afterwards 
cost  Jeremiah  such  severe  struggles 
(Jer.  XX.).  Fire  is  the  sacramental 
sign   of  moral   purification,    Matt. 

iii.   II,  comp.   Num.  xxxi.   23. 

A.  stone]  For  the  heavenly  altar 
(Rev.  viii.  3,  ix.  13,)  is  formed  on 
the  model  of  the  earthly  one.  Ewald 
rightly  sees  an  allusion  to  the  law 
in  the  '  Book  of  the  Covenant,'  that 
altars  should  be  constructed  of 
earth,  or  of  unhewn  stones  (Ex.  xx. 
25),  a  law  which  evidently  arose 
in  the  nomadic  period  before  tools 
were  common.  A  word  for  '  altar' 
in  Himyaritic — inaslim.i — also  has 


40 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  VI. 


*  And  I  heard  the  voice  of  Jehovah,  saying,  Whom  shall  I  send, 
and  who  will  go  for  us  ?      And  I  said,  Here  am  I,  send  me. 

^  And  he  said.  Go  and  say  to  this  people.  Hear  ye  indeed, 
but  understand  not,  and  see  ye  indeed,  but  perceive  not. 
'°  Make  the  heart  of  this  people  fat,  and  its  ears  heavy,  and 
its  eyes  besmear,  lest  it  should  see  with  its  eyes,  and  hear 
with  its  ears,  and  its  heart  should  understand,  and  it  should 
be  converted  and  be  healed.  "  And  I  said,  How  long, 
Jehovah  ?  And  he  said,  Until  cities  be  waste  without  in- 
habitants, and  houses  without  men,  and  the  ground  be  ^  left  a 
desolation,-'  '-and  Jehovah  have  removed  men  afar  off,  and 
the  deserted  region  be  large  in  the  midst  of  the  land.     '^  And 

"  So  Sept.,  Gr. — Text,  be  wasted  to  a  desolation. 


the  meaning  of  '  stone '  (Praeto- 
rius). — On  rendering,  see  crit.  note. 
^  And  now  Isaiah,  though  a  mor- 
tal, is  free  of  the  heavenly  precincts, 
and  qualified  to  be  sent,  like  his 
compeers,    on    the   royal    errands. 

Who  will  so  for  us?]     This 

is  no  mere  '  plural  of  majesty ' ;  an- 
cient Oriental  kings  did  not  speak 
of  themselves  in  the  plural  number. 
The  picture  is  evidently  that  of  Je- 
hovah, '  the  King,'  in  consultation 
with  his  trusted  servants  (so  i  Kings 
xxii.  ig-22),  a  picture  which  is  also 
perhaps  suggested  in  Gen.  i.  26. 
Comp.  also  Job  ii.  i,  xv.  8  (Q.F.B.) 
"  This  people]  Even  Judah, 
under  certain  circumstances,  is  ad- 
dressed contemptuously  as  '  this 
people';  so  viii.  ii,xxviii.  11,  14, 
xxxix.  13,  14. 

^''  Make  the  heart .  .  .  ]  '  Heart' 
=  understanding,  as  Hos.  vii.  11, 
&c.  'No  one,'  observes  Julius 
MUller, '  can  withdraw  himself  from 
the  range  and  influence  of  dod's 
revelations  without  altering  his 
moral  status'  {Doctrine  of  Sin^  ii. 
412).  The  obduracy,  therefore,  is 
self-caused.  But  as  God  is  the  first 
cause  (Prov.  xvi.  4),  He  must  have 
'made  Israel  to  stray  from  his 
ways' (Ixiii.  17,  see  note).  Obs.  i. 
It  is  the  nation  as  a  whole  which  is 
spoken  of.  The  phrase  'hardening 
of  the  heart '  is,  I  think,  only  twice 
applied  to  individuals  in  books  of 


the  Old  Testament,  viz.  to  the  Pha- 
raoh of  the  Exodus  (Ex.  iv.  21,  &c.) 
and  to  .Sihon,  king  of  Heshbon 
(Deut.  ii.  30).  Jews  never  have 
this  phrase  applied  to  them,  but 
only  the  Jewish  nation  or  sections 
of  it  (e.g.,  Isa.  vi.  9,  10,  xxix.  10, 
and  here).  2.  This  grievous  act  or 
process  has  an  object,  or  at  least 
a  compensating  benefit  {v.  13).  As 
soon  as  the  existing  evil  tendencies 
have  worked  themselves  out,  the 
purified  'remnant'  shall  create  a 
perfectly  new  epoch  for  the  nation 
(Duhm,    TJicologic  dcr  rrop/tcfcn, 

160). Its  eyes  besmear]  Comp. 

xxix.  10,  xliv.  1 8.  Sir  Thomas 
Roe's  chaplain  mentions  a  son  of 
the  Great  Mogul,  who  had  had  his 
eyes  sealed  up  three  years  by  his 
father  as  a  punishment  (Burder, 
Oricnlal  Citstoi/is,  i.  178). 

''  I.ord,  howlongr?]  The  ques- 
tion is  wrung  from  Isaiah  by  his 
compassion. 

'-  Removed]  A  covert  reference 
to  the  Assyrian  policy  of  deporta- 
tion. 

'^  .  .  .  a  tenth  in  it]  Parallel 
passage,  Zech.  xiii.  8,  9.  A  single 
judgment  will  not  be  sufficient  to 

eradicate  the  evil  tendencies. 

As  the  terebinth  and  as  the  oak] 
(An  abrupt  transition,  reminding 
us  of  ix.  I.)  The  '  extermination  ' 
is  only  in  appearance  (comp.  iv.  4)  ; 
Isaiah  is  not  careful  to  file  away  in- 


CHAP.  VII.]  ISAIAH.  4 1 

should  there  yet  be  a  tenth  in  it,  this  shall  again  be  ex- 
terminated ;  as  the  terebinth  and  as  the  oak,  of  which, 
after  the  felling,  a  stock  remaineth,  a  holy  seed  is  the  stock 
thereof. 


CHAPTER  VII. 


This  chapter  forms  the  first  part  of  a  group  of  discourses,  all  connected 
directly  or  indirectly  with  the  Syro-Israelitish  war  referred  to  in  the 
opening  verses.  The  latter  require  to  be  illustrated  by  the  parallel 
passages  in  2  Kings  xvi.  5-9  (comp.  xv,  37,  and  2  Chr.  xxviii.  5-16). 
Both  of  these  appear  to  be  less  original  than  the  narrative  in  Isaiah, 
especially  that  of  Chronicles,  which  many  critics  go  so  far  as  to  reject  as 
absolutely  unhistorical.  Nor  are  they  without  excuse,  not  to  say 
justification,  considering  the  difficulty  of  discriminating  between  the 
traditions  embodied  by  the  Chronicler,  and  the  adventitious  matter  due 
to  his  predominating  regard  for  edification.  One  great  stumbling-block 
in  2  Chr.  xxviii.  is  the  crushing  defeats  which  it  asserts  to  have  been  sus- 
tained by  Ahaz  {w.  5,  6),  but  which  are  not  mentioned  in  Kings.  How, 
it  has  been  plausibly  asked,  could  Isaiah  have  called  the  two  hostile 
kings  '  smoking  firebrands,'  if  they  had  just  inflicted  such  a  crushing  blow 
on  Judah  ?  On  the  other  hand.  Dr.  Caspari  declares,  after  an  elaborate 
investigation  of  the  narratives,  '  that  nothing  can  be  clearer  than  that  the 
events  of  2  Chr.  xxviii.  5,  &c.,  fall  between  those  of  the  two  halves  of 
2  Kings  xvi.  ^a  and  b ;  that  the  author  of  Kings  gives  a  report  of  the 
beginning  and  the  end,  while  the  Chronicler  gives  a  supplementary 
account  of  that  which  happened  in  the  middle  of  the  campaign.  He 
shows  us,  in  fact,  how  it  was  that  such  an  extreme  calamity  as  the  siege 
of  Jerusalem  became  possible.' ' 

Into  the  manifold  difficulties  of  a  historical  reconstruction  of  this 
period  I  am  not  called  upon  to  enter.  I  must  assume,  however,  that  the 
object  of  the  northern  kings,  as  is  generally  admitted,  was  to  compel 
Judah  to  join  a  coalition  against  the  common  enemy  of  Syria  and  Pales- 
consistencies.  Like  those  evergreen  seed]  So  '  the  holy  seed,'  Ezra  ix. 
trees  which,  even  when  they  are  cut  2.  '  Holy '  =  dedicated  to  Jehovah, 
down,  send  out  new  shoots  from  the  with  the  derived  meaning  of  in- 
stump,  so  the  'tenth  pait '  of  Israel,  violable  (iv.  3). — Obs.  There  is  no 
even  when  almost  consumed,  shall  reference  here  to  the  Messiah  ;  but 
have  such  a  '  stump '  or  '  stock  '  in  the  figure  is  precisely  the  same  as 
its  pious  remnant,  the  'seed  of  that  used  for  the  Messiah  in  \i.  i, 
holiness.'  This  is  the  bright  side  of  comp.  x.  33.  As  soon  as  the  pious 
the  judgment,  by  which  Isaiah  con-  remnant  of  Israel  is  organised,  a 
stantly  relieves  the  general  gloom  personal  stem  becomes  a  necessary 
of  his  preaching  (i.  27,  iv.  3,  x.  20,  conception  (at  any  rate  in  I  Isaiah), 
xxix.    18,   xxx.   18,  &c.) A  holy 

1  Caspari,  Ucber  den  syrisch-ephraimltischai  Kricg  (Christiania,  1849),  P-  ^oi- 
Compare  Delitzsch,  yesaja,  first  ed.,  pp.  10-16  ;  and  among  less  conservative  critics, 
Ewald  [History,  vol.  iv. ),  and  Bcrtheau  [Excgetisches  Huiidduch  on  Chionicles). 


42  ISAIAH.  [CHAP.  VH. 

tine — Assyria.  Curiously  enough,  Azariah  or  Uzziah,  the  grandfather  of 
Ahaz,  (or  may  it  have  been  Jothani,  in  his  father's  name.^)  had,  according 
to  the  Inscriptions,  been  a  leading  member  of  just  such  a  coalition  only 
si.\  years  before  (B.C.  740).' 

It  will  be  observed  that  chap.  vii.  does  not  claim  to  be  the  work  of 
Isaiah.  There  is  also  a  looseness  in  the  connection,  and  an  occasional 
feebleness  of  style,  which  make  even  the  editorship  of  Isaiah  difficult  to 
realise  : — notice  in  particular  the  break  between  v.  16  and  v.  17,  and  the 
cumbrous  style  oivv.  17-25.  The  same  looseness  of  connection  is  appa- 
rent in  chap.  viii.  Taken  together  with  the  very  peculiar  introduction  to 
chap,  vii.,  and  the  cumbrousness  of  vii.  17-25,  it  makes  it  a  very  probable 
conjecture  that  the  whole  section  vii.  i— ix.  7  only  assumed  its  present 
form  long  after  the  original  utterance  of  the  prophecies.  Perhaps  when 
the  last  editor  took  up  the  work,  the  manuscript  authority  used  by  him 
had  become  partly  mutilated  or  illegible  (comp.  Last  Words,  vol.  ii.). 

In  /.  C.  A.,  p.  25,  I  described  chaps,  vii.  i — i.x.  7,  as  'an  epitome  of 
the  discourses  delivered  at  this  great  national  crisis,'  viz.  the  Syrian  and 
Israelitish  invasion.  This  statement,  however,  seems  to  need  qualifica- 
tion. From  viii.  17  to  i.v.  7  there  is  no  allusion  to  the  Syrian  invasion  ; 
it  is  the  formidable  power  of  Assyria  which  fills  the  imagination  of  the 
prophet.  This  part  of  the  group  of  prophecies  is  evidently  later  than  the 
rest.  It  may  be  added,  that  at  any  rate  chap.  vii.  has  probably  been 
worked  up  or  '  restored '  to  the  best  of  his  ability  by  a  comparatively  late 
editor,  on  the  basis  of  an  incomplete  transcript  of  the  original  epitome. 
Whether  the  latter  was  the  work  of  Isaiah,  or  of  one  of  Isaiah's  disciples 
acting  under  his  direction  or  at  any  rate  in  his  spirit,  it  is,  of  course,  im- 
possible to  say.  To  this  partly  '  restored '  epitome,  there  appears  to  be 
prefixed  an  illustrative  passage  from  the  book,  or  section  of  a  book, 
entitled,  in  2  Chr.  xxxii.  32,  'the  vision  of  Isaiah  the  son  of  Amoz.'  The 
historical  setting  is  a  characteristic  which  this  prophecy  shares  in  common 
with  those  in  chap.  xx.  and  chaps,  xxxvi.-xxxix. 

Dr.  C.  J.  Bredenkamp  of  Greifswald,  has  examined  current  explana- 
tions of  vii.  I — ix.  6  in  an  article  in  Luthardt's  Zeitschri/t,  1883,  pp. 
621-632.  His  exegetical  method  is  bold,  e.g.  he  connects  'that  go 
softly'  (viii.  6)  with  'this  people.'  He  denies  that  Isaiah  expected 
Immanuel  to  be  born  in  the  near  future,  because  of  his  allusion  to  an 
Assyrian  invasion,  apparently  assuming  that  Isaiah's  doctrine  of  the 
Messiah  and  his  intuition  of  the  future  were  already  complete  when  he 
first  opened  the  subject  in  public.  All  very  disappointing  in  the  successor 
of  so  brilliant,  even  though  one-sided,  a  scholar  as  Wellhausen. 

'  And  it  came  to  pass  in  the  days  of  Ahaz  .son  of  Jotham, 
son   of  Uzziah,  king  of  Judah,   that  Rezin  king  of  Aram, 

'  Rezin]     The  Syrian  king  ap-  Hebraist  will  observe,  is   only  at- 

pears  lo  have  been  the  soul  of  the  tached   by  the  Vav  of  association 

expcditii)n  :  hence  the  singularnum-  (see  crit.  note).     The  pretender  to 

ber  of  the  verbs.     I'ekah,  as  the  the   throne   of  Judah,  too,  has   a 

'  Schradcr,  KeilinschrifUn  und  Gcschichtsfcrschung,  pp.  395-421. 


CHAP.  VII.] 


ISAIAH. 


43 


together  with  Pekah  son  of  Remahah,  king  of  Israel,  went  up 
to'jerusalem  to  war  against  it  (but  he  was  not  able  to  war 
against  it).  ^And  it  was  told  the  house  of  David,  saying, 
Aram  '^resteth  upon  Ephraim  ;  and  his  heart  shook,  and  the 
heart  of  his  people,  as  the  trees  of  the  forest  shake  before 
the  wind.  '"And  Jehovah  said  unto  Isaiah,  Come,  go  out  to 
meet  Ahaz,  thou  and  Shear-Yashub  thy  son,  at  the  end  of 
the  conduit  of  the  upper  pool,  at  the  highway  of  the  fuller's 
field;  ^  and  say  unto  him,  Look  that  thou  keep  calm  ;  fear  not, 

a  Haih  settled  {/.e.  encamped),  Ew.,  Naeg. 

Syrian  name  {v.  6). -wrent  up] 

The  phrase  has  no  special  reference 
to  the  elevated  situation  of  Jerusa- 
lem (Knob.),  for  it  is  used  of  re- 
treating as  well  as  of  invading 
armies  (i  Kings  xv.  19,  2  Kings  xii. 
19,  Jer.  xxi.  2,  xxxiv.  21,  xxxvii^  5, 
II).     See  Graf,  Studicn  tend  Kri- 

tikc7i,  1854,  p.  891,  &c. To  war 

against  it]  A  term  for  the  pro- 
tracted combat  which  went  on  by 
the  gate  of  a  besieged  city  (Judges 
ix.  45,  52,  2  Sam.  xi.  20).  In  2 
Kings  xvi.  5  it  is  stated  that  Jeru- 
salem had  been  enclosed  (a  differ- 
ent word),  with  a  view,  that  is,  to 

the  storming  of  the  city. But  he 

was  not  able  .  .  .  ]  Presumably 
because  some  bad  news  (such  as 
the  approach  of  the  Assyrians)  com- 
pelled him  to  renounce  his  inten- 
tion. This  is  an  anticipative  remark, 
like  those  in  xx.  i,  xxxviii.  21  ;  con- 
sequently the  circumstances  related 
in  the  following  verses  should  come 
in  order  of  time  before  the  last 
clause  of  7'.  i: 

-  It  was  told  the  house  of 
David]  For  the  expedition  was 
really  directed  against  the  family  of 
David;  its  expressed  object  {v.  6) 
is  not  conciuest— but  a  change  of 
dynasty.  In  2  Kings  xvi.  5,  too, 
there  is  a  trace  of  this  ;  for  we  read 
— not  '  they  besieged  Jerusalem' — 
but  'they  besieged  Ahaz.'  As  to 
the  'house  of  Uavid,'  see  on  v.  13. 

Itesteth  upon]  viz.  as  one  allied 

force  rests  upon  another.  Accord- 
ing to  alt.  rend,  the  figure  is  taken 
from  the  appearance  of  a  swarm 
of  tlies  or  locusts.     But  surely  the 


cause  of  the  alarm  of  Ahaz  was  not 
any  encampment,  but  the  confeder- 
acy.  Ephraim]     The    popular 

name  for  the  kingdom  of  Israel. 

3  Go  out]  Isaiah  lived  in  the 
middle  (lower)  city,  2  Kings  xx.  4 
(Heb.  text).  He  was  now  to  meet 
Ahaz  at  the  end  of  the  city.  By  his 
social  rank  (probably),  as  well  as 
by  his  position  as  a  prophet,  he 
could  venture  to  address  Ahaz  un- 
bidden.    Comp.  on   xxxvii.  2. 

Shear-Yashuh]  i.e.,  A  remnant 
shall  return  (comp.  x.  22).  An  in- 
stance of  the  way  in  which  Isaiah 
and  his  family  were  'for  sigms  and 
for  omens' (viii.  18).  According  to 
Ewald,  the  meaning  of  the  name 
formed  the  subject  of  a  revelation, 
now  lost,  which  originally  preceded 
that  concerning  Immanuel.  It 
seems  safer  to  assume  that  Shear- 
Yashub  went  as  a  witness,  either  to 
chronicle  events  in  his  memory,  or 
for  his  own  sake  as  a  means  of  reli- 
gious   education. The  conduit 

of  the  upper  pool]  Ahaz  had  pro- 
bably gone  hither,  like  Hezekiah, 
on  a  similar  occasion,  '  to  stop  the 
waters  of  the  fountains  without  the 
citv'  (2  Chr.  xxxii.  3).  The  'upper 
pool' may  be  the  Birket-el-Mamilla 
=  'the  dragon's  well'  of  Neh.  ii. 
13  ;  it  seems  to  correspond  to  the 
'  lower  pool '  of  xxii.  9.  See,  how- 
ever, Capt.  Warren,  in  Athe/iccum, 
Feb.  6,  1875. 

*  Smoking-]    i.e.,    almost    burnt 

out. The     son    of    Remaliah] 

Indicating  the  mean  origin  of  the 
upstart  Pekah:  comp.  'the  son  of 
Kibh,'  I  Sam.x.  II, 'the  son  of  Jesse,' 


44 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  VII. 


neither  let  thine  heart  be  soft,  because  of  these  two  stumps 
of  smoking  firebrands,  even  for  the  burning  anger  of  Rezin 
and  Aram,  and  the  son  of  Remaliah.  ^  Because  Aram  hath 
purposed  evil  against  thee  (with)  Ephraim  and  the  son  of 
Remaliah,  saying,  •'  Let  us  go  up  against  Judah  and  ''distress 
it,^  and  break  through  and  win  it  for  ourselves,  and  let  us 
appoint  king  in  the  midst  of  it  the  son  of  Tabel :  ^  thus  saith 
the  Lord,  Jehovah,  It  shall  not  stand,  neither  shall  it  come  to 
pass.  ^  For  the  head  of  Aram  is  Damascus,  and  the  head  of 
Damascus  is  Rezin,'=  ^  and  the  head  of  Ephraim  is  Samaria, 

b  So  Ges.  (conj.). — Alarm,  Ew.,  Del.,  Naeg.  (text). 

«  Text  inserts,  And  within  threescore  and  five  years  shall  Ephraim  be  broken  that 
it  be  not  a  people.     (Lowth  transfers  these  words  to  the  end  of  v.  9. ) 


XX.  30.  It  is  rather  singular  that 
the  same  form  of  expression  occurs 
live  tunes  in  the  Hst  of  Solomon's 
twelve  provincial  officers  for  supply- 
ing  the  royal  tables  (i   Kings  iv. 

8-19). 

''  Break  through]  The  same 
word  is  used  with  reference  to  the 
fortified  towns  or  passes  command- 
ing the  entrance  into  a  country,  2 
Chr.  xxi.  17  (in  Hiphil),  xxxii.  i  (with 
the   same  '  pregnant  construction  ' 

as  here,  but  in  Kal). The  son 

of  Tabel]  The  way  in  which  this 
person  is  mentioned  suggests  that 
he  was  an  obscure  adventurer,  like 
Pekah  (2  Kings  xv.  25),  and  his 
name  (  =  'good  (is)  God'  in  Ara- 
maic ;  comp.  Tabrimmon)  indi- 
cates that  he  was  a  Syrian.  The 
name  occurs  again  among  the  Ara- 
maic-speaking 'people  of  the  land,' 
after  the  exile  (Ezra  iv.  7),  but  not, 
as  Oppert  and  Schrader  thought, 
in  Assyrian  inscriptions  of  this 
period,  since  Idibil  and  Uibil  (i.e. 
Abdcel)  are  better  readings  (Friedr. 
Del.). 

**  ■'  Tor  the  head  of  iLratn  is 
Damascus  .  .  •  ]  1  he  cliicf  cities 
of  Syria  and  Israel  are  Damascus 
and  Samaria  :— the  chief  city  of 
Judah  is  Jerusalem.  Those  two 
powers  which  the  prophet  regards 
as  essentially  profane  or  secular 
and  unconnected  with  Jehovah,  are 
and  shall  continue  to  be  confined 
within  their  allotted  range.    So,  too. 


the  rulers  of  Syria  and  Israel  are 
Rezin    and    Pekah — puny  mortals, 
whereas    (it    is    implied)    the    true 
king  of  Judah  is  Jehovah.     But  in 
the  very  middle  of  this  symmetrical 
structure  of  parallelism  we  are  sur- 
prised  by  a  precise  chronological 
statement,  not  strictly  germane  to 
the  subject,  and  unparalleled  in  its 
range,  either  in  the  acknowledged 
prophecies  of  Isaiah  or  in  the  works 
of  Isaiah's  contemporaries.     There 
is  nothing  (except  a  superstitious 
belief  in  the  unalterableness  of  the 
Biblical  texts)  to  prevent  us  from 
holding   that    some    pious    student 
and  editor  of  Isaiah   inserted  the 
words, honestly  believingthat  Isaiah 
must  or  might  have  foreknown  the 
date  of  the  event  referred  to.     He 
knew  his  author  well,  for  the  dis- 
puted clause  is  in  perfect  accord- 
ance with  the  style  of  Isaiah  (comp. 
xxi.  16,  xvi.  14,  xvii.  i).     But  under 
the   aegis  of   Isaiah    he   addressed 
his    own   contemporaries,  and  the 
lesson  he  wished  them  to  learn  was 
this,  that  if  Judah  did  not  cast  aside 
all    human    confidences,   and    rely 
exclusively   on   Jehovah,    it    would 
share  the   fate  of  the  sister-king- 
dom.— And  now  as  to  the  date  fixed 
in   this   prediction.     According   to 
the  most  ancient  theory  (Jerome, 
Euselx,  A.E.),  it  is  the  captivity  of 
Tiglath-Pileser,  or    Sargon,   which 
is    refcrretl    to  ; — against    this,  see 
Pusey,    Minor    Pyopluis,    i.     148. 


CHAP.  VII.] 


ISAIAH. 


45 


and  the  head  of  Samaria  is  the  son  of  Remah'ah.  ...  If  ye 
have  no  faith,  verily  ye  shall  not  have  continuance.  '°  And 
Jehovah  spoke  further  to  Ahaz,  saying,  "Ask  thee  a  sign  of 
Jehovah  thy  God,  '^  deep  unto  Sheol  or  high  unto  heaven.'^ 

^  So  the  Greek  versions  (but  not  Sept.),  Vulg.,  Ew.,  Del. — Ask  something  in  the 
depth,  or  in  the  height  above,  Ges.,  Weir,  Naeg.  (The  read,  is  the  same  in  both 
cases.     See  Ewald,  Lflirbuch  d.  h.  S.,  §  93,  3.) 


Another  old  view  is  that  of  Arch- 
bishop Usher,  followed  by  Hengst., 
that  the  reference  is  to  the  trans- 
plantation of  a  foreign  population 
to  Samaria  in  the  days  of  Esar- 
haddon  (Ezra  iv.  2).  Bosanquet's 
confirmation  of  this  view  from  As- 
syriology  (Smith's  Assi(7-ba!iipal, 
p.  363)  seemed  at  first  almost  de- 
cisive ;  and  Schrader,  after  him, 
argued,  on  the  same  grounds,  that 
even  after  722  Samaria  was  '  quite 
a  respectable  power,  with  which 
the  Assyrian  kings  had  to  reckon  ' 
{Jahrbilcher  f.  prot.  Thcologic^  i. 
Zl'h)-,  so  that  the  kingdom  was  not 
thoroughly  '  broken  '  by  Sargon's 
capture  of  Samaria.  Unfortunately, 
this  has  been  upset  by  the  discovery 
that  the  true  reading  of  the  name 
on  which  the  above  view  depended 
was,  not  Usimuruna  (Samaria),  but 
Samsi-muruna  ;  comp.  Halevy, 
Revue  des  etudes  Juzves,  No.  3,  p. 

^12,  Friedr.  Del.,  Paradies^  p.  287. 
Archbishop  Usher's  explanation, 
however,  is  still  the  most  reason- 
able one.  The  mixture  of  races  in 
Samaria  was  the  final  blow  to  the 
existence  of  the  nation,  and  if  we 
reckon  65  years  from  736  B.C.,  as- 
sumed as  the  date  of  Isaiah's  meet- 
ing with  Ahaz,  we  come  to  671, 
which  may  very  well  have  been  the 
year  when  Samaria  was  finally 
'  broken.'     Ezra  iv.  2  ascribes  the 

'^  blow  to  Esar-haddon,  but  v.  10 
speaks  of  Asnapper,  which  is  pro- 
bably a  corruption  (see  crit.  note) 
of  Assurbanipal,  the  nan>e  of  Esar- 
haddon's  son  and  successor,  who 
was  also  his  co-regent  in  his  life- 
time. If  ye  have  no  faith  .  •  •  ] 
Or,  if  ye  hold  not  fast,  verily  ye 
shall  not  stand  fast  (rendering  in 
/.  C.  A.).  There  is  a  designed  as- 
sonance between  the  clauses  ;    we 


find  it  again  in  2  Chr.  xx.  20  (see 
Hebr.)  ;  also  Hab.  ii.  4. 

'°  And  Jehovah  spoke  further 

.  .  .  ]  The  form  of  the  phrase  is 
peculiar,  and  only  occurs  elsewhere 
in  viii.  5.  Here,  however,  it  is 
doubly  remarkable,  because  it  is 
not  a  direct  communication  from 
Jehovah  to  Ahaz  which  follows,  but 
a  mediate  one  through  the  prophet. 
In  spite  of  Uelitzsch's  deep  remark 
pointing  to  the  prophet's  conscious- 
ness of  Jehovah,  the  most  natural 
view,  considering  the  general  cha- 
racter of  the  chapter,  seems  to  me 
that  'Jehovah  '  is  an  error  either  of 
the  scribe  or  of  the  editor  of  the 
section.  The  following  words  were 
perhaps  spoken  at  a  different  time 
and  place  from  7'?/.  4-9. 

"  Ask  thee  a  sig-n]  It  is  clear 
that  something  had  passed  between 
Isaiah  and  Ahaz,  through  our  igno- 
rance of  which  we  cannot  thoroughly 
understand  the  sequel.  Very  prob- 
ably it  had  some  reference  to  the 
plan  of  an  embassy  to  Assyria  (2 
Kings  xvi.  7),  already  maturing  in 
the  royal  mind.  Chronology  is  not 
opposed  to  this  view,  for  it  is  only 
stated  in  vv.  2,  5,  that  a  confederacy 
had  been  formed,  not  that  the  hos- 
tile armies  had  as  yet  set  foot  on 
the  soil  of  Judah.  We  may  well 
suppose  that  Isaiah  was  as  unfa- 
vourable to  an  Assyrian  as  he  was 
afterwards  to  an  Egyptian  alliance, 
and  that  he  did  all  in  his  power  to 
dissuade  or  deter  the  king  from  it. 
In  vv.  17-25  his  language  is  de- 
terrent ;  in  the  lost  passage  which 
should  precede  7'.  1 1  it  was  pro- 
bably of  a  persuasive  charatcer. 
'  Trust  in  Jehovah,'  the  prophet  may 
have  said,  '  and  your  highest  hopes 
will  be  surpassed.'  And  now  he 
continues,  '  Ask  thee  a  sign  of  this. 


46 


ISAIAH. 


[CHAP.  VII. 


'2  But  Ahaz  said,  I  will  not  ask,  neither  will  I  put  Jehovah  to 
the  test.  ''  And  he  said.  Hear,  I  pray  you,  O  house  of 
David  ;  is  it  too  little  for  you  to  weary  men,  that  ye  will 


What  sort  of  sign  did  Isaiah  mean 

on  this  occasion  ? Deep    unto 

Sheol  or  hig-h  unto  heaven]  i.e., 
say  some,  Isaiah  will  either  call  up 
from  the  dead  the  shade  of  some 
mighty  prophet  or  hero — a  Samuel 
or  a  David — or  'darken  the  sun  at 
midday '  (comp.  the  wonder  of  the 
sundial,  xxxviii.  8).  To  the  second 
alternative,  no  strong  objection  can 
be  taken,  but  the  first  is  open  to 
criticism.  It  is  true  that  Isaiah 
must  have  believed  in  Jehovah's 
lordship  over  Sheol  (i  Sam.  ii.  6), 
and  true  that  there  would  be  a  cer- 
tain fitness  in  the  prophet's  availing 
himself  of  the  presumed  fondness 
of  the  king  for  necromancy.  On 
the  other  hand,  ( i)  it  seems  probable 
that  an  offer  of  this  kind  would  have 
been  expressed  more  distinctly,  and 
(2)  we  find  Isaiah,  at  the  very  same 
period,  denouncing  necromantic 
practices  in  the  strongest  manner 
(viii.  19).  It  is  safer,  therefore,  to 
take  both  expressions,  '  deep  unto 
Sheol '  and  '  high  unto  heaven  '  me- 
taphorically, comparing  Ivii.  9  (end), 
and  still  better  Job  xi.  7,  8  : — 
Canst  thou  find  out  the  depth  of  Elohim  ? 
Or  canst  thou  find  out  the  end  of  Shad- 

dai? 
Heights  of  heaven  !  what  canst  thou  do? 
Deeper  than   She61 !    what    canst    thou 

know  ? 
Nothing  is  impossible  to  Jehovah  ; 
therefore  Ahaz  has  perfect  freedom 
of  choice,  provided  that  he  asks  in 
reverence.  He  may  ask,  for  in- 
stance, for  the  restoration  of  some 
lost  child  from  the  dead,  or  for  any 
seemingly  simpler  '  providential 
arrangement'  (comp.  i  Sam.  x.  7), 
but  not  for  anything  inconsistent 
with,  or  capable  of  being  turned 
against,  the  true  religion.  Contrast, 
in  passing,  the  Old  and  New  Testa- 
ments in  their  estimate  of  '  signs.' 

Jehovah  thy   God]  Aha/  was 

a  genuine  worshipper  of  Jehovah, 
but  also  of  'other  gods  beside' 
him.     His  name  in  full  appears  to 


have  been  Jehoahaz  (Yahukhazi  in 
Tiglath-Pileser  II.'s  great  Inscrip- 
tion). This  is  not  inconsistent 
with  the  expression  '  my  God '  in 
V.  13  (see  note). 

'^  But  Ahaz  said  •  •  •  ]  Ahaz  is 
incredulous.  No  doubt  he  has  pro- 
phets of  his  own,  in  whose  word  he 
places  more  confidence  than  in  that 
of  Isaiah.  He  desires,  therefore, 
to  break  off  the  conference  under 
the  hypocritical  pretext  of  not  wish- 
ing to  '  test  Jehovah  '  (a  sin  spring- 
ing from  unbelief,  Ex.  xvii.  7,  Deut. 
vi.  16). 

^^  And  he  said]  Here  again  the 
conjecture  is  a  probable  one  that 
the  following  discourse  was  spoken 
at  a  fresh  time  and  place.  It  is 
highly  noteworthy  that  the  pro- 
phecy is  first  of  all  directed  to  the 
house  ol"  David,  not  to  Ahaz  alone. 
The  house  of  David  means  all  the 
various  branches  of  the  royal  family, 
and  ought  strictly  to  include  the 
'house  of  Nathan'  (Zech.  xii.  12, 
comp.  Luke  iii.  27,  31).  It  would 
seem  that  this  princely  order  was 
almost  as  numerous  a  body  in  Judah 
as  it  was,  according  to  Brugsch,  in 
Egypt,  and  that  it  was  able  to  exer- 
cise a  decisive  political  influence. 
On  the  former  point,  see  /.  C.  A.,  p. 
88  (top),  and  comp.  Zeph.  i.  8;  on 
the  latter,  see  three  passages  in 
Jeremiah,  where  the  members  of 
the  royal  family  receive  the  desig- 
nation 'kings  of  Judah'  (xvii.  20, 
Hitz.,  xix.  3,  xxv.  18),  just  as  the 
cjueen-mother  is  called  '  the  mis- 
tress' (Jcr.  xiii.  18,  i  Kings  xv. 
13,  2  Kings  X.  13).  They  appear 
to  have  monopolised  the  judicial 
function  (see  Jer.  xxi.  11,  12),  so 
that  the  people  had  fretjuent  op- 
portunities of  testing  their  fitness 
for  the  crown.  Hence  on  at  least 
one  occasion  the  unpopularity  of 
the  eldest  son  of  the  king  led  to 
his  being  excluded  from  the  succes- 
sion by  '  the  people  of  the  land ' 
(2  Kings  xxiii.  30:   comp.  7'7'.  31, 


CHAP.  VII.] 


ISAIAH. 


47 


also  weary   my  God  ?      '''  Therefore   Jehovah    himself  shall 
appoint  you  a   sign  ;   behold,   ®  the   young  woman  ^  is  with 

«  So  Hitzig,  R.  Williams,  Naeg.,  and  (in  effect)  Ges.  The  maiden  [Jun^frati), 
Ew.,  Del.  The  virgin,  Weir,  observing,  '  But  the  Hebr.,  strictly  sjjeaking,  does  not 
correspond  to  our  '  virgin.'  '  A  young  woman,'  however,  is  also  admissible,  if  Ewald 
be  right  in  regarding  the  article  as  that  of  species  (like  '  the  lion  '). 


36).  In  fact,  the  queen-mother^ 
and  the  royal  princes  formed  a  nu- 
merous and  influential  upper  caste,, 
which  only  a  king  of  unusual  force 
of  character,  like  Hezekiah  or  Jo- 
siah,  could  venture,  and  that  rather 
timidly,  to  oppose.  For  instances 
of  high  officials  belonging  to  the 
royal  family,  see  i  Kings  xxii.  26, 
2  Kings  XXV.  25,  2  Chr.  xxviii.  7, 
Jer.  xxxviii.  6.  See  further  in  Last 
IVorc/s,  vol.  ii.  (Graf,  on  Jer.  xxi. 
II,  vi'ould  extend  the  meaning  of 
the  term  'house  of  David'  to  all 
who  enjoyed  any  office  or  dignity 
under  the  crown,  comparing  our 
phrase  '  the  court.'  Similarly  Hitz. 
Rut  this  is  very  unnatural,  and  the 
analogy  of  Egypt  is  rather  against 

it. l«y    Crod]     Yet     in    ?/.     10 

Isaiah  had  said  'thy  God.'  True, 
but  Ahaz  had  forfeited  his  religious 
rights  by  his  unbelief.  So  in  some 
threatening  prophecies  (e.g.  vi.  10) 
'  my  people '  becomes  '  this  people.' 
'*  The  Iiord  himself]  Whom 
ye  reject. Behold]  A  forewarn- 
ing of  a  great  event. The  youngs 

woman]  The  prophet  sees  the 
woman  selected  by  Jehovah  with 
the  inner  eye.  We  need  not,  how-/' 
ever,  suppose  that  he  had  any  othei^ 
reason  for  mentioning  her  than  to 
introduce  the  naming  of  the  child 
(comp.  Luke  i.  60). 

The  rendering  adopted  has  been 
objected  to  from  an  English  and 
from  a  Hebrew  point  of  view. 
But  I,  it  is  that  of  a  synonymous 
word  in  the  A.V.  of  Am.  ii.  j 
(margin),  and  2,  unless  Tlie    con- 


text  determines  otherwise,  we  are 
precluded  from  going  beyond  the 
strict  etymological  meaning  of  the 
word,  which  is  simply  '  a  woman 
of  mature  age.'  See  crit.  note. — 
As  to  the  details  of  the  inter- 
pretation, opinions  are  and  always 
will  be  divided.  There  is  no  ex- 
planation which  does  not  require 
us  to  make  some  assumption  not 
directly  sanctioned  by  the  text. 
The  only  question  is,  Which  as- 
sumption is  most  in  harmony  with 
Isaiah's  early  prophecies  ?  The 
first  theory  (a)  which  presents  itself 
is  that  started  by  Rashi  and  A.E., 
and  adopted  by  Ges.,  Hitz.,  Knob.,, 
that  a  young  woman  actually ' 
present,  or  at  any  rate  alive,  is 
referred  to,  viz.  Isaiah's  wife.  In 
favour  of  this,  one  may  urge  the 
significance  of  the  names  of  other 
sons  of  Isaiah  (vii.  3,  viii.  3,  comp. 
18).  But  how  can  Isaiah  have 
called  his  wife  by  a  name  so  liable 
to  be  misunderstood  as  '■alviah, 
especially  as  in  the  veiy  next 
chapter  he  gives  her  what  was 
probably  her  recognised  title,  '  the 
prophetess  '  (viii.  3) .?  It  can  hardly 
be  that  this  objection  is  adequately 
met  by  the  conjecture  that  Isaiah 
had  married  a  second  wife  who 
was  at  that  tiine  giving  birth  to  a 
son  (Ges.,  Dr.  S.  Davidson).  There 
is  also  ip)  the  theory  of  Hofmann, 
Kohlei",  and  Dr.  Weir,  that  '  the 
young  woman '  =  the  people  of  Is- 
rael, as  the  bride  of  Jehovah  (comp. 
liv.  5,  Ezek.  xvi.,  Hos.  ii.  16,  19, 
20,  Zeph.  iii.    17).     Against  this  it 


1  The  high  rank  of  the  queen-mother  seems  to  be  a  relic  of  the  primitive  age  in 
which  the  relationship  of  the  mother  was  of  such  vast  importance  (Accadians,  Etrus- 
cans, Finns,  &c. ).  The  political  value  of  the  position  is  strikingly  shown  in  the 
authority  usurped  for  six  years  in  Judah  by  the  bold  Athaliah.  Ttie  mention  of  the 
mothers  of  the  kings  seems  connected  with  their  high  rank  in  the  social  system  as 
queen-mothers.  It  is  singular  enough  that  Ahaz  is  one  of  the  only  two  kings  of  Judah 
whose  mothers  are  not  mentioned  in  the  historical  books.  Perhaps  his  mother  died 
before  arriving  at  the  dignity  of  queen-mother. — Comp.  also  Mic.  vii.  6  ('against  her 
mother-in-law'). 


48 


ISA  I  ATI. 


[chap.  vii. 


child  and  shall  bring  forth  a   son,  and  shall   call  his  name 


may  be  urged  :   i.  that  this  figure 
of  speech  is  reserved  for  the  highei 
style    of    prophecy ;    2.    that    the 
advocates    of   the    theory   are    not 
able  to  agree  on  the  meaning  of 
the  birthof  the  child.  Hofmanh  says 
the  child  is  the  regenerate  people  ; 
Dr.  Weir  that  child-birth  is  simply 
an    allegoiy   of    deliverance    from 
danger  (though    the    child,  he    in- 
consistently says,  is  also  a  type  of 
the  Messiah).     Others  (c)  take  the 
clause  as  to  the  birth  of  the  son 
hypothetically.     Thus    Roorda,    as 
before  him  substantially  Eichhorn, 
explains  it  to  mean,  'Any  young 
woman  who   is   at  this    time  with 
child  may  call  her  son  by  the  name 
Immanuel,'  as  a  memorial  of  the 
foretold     deliverance     {Oricntalia, 
1840,  pp.    129,    130).     So    Kuenen 
and    Prof.    Robertson    Smith    (see 
Last  Words,  vol.  ii.).     But  thus  we 
get    no    sign    at    all,   whether    of 
promise  or  of  threatening— not  to 
mention  the  appeal  to    Immanuel 
as  an  individual  in  viii.  8.     There 
remains'  the  theory  (<■/)  that    the 
'young  woman'  is  the  mother  of 
the    Messiah,    whose    advent,    as 
Ewald   has  well  pointed  out,  was 
expected  by  Isaiah  to  synchronise 
with    the    Assyrian   invasion    (see 
chaps,  ix.  xi.).     The  touch  of  pas- 
sion,   to    which    Sir    E.    Strachey 
has  already  called  attention  in  the 
opening   words    {Hebre^u   PoliiicSy 
]).    104),    suggests    that    there    was 
something  extraordinary  in  the  child 
beyond  such  external  peculiarities 
as  name  and  food.     There  is,  be- 
sides, a  prophecy  of  Isaiah's  con- 
temporary, Micah   (v.  3-5),  which 
may  perhaps  be  held  to  allude  to 
the  two  Isaianic  prophecies  of  God- 
with-us  and  Wonder-Counsellor:— 
'  Therefore  will  he  (Jehovah)  give 
Ihem  up,  until  a  travailing  woman 
hath  brought  forth,  and  (until)  the 
renmant  of  his  brethren  return  unto 
the  children  of  Israel  ;  and  he  (the 
Messiah)    shall    stand,  and    shall 
>  Tlie  theory  that  Immanuel  =  Hezt.'ki: 
jcromc,  that  Hczoki;ih  must  liave  been  al 
t!c'live;L'(l  (comi?.  2  Kings  xvi.  2,  xvip.  2). 


shepherd  in  the  strength  of  Jeho- 
vah, &c.  ;  for  then  shall  he  be  great 
unto  the  ends  of  the  earth.' 

It  is  true  that  there  is  no  mention 
of  Immanuel's  being  of  Davidic  ori- 
gin, but  strictly  speaking  there  is 
no  mention  of  the  Davidic  origin  of 
the  Messiah  even  in  chap.  ix.     At 
any  rate,  there  is  nothing  here  tcv 
exclude    such    an    ancestiy ;    and^ 
Justin  Martyr  {Dial.  c.  Tryph.  68) 
long  ago  argued  in  favour  of  it  from 
the  prophecy  being   a4dressed   to 
the  '  house  of   David.'     It  is  true, 
.again,  that  nothing  is  said  of  the 
child  Immanuel's  growing  up  to  be 
a  king  and  a  deliverer.     But   this 
only  confirms    the    view,    already 
adopted  as  probable,  that  chap.  vii. 
consists  of  an  incomplete  summary 
of  Isaianic  discourses  ;  or  again  (as 
in  /.  C.  A.,  p.  31)  we  may  regard 
this    prophecy  as    the   first    rough 
sketch  of  the  Messianic  doctrine,  to 
be  filled  up  on  subsequent  oppor- 
tunities.    Why  indeed    should    we 
expect  a  single  prophecy  (especially 
if  only  handed    down   from  notes) 
to  be  as  complete  as  an  article  in 
a  dictionary  .'' — The  two  really  im- 
portant objections  are  these  :   I.   Is 
it  conceivable  that  Isaiah  expected 
the    Messiah  to  pass  through    the 
period  of  exile  predicted  in  vi.  1 1-13, 
before  he  restored  the  kingdom  to 
the  regenerate  remnant  of  Israel  ? 
The   answer   is   that,   on    grounds 
external  to  this  prophecy,  the  con- 
cluding portion  of  chap.  vi.  is  pro- 
bably the  latest  portion  of  the  group 
formed  by  chapters  vi.-ix.  7;  whereas 
the    prophecies    in    chap.    vii.    are 
probaljly  the  earliest,  and  in  many  ,, 
respects  the    least   altered,  of  the 
group.     When  the  prophecy  of  Im- 
manuel was  delivered,  Isaiah  could 
not  have  had  such  a  full  conception 
of  the  events  preceding  the  appear- 
ance of  the  Messiah  as  he  attained 
afterwards.      .\nd    2.    Would    the 
birth  of  a  child  from  an  unnamed 
and  unknpwn  woman  be  recognised 

ih  was  long  ago  disproved  by  the  remark  of 
least  nine  years  old  wlien  this  proplieoy  was 


CHAP.  VII.] 


ISAIAH. 


49 


Immanuel.  •'^Milk-curd  and  honey  shall  he  eat,  ^ when  he 
shalH  know  how  to  reject  the  evil  and  choose  the  good. 
'"  For  before  the  boy  shall  know  how  to  reject  the  evil  and 
choose  the  good,  the  land  shall  become  deserted,  at  whose 
two  kings  thou  fearest  horribly.     ^'^  Jehovah  shall  bring  upon 

f  That  he  may,  Pesh.,  Vulg.,  Kay. 


as  a  sign  by  Ahaz  ?  The  answer  is, 
'l.  that  this  was  unimportant  to 
Isaiah.  Ahaz  and  his  house  were 
judicially  hardened,  and  their  un- 
belief on  this  occasion  was  a  fresh 
degree  in  the  hardening  (comp.  xxix. 
lo,  ii).  The  prophecy  was  really 
addressed  to  those  who  could  re- 
ceive it,  such  as  Isaiah's  disciples 
(comp.  viii.  i6).  And,  2.  that  the 
obscurity  of  the  mother  of  Imma- 
nuel was  part  of  the  punishment 
which  must,  from  the  context,  have 
been  included  in  the  prophecy.  It 
was  neither  Ahaz  himself,  nor  a  son 
of  Ahaz,  who  was  the  destined  de- 
liverer of  God's  people,  but  the  child 
of  a  nameless  and  obscure  mother 

(Del.). Is  with  cbild]     So  we 

should  render,  and  not  '  shall  be 
with  child,'  in  view  of  the  parallel 
passage,  Gen.  xvi.  11  (Judg.  xiii.  5, 

7  is  doubtful),  and  ofw.  15,  16. 

Immanuel]  i.e.,  God  (is)  with  us, 
or,  on  our  side ;  compare  Ittiel. 
This  symbolic  name  is  a  part  of  the 
sign.  The  meaning  is  determined 
by  viii.  10. 

'*  ISXilk-curd  and  honey  shall 
he  eat]  These  are  not  mentioned, 
as  we  should  have  expected,  as 
delicacies,'  but  to  imply  privation 
(this  is  clear  from  v.  22).  For  a  lad 
arrived  at  years  of  discretion  (see 
next  note)  to  hSve  no  other  food 
indicated  that  '  the  land  of  Imma- 
nuel '  had  been  brought  very  low. 
Obs.,  this  particular  detail  would 
be  true  of  a  multitude  of  other 
Hebrew  children,  which  shows  that 
it  can  only  form  a  subordinate  part 

of  the  '  sign.' To  reject  the  evil 

and  choose   the   g-ood]     A   fuller 


phrase  for  '  to  discern  between  good 
and  evil.'  Hitz.  explains  it  of 
pleasant  and  unpleasant  food  (as 
2  Sam.  xix.  35),  but  most  critics 
take  it  in  a  moral  sense  (as  Gen. 
ii.  9,  Deut.  i.  39,  i  Kings  iii.  9). 
The  second  view  will  throw  the  pe- 
riod named  in  the  next  verse  rather 
more  forward  than  the  first,  and 
as  the  circumstance  of  eating  milk 
and  honey  is  lo  be  a  'sign,'  this 
view  seems  the  preferable  one. 

"^  For  before  .  .  .  ]  A  some- 
what vague  definition,  which  makes 
it  all  the  more  unlikely  that  Isaiah 
himself  should  have  written  v.  8  d. 
Hitz.'s  view  would  fix  the  term  at 
the  end  of  the  second  year,  for  a 
Jewish  child  was  weaned  in  his 
third  (2  Mace.  vii.  27.) De- 
serted shall  ttie  land  become]  i.e., 
the  people  of  Syria  and  (N.)  Israel 
shall  be  carried  captive  by  the 
Assyrians.  Comp.  2  Kings  xv.  29, 
xvi.  9,  and  Smith's  T/ie  Assynan 
Canon^  pp.  121-125. 

^^  The  abruptness  of  the  transi- 
tion is  remarkable,  and,  taken  to- 
gether with  the  cumbrous  style  of 
the  sequel,  confirms  the  theory  that 
chap.  vii.  is  based  on  incomplete, 
though  authentic,  notes.  We  are 
now  introduced  to  a  dark  side  in 
the  advent  of  Immanuel.  Had 
Jehovah  'found  faith'  in  Israel's 
rulers  and  representatives,  Imma- 
nuel would  have  been  simply  a  sign 
of  promise  ;  as  it  is,  he  is  also  a 
sign  of  threatening.  The  Syrians 
and  Israelites  shall  indeed  be  re- 
moved, but  shall  be  succeeded  by  a 
worse  foe  than  Judah  had  ever  had 
before,  'the  king  of  Assyria.'     It  is 


They  are  asked  for  as  such  in  an  Assyrian  praver  for  the  king  translated  both  by 
Lenorniant  and  Friedr.  Del.  ;  dispa  hhimita  (--HSDm  ^iS)  khi^alli,  'honey  and 
curdled  milk  in  canals,'  W.  A.  I.  iv.  18,  3,  1.  29,  30.  With  which  comp.  Birch, 
f, ?:>'//,  p.  28,  '  Neferka-ra,  in  whose  time  the  Nile  is  said  to  have  flowed  with  milk  and 
honey.' 


VOL.    I. 


E 


50 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  VII. 


thee  and  upon  thy  people,  and  upon  thy  father's  house,  days 
such  as  have  not  come  since  the  day  of  Ephraim's  departing 
from  Judah,  p  the  king  of  Assyria.^']  '^  And  it  shall  come  to 
pass  that  in  that  day  Jehovah  shall  hiss  to  the  flies  at  the 
end  of  the  Nile-arms  of  Egypt,  and  to  the  bees  in  the  land 
of  Assyria,  ^^  and  they  shall  all  of  them  come  and  settle  on 
the  steeply  walled  valleys  of  the  torrents,  and  on  the  rents 
of  the  cliffs,  and  on  all  the  thorn-bushes,  and  on  all  the  pas- 
tures. '^^  In  that  day  shall  the  Lord  shave  with  the  razor 
that  is  hired  on  the  banks  of  the  River  [^  with  the  king  of 
Assyria  "]  the  head  and  the  hair  of  the  feet,  and  the  beard 
also  it  shall  sweep  away.  ^'  And  it  shall  come  to  pass  in  that 
day  that  a  man  shall  nourish  a  young  cow  and  two  sheep  ; 

e  Omitted  as  interpolation  by  Ges.,  Hitz. 

probable  enough  that  this  prophecy 
only  confirmed  Ahaz  in  his  resolu- 
tion of  sending  an  embassy  to  As- 
syria. He  may  have  hoped  thus 
to  render  the  fulfilment  of  the  pro- 
phecy   impossible.- Departing] 

Obs.  the  deep  impression  produced 
by  the  severance  of  the  northern 
tribes.  [Hitz.  and  Knobel  omit  the 
last  vi'ords  as  a  gloss,  as  also  in  v. 
20  and  in  viii.  7.  E\v.  and  Del. 
retain  them,  but  without  offering 
any  solid  reason.  Surely  they  fit 
in  here  very  badly,  and  mar  the 
effect  of  the  revelation  in  v.  18. 
Such  ultra-distinctness  is  just  the 
manner  of  the  interpolators.] 

'8  According  to  I'^wald,  a  long 
piece  has  fallen  out  between  ?'?'.  17 
and  18,  relating  how  Isaiah  left  the 
king,  and  went  home,  and  explained 
his  intuitions  of  the  future,  and  the 
truths  to  which  Ahaz  would  not 
listen,  in  the  circle  of  his  disciples. 
Yet,  if  V.  15  was  spoken  to  Ahaz 
(which  Ew.  allows),  must  not  7/.  22 
have  been  so  too,  for  without  it 
7A  15  is  unintelligible?  That  some- 
thing, however,  has  been  lost  with 
regard  to  Immanuel  seems  highly 

probable. SUall    hiss    to    the 

flies  .  •  •  ]  Isaiah  had  already 
said  (v.  26)  that  Jehovah  would  hiss 
to  '  the  distant  nations,'  with  a  de- 
scription which  precisely  fits  the 
Assyrians.  He  now  refers  to  them 
and  to  Eg)'pt  by  name,  and  adds 


that  the  two  great  rivals  shall  come 
to  a  collision  in  Judah.  There  is 
nothing  to  indicate  that  the  inter- 
vention of  Egypt  was  out  of  regard 
to  Rezin  and  Pekah,  as  Knob,  and 
Kuenen  suppose.  It  is  rather  a 
subsequent  phase  of  the  judgment 
upon  Judah. — The  Eg)^ptians  are 
compared  to  the  swarms  of  venom- 
ous flies  which  infest  the  region 
of  the  Nile  (see  on  xviii.  i),  the 
Assyrians  to  the  bees  of  their  na- 
tive woods  and  mountains  (comp. 

Deut.  i.    44,    Ps.    cxviii.    12). 

At  the  end  .  .  .  ]  i.e.,  in  the 
whole  extent  of  country  watered 
by  the  Nile  and  its  arms  ;  comp. 
Ivi.  II,  Gen.  xix.  4,  xlvii.  2  (Hebr.). 

'^  On  the  steeply  ixralled  val- 
leys .  .  .  ]  A  faithful  picture  of 
the  scenery  of  Judah. 

^"  With  the  hired  razor]  An 
allusion  to  the  treaty  of  Ahaz  with 
Assyria.  Tiglath-Pilcser  was  hired 
in  one  sense  by  Ahaz,  in  another 
by  Jehovah  (comp.  x.  5).  If  chap, 
vii.  be  a  summary  of  various  pro- 
phecies,  this    will    probably   be   a 

somewhat    later    insertion. On 

the  banks  .  .  .  ]  Assyria  being 
the  ruling  power  on  both  sides  of 

the  Euphrates. The  head  .  .   . 

the  beard]  For  Judah  has  been 
stripped  of  her  clothing,  her  de- 
fences ;  comp.  i.  6. 

'-'•'^-  Obs.  the  increasing  awk- 
wardness   of  the    style,    so   unlike 


CHAP.  VIII.] 


ISAIAH. 


51 


^^  and  (yet)  it  shall  come  to  pass  that  because  of  the  abun- 
dance of  milk  which  he  shall  get,  he  shall  eat  milk-curd,  for 
milk-curd  and  honey  shall  everyone  eat  who  is  left  within 
the  land,  ^  And  it  shall  come  to  pass  in  that  day  that  every 
place  shall  be,  where  there  used  to  be  a  thousand  vines  at  a 
thousand  pieces  of  silver — for  thorns  and  briars  shall  it  be  ; 
^*  with  arrows  and  with  bow  shall  men  come  thither,  for  all 
the  land  shall  become  thorns  and  briars.  ^-^And  as  for  all 
the  mountains  which  used  to  be  hoed,  ^  thou  shalt  keep  aloof 
from  them  in  fear  of  thorns  and  briars  ^ :  and  it  shall  be  a 
place  for  letting  loose  oxen,  and  for  sheep  to  trample. 

^  Thither  will  the  fear  of  thorns  and  thistles  not  come,  Vitr.,  Evv.,  Weir,  Rodwell. 


Isaiah. — Cornfields  and  vineyards 
having  been  destroyed,  there  will 
be  a  superabundance  of  pasture- 
land,  and  the  few  survivors  will 
have  to  subsist  on  sour  milk  and 

natural     honey. Two     sheep] 

*  Two '    is   feminine. And  yet] 

Even  with  these  few  cattle. 

^^  A  thousand  vines  .  .  .  ]  This 
reminds  us  of  the  thousand  shekels 
paid  yearly  for  a  vineyard,  as  a  rent 
to  Solomon  (Cant.  viii.  11).  Here, 
however,  the  thousand  shekels 
(  =  150/.)  are  the  purchase-money. 


^'  "With  arrows  •  .  .  ]  Only  the 
hunter  will  venture  to  go  thither. 
-^  As   for  all    the   mountains] 

Isaiah  is  thinking  of  the  vineyards 
(comp.  V.  6),  which  '  are  generally 
planted  on  the  sides  of  mountains, 
often  climbing,  by  successive  ter- 
races quite  to  the  summit '  (Thom- 
son).  Thou   Shalt  keep  aloot] 

.  .  .  Lit., 'thou  shalt  not  enter  there,' 
&c.  '  Not  enter '  is  a  compound 
expression  = '  keep  aloof  from.'  See 
crit.  note. 


CHAPTER   VIII. 

'  And  Jehovah  said  unto  me,  Take  thee  a  large  tablet,  and 
write  thereon  with  a  common  pen,  Concerning  Mahcr-shalal- 


^"*  '  Maher-shalal-hash-baz  ; '  a 
twofold  sign  of  the  Assyrian  inter- 
vention. 

^  A  largre  tablet]  i.e.,  probably 
of  wood  polished  with  wax  (same 
word  for  metal  mirrors  in  iii.  23). 
'  Large,'  for  it  was  to  be  set  up  in 

public.     Comp.  xxx.  8. VTith  a 

common  pen]  i.e.,  in  large  cha- 
racters such  as  the  common  man 
can  easily  read  (comp.  Hab.  ii.  2)  ; 
they  are  opposed  to  the  smaller, 
more  cursive  characters,  such  as 
only  a  'learned  man'  can  read  (xxix. 
n).    Comp.  on  X.  19. Concern- 


ing' .  .  .  ]  Lit.,  to  .  .  .  The  form 
reminds  us  of  the  legends  on  seals. 
To — i.e.,  belonging  to — such  and 
such  a  person.  The  context,  how- 
ever, forbids  such  an  explanation 
here.  It  is  best  to  take  the  inscrip- 
tion as  the  heading  or  title  of  an  as 
yet  unwritten  chapter  of  prophecy. 
In  one  sense,  of  course,  the  heading 
Vv'as  itself  a  prediction — it  pointed 
to  a  child,  Maher-shalal-hash-baz, 
soon  to  be  born.  It  would,  of  course, 
powerfully  excite  curiosity.  As  to 
the  name  itself,  see  on  fourth  verse. 

E  2 


52 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  VIII. 


hash-baz  ;  ^  and  "  take  for  me,  as  credible  witncs.ses,  Uriah  the 
priest,  and  Zcchariah  son  of  Jeberechiah.  ^  And  I  went  near 
the  prophetess,  and  she  conceived,  and  bore  a  son.  ''  And 
Jehovah  said  unto  me,  Call  his  name  Mahcr-.shalal-hash-baz  ; 
for  before  the  boy  shall  know  how  to  cry,  My  father,  and  My 
mother,  men  shall  carry  the  riches  of  Damascus  and  the  spoil 
of  Samaria  before  the  king  of  Assyria. 

^  And  Jehovah  spoke  still  further  unto  me,  saying,  ^'  For- 

a  So  Sept.,  Pcsh.,  Targ.,  Hitz.    Text,  I  will  take. 


2  Take  for  me  .  .  .  ]  '  For  me,' 
because  the  prophecy  was  Jeho- 
vah's ;  Isaiah  was  but  an  instru- 
ment. '  Witnesses,'  viz.,  to  the  people 
at  the  fulfihircnt  of  the  prophecy 
that  it  was  no  forgery.  Uriah  may 
be  the  high-priest  mentioned  so 
unfavourably  in  2  Kings  xvi.  lo,  1 1  ; 
this,  however,  is  not  certain,  still 
less  certain  is  Bertholdt's  and 
Bleek's  identification  of  Zechariah 
with  the  author  of  the  prophecy  in 
Zech.  ix.-xi. 

^  A  living  tablet,  instead  of  the 

dead  one. The  prophetess]  i.e., 

the  prophet's  wife.  The  same  title 
of  courtesy  was  given  to  Ayesha, 
Mohammed's  third  wife,  on  account 
of  her  influence  with  her  husband 
even  in  matters  of  religion.  So 
too  the  wives  of  kings  are  called 
'  cjueens '  and  '  princesses '  (xlix.  23, 
I  Kings  xi.  3,  Cant.  vi.  8),  and  so 
in  the  Mishna  the  priest's  wife  is 
called  '  priestess '  {kehanta). 

■*  »laher-shalal-hash-baz]  i.e., 
probably  '  Swift  (swiftly  cometh) 
spoil,  speedy  (speedily  cometh) 
prey.'  Imitated  by  Cioethe,  in  his 
Habebald— Eilebeute  {Faust,  act 
iv.  sc.  3).  It  has  been  doybted 
whether  the  child  can  actually  have 
borne  such  a  name,  but  the  analo- 
gies of  Shear-Yashub,  of  the  com- 
pound religious  names  in  i  Chr.  iii. 
20,  iv.  3,  XXV.  4,  Ezra  viii.  4,  and 
of  the  names  of  the  Assyrian  kings, 
may  dispel  the  doubt.  It  might 
of  course  have  been  shortened  in 
every-day  use,  as  Abijah  was  short- 
ened into  Abi,Jchoahaz  into  Ahaz, 
&c.  —  The  prediction  of  Maher- 
^halal-hash-baz  is  not  invested  with 


such  solemnity  as  that  of  Immanuel. 
But  the  two  are  in  several  respects 
allied.  In  both  the  birth  of  a  child 
is  the  pledge  of  deliverance.  In 
both  the  arrival  of  the  child  at  a 
certain  age  is  the  signal  for  the  ful- 
filment of  the  prophecy.  Both,  too, 
refer  to  the  same  event.  True,  a 
child  can  say  Father  and  Mother 
before  it  can  clearly  discern  between 
good  and  evil.  But  then  the  date 
of  the  latter  prophecy  must  be 
placed  at  least  half  a  year  later 
than  that  of  vii.  14-16,  on  account 
of  V.  3.  In  an  inferior  degree, 
therefore,  the  birth  of  INIaher-shalal- 
hash-baz  may  be  called  a  '  sign ' 
(comp.  viii.  18). 

^  This  people]  The  phrase  is 
most  commonly  applied  to  Judah 
(e.g.,  vi.  10,  xxviii.  14,  xxix.  13,  Jer. 
viii.  5,  xiii.  10),  but  in  ix.  15  (16)  is 
used  of  Israel,  and  in  Jer.  xxxiii.  24 
it  is  even  applied  to  the  heathen 
neighbours  of  the  Jews.  We  are 
therefore  by  no  means  shut  up  to 
the  view  of  Ewald  (entirely  incon- 
sistent with  vii.  2),  that  most  of 
the  population  of  Jerusalem  were 
in  favour  of  the  pretender  Ben- 
Tabel  (vii.  6),  and  wished  well  to 
the  invading  army.  It  is  much  more 
natural  to  suppose,  with  De  Dieu, 
that  'this  people'  means  N.  Israel, 
Judah  being  first  mentioned  in  v.  8. 
There  is  the  same  transition  from 
Israel  to  Judah  in  ix.  8— x.  4  and 

x.xviii.  1-6. Hath  rejected  the 

\iratcrs  ot  Shiloah]  Comp.  Hos.  i.  2 
b.  To  '  reject '  in  a  religious  sense  - 
to  apostatise  from  (co  np.  Jer.  xvii 
13).  But  why  'the  waters  of  Slii- 
loah'?     I'or  this  reason.     The  pro- 


CHAP.  VIII.] 


ISAIAH. 


53 


asmuch  a.s  this  people  hath  rejected  the  waters  of  Shiloah 
which  flow  softly,  and  ^  rejoice  with  ^  Rezin  and  the  son  of 
Remaliah,  ^  therefore,  behold,  the  Lord  bringeth  upon  them 
the  waters  of  the  river,  mighty  and  great,  [*^the  king  of  Assyria 
and  all  his  glory"' :]  and  it  shall  mount  over  all  its  channels, 
and  go  over  all  its  banks,'  ^and  shall  sweep  along  into  Judah, 

*>  Despair  because  of,  Hitz.,  Reuss. 

"^  Omitted  as  interpolation  by  Ges.,  Hitz. 


phets  gloried  in  Jerusalem's  not 
possessing  large  streams,  as  means 
of  defence.  They  knew  that  Jeho- 
vah would  supply  the  place  of 
'rivers  and  canals'  (xxxiii.  21),  and 
be  like  a  stream,  whose  arms  '  make 
glad  the  city  of  God'  (Ps.  xlvi.  4). 
The  brook  of  Shiloah,  therefore, 
which  flowed  past  Zion  and  Moriah, 
became  a  type  of  the  gracious  God 
enthroned  in  the  temple.  But  since 
the  Davidic  dynasty  alone  had 
Jehovah's  sanction  (comp.  Hos.  iii. 
5),  the  phrase  is  also  a  figure  for 
the  mild  government  of  the  Davidic 

family. "VJT'iiich    flow    softly] 

Dr.  Neubauer  supposes  that  Ahaz 
had  made  a  conduit  for  the  more 
rapid  passage  of  the  waters  of  Shi- 
loah, and  that  the  people  ironically 
said  of  them  that  they  still  went 
but  softly.  The  first  part  of  the 
conjecture  has  a  basis  in  the  Tal- 
mudic  passage  {Eracliin  10  b) 
quoted  by  Delitzsch  ad  loc.^  but  it 
is  by  no  means  necessary  to  explain 
Isaiah's  expression.  Soft-flowing 
waters  are  a  natural  emblem  of 
humiliation  ;  comp.  with  Ges.,  Virg. 
yE?i.  viii.  726,  'Euphrates  ibatjam 

mollior     undis.' Rejoice      (in 

union)  \(ritli  Rezin  and  the  son  of 
Ramaliah]  The  peculiar  form  of 
the  phrase  is  determined  by  the 
wish  for  an  alliteration — {ind\is  in 
the  first  clause,  nidsosxw  the  second). 
The  10/iolc  passage  refers  prii/iariiy 
to  Israel^  whose  fault  was  rejecting 
Jehovah,  the  true  king  of  Israel, 
and  cleaving  to  Rezin  and  Pekah 
as  their  champions  against  Assyria. 
But  this  was  also  in  part  the  fault 
of  Judah.  The  latter,  of  course, 
rejected  Rezin,  but  was  far  (to 
judge  from  the  prophecies  of  Isaiah) 

'  Descriptive  Sketchc 


from  joyful  attachment  to  Jehovah. 
Hence  the  punishment  fell  on  'both 
the  houses  of  Israel'  (viii.  14). 
Instead  of  the  beneficent  overflow 
of  the  'living  waters'  (Jer.  xvii.  1 3, 
Ezek.  xlvii.  1-12),  the  faithless  land 
shall  be  flooded  with  the  cruel 
soldiery  of  Assyria.  But  there  is 
a  difference  in  the  fate  of  the  two 
countries.  Israel  is  swept  away  by 
the  stream  and  absorbed  ;  Judah, 
through  Immanuel's  help,  emerges 
safely  from  the  torrent. 

"'  Upon  them]  i.e.,  upon  the 
Israelites  of  the  north.  The  image 
is  based  upon  the  annual  inunda- 
tions of  the  Euphrates.  Comp. 
Jer.  xlvii.  2. 

'^  iLnd  shall  s\7eep  along^  •  ■  ■  ] 
Judah  shall  only  escape  for  a  time. 
He  shall  be  overtaken  by  the  tor- 
rent, and  barely  keep  his  head 
above  the  water  (xxx.  28).  Masses 
of  water  branching  off,  like  wings, 
from  the  main  current,  shall  cover 
the  utmost  extremities  of  the  land. 
But  Assyria  shall  not  ultimately 
prevail.  The  safety  of  Judah  is 
secured,  for  its  real  though  invisible 
lord  is  Immanuel,  who  shall  emerge 
out  of  his  obscurity,  with  super- 
naturally  matured  powers,  when 
the  time  shall  have  come  (comp.  vii. 

I  4). O  Immanuel !]     An  ejacu- 

latory  prayer  for  the  Deliverer's 
advent. — The  not  unpleasing  con- 
fusion of  metaphors  in  v.  8  may  be 
paralleled  from  Wordsworth  :— 


So  shall  its  waters  from  the  heaven  sup- 
plied 

Brood  o'er  the  long-parched  lands  with 
Nile-like  wings.  1 

Dr.  C.  Taylor  thinks  the  fate  of 
near  the  end. 


54 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  VIII. 


shall  overflow  and  pass  over,  reaching  even  to  the  neck,  and 
the  stretching  out  of  its  wings  shall  fill  the  breadth  of  thy  land, 
O  Immanuel !  ^  '^Take  knowledge,'^  O  ye  peoples,*^  and  give 
ear,  all  ye  distances  of  the  earth  :  gird  yourselves,  but  ye 
shall  break  down  ;  gird  yourselves,  but  ye  shall  break  down  ; 
'°  devise  a  device,  but  it  shall  come  to  nought :  speak  a  word, 
but  it  shall  not  stand,  for,  '  With  us  is  God.'  "  For  thus  said 
Jehovah  unto  me,  with  a  strong  pressure  of  the  Hand,  and 
warned  me  not  to  walk  in  the  way  of  this  people,  saying, 
*^ '  Ye  shall  not  call    everything  a  ^  holy  thing  ^  which   this 

"*  So  Sept.,  Lovvth,  Gnitz.     Text,  Be  enraged. 

«  Text  inserts,  but  ye  shall  break  down. 

^  So  Seeker,  Kr.,  Gr.,  La.     Text,  conspiracy. 


the  Assyrians  is  described  in  w. 
i\^2i  (see  notes). 

^  At  the  thought  of  Immanuel, 
the  prophet  raises  his  tone.  He 
challenges  the  combined  nations, 
whether  near  as  the  Syrians  and 
Israelites,  or  distant  as  the  Assy- 
rians, and  announces  their  over- 
throw.  Gird  yourselves]  With 

your  belt  and  weapons  (see  on  xlv. 
5). Break  down]  i.e.,  in  dis- 
may. Used  again  of  Assyria,  xxx. 
31,  xxxi.  9. 

i"  IVitb  us  in  God]  Comp.  Ps. 
xlvi.  7,  II  (a  contemporary  writing?) 

^'"'^  A  short  oracle,  complete  in 
itself,  and  probably  written  down 
(so  vigorous  is  the  style)  not  long 
after  the  experience  described.  It 
has  no  reference  to  the  invasion  of 
Rezin  and  Pekah,  as  most  critics 
have  supposed  (see  on  v.  12),  but 
explains  upon  what  conditions  the 
motto  '  Immanuel '  will  be  verified. 
TVitb  a  strong:  pressure  .  .  .  ] 
'  The  Hand '  (or,  '  the  Arm  of  Jeho- 
vah,' liii.  i)  is  a  personification  of 
the  self-manifesting  power  of  Jeho- 
vah (analogous  to  'the  Face  of  Je- 
hovah ' ;  sec  on  lix.  2),  with  reference 
especially,  though  not  exclusively, 
(see  Ex.  vi.  i)  to  the  extraordinary 
deeds  or  words  of  the  prophets.  So 
in  the  stor}'  of  Elijah  {\  Kings  xviii. 
46)  and  Elisha  (2  Kings  iii.  15).  It 
is  probal)le  enough  that  in  ordinary 
Canaanitish  phraseology  the  phrase 
was  descriptive  -of  a  completely 
passive  ecstatic  state,  in  >vhicli  the 


self-consciousness  of  the  prophet 
was  entirely  asleep,  and  that  it  was 
retained  by  prophets  of  Jehovah, 
like  Isaiah,  as  having  in  their  case  a 
comparative  degree  of  propriety.  It 
is  not  reasonable  to  suppose  that 
Isaiah  ever  lost  his  self-conscious- 
ness : — that  would  have  been  a  tem- 
porary suspension  of  his  moral  life. 
Fortunately,  we  have  a  prophecy  of 
his  in  which  he  has  described  his 
state  when  under  the  prophetic  im- 
pulse with  pictorial  vividness  (chap. 
vi.)  It  is  remarkable  that  Ezekiel, 
living  in  the  decline  of  the  higher 
prophecy,  shows  a  preference  for  a 
form  of  speech  characteristic  of  the 
primitive  stage,  and  rare  among  the 
greater  prophets.  See  Ezek.  i.  3, 
iii.  22,  xxxvii.  i,  and  especially  iii. 
14,  viii.  3.  'The  Hand'  only  occurs 
agaiu  in  Isaiah  in  xiv.  26,  and  ac- 
cording to  Del.  in  xxviii.  2,  which 

I     doubt. Tbe     way     of    this 

people]  i.e.,  the  low  religious 
views  of  the  Israelties  (both  of 
north  and  of  south  ;  see  v.  14). 
Just  as  the  Gospel-religion  is  called 
'  this  way '  in  Acts  ix.  2.  Kocher 
{Viudiciic,  p.  64)  asks.  How  could 
Isaiah  be  in  danger  of  idolatry.'' 
But  he  seems  to  be  here  described 
as  the  head  of  a  little  society,  some 
of  whom  may  have  needed  this  ex- 
hortation more  than  Isaiah. 

i.'-u  Ye  shall  not  call  every- 
thing: .  .  .  ]  Isaiah  and  his  dis- 
ciples— in  fact,  the  'church'  with- 
in the  nation — are  the  persons  ad- 


CHAP.  VIII.] 


ISAIAH. 


55 


people  calleth  a  *"holy  thing/  and  the  object  of  their  fear  ye 
shall  not  fear,  nor  account  it  dreadful.  '^  Jehovah  Sabaoth, 
him  shall  ye  count  holy,  and  let  him  be  your  fear,  and  him 
your  dread.  •"*  And  he  shall  ^  shew  himself  as  holy,^  and  as  a 
stone  for  striking  against  and  a  rock  of  stumbling  to  both  the 
houses  of  Israel,  as  a  gin  and  a  snare  to  the  inhabitants  of 
Jerusalem  :  ^^  and  many  ^  shall  stumble  at  it,^  and  fall,  and  be 
broken,  and  snared,  and  taken.' 

^^ '  Bind  thou  up  the  admonition,  seal  the  instruction  among 
my  disciples  '  .  .  .  ^^  And  I  will  wait  for  Jehovah,  who  hideth 

g  Be  for  a  sanctuary,  E\v. ,  Del. ,  Naeg. ,  Weir. 

^  Among  them  shall  stumble,  Ew.,  Del.,  Naeg.  (see  crit.  note). 


dressed.  The  warning  corresponds 
to  that  against  necromancy  in  v. 
19.  There  is  to  be  no  compromise 
between  the  worship  of  Jehovah 
and  the  rights  and  practices  of  a 
lower  type  of  rehgion.  Indeed, 
Jehovah  will  soon  prove  His  ex- 
clusive right  to  the  title  of  '  holy,' 
by  the  terrible  ruin  which,  by 
their  own  fault,  shall  overtake  the 
two  houses  of  Israel.  He  will  be 
a  'stone  of  stumbling'  to  the  unbe- 
lievers (comp.  Luke  xx.  1 8),  but  (as 
we  may  supply  from  xxviii.  16),  a 
sure  support  to  the  faithful  ;  and 
from  the  suddenness  of  his  inter- 
position, will  be  like  unto  '  a  gin 
and  a  snare '(Luke  xxi.  35).  No 
other  view  of  this  passage  seems 
to  me  even  plausible,  and  Gratz 
deserves  much  credit  for  having 
revived  the  forgotten  emendation 
of  Seeker.  Isaiah  could  not  forbid 
his  disciples  to  banish  the  word 
'confederacy'  (or  rather  'conspi- 
racy') from  their  vocabulary — for 
this  is  what  the  ordinary  view 
(see  /.  C.  A.,  p.  32),  amounts  to — 
'  this  people'  would  not  be  likely  to 
misapply  such  a  word  ;  while  the 
theory  of  Roorda,  Del.,  and  Kay, 
that  the  court  party  accused  Isaiah 
and  his  friends  of  having  conspired 
(comp.  Am.  vii.  10),  is  refuted  by 
the  simple  observation  already 
made  above,  that  not  the  opponents, 
but  the  disciples  of  Isaiah  are  the 
persons  here  addressed. 

^^  Shew  himself  as  holy]      Lit. 
'become  a  hallowed  thing;'— be- 


come =  shew  himself  as  (so  often, 
e.g.,  I  Sam.  iv.  9).  Alt.  rend,  is 
against  the  connection,  and  if  sanc- 
tuary =  asylum,  against  usage. 

^°  Bind  thou  up  ...  ]  '  But 
thou,  O  Daniel,  shut  up  the  words, 
and  seal  the  book  to  the  time  of  the 
end,'  Dan.  xii.  4,  comp.  viii.  26. 
This  parallel  passage  shews  who 
the  speaker  is,  viz.,  Jehovah,  who 
enjoins  the  prophet  not  to  trust  so 
important  an  oracle  to  the  memory 
alone,  but  to  write  it  down  (this  is 
implied  as  in  Dan.  /.  c),  and  lay 
it  up,  carefully  bound  and  sealed, 
among  his  disciples  (comp.  xxx.  8). 
So  already  the  Targum.  '  Jehovah's 
disciples'  are  of  course  Isaiah's 
disciples,  whose  relation  to  the 
highest  of  teachers  has  been 
already  recognised  by  the  plural 
form  of  the  address  in  7/.  12  ;  comp. 

liv.  13. The  admonition]     The 

word  rendered  '  to  testify,'  '  admon- 
ish,' or  '  solemnly  declare,'  is  often 
used  of  Jehovah  and  the  prophets, 

e.g.,  Ps.  1.  7,  Deut.  viii.  19. The 

instruction]  i.e.,  the  prophetic 
teaching  or  revelation  (see  on  i.  10) 
referring  here  to  the  oracle  in  vv. 
12-15.  There  is  surely  nothing  to  in- 
dicate a  reference  to  the  Mosaic  law: 
TordJi  has  a  far  wider  meaning. 

'''  And  I  will  wait  .  .  •  ]  Isaiah 
is  evidently  the  speaker,  but  how 
strangely  abrupt  is  his  language  ! 
We  should  at  least  have  expected, 
'  And  as  for  me  I  will  wait,'  &c., 
and  even  this  would  be  only  a 
degree    less   abrupt.      Has   not   a 


56 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  VIII. 


his  face  from  the  house  of  Jacob,  and  hope  in  him.  '^Behold 
I  and  the  children  whom  Jehovah  hath  given  me  are  for  signs 
and  for  omens  in  Israel  from  Jehovah  Sabaoth  who  dwelleth 
on  mount  Zion.     '^  And  when  they  shall  say  unto  you,  '  Re- 


verse dropped  out  between  t't'.  i6 
and  17?  Considering  the  unsatis- 
factory state  of  the  remainder  of 
the  chapter,  the  supposition  can- 
not be  called  a  violent  one.  An 
attempt  has  indeed  been  made  to 
bridge  over  7n>.  16  and  17  by  sup- 
posing that  the  prophet  speaks  in 
his  own  person  in  both  verses  (so 
Kimchi,  Drechsler,  Del.,  Perowne). 
As  Dr.  Perowne  puts  it,^  in  the 
former  verse  he  utters  a  command, 
or  a  petition  ;  in  the  latter,  he  de- 
clares his  own  attitude  in  reference 
to  it.  But  in  either  case,  it  seems 
impossible  to  make  sense  of  '  in  my 
disciples.'  Were  the  passage  a 
command  of  Isaiah,  we  should  ex- 
pect '  O  my  disciples  ! '  were  it  a 
petition,  '  in  the  hearts  of  my  dis- 
ciples'  (comp.  li.  7,  Prov.  vii.  3). 
Del.,  indeed,  supposes  the  latter  to 
be  the  meaning  of  the  existing 
text ;  but  it  is  doubtful  whether 
even  the  fuller  form  suggested  would 
admit  the  desired  interpretation. 

'*  Isaiah    confirms    his  faith  by 
the     thought     that     he     and     his 

children  are  divinely  appointed. 

Sig-ns  and  omens]    The  meaning 
is  plain  from  Ezek.  xii.  11,  'Say,  I 
am  your  omen  ;  like  as  I  have  done, 
so  shall  it  be  done  unto  them  ;  they 
shall  remove  and  go  into  captivity  ;' 
and    from    Zech.  iii.  8,  where   the 
high-priest  Joshua  and  his  fellows 
are  called    '  men    of   omen.'      The 
conception  is,  that  C^od  selects  cer- 
tain men  to  be  shatlows  or  types 
of   still    greater  men  or   things  to 
come,     liythe  prophetic  announce- 
ments of  their  birth,  and  by  their 
divinely  appointed  significant  names 
{i707)ic7i  oi/icn),  the  two  children  of 
Isaiah,    like  those  of  Hosea,  were 
living  prophecies  :  and  so,  too,  by 
his  steadfast  faith,  by  his  symbolic 
acts  (see  on  xx.  3),  and  perhaps  by 


circumstances  in  his  life  not  known 
to  us,  was  Isaiah  himself-  The  last 
words  of  the  verse  evidently  close  a 
section,  and  confirm  the  impression 
that  the  preceding  passage  is  in- 
complete. 

'^  The  prophet  warns  his  dis- 
ciples not  to  give  way  to  the  solici- 
tations of  the  soothsaying  party. 
The  apodosis,  however,  is  wanting. 
Either  it  has  been  lost,  or,  like  Paul 
on  similar  occasions,  the  prophet 
breaks  off  from  inner  excitement. 
From  the  beginning  of  the  sentence, 
'  And  when  they  shall  say  unto  you,' 
we  may  infer  that  he  meant  to  con- 
clude with  something  like  '  Heark- 
en not  unto  them.'     See  on  v.  20. 

Resort  to  the  necromancers 

.  .  .  ]  Magic  and  necromancy 
seem  to  have  been  specially  pre- 
valent in  S.  Israel.  The  various 
kinds  are  named  in  Deut.  xviii. 
10,  1 1.  A  vivid  picture  of  a  ne- 
cromantic consultation  is  given  in 

I  Sam.  xxviii.  1-20. That  chirp 

and  that  mutter]  i.e.,  that  imitate 
the  '  squeaking  and  gibbering '  of 
ghosts  ;  coarip.  xxix.  4  ;  Jl.  xxiii. 
loi  ;  yEn.  vi.  492  ;  Tylor,  Prinii- 
tive  Ciiliure^  i.  408.  '  Chirping ' 
reminds  us  first  of  all  of  birds,  and 
in  the  Babj'lonian  Legend  of  Ishtar 
(line  10)  the  spirits  are  compared 
to  birds.^  It  may  also  allude  to 
the  voice  of  children,  and  H.  Spen- 
cer quotes  a  passage  about  the 
Zulu  diviners,  'The  voice  (of  the 
supposed  spirits)  was  like  that  of 
a  very  little  child.'  According  to 
Sept.,  the  phrase  is  descriptive  of 
ventriloquism  (as  if  ^M  =  ' bottle '), 
'  Read  Captain  Lyons'  account  of 
the  scene  in  the  cabin  with  the 
Esquimaux  bladder  or  conjurer  ;  it 
is  impossible  not  to  be  reminded 
of  the  Witch  of  Endor'  (Coleridge). 
Should  not  people  resort  to 


•  Sermons  (1874)  ;  Exposition  of  Isa.  viii.  i6-ix.  7. 

'^  We  might  add  the  significant  name  of  Isaiah  himself  =' salvation  (is)  Jehovah.' 
But  such  names  were  not  unconmion,  comp.  Josluia,  Hosaiah,  Ehshua. 
3  Comp.  quotations  in  II.  Spencer's  Principles  of  Sociology,  p.  356. 


CHAP.  VIII.] 


ISAIAH. 


57 


sort  to  the  necromancers  and  the  wizards,  that  chirp  and 
that  mutter '  .  .  .  .  ^  Should  not  a  people  resort  to  its  God  ? 
on  behalf  of  the  living  (should  it  apply  to)  the  dead  ?  ^ 
^^  To  the  instruction  and  to  the  admonition  !  ^  Surely  they 
shall  speak  according  to  this  word  when  there  is  no  dawning 
for  them.  ^  ^'  And  he  shall  look  unto  the  earth,  and  behold, 
distress  and  darkness,  gloom  of  affliction,  and  ^  thick  darkness 
driven  (upon  him)  ;  ^  ^'  and  he  shall  pass  through  it  hard-prest 

'  (Do  not  the  people  [always]  resort  to  their  gods,  instead  of  the  living  to  the 
dead?).  Ew. — Should  not  a  people  resort  to  their  gods,  on  behalf  of  the  living  to 
the  dead?     I.C.A.  (1870),  and  so  Buhl  (in  Luthardt's  Zeitschrift,  1883,  p.  230). 

''  So  Weir;  Perowne  also  'when'  (see  crit.  note). — Surely,  &c.,  who  have  no  day- 
break, Hitz.,  Ew. — Or  shall  they  not  speak  thus  for  whom,  &c..  Knob.  Reuss,  Del. 
ed.  2  and  3  (corresponding  question  to  that  in  v.  19). — If  they  speak  not  thus,  they 
are  a  people  for  whom  there  is  no  daybreak.     Del.  ed.  i  (after  Luther). 

'  Darkness  spread  abroad,  Saad.,  Luz.,  Naeg. — Into  darkness  is  he  driven,  Rashi, 
Ew.,  Del.     (Text  uncertain). 


their  God?]  This  and  the  following 
words  seem  to  me  a  parenthetical 
remark  of  the  prophet,  half  serious, 
half  ironical.  To  take  them  as  a 
reply  suggested  for  Isaiah's  disci- 
ples is  surely  rather  forced  ;  they 
sound  more  like  the  words  of  an 
interested  bystander.  '  Their  God,' 
i.e.,  the  national  God,  Jehovah 
(comp.  Mic.  iv.  5).  Formerly  (see 
crit.  note)  I  explained  Elohim  of 
the  spirits  of  the  dead  (comp.  i 
Sam.  xxviii.  19),  as  if  the  people 
naively  exposed  the  absurdity  of 
their  own  conduct.  Plausible  ;  but 
would  the  shades  be  called  the 
Elohim  of  apeoplel  'The  dead' 
does  not  here  mean  idol-gods  (as 
Ps.  cvi.  28),  but  the  spirits  of  the 
dead  (see  Deut.  xviii.  11). 

'^0  To  the  instruction  .  .  .  ]  i.e.. 
Let  us  rather  edify  ourselves  by 
the  true  oracle  laid  up  in  our 
midst  {v.  16).  In  form  the  words 
remind  us  of  Judg.  vii.  18,  'To  Je- 
hovah and  to  Gideon  ! ' Surely 

they  shall  speak  .  .  .  ]  '  The 
general  import  of  this  and  the  fol- 
lowing verses  cannot  be  mistaken  ; 
but  the  language  is  so  compressed 
and  elliptical  that  it  is  not  easy  to 
make  out  the  meaning  and  connec- 
tion of  several  of  the  clauses  .  .  . 
The  second  clause  admits  of  two  le- 
gitimate renderings  :  If  they  speak 
not  thus,  or,  Surely  they  shall  speak 


thus.  The  objection  to  the  former 
rendering  is  that  the  prophet  had 
already  supposed  them  to  speak 
quite  otherwise  (?'.  19)  .  .  .  The 
latter  is  therefore  much  more  ap- 
propriate. The  time  will  come  when 
even  tJiey  who  had  once  despised 
the  law  and  the  testimony  shall  turn 
to  it  in  despair '  (Dr.  Weir).  Com- 
pare for  the  use  of  the  relative  pro- 
noun for  the  relative  adverb  '  when,' 
Lev.  iv.  22,  Num.  v.  29,  i  Kings 
viii.  33,  38  ;  and  for  the  sentiment, 
Ps.  cvii.  11-14,  Ixxviii.  34.  But 
though  the  former  despisers  of  re- 
velation turn  to  it  now  in  despair, 
it  does  not  follow  that  their  appeal 
to  Jehovah  is  in  vain.  We  might, 
indeed,  expect  that  it  would  be  so, 
comp.  xxviii.   19,  Am.  viii.   11,  12; 

but  ix.  I,  2  tells  a  different  tale. 

Dawning-]  =  hope    of  better    days, 

comp.  lix.  9,  lo. ror  them]  Lit., 

for  him. 

^^  This  and  the  following  verses 
form  the  most  difficult  part  of  the 
prophecy.  They  are  not  only  ob- 
scure in  themselves,  but,  at  first 
sight  at  least,  inconsistent  with  the 
opening  verses  of  chap.  ix.  Here, 
hopeless  gloom  and  distress  ;  there, 
light  and  prosperity.  How  are 
these  two  opposite  descriptions  to 
be  reconciled  1  The  easiest  way  is 
probably  that  adopted  above,  which 
was   suggested   by  Dr.  Siegfried.^ 


1  Zeitschrift  fur  wisscnschafilichc  Thcologie,  1872,  p.  280. 


58 


ISAIAH.  [CHAP.  IX. 


and  hungry  ;  and  it  shall  come  to  pass,  when  he  is  hungry, 
that  he  shall  be  deeply  angered,  and  curse  ™  by  his  king  and 
by  his  god,™  and  shall  look  upwards. 

">  His  king  and  his  god,  Hitz.  Naeg.  (conip.  ii.  20). 

It  involves,  no  doubt,  a  transposi-  not  yet  told  what  vision  meets  their 

tion,  but  this  is  no  novelty  in  criti-  eyes  when  they  turn  them  towards 

cal    editions  of  ancient   texts  ;  for  heaven.     (See  crit.  note). And 

other  instances  of  misplaced  verses,  he  sball  look.  .  .  ]  viz.,  the  people 

see  on  x.xxviii.  22.     Ur.  C.  Taylor's  personihed.      For   the    change    of 

ing^enious   theory '     (partly   antici-  person,  in  the  preceding  verse  in 

pated  by  A.  E.),  that  7/7'.  21,  22  are  the    Hebr.),    comp.    x.    4,   «S:c. 

a  continuation  of  vv.  7,  8,  and  Tbrougrh  it]  i.e.,  through  the 
describe  the  fate  of  the  Assyrian  earth  (see  v.  22). Hungry]  Fa- 
invaders  (7'7/.  9-20  being  a  digres-  mine  being  a  frequent  consequence 
sion  suggested  by  the  words   Im-  of  invasion,  see  on    xxx.    23,    and 

manu   El),  must,    I   almost  fear,  be  Lev.    xxvi.    26. Curse    by    bis 

rejected,  because  the  picture  in  7'7'.  king:   and   by   his   god]  He    first 

21,  22  is  so  much  more  suitable  to  curses    his    enemies    by    his   god 

a   people   suffering   from  invasion  (comp.  i   Sam.  xvii.  43),  and  then 

than  to  the  invaders,  and  because  looks  up  to  his  god  for  help.  'King' 

it  so  evidently  contrasts  with  the  and  '  god '  may  either  be  taken  as 

vision  of  light  in  chap.  ix.  i,  2.'^  synonymous  (as  Am.  v.  26,  Hebr., 

2a,2i  -pj^g  unfortunate  Jews  look  comp.    Vs.    v.    2),    or   as   meaning 

first   downward   to  the  earth,  and  respectively   the   earthly    and   the 

then  upward  to  heaven.     No  cheer-  heavenly  ruler, 
ing  sight  meets  them  below  ;  we  are 

'  Journal  of  Philoh^y,  vol.  vi.  pp.  149-159. 

^  I  do  not  argue  against  Dr.  Taylor  on  the  ground  of  the  length  of  the  digression. 
There  seem  to  be  several  instances  of  insertions  being  made  by  the  prophetic  writers 
themselves,  owing  to  after-thoughts.  Take,  e.g.,  xlii.  1-7.  As  Duhm  has  pointed 
out,  xlii.  8  fits  on  much  better  to  the  end  of  chap.  xli.  than  to  the  verse  which  now 
precedes  it.  Dr.  Taylor  will  observe  that  I  liave  spoken  above  with  some  hesitation. 
I  wish  to  allow  room  for  the  possilsility  that  a  passage  has  fallen  out  of  the  text,  before 
V.  21,  which  accounted  for  and  led  up  to  the  description  of  the  Assyrians  {ex  hyp.)  m 
w.  21,  22. 


CHAPTER    IX. 


Vv.  1-7.  The  conclusion  of  the  prophecy.  The  mystery  in  the  dealings 
of  Jehovah  with  His  people  shall  be  cleared  up.  The  light  of  His  favour 
shall  return,  and  those  parts  of  the  land  of  Israel  which  bore  the  first 
brunt  of  Assyrian  hostility  shall  be  proportionately  glorified.  For  the 
Messiah  shall  appear,  and  bring  the  tyranny  of  Israel's  foes  to  an  end. 
Under  him  the  empire  of  David  shall  be  restored  on  an  indestructible 
foundation. — The  tenses  in  the  Hebr.  are  'factitive,'  or  perhaps  prophetic 
perfects. 

'  Surely  there  is  (now)  no  (more)  gloom  to  her  whose  lot 

'  Surely  there  is  (now)  no  mule  ]ietition  of  the  upturned  eye 
(more)  {^loom  •■  •  ]  Alluding  to  has  been  granted.  In  a  moment 
the   expressions   in   viii.   21.     The      the  condition  of  Israel  is  reversed. 


CHAP.  IX.] 


ISAIAH. 


59 


was  affliction.  At  the  former  time  he  brought  shame  on  the 
land  of  Zebulun  and  on  the  land  of  Naphtali,  but  in  the  latter 
he  hath  brought  honour  on  the  way  by  the  sea,  the  other  side 
of  Jordan,  the  district  of  the  nations.  ^  The  people  that  walk 
in  darkness  see  a  great  light  ;  they  that  dwell  in  the  land  of 
deadly  shade,  light  shineth  brilliantly  upon  them.  ^Thou 
hast  multiplied  "  exultation,  thou  hast  increased  joy  :  *  they 
rejoice  before  thee  as  with  the  joy  in  the  harvest,  as  men 
exult  when  they  divide  spoil.  ^  For  the  yoke  of  his  burden, 
and  the  staff  of  his  back,  the  rod  of  his  task-master,  thou 

"  So  Kr.,  Selwyn  &c.  (conj. )  ;  the  nation,  not  increased  (  =  removed)  joy,  Text, 
Hengst.  Kay  ;  the  nation,  unto  it  thou  hast  increased  joy,  Heb.  niarg.,  MSS.,  Pesh., 
Targ.,  and  most  moderns.     See  crit.  note. 


The  clouds  are  lifted,  and  a  bril- 
liant day  dawns  suddenly  (as  in  Ix. 
i).  'To  her,'  i.e.,  to  Palestine, 
where  a  hard-pressed  remnant  of 
Israelites  has  been  '  walking  in 
darkness.' TUe  land  of  Zebu- 
lun and  the  land  of  Naphtali] 
i.e.,  the  later  Upper  and  Lower 
Galilee.  These  were  the  districts 
despoiled  by  Tiglath-Pileser,  2 
Kings  XV.  29,  comp.  Zech.  x.  10. 
Isaiah  does  not  mean  that  these 
parts  shall  enjoy  more  prosperity 
than  others,  but  that  the  contrast 
between  the  past  and  the  present 
shall  be  greater  in  their  case  than 
in  others.  All  Israel  shall  rejoice, 
but  those  parts  which  have  suffered 

longest  shall  rejoice  most. The 

way  by  the  sea]  i.e.,  the  district 
on  the  W.  of  the  Sea  of  Galilee,  as 
opposed  to  '  the  other  side  of 
Jordan,'  and  the  '  circle  of  the  na- 
tions,' i.e.  the  frontier  districts 
nearest  to  Phoenicia,  including 
'the  land  of  Cabul'  (i  Kings  ix. 
1 1- 1 3),  which  formed  part  of  the 
later  Upper  Galilee.  Vm  A/ari's, 
M.  Renan  observes,  was  the  name 
of  the  high  road  from  Acre  to  Da- 
mascus, as  late  as  the  Crusades. 
'  Way,'  however,  here  means  re- 
gion, comp.  Iviii.  12,  Job  xxiv.  4  ; 
'  the  sea '  is  the  Sea  of  Galilee 
(John  vi.  i),  called  the  Sea  of  Kin- 
nereth  in  Num.  xxxiv.  11. 

~  In  the  land  of  deadly  shade] 
'Deadly  shade'  (Heb.  calDiavcth) 
is  properly  a  title  of  the  Hebrew 


Hades  (Ps.  xxiii.  4,  Job  xxxviii. 
17,  see  crit.  note).  There  is  no 
need  here  (as  in  some  places)  to 
weaken  the  sense  into  'obscurity' ; 
comp.  passages  like  Ps.  Ixxxviii. 
4-6.  A  night  like  that  of  Hades  is 
followed  by  a  blissful  dawn  {noga/i, 
see  on  Ixii.  i),  somewhat  as  Ps. 
xlix.  17. 

^  IVIultiplied  exultation]  Joy 
naturally  follows  upon  light  (see  Ix. 
1-5).  Selwyn's  correction  removes 
the  one  flaw  in  the  symmetry  of 
the  parallelism.  Otherwise  the 
sense  of  the  text-reading  is  good ; 
a  supernatural  increase  of  the 
population  being  a  common  fea- 
ture in  Messianic  descriptions,  see 
xxvi.  15,  18,  19,  Jer.  xxxi.  27,  Ezek. 
xxxvi.  II. Before  thee]  Allud- 
ing to  the  sacrificial  meals,  comp. 
xxv.  6,  and  see  Deut.  xii.  7,  12,  18, 
xiv.  26.  A  religious  han-est  festival 
goes  back  to  the  most  remote 
Semitic  antiquity.  But  the  phrase 
has  received  a  deeper  meaning. 
It  is  the  presence  of  Jehovah  on 
which    their    joy   depends   (Vitr.). 

"When     they    divide     spoil] 

comp.  xxxiii.  23,  Ps.  cxix.  162. 

■*  Thou  hast  broken]    Through 
the    Messiah,    as    a    second    and 

greater  Gideon. The  yoke   of 

his  burden]    i.e.,  the  yoke  which 

burdened  him The  staff  of  his 

back]  i.e.,  the  staff  with  which  he 

was  beaten.  His  task-master] 

Lit.,  his  driver.     Same  word   and 
idiom  in  Ex.  v.  6. The  day  of 


6o 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  IX. 


hast  broken,  as  in  the  day  of  Midian.  ^  Yea,  every  boot  of 
him  that  stamped  ^  with  noise,  and  the  cloak  rolled  in  blood 
— they  are  to  be  burned  up  as  fuel  of  fire.     ^  For  a  child  is 

*>  In  the  noise  (of  battle),  E\v.,  Del. 


IVKidian]  'Day'  =  battle,  whether 
this  lasts  one  day  or  more,  as  fre- 
quently in  Arabic.     Comp.  x.  17. 

*  Isaiah  wishes  to  describe  the 
permanence  of  Israel's  redemption. 
As  long  as  war  exists,  there  must 
be  conquest  and  slavery.  Hence 
war  must  be  destroyed ;  the  very 
emblems  of  war  broken  for  ever 
(comp.  Milton,  '  Ode  on  the  Nati- 
vity'). So  Zech.  ix.  10,  Ezek. 
xxxix.  9,  Ps.  xlvi.  9  (10),  Ixxvi.  3 
(?),  where,  however,  the  emblems 
mentioned  are  the  various  weapons, 
whereas  here  we  have  the  military 
boot  and  cloak.  The  selection  is  a 
happy  one,  as  it  lends  itself  to  a 
strikingly  picturesque  contrast.  We 
are  shown  first  the  warrior  stalking 
along  in  his  blood-stained  cloak 
and  boots  well  set  with  nails,  and 
seeming  to  shake  the  earth  with 
his  sounding  tread  ;  then  both  cloak 
and  boots  supplying  fuel  for  a  bon- 
fire. Homeric  vigour  and  simpli- 
city.  "Witli    noise]    Lit.,    with 

shaking  ;    comp.   Jer.   viii.    16. 

Rolled  in  blood]  Sometimes  ex- 
plained as  a  metaphor,  crimson 
being  the  colour  of  the  military 
cloak,  comp.  Nah.  ii.  4,  Matt,  xxvii. 
28.  But  it  is  better  taken  literally. 
The  prophets  do  not  mince  their 
language  in  depicting  Israel's 
enemies,  comp.  Ixiii.  2,  3,  Rev. 
xix.  13. 

**  A  further  security  for  the  per- 
manence of  the  redemption.  A 
prince  of  a  new  '  order '  has  arisen, 
with    supernatural    cjualities     and 

privileges. A    cliild    is    born 

unto  us]  We  must  not  separate 
this  passage  from  the  context,  and 
infer  that  the  Messiah  had,  accord- 
ing to  the  prophet,  already  been 
born  at  the  date  of  the  delivery  or 
writing  down  of  this  discourse.  The 
prophet  is  unrolling  a  picture  of 
the  future,  and  each  part  of  it  is 
introduced  with  a  '  factitive '  perfect 
tense.     He   is   designedly  vague ; 


the  word  rendered  '  child  '  {yclcd), 
will  serve  equally  well  for  a  new- 
born infant  (Ex.  i.  17,  ii.  3,  6),  and 
for  a  youth  or  young  man  (Gen. 
xlii.  22).  It  is,  therefore,  quite  un- 
certain what  interval  is  to  elapse 
between  the  birth  of  the  child  and 
his  public  manifestation  as  the 
Messiah.  We  are  not  told  anything 
about  his  origin  ;  it  is  only  an  in- 
ference that  he  was  expected  to 
come  from  the  Davidic  family.  The 
prophet  is  entirely  absorbed  in  his 
wonderful  character  and  achieve- 
ments.  Tlie  government]  Not 

that  of  Israel  and  Judah  alone  but, 
as  the  parallel  passage  Mic.  v.  3-5 
shows,  that  of  the  world.  A  small 
world,  it  may  be  said,  was  the 
orbis  Hebrccis  iiotus,  but  probably 
it  did  not  seem  such  to  Isaiah  : 
'conosciuto  il  mondo  Non  c^resce, 

anzi  si  scema'  (Leopardi). Vpon 

bis  back]     Government  being  re- 
garded as  a  burden — comp.  vizier 
{7uczir)  =  burdened.     See   xxii.   22. 
ilnd  his  name  is   called]      If  we 
took  this  literally,  we  might  com- 
pare the  not    unfrequent    practice 
of  Assyrian  kings  of  bearing  two 
names    (Smith,   Assi/rbaiiipal,    p. 
323).    But  of  course  Isaiah  merely 
wishes  to  describe  the  character  of 
the  ideal  king,  name  and  character 
standing  in  such  close  relation  in 
the  Oriental  mind  ;  other  examples 
occur  in  i.  26,  vii.  14  (probably),  1.x. 
14,  Jer.  xi.  16,  xxiii.  6,  Ezek.  xlviii. 
35.    The  length  of  the  name  in  the 
present  instance  may  be  intended 
to  suggest  the  extraordinary  cha- 
racter of  its  bearer.     It  reminds  us 
of    the    long    honorific    names    of 
Egyptian  kings  (e.g.,  in  the  Treaty 
of  Peace,  R.  /'.,  iv.  27,  where  the 
royal  titles  of  Rameses  II.  take  up 
six  lines).- -As  to  the  exegesis  of 
the  details,  three  views  have  a  spe- 
cial claim  to  be  mentioned.     Luz- 
zatto,  a  great  Jewish  scholar  (died 
1865),  puts  the  name  of  the  Child 


CHAP.  IX.] 


ISATAH. 


6i 


born  unto  us,  a  son  is  given 
resteth  upon  his  back,  and  his 

into  a  sentence,  and  renders  '  De- 
creta  prodigi  Iddio  potente,  il 
sempre  padre,  il  signor  della  pace.' 
This  is,  at  least,  plausible.  It  can 
be  supported  by  the  analogy  of 
many  (short)  Hebrew  names  (see 
my  '  Index  of  Proper  Names,  with 
Explanations,'  in  Eyre  &  Spottis- 
woode's  Va7'ioriim  Teacher's  Bible), 
and  of  the  Assyrian  and  Babylo- 
nian royal  names,  nine  out  of  ten 
of  which  form  a  complete  sentence, 
though  none  so  long  a  one  as  this. 
But  the  meaning  which  it  gives  is 
unnatural.  If  the  intention  is  to 
emphasise  the  Divine  wisdom,  why 
accumulate  epithets  of  God  which 
do  not  contribute  to  that  object? 
And,  above  all,  why  employ  the  par- 
ticiple instead  of  the  usual  verbal 
form,  viz.,  the  imperfect  or  perfect  ? 
But  Luzzatto  is  right  on  one  impor- 
tant point,  viz.,  that  all  which  follows 
the  words  'And  his  name  is  called,' 
constitutes  (virtually)  a  single  name 
(though  not,  as  he  wrongly  repre- 
sents it,  a  complete  sentence). 
Del.,  though  very  instructive  on 
other  points,  seems  to  me  less  con- 
vincing on  this.  He  thinks  (with  the 
older  commentators)  that  the  Mes- 
siah here  receives  not  merely  one 
but  five  names,  'Wonder,  Counsel- 
lor, MightyGod,  Everlasting  Father, 
Prince  of  Peace,'  thus  avoiding  the 
necessity  of  supposing  what  he  calls 
(and  with  justice  as  against  Luz- 
zatto's  sentence-theory)  a  '  sesqui- 
pedalian' name;  and  he  justifies 
such  a  name  as  '  Wonder '  by  the 
reply  of  the  Angel  of  Jehovah  to 
Manoah  in  Judg.  xiii.  i8— a  rather 
doubtful  argument,  however,  since 
the  Angel  does  not  say  that  his  name 
is  '  Wonderful,'  but  actually  refuses 
to  tell  it,  '  seeing  that  it  is  wonder- 
ful'(i.e.,  unspeakable).  Two  consi- 
derations^ however,  seem  to  me  con- 
clusive against  Del.,  (i)  that  Isaiah 
leads  us  to  expect  a  name,  and  not 
names  ;  and  (2)  that  the  several  titles 
are  arranged  in  a  significant  order 
(see  below). — It  is  more  reason- 
able  to   hold,  with  Ewald,  that  we 


unto  us,  and  the  government 
name  is  called,  Wonder-Coun- 

have  here  '  two  pairs  of  compound 
names  united,  describing  the  cha- 
racter of  the  Messiah  first  from 
within  and  then  from  without ' 
(/.  C.  A.,  p.  33).  Thus,  '  Wonderful- 
Counsellor  '  is  parallel  to  '  Ever- 
lasting-Father '  ;  both  titles  de- 
scribe what  the  Messiah  is  at  home. 
'  God  the  Hero '  is  parallel  to 
'  Prince  of  Peace  '  ;  both  titles  ex- 
press the  ability  of  the  Messiah  in 
working  out  his  plans  beyond  the 

limits  of  his  hereditary  state. 

•Wonder-Counsellor]  i.e.,  either 
'one  who  deviseth  things  which  are 
wonderful'  (for  the  idiom,  comp. 
xxii.  2  Hebr.),  or  '  wonder  of  a 
counsellor '  (idiom  as  '  wild  ass  of 
a  man,'  Gen.  xvi.  12).  The  latter 
meaning  is  at  once  linguistically 
the  more  obvious  (the  natural  Hebr. 
equivalent  of  the  former  will  be 
found  in  xxviii.  29,  Del.),  and  much 
the  more  forcible.  'Wonder-Coun- 
sellor'=  one  who  as  a  counsellor  is 
entirely  wonderful  (more  strictly, 
exceptional,  supernatural).  Any 
king  might  be  called  a  counsellor,  a 
man  of  practical  counsel,  but  here  is 
one  whose  political  sagacity  is  a  phe- 
nomenon which  can  neither  be  de- 
scribed nor  comprehended.  ('  Won- 
der '  is  a  word  specially  used  with 
reference  to  the  Divine,  see  J[udg. 
xiii.  18,  Ex.  XV.  II,  Ps.  Ixxvii.  11, 
Ixxviii.  1 1 ;  and  comp.  Isa.  xxix.  14). 
Isaiah  has  a  strong  sense  of  the  im- 
portance of  this  quality  in  a  ruler  ; 
in  his  second  sketch  of  the  Messiah 
he  again  lays  the  chief  stress  on 
his  supernatural  'wisdom  and  un- 
derstanding'   (xi.    2) God    the 

Mig-hty  One]  '  Mighty,'  that  is, 
against  Flis  enemies  (xiii.  13).  The 
meaning  of  the  phrase  is  defined  by 
X.  21,  where  it  occurs  again  of  Jeho- 
vah. It  would  be  uncritical  to  infer 
that  Isaiah  held  the  metaphysical 
oneness  of  the  Messiah  with  Jeho- 
vah, but  he  evidently  does  con- 
ceive of  the  Messiah,  somewhat  as 
the  Egyptians,  Assyrians,  and  Baby- 
lonians regarded  their  kings,  as  an 
earthly  representation  of  Divinity 


62 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  IX. 


seller,  God-Mighty-onc,  ^^Everlasting-Father,*'  Prince  of  Peace  ; 
'^^  increased  is  the  government  and  to  peace  there  is  no  end,*^ 

«  Father  {i.e.  giver)  of  booty,  Hitr.,  Kuenen,  R.  Martineau. 
••  So  Sept.,  Gr.  ;  for  the  increase  of  the  government  and  for  peace  without  end, 
Text. 


(see  on  xiv.  13,  14).  No  doubt 
this  development  of  the  Messianic 
doctrine  was  accelerated  by  contact 
with  foreign  nations  ;  still  it  is  in 
harmony  with  fundamental  liiblical 
ideas  and  expressions.  This  par- 
ticular title  of  the  Messiah  is  no 
doubt  unique.  But  if  even  a 
Davidic  king  may  be  described  as 
'  sitting  upon  the  throne  of  Jehovah ' 
(i  Chr.  xxix.  23),  and  the  Davidic 
family  be  said,  in  a  predictive  pas- 
sage it  is  true,  to  be  '  as  God  (e/d- 
/um),  as  the  (or,  an)  angel  of  Jeho- 
vah '  (Zech.  xii.  8),'  much  more  may 
similar  titles  be  applied  to  the  Mes- 
siah. The  last  comparison  would, 
indeed,  be  especially  suitable  to  the 
Messiah,  and  it  is  a  little  strange 
that  we  do  not  find  it.  But  we  do 
find  the  Messiah,  in  a  well-known 
Psalm,  invited  to  sit  at  the  right 
hand  of  Jehovah-  (Ps.  ex.  i),  and  it 
is  only  a  step  further  to  give  him 
the  express  title,  'God  the  Mighty 
One.'  It  is  no  doubt  a  very  great 
title.  The  word  selected  for  '  God ' 
is  not  e/o/u'JJi,  which  is  applied  to 
the  judicial  authority  (Ex.  xxi.  6, 
xxii.  8),  to  Moses  (Ex.  vii.  i), 
and  to  the  apparition  of  Samuel 
(i  Sam.  xxviii.  13);  but  <?/,  which 
whenever  it  denotes  (as  it  generally 
does,  and  in  Isaiah  always).  Divi- 
nity, does  so  in  an  absolute  sense  : 
— it  is  never  used  hyperbolically 
or  metaphorically.  There  is  very 
little,  I  think,  to  be  said  for  the 
other  renderings  of  the  phrase  ; — 
the  notes  of  Drechslcr  and  Knobel 

may  be  consulted. Everlasting: 

rather]  '  Father,'  because  the 
Messiah    will    rule    in   a    fatherly 


manner.  Job  was  '  a  father  to  the 
poor'  (Job  xxix.  16) ;  Eliakim  is  to 
be  'a  father  to  the  inhabitants  of 
Jerusalem'  (xxii.  21).  'Everlast- 
ing,' because  one  who  is  in  such 
close  relation  with  Jehovah  must 
be,  like  Jehovah  (Ivii.  15),  everlast- 
ing. Among  the  titles  of  Rameses 
II.  (referred  to  above),  is  this — 
'  endowed  with  life  eternal  and 
for  ever'  (Goodwin's  translation), 
and  a  loyal  Israelite's  cry  was  '  Let 
the  king  live  for  ever.'  Much 
more,  thinks  the  prophet,  can  this 
be  said  of  Jehovah's  chosen  one. 
Were  the  Messiah  to  cease  to  be, 
how  could  the  Lord's  people  main- 
tain its  ground  ?  Through  the 
Messiah's  posterity?  But  his  pos- 
terity might  degenerate. — This  view 
is  not  only  in  itself  the  worthiest, 
but  also  required  by  the  parallelism 
(see  above).  Dathe's  explanation, 
'  possessor  of  the  attribute  of 
eternity,'  is  based  on  a  purely 
Arabic  idiom  (see  Ewald,  Lelu-buch 
der  hcbr.  Sprache,  %  273  b).  Hitzig's 
and  Knobel's  '  winner,  or  distri- 
buter, of  booty,'  is  against  the 
parallelism,  and  out  of  harmony 
with  the  religious  character  of  tlie 
passage.  Surely  the  spoil  of  the 
enemies  of  Jehovah  would  have 
been    made   a   k/u'rc?/i,    and   been 

destroyed  (comp.  i  Sam.  xv.). 

Prince  of  Peace]  Comp.  Mic.  v. 
5,  '  And  this  man  shall  be  Peace  ; ' 
Zech.  ix.  10,  '  he  shall  spe.ak  peace 
to  the  nations.'  Such  is  the  pro- 
phetic ideal  of  Israclilish  royalty, 
in  striking  contrast  to  the  false 
ideal  represented  by  Assyria. 

'  The  Messiah's  object — the  ex- 


\ 


y 


'  I  do  not  venture  to  quote  Ps.  xlv.  6,  '  Thy  throne,  O  God,  is  for  ever  and  ever," 
as  the  meaning,  and  indeed  the  completeness  of  the  text,  are  so  much  disputed. 

''  This  is,  I  am  aware,  not  tlie  exjilanalion  wliicli  has  become  traditional  among 
liberal  critics.  Rut  even  on  tlie  view  that  the  Davidic  king  is  referred  to,  the  passagi- 
retains  its  illustrative  value.  For  if  the  king  could  be  so  atldressed,  much  more  could 
the  Messiah.  A  reference  to  some  Maccabean  prince  (priest  and  king  in  one)  seems 
I'xcluded  l)y  the  '  oracle  of  Jehovah,'  which  opens  the  psalm.  For  llie  writers  of  those 
late  periods  painfully  felt  the  w.mt  of  proplniic  revelations  (sec  1  M.icc.  xiv.  .ji). 


CHAP.  IX.] 


ISAIAH. 


63 


upon  the  throne  of  David  and  throughout  his  kingdom,  in 
establishing  and  supporting  it  by  justice  and  by  righteousness 
from  henceforth  even  for  ever.  The  jealousy  of  Jehovah 
Sabaoth  will  perform  this. 

*  Jehovah  hath  sent  a  word  into  Jacob,  and  it  hath  fallen 

tension  and  peaceful  establishment 
of  the  Davidic  kingdom.  The  se- 
cond member  of  the  verse  is  logi- 
cally as  well  as  rhythmically  parallel 
to  the  first.  The  throne  of  David 
is  the  seatof  the  'government'  (?/.  6), 
and  his  klng-doiu  is  the  scene  of 
the  'endless  peace.'  Ewald's  render- 
ing, '  on  behalf  of  David's  throne,' 
&c.,  is  therefore  less  suitable.  The 
mention  of  David  seems  to  imply 
that  the  Messiah  was  to  be  one  of 

that  king's  descendants. From 

henceforth  even  for  ever]  Two 
meanings  are  exegetically  possible 
(/.  C.A.,  p.  34)  :  I.  that  the  Mes- 
siah shall  live  an  immortal  life  on 
earth,  and,  2.  that  there  shall  be  an 
uninterrupted  succession  of  princes 
of  his  house.  The  latter  is  favoured 
by  2  Sam.  vii.  12-16;  comp.  Ps. 
xxi.  4,  Ixi.  6,  7 ;  but  the  former 
seems  to  me  more  in  accordance 
with  the  general  tenor  of  the  de- 
scription.     See    on     '  Everlasting 

Father,'v.6. The  jealousy  .  .  .  ] 

Jealousy  is  the  aftectional  manifes- 
tation of  the  Divine  holiness.  The 
holiness  of  Jehovah,  and  His  exclu- 
sive right  to  objects  which  have 
been  consecrated  to  his  service,  is 
maintained,  in  Biblical  language, 
by  the  Divine  'jealousy.'  Holiness 
and  jealousy  are  co-ordinate  terms. 
Hence  Josh.  xxiv.  19,  'He  (Jeho- 
vah) is  an  all-holy  God  ;  he  is  a 
jealous  God '  ;  hence,  too,  the  name 
of  Jehovah  can  be  said  to  be  'Jea- 
lous'; Ex.  xxxiv.  14.  See  Oehler, 
0/d  Test.  Theology.,  i.  165-8. 

IX.  8-x.  4.  An  unusually  artistic 
prophecy,  the  four  stanzas,  or 
strophes,  of  which  are  not  only 
equal  in  length,  but  marked  by  the 
recurrence  of  the  refrain  in  vik  t2, 
17,  21  (comp.  Psalms  xlii.,  xliii.).  It 
announces  a  judgment  on  the  whole 
of  Israel,  but  especially  on  the  north- 
ern kingdom.     Theie  is  a  question 


whether  the  past  tenses  in  the  first 
three  strophes  are  entirely  historical 
(Ew.),  or  partly  historical,  partly 
prophetic  (Hitz.,Knob.,  Del.).  'The 
prophet  places  himself,'  remarks 
Del.,  'at  a  time  when  judgment 
upon  judgment  has  passed  upon 
all  Israel,  without  producing  any 
amendment.  .  .  How  much  or  how 
little  of  what  the  prophet  surveys 
from  his  "  ideal  "  position  has  really 
taken  place,  cannot  be  determined.' 
Ewald's  view,  adopted  in  /.  C.  A.., 
still  seems  to  me  the  more  probable 
one,  as  it  is  certainly  the  more  con- 
sistent. The  change  from  the  past 
to  the  future  seems  to  me  clearly 
indicated  by  the  form  of  expression 
in  x.  3,  4.  Ewald  is  further  of 
opinion  that  ix.  8-x.  4  originally 
came  between  v.  25  and  v.  26-30. 
To  this  also  I  must  still  adhere. 
No  one  can  accuse  this  view  of 
audacity  who  recollects  how  fre- 
quently passages  in  manuscripts 
are  misplaced.  The  scribe  left  out 
something  by  accident  (e.g.,  xxxviii. 
21,  22),  could  not  afford  to  rewrite 
his  work,  and  so  put  in  the  missing 
passage  at  the  most  convenient 
place.— In  I.  C.  A.,  p.  5,  I  have 
shown  cause  for  dating  ix.  8-x.  4 
earlier  than  chaps,  ii.-v.,  viz.  in  the 
reign  of  Jotham  (see  on  v.  21). 
Probably  ix.  8-x.  4  was  written 
first,  then  ii.  2-v.  24  was  put  into 
its  final  shape,  and  connected  with 
the  independent  prophecy,  ix.  8, 
&c.,  by  means  of  v.  25,  whilst  v. 
26-30  were  added  last  of  all  (note 
the  reference  to  Assyria)  to  form  a 
suitable  conclusion  to  the  whole 
volume. 

^  Hath  sent  a  word]  The  word 
of  Jehovah  personified  ;  Ps.  cvii.  20, 
cxlvii.  15  ;  comp.  John  xii.  48,  Hebr. 
iv.  12.   Self-fulfilling  ;  Isa.  Iv.  1 1,  Jer. 

i.  9,  V.  14,  comp.  Num.  xxiii.  25. 

It  hath  fallen]  Comp.  Dan.  iv.  31, 


64 


ISAIAH. 


[chap,  IX. 


in  Israel,  °  and  the  whole  people  shall  know  it,  Ephraim  and 
the  inhabitants  of  Samaria,  [who  stiffen  their  neck]  in  pride 
and  arrogance,  saying,*  '°  Bricks  have  fallen  down,  but  with 
hewn  stones  will  we  build  up  ;  sycamores  have  been  cut 
down,  but  cedars  will  we  put  in  their  place.  "  But  Jehovah 
exalted  against  him  the  *"  princes  of  Rezin,  and  spurred  his 
enemies  on,  '^Aram   before  and   Philistia  behind,  and  they 

e  So  Rickell.     Text  may  be  rendered  'in  spite  of  (their)  pride,  &c.,  in  saying.' 
f  So  some  MSS.,  Houb.,  Lo.,  Ew.,  Weir,  Studer. — Text,  adversaries. 


Zech.  ix.  I,  and  Mohammed's  ex- 
pression (Sur.  Ixxvii.  23,  &c.),  an- 
zdla,    '  he    hath    sent    down,'    i.e., 

revealed. Israel]  i.e.,  the  whole 

nation,  as  generally  in  the  prophets, 
till  N.  Israel  fell,  and  thus  Israel 
became  practically  identical  with 
Judah. 

^  Shall  know  it]  i.e.,  by  expe- 
rience ;  comp.  V.  19,  Hos.  ix.  7, 
Job  xxi.  19,  and  Koran,  xl.  72  : 
'They  who    treat    the    Book   as  a 

lie  .  .  .  shall  know  hereafter.' 

Epbraim]  i.e.,  especially  Ephraim  ; 
like  'Judah  and  Jerusalem,'  ii.   i. 

In      pride     and     arrogance] 

This  is  the  first  transgression  of 
the  northern  kingdom.  One  great 
source  of  this  irreligious  temper 
would  be  the  perennial  abundance 
of  corn  and  wine,  good  customers 
for  which  were  always  at  hand  in 
the  wealthy  and  populous  cities 
of  Phoenicia.  Comp.  Wilkins, 
Phoenicia     and    Israel,    pp.     1 1 2- 

114. 

'"  Bricks    have    fallen    do\«raj 

Alluding  perhaps  to  the  tribute  im- 
posed upon  Israel  by  Raman-Ni- 
ruri  and  Tiglath-Pileser. — ^For  the 
form  of  the  speech,  comp.  Mnl.  i. 
4.  Sun-dried  bricks  were  probably 
then  as  now  the  common  material 
of  houses  in  Palestine  (comp.  Job 
iv.  19),  'hewn  stones'  being  re- 
served for  kings  and  nobles  (comp. 
I  Kings  vii.  9,  Am.  v.  1 1). Syca- 
mores] The  commonest  tree  in 
the  lowlands  of  Palestine,  still  much 
used  in  building. Cedars]  Pur- 
chased at  a  great  price  from  the 
Phcenicians  (comp.  i  Kings  x.  27). 
"  It  is  doubtful  whether  the 
'past  tenses'  are  historical  or  ex- 


pressive of  prophetic  confidence. 
Exait-rd]  i.e.,  placed  in  a  po- 
sition of  superiority,  as   Ps.  xx.   i 

(2). Agrainst   him]   viz.   Israel. 

Hence,    'who    smote   him,'    7>.   13. 

The  princes  of  Rezin]     The 

text-reading  fails  to  make  sense.  It 
can  only  mean  the  Assyrians  (comp. 
2  Kings  xvi.  9),  but  the  next  verse 
makes  it  clear  that  the  prophet 
refers  rather  to  the  Syrians.  lie- 
sides,  we  want  something  in  the 
first  clause  nearly  equivalent  to  '  his 
(Israel's,  not  Rezin's)  enemies'  in 
the  second. 

'-  Aram  before  .  .  .  ]  Knobel 
infers  that  the  Syrians  and  Philis- 
tines were  compelled  by  Tiglath- 
Pileser,  immediately  after  being 
conquered,  to  furnish  auxiliaries  for 
his  expedition  against  Israel.  But 
this,  as  Diestel  observes,  is  ex- 
tremely improbable,  and  does  not 
agree  with  the  statement  that  the 
attack  proceeds  from  the  east  and 
west.  Delitzsch,  with  a  keener 
sense  of  the  connection,  finds  here 
a  prediction  of  injuries  to  N.  Israel 
from  Syria,  and  to  Judah  from  the 
Philistines.  But  he  still  ascribes 
the  impulse  in  the  former  case  to 
Assyria,  in  order  to  explain  '  the 
adversaries  of  Rezin.'  It  is  surely 
more  natural  to  assign  the  pro- 
phecy to  which  this  passage  be- 
longs to  the  period  preceding  the 
league  of  Rezin  and  Pekah.  Re- 
zin's policy  was  to  force  first  Israel 
and  then  Judah  into  alliance  with 
him  against  Assyria.  Israel  and 
Judah  both  resisted  ;  the  resistance 
of  the  former  has  found  its  only 
jiormanent  record  in  Isaiah.  The 
I'hilistines  had  the  doul)lc  stimulus 


CHAP.  IX.] 


ISAIAH. 


65 


devoured  Israel  with  open  mouth.  In  spite  of  all  this,  his 
anger  turned  not  away,  and  his  hand  was  stretched  out  still. 
— ^^  But  the  people  turned  not  unto  him  who  smote  him,  and 
unto  Jehovah  Sabaoth  they  did  not  resort.  '^  So  Jehovah  cut 
off  from  Israel  head  and  tail,  palm-branch  and  rush,  in  one 
day.  ••^  s  [The  elder  and  the  honourable,  he  is  the  head  ;  and 
the  prophet  who  teacheth  lies,  he  is  the  tail]  °  ^'^  And  the 
guides  of  this  people  became  misleading,  and  its  guided  ones 
lost  men.  '^  Therefore  Jehovah  ^  spared  not  ^  its  young  men, 
and  upon  its  orphans  and  its  widows  he  had  no  compassion, 
for  everyone  was  profane,  and  an  evil-doer,  and  every  mouth 
was  speaking  profanity.  In  spite  of  all  this  his  anger  turned- 
not  away,  and  his  hand  was  stretched  out  still. 

'*  For  unrighteousness  burned  like  fire,  consuming  thorns 

e  Omitted  as  gloss  by  Ew. ,  Kuenen,  &c. 

h  So  Lagarde  (conj.). — Text,  rejoiced  not  (in). 


of  hereditary  enmity  to  Israel  and 
dread  of  Assyria.  Their  territory 
extended  on  the  north  to  the  fron- 
tier of  the  IsraeUtish  kingdom. 

'^'  ^^  Israel  continues  impenitent, 
and  is  punished  by  a  '  day '  (i.e., 
battle,  see  on  v.  4)  in  which  many 
lives  are  lost  :  what  battle  is  in- 
tended we  cannot  now  say. 

^*  Palm-brancb  and  rush]  A 
proverbial  expression  =  high  and  low 
(LXX.  has  fxiyav  Kai  jXLKpov)  ;  comp. 
xix.  1 5.  The  palm-branch  receives 
its  name  in  Hebr.  (lit.  palm  of  the 
hand)  from  its  upward  bend.  The 
rush  is  an  emblem  of  humiliation  : 
Iviii.  5. 

'*  It  is  difficult  to  defend  the 
genuineness  of  this  verse.  The 
false  prophets,  being  leaders  of 
the  people,  ought  to  belong  to  the 
'head.'  Besides,  the  verse  makes 
the  stanza  or  strophe  too  long  by 
a  verse.  Hence  most  critics  since 
Koppe  have  included  it  in  the  list 
of  intrusive  marginal  glosses.  I 
admit  that  there  is  a  certain  hu- 
mour in  the  passage  (Del.  compares 
blajidc  caudani  jactare  popello^  Per- 
sius)  ;  it  is  not  a  sotte  glose  {'R^wss) 
but  simply  unsuitable"  to  the  con- 
text. The  natural  explanation  of 
the  figures  in  v.  14  is  given  in  v.  16  ; 
VOL.    I. 


the  'guides'  are  the  'head,'  the 
'  guided  '  are  the  '  tail.' 

"^  Misleading]  Here  in  a  poli- 
tical sense,  as  the  context   shows. 

Iiost  men]     Lit.  swallowed  up 

— not  here  figuratively  (in  a  'sea 
of  troubles,'  or  in  Sheol)  but 
simply  =  destroyed,  as  iii.  12,  xxv. 
7,8. 

"  A  variation  on  the  theme  of 
71V.  13-16.  The  flower  of  the  popu- 
lation  shall  perish,  as  a  judgment 

upon  their  impiety. Voun^  men] 

The  word  is  generally  used  with  re- 
ference to  military  service. Or- 
phans .  .  .  widows]  Elsewhere 
represented  as  the  objects  of  pecu- 
liar care.  Dr.  Weir  continues  :  'he 
cannot  pity,  i.e.,  he  is  compelled  to 
restrain  his  compassion,'  giving  the 
imperfect  a  potential  force  ;  see 
Driver,  Hebrew  Tenses^  %  yj- 

'^  The  third  transgression — 'an 
unrighteousness  which  like  burning 
fire  seizes  upon  and  destroys  every- 
thing, both  high  and  low,  in  the 
nation'  (Ewald).  As  no  class  is 
free  from  the  infection  of  anarchy, 
so  none  can  escape  its  natural  and 
self-developed  as  well  as  di^■inely- 
willed  punishment.  The  lawless- 
ness of  the  one  punishes  the  law- 
lessness   of  the    other.      There    is 


66 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  X. 


and  briars,  and  kindled  in  the  thickets  of  the  forest,  so  that 
they  rolled  upwards  in  a  volume  of  smoke.  ^^  By  the  fury 
of  Jehovah  Sabaoth  the  land  was  burned  up,  and  the  people 
became  as  fuel  of  fire  ;  they  had  no  pity  for  each  other. 
2"  And  one  devoured  on  the  right  hand,  and  was  hungry 
(still)  ;  and  ate  on  the  left,  and  was  not  satisfied,  every  one 
eating  the  flesh  of  his  own  arm — ^^  Manasseh  Ephraim,  and 
Ephraim  Manasseh — and  they  were  together  against  Judah. 
In  spite  of  all  this,  his  anger  turned  not  away,  and  his  hand 
was  stretched  out  still. 


CHAPTER    X. 

'  Woe  unto  those  who  inscribe  decisions  of  injustice,  and 
to  the  writers  who  register  oppression,  ^  turning  aside  from 
judgment  the  weak,  and  tearing  away  the  right  of  the  afflicted 
of  my  people,  making  widows  their  spoil,  and  orphans  their 
prey.  ^  What  then  will  ye  do  in  the  day  of  visitation,  and  in 
the  crashing  ruin  which  cometh  from  far  ?  to  whom  will  ye  flee 


the   same   figure    and   almost   the 

same  sentiment  in  xxxiii.  ii  ;  comp. 

on  V.    1 8. Thorns  and  briars] 

Emblems  of  the  wicked,  as  2  Sam. 

xxiii.  6.     There  is  a  verbal  parallel 

in  X.  17,  18. 

'^'  ^^  General  anarchy,  connected 

probably  with  the  revolution  which 

placed    Pekah    on   the    throne ;    2 

Kings  XV.  23-25. 

"°  Every  one  eating:  •  .  .  ]  Comp. 
xlix.  26,  Zech.  xi.  9.  A  figure  either 
for  the  insane  fury  which  destroys 
itself,  or  for  the  cruelty  of  rival 
factions  (Ges.).  In  the  latter  case, 
'  arm '  =  helper,  as  xxxiii.  2,  Ps. 
Ixxxiii.  9  ;  comp.  parallels  from  the 
Arabic  and  Syriac  in  Gesen.  Thcs.^ 
p.  433<{'.  The  religious  union  of  the 
tribes  being  dissolved,  they  were 
abandoned  to  the  disintegrating 
tendency  common  to  the  less  civil- 

sed  Semitic  populations. 

"'  A  common  jealousy  unites  the 
northern  tribes  against  Judah.  Pos- 
sibly there  is  an  allusion  to  the  in- 


cursions described  in  2  Kings  xv. 
yj,  2  Chr.  xxviii.  6-15. 

X.  I.  The  last  strophe,  or  stanza, 
chastises  the  tyranny  of  corrupt 
officials.  Here,  as  it  seems,  the 
prophet  has  the  condition  of  Judah 
principally  in  mind.  The  transition 
seems  to  us  abrupt,  but  its  possi- 
bility is  established  by  viii.  6-14 
and  xxviii.  1-6.  The  division  be- 
tween north  and  south  was,  in  fact, 
not  recognised  by  the  prophets  of 
Isaiah's  age.    Comp.  viii.  14  :  'both 

the  houses  of  Israel.' inscribe] 

Lit.  carve  ;  see  on  xxx.  8.  '  The 
carving  and  writing  is  mentioned 
to  indicate  that  the  various  legal 
forms  were  carefully  attended  to, 
whilst  the  law  itself  was  trampled 
under  foot'  (Dr.  Weir). 

-'  "Wbat  tben  will  ye  do  ...  ] 
Ironical.  Such  bold  defiance  of 
(jod  would  be  impossible  without 
an  ally  or  a  place  of  deposit  for 
your  treasures. 


CHAP.  X.]  ISAIAH.  67 

for  help,  and  where  will  ye  leave  your  glory?  ■• » Except  he 
crouch  under  the  captives,  and  they  fall  under  the  slain  !  * 
In  spite  of  all  this,  his  anger  is  not  turned  away,  and  his 
hand  is  stretched  out  still. 

"  Except,  &c.,  they  will  fall  under  the  slain,  Hitz.— Reltis  is  bowed  down,  Osiris  is 
broken  down  (?),  Lagarde. 

*  Except  he  croucb  .  .  .  ]  The  or  fall  by  an  indiscriminate  mas- 
answer  to  the  question  in  v.  3.  sacre  (comp.  xiv.  19).  The  text- 
This  is  the  only  place  where  the  reading  is  certainly  difficult,  but  not 
Jewish  nobles  can  hide  their  head  ungrammatical,  and  not  inconsistent 
or  deposit  their  glory.  Ah.  rend.  with  Isaiah's  style  and  thought.  La- 
is the  only  other  possible  one  of  the  garde's  conjecture,  brilliant  as  it  is, 
text  as  it  statids.  They  must  either  is  inferior  in  suitability.  See  crit. 
accept  captivity  in  a  crowded  prison,  note. 


CHAPTER   X.  5— XII.    6. 

This,  as  Ewald  remarks,  is  the  first  discourse  of  Isaiah's  aimed  directly 
and  solely  against  the  Assyrians.  To  the  people  of  Judah  it  is  almost 
entirely  favourable  ;  once  only  (x.  22)  does  the  prophet  glance  at  the 
terrible  fate  of  unbelieving  Jews.  It  falls  into  two  parts,  the  one  (x. 
5-34)  describing  the  moral  and  .spiritual  antecedents  of  the  Assyrian 
invasion  (from  which — see  on  v.  22 — the  Judahites  are  already  suffering, 
and  the  great  overthrow  reserved  for  the  foe) ;  the  other  (xi.  i-xii.  6),  the 
blessed  state  of  Israel  and  the  world  under  the  Messianic  king,  when  all 
shall  recognise  one  standard  of  spiritual  morality,  when  the  scattered 
members  of  the  nation,  and  even  distant  peoples,  shall  gather  to  Jeru- 
salem as  the  centre  of  religious  unity.  Two  bursts  of  lyric  song,  put 
into  the  mouths  of  the  reunited  nation,  close  the  prophecy. 

There  are  several  remarkable  points  of  contact  between  this  prophecy 
and  chaps,  xxviii.  and  xxix.  :  comp.  x.  12  with  xxviii.  21  ;  x.  22  with  xxviii. 
22  ;  X.  26  with  xxviii.  15,  18;  x.  33  with  xxix.  7,  8;  xi.  2  with  xxviii.  6. 
From  this  Ewald  infers  that  chaps,  x.  xi.  (chap,  xii.,  he  thinks,  must  have 
been  written  by  one  of  those  'redeemed'  from  the  great  exile)  were 
composed  not  long  after  those  chapters.  Samaria  must  at  any  rate  have 
fallen  in  the  interval.  So,  at  least,  thinks  Ewald  on  the  ground  of  x.  9. 
Delitzsch,  however,  is  of  opinion  that  the  prophet  is  speaking  from  his 
'  watch-tower'  (xxi.  6),  and  gives  his  intuitions  the  form  of  history.  He 
knows  that  Samaria  is  doomed  ;  he  knows  how  Sennacherib  will  speak 
after  her  fall ;  he  knows  that  a  hostile  army  will  march  upon  Jerusalem  ; 
and  in  vv.  28-32  gives  an  imaginative  representation  of  the  line  of  the 
Assyrian  march.  So  far  as  this  last  point  is  concerned,  Ewald  is  at  one 
with  Delitzsch.  '  It  is  clear,'  he  says,  '  from  the  context  that  Yesaya  is 
here  describing  [Sennacherib's]  future  march  as  his  imagination  depicts 
it ;  the  perfect  tense  prevails  merely  to  produce  greater  vividness  of 
description.'  Both  scholars  are  also  agreed  that  the  invasion,  when  it 
came,  was  not  actually  made  from  the  quarter  described  by  the  prophet. 
Prof  Robertson  Smith  follows   Ewald,  and  thinks  that  the  invader  was 

F  2 


68  ISAIAH.  [CHAP.  X. 

made  to  come  from  the  north  to  make  the  imaginary  picture  more 
effective.^ 

In  spite  of  these  and  most  other  recent  critics,  I  must  agree  with 
Sayce,  Brandes,  and  Kleinert  that  Sargon  and  not  Sennacherib  is  the  in- 
vader of  the  prophecy,  and  that  the  hne  of  advance  described  corresponds 
to  fact.  That  Isaiah's  expectations  pointed  to  the  former  is  unquestion- 
able, as  the  conquests  referred  to  in  zk  9  as  recent  were  effected  by  Sargon. 
It  is  of  course  quite  possible  that  these  expectations  were  unrealised.  Just 
as  Esar-haddon  and  not  Sargon  fulfilled  the  prophecy  in  chap,  xix.,  so 
Sennacherib,  instead  of  Sargon,  may  have  carried  out  the  Divine  pur- 
pose by  invading  Judah.  If,  however,  we  could  render  it  probable  that 
Sargon  invaded  as  well  as  Sennacherib,  we  should,  I  think,  find  it  easier 
to  explain  a  group  of  Isaiah's  prophecies  (chap,  xxix.-xxxii.,  chap.  x. 
5-xi.  16,  chap.  xxii.  and  chap,  i.),  and  to  account  for  the  fragmentary  and, 
as  they  stand,  inconsistent  traditions  put  together  in  chaps,  xxxvi.-xxxix. 
It  seems  that  we  can  do  so  ;  the  documentary  evidence  may  be  scanty, 
still  it  exists,  and  there  is  good  reason  to  suppose  that  it  once  existed  in 
larger  abundance.  We  know  from  the  cylinder  inscription  found  at 
Kouyunjik,  and  referred  to  on  chap,  xx.,  that  Judah  was  a  member  of 
the  coalition  which  included  Yavan,  king  of  Ashdod,  who  was  so  severely 
punished  by  Sargon.  Unfortunately  this  cylinder  is  broken,  so  that  the 
history  of  Sargon's  vengeance  of  Judah  cannot  be  presented  in  detail. 
It  is  certain,  however,  that  in  another  inscription  Sargon  calls  himself 
the  conqueror  of  Judah  :  his  words  are,  miisacnis  mat-  Yahudu  sa  asarsu 
ru'^uku,  '  the  subduer  of  the  land  of  Judah  whose  situation  is  remote.'  "^ 

Dr.  Schrader  in  1876  accepted  the  fact  of  Sargon's  invasion  of 
Judah,  and  welcomed  it  as  throwing  a  bright  light  on  the  confused 
narrative  of  2  Kings  xviii.  (Isa.  xxxvii.).  'That  Sargon,'  he  said,  '  in  his 
campaign  against  Egypt,  in  which  he  penetrated  as  far  as  Raphia  on  the 
Egyptian  frontier,  should  not  have  also  touched  Judah,  is  a  /r/wv  quite 
inconceivable,  and  the  contrary  is  expressly  ratified  by  an  inscription  of 
Sargon.' '  In  his  new  edition  of  K.  A.  T.,  however,  he  takes  up  a  different 
position,  and  apparently  treats  the  statement  of  Sargon's  inscription  as 
an  empty  boast,  forgetting  that  Sargon  is  not  arrogant  and  boastful  like 
Sennacherib,  and  does  not  claim  to  have  done  what  he  had  not. 

I  shall  have  to  return  to  the  subject  when  treating  of  chaps,  xxxvi.- 
xxxix.,  and  again  in  the  first  of  the  essays  in  vol.  ii.  Suffice  it  to  have 
recorded  Schrader's  former  endorsement  of  the  new  view  :  second 
thoughts  are  not  always  best.  Prof  Robertson  Smith's  opposition  is 
dictated  by  his  chronological  theory,  in  which  he  mainly  follows  Well- 
hausen.  The  objections  expressed  by  him  in  The  Prophets  of  Israel 
have  been  mostly  answered  elsewhere.  But  with  regard  (i)  to  the  non- 
mention  of  any  conquest  of  Judah  in  the  Annals  of  Sargon,  I  may  reply 
here  that  these  annals  cannot  claim  to  be  exhausti\e,  and  that  the  portion 
for  711  seems  to  be  little  more  than  an  extract  from  an  eponym  list, 

1  The  Prophets  of  Israel,  p.  430. 

'■'  Layard's  Inscriptions,  xxxiii.  8,  fpiotcd  bv  S  lycc  ;  Theological  Re-ciciu,  1873, 
p.  18. 

2  Theolog.  Stiidifii  nnd  Kritikai,  vol.  xlv.  (1876),  pp.  738-9. 


CHAP.  X.]  ISAIAH.  69 

where  only  the  chief  object  of  the  year's  campaign  is  recorded.  And  (2), 
as  to  the  absence  of  any  direct  mention  of  the  invasion  of  Sargon  in  the 
Book  of  Kings  ;  the  written  traditions  of  the  Jews  have  come  down  to  us 
in  such  a  fragmentary  state  (thanks  to  the  catastrophe  of  the  Exile),  that 
hardly  any  omission  can  much  surprise  us.  Is  there  any  reason  to  doubt 
whether  Sargon  captured  Samaria,  because  the  Book  of  Kings  is  silent 
upon  the  fact .''  We  may  well  be  thankful  for  the  supplementary  and  cor- 
rective uses  of  the  Assyrian  inscriptions,  and  not  least  as  students  of  the 
prophecies  of  Isaiah.  And  if  it  be  objected  that  the  inscriptions  have  in 
this  case  only  led  us  to  a  highly  probable  result,  I  reply  that  this  is  all 
that  we  can  generally  attain  to  in  dating  the  products  of  Hebrew  literature. 
But  even  a  probable  result  is  better  than  none  at  all.  A  prophecy  like 
that  before  us  is  a  historical  document,  and  must  be  dated  in  order  to  be 
understood. 

^  Woe  unto  Asshur,  the  rod  of  mine  anger,  in  whose  hand 
as  a  staff  is  mine  indignation  !  ^  Against  a  profane  nation 
''  am  I  wont  to  ^  despatch  him,  and  against  the  people  of  my 
wrath  to  give  him  a  charge,  to  take  spoil  and  to  seize  prey, 
and  to  make  it  a  trampling,  like  the  mire  of  the  streets. 
^  But  as  for  him,  not  so  doth  he  plan,  and  his  heart  not  so 
doth  it  reckon,  for  to  destroy  is  in  his  heart,  and  to  cut  off 
nations  not  a  few.  ®  For  he  saith,  '  Are  not  my  princes  alto- 
gether kings  ?     ^  ^  Is  not  Calno  '^  as  Carchemish  ?   or  is  not 

»>  Will  I,  Del.— Did  I,  Ges. 

=  Have  I  not  taken  the  country  above  Babylon  and  Chalan^,  where  the  Tower  was 
built?  Sept. 

^  The  rod  of  mine  angrer.  .  .  ]  tries.     He  has   two   good  reasons 

i.e.,  Assyria  is  but  the  instrument  for  feeling  sure  of  victory  :    i.  his 

of  the  Divine  purposes.     So  in  Jer.  very  officers  are  kings— his  might 

li.  20  (comp.  1.  23),  Babylon  is  ad-  is  therefore  tenfold  that  of  Heze- 

dressed  as  God's  '  hammer.'     On  kiah  ;  and  2.   he  has  already  cap- 

the  end  of  the  verse  see  crit.  note.  tured  cities  as  important  as  Jeru- 

^  Am  Z  wont  to  despatcb  bim]  salem. Princes]     As    in    Jer. 

This  rendering  implies  that  the  Im-  xxxviii.    17,    xxxix.    3. — Dr.    Weir 

pious  nation  and  the  people  of  my  compares  this  boastful  speech  with 

wratb  refer  to  any  and  every  na-  the   vaunts    of    Tiglath-Pileser    I 

tion  of  this  description ;  alt.  rends.,  (7?.  P.,  v.  5-26). 
that  either  Israel  is  intended  alone,  ^  Is    not    Calno    as    Carcbe- 

or  Israel  and  Judah  together.  misb  r]     The  fate  of  both  popula- 

^  Not  so  dotb  be  plan]  His  tions  was  deportation,  Calno  being 
whole  thought  is  bent  on  enlarging  captured  in  738,  Carchemish  in  717 
his  own  empire,  .without  regard  (comp.  Smith,  Assyria,  pp.  79,  97). 
to  the  purposes  of  Jehovah.  For  There  is  a  close  parallel  in  a  con- 
Jehovah,  according  to  the  Old  temporarj'  prophet — '  Pass  ye  over 
Testament,punishes  even  unwitting  to  Calneh,  and  see ;  and  thence  go 
violations  of  his  rights  (comp.  2  ye  to  Great  Hamath,  and  go  down 
Sam.  vi.  7).  to  Philistian  Gath  ;  are  ye  better 

^""  But  Sargon  makes  no  distinc-  than  those  kingdoms  ?  or  is  your 

tion  between  Judah  and  other  coun-  border  greater  than  their  border  ? ' 

VOL.    I.  *(.    3 


70 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  X. 


Hamath  as  Arpad  ?  or  is  not  Samaria  as  Damascus  ?  '°  As  my 
hand  hath  found  the  kingdoms  of  the  not-gods  (and  their 
images  did  exceed  those  of  Jerusalem  ^),  "  can  I  not,  as  I 
have  done  to  Samaria  and  her  not-gods,  so  do  to  Jerusalem 
and  her  images  ? ' 

d  So  Bi.     Text  inserts  'and  Samaria  ; '  but  see  w.  9,  11. 


(Am.  vi.  2,  following  Geiger).  Comp. 

also  xxxvi.  I9,xxxvii.  13. Calno] 

the  more  correct  form,  or  Calneh 
(Sept.  XaXdvT]),  one  of  the  four  cities 
of  Nimrod,  is  Kulunu  or  Zirgulla 
(modern  Zerghul),  one  of  the  ne- 
cropolises of  Chaldea,  '  on  the  im- 
portant loop-canal  between  the 
two  main  rivers  of  Babylonia.'  Its 
mounds  have  been  recently  explored 

by    J\I.    de    Sarzec.^ Carcbe- 

mlsh]  It  was  Mr.  G.  Smith's  last 
fatal  journey  which  revealed  the 
long-lost  site  of  this  great  Euphra- 
tean  emporium  (on  its  name,  see 
Lasf  IVords,  vol.  ii.),  which  is  not 
at  Mabug  (Hierapolis),  eight  or 
nine  miles  from  the  Euphrates,  but 
at  Jerabis,  or  Jirbas  (Europos  or 
Oropos),  on  the  right  bank  of  the 
river.* — Important  though  Carche- 
mish  was  as  a  city  of  the  Hittites 
(the  Assyrian  Khatti  and  Egyptian 
Kheta),  it  attained  still  greater 
prosperity  under  the  Assyrians, 
especially  after  the  overthrow  of 
Tyre  by  Sennacherib.  How  im- 
portant it  was,  is  shown  by  the 
frequent  references  to  the  mana 
(  =  Heb.  maneh)  of  Gargamis  (its 
•A.ssyrian  name)  as  a  standard 
weight  in  the  commercial  cuneiform 
inscriptions.  The  Hittites,  on  a 
survey  of  the  various  evidence,  do 
not  appear  to  have  spoken  a  Semitic 
tongue  (see  Sayce,  '  The  Monu- 
ments of  the  Hittites,' in  T.S.B.A., 
vii.  248-293,  and  my  art.  '  Hittites,' 

in   Encyl.   Brit.,  9th   ed.). Ha- 

matbl  The  Assyrian  Amatu,  in 
early  times  the  capital  of  theKhav  vat 
or  Hivites  (?),and  still  an  important 
city  under  the  name  of  II  amah. 
On   the   hieroglyphic    inscriptions 


found  there,  see  Burton  and  Drake's 
Unexplored  Syria ;  Sayce,  T.S.B.A., 
V.  22-32  ;  Rylands,  ibid.  vii.  429- 
442.  Arpad]  the  Assyrian  Ar- 
paddu,  always  coupled  in  O.T.  with 
Hamath.  Its  Tell  or  hill  still  pre- 
serves the  name  of  Erfad  ;.  it  is 
about  three  (German)  miles  from 
Aleppo  {Z.  d.  ?n.  G.,  xxv.  655). 
Arpad  seems  to  have  shared  the 
fate  of  Hamath  in  720  (see  Smith's 
Eponym  Ca?ioft,  p.  127;. 

'°  We  should  have  expected 
Isaiah  to  continue,  '  How  then 
shall  Jerusalem  escape '  ?  But  two 
other  related  thoughts  suggest 
themselves  to  his  mind  :  First,  that 
Samaria  and  Jerusalem  are  in  a 
special  manner  parallel ;  and  se- 
condly, that  Sargon  might  well  re- 
present the  idols  which,  according 
to  him,  they  worshipped  as  inferior 
in  number  and  importance  to  those 

of  the  other  nations. The  kingr- 

doms  of  tbe  not-g^ods]  This  would 
certainly  be  strange  in  the  mouth 
of  Sargon,  however  appropriate  in 
that  of  Isaiah.  An  Assyrian  king 
would  not  have  denied  that  the 
gods  of  other  nations  had  any  ex- 
istence at  all  ;  he  only  regarded  it 
as  his  mission  to  reduce  them  to 
subjection  to  the  supreme  god 
Asshur.  The  destruction  of  weaker 
states  involved,  to  him,  the  humilia- 
tion of  as  many  rival  deities.  Sar- 
gon carries  away  captive  the  gods 
of  the  king  of  Ashdod.  Esar-had- 
don  improves  upon  this.  He  takes 
away  the  gods  of  the  Arabs,  in- 
scribes the  idols  with  the  praises 
of  Asshur,  and  then  returns  them 

to  their  original  owners. Tbeir 

imagres]     Sargon    throws    in    Je- 


'  Boscawen,  T.  S.  B.  A.,  vi.  276-7  ;  anon.  art.  in  Times,  Oct.  4,  1883. 

-  See  letter  from  Mr.  John  Parsons  in  the  Times,  dated  .Aug.  23  (1876)  ;  Bos- 
cawen, Statement  of  Pal.  Explor.  Fu » i/,  }u\y  i88f,  p.  226;  Wright,  Proceedings  of 
Soc  of  Bibl,  ArcheBology,  Session  1880-81,  pp.  58,  59. 


CHAP.  X. 


ISAIAH. 


71 


'2  And  it  shall  come  to  pass  :  when  the  Lord  shall  have 
finished  all  his  work  on  mount  Zion  and  in  Jerusalem,  I  will 
hold  visitation  on  the  fruit  of  the  arrogance  of  the  king  of 
Assyria  and  on  the  vainglory  of  the  haughtiness  of  his  eyes. 
"  For  he  hath  said,  '  By  the  strength  of  my  hand  have  I 
done  it,  and  by  my  wisdom,  for  I  am  discerning,  and  I  re- 
moved the  bounds  of  peoples,  and  their  treasures  I  plundered 
and  brought  Mown  like  a  Mighty  One  those  that  sat  (on 
thrones)  * ;  ^*  and  my  hand  reached  as  a  nest  the  riches  of 
peoples,  and  as  a  man  gathereth  forsaken  eggs  I  have  gathered 
all  the  earth,  and  there  was  none  that  fluttered  a  wing,  nor 

o  Those  who  were  strongly  seated,  Heb.  margin  (?),  A.  E.,  Lowth.— (As)  a  strong 
one,  Heb.  marg.  (?)  ;  like  a  god  (or,  like  a  steer,  Del.)  ;  the  enthroned,  Hebr.  text,  Ew, 


hovah  together  with  the  'heaps' 
(Ivii.  13)  of  adopted  deities.  He 
also  confounds  the  worship  of  Je- 
hovah under  a  symbol,  prevalent 
in  Israel,  with  the  imageless  reli- 
gion maintained  by  Isaiah  and  He- 
zekiah. Did  exceed]  In  Phoe- 
nicia, as  in  Assyria  and  Babylonia, 
each  canton  and  even  town  had 
its  own  variety  of  cult  (Baal-(^or, 
Baal-Ha^or,  &c.).  In  Israel  and 
Judah  the  same  localising  ten- 
dency existed  ;  it  was  derived  from 
the  Canaanites.  But  the  influence 
of  the  simpler  religion  of  Jehovah 
must  have  checked  its  progress, 
even  in  Israel,  but  especially  in 
Judah.  Yet  even  in  Judah,  we 
find  Isaiah  complaining  that  'their 
land  has  become  full  of  not-gods ' 
(ii.  8),  and  Jeremiah — before  the 
Reformation  of  Josiah — that  '  the 
gods  of  Judah  are  become  as  many 
as  her  cities '  (ii.  28  ;  comp.  xi.  13). 
Perhaps  the  Sargon  of  Isaiah 
means  that  the  idols  of  the  other 
nations  were  superior,  partly  in 
numbers,  partly  in  importance. 
A  bitter  insult,  whether  it  exactly 
corresponded  to  fact,  or  not ! — On 
the  word  rendered  'images,'  see 
Smith's  BzM  Die,  art.  '  Idolatry.' 

'®  But  the  turning-point  is  coming. 
As  soon  as  Judah  has  been  chas- 
tised sufficiently,  Jehovah  will  throw 
the  '  rod  '  away,  and  take  notice  of 

these  defiant  words. Shall  have 

finished]     Lit.  cut  off  (same  word 


in  Zech.  iv.  9). All  his  work] 

It  is  the  '  work'  of  Judah's  punish- 
ment, in  which  the  under-worker 

is  Assyria.     See  on  xxviii.  21. 

The  Iruit  of  the  arrogrance]  i.e., 
the  acts  and  words  in  which  this 
arrogance  expresses  itself. 

1^'  !■*  Another  imaginary  speech 
of  the  Assyrian  king.  It  is  a  gra- 
phic sketch  of  his  victorious  march, 
which  he  ascribes  to  his  possession 
of  absolute  strength  and  wisdom. 

Removed  the  bounds]  So  Ra- 

man-nirari  ( 1 320  B.C.)  four  times  over 
styles  himself  '  remover  of  bounda- 
ries and  landmarks,'  'S>TCv\'(S\,Assyrian 
Discoveries,  pp.  243-4  (Dr.  Weir), 

And  broug^ht  down]  viz.,  from 

their  high  thrones  (comp.  xlvii.  i). 

Iiike  a  IVXlgrhty  One]     Hebr. 

liabbir.  I  have  hesitated  between 
the  rival  renderings  (above).  For 
the  former,  comp.  xxxiv.  7,  Ps.  xxii. 
12  (13),  1.  13  ;  the  bull  was  a  fa- 
miliar royal  emblem  in  Assyria. 
For  the  latter,  see  Ps.  Ixxviii.  25, 
'bread  of  Mighty  Ones,'  i.e.  celestial 
beings  ;  LXX.,  angels.  The  latter 
seems  to  me  now  more  in  accord- 
ance with  the  style  of  the  Assyrian 
royal  inscriptions  (see,  e.g..  Re- 
cords of  the  Pasf,  v.  17).  Abbir, 
Abhir,  and  Addir  are  all  divine 
epithets  in  Hebrew  (the  last-named 
also  in  Phoenician),  and  capable  of 
being  used  as  synonyms  for  Elohlm. 
■ — -IVline  hand  reached]  Pre- 
cisely   this    language    is    used    by 


72 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  X. 


opened  a  beak,  nor  chirped.'  '^  Is  the  axe  to  vaunt  itself 
against  him  who  heweth  with  it  ?  or  is  the  saw  to  brag  against 
him  who  moveth  it  to  and  fro  ?  As  if  a  rod  should  move  him 
to  and  fro  who  lifteth  it  up,  as  if  a  staff  should  lift  up  that 
which  is  not-wood  ! 

'^Therefore  shall  the  Lord,  ^Jehovah  Sabdoth,^  despatch 
against  his  fat  parts  Leanness,  and  under  his  glory  shall  burn 
a  burning  like  the  burning  of  fire  ;  '^  and  the  Light  of  Israel 
shall  be  for  a  fire,  and  his  Holy  One  for  a  flame,  and  it  shall 
kindle  and  devour  his  briars  and  thorns  in  one  day  :  '^  and  the 
glory  of  his  forest  and  of  his  garden-land,  both  soul  and  body, 
shall  it  consume,  so  that  it  shall  be  like  a  sick  man's  pining 
away  :  '^  and  the  remnant  of  the  trees  of  his  forest  shall  be 

f  So  irany  MSS.  and  editions.     Text,  the  Lord  (Adonai)  Sabdoth  (which  occurs 
nowhere  else,  and  is  against  the  Massora). 

Sargon  in  his  Annals   (/Records  of 

the   Past,  vii.   28). As   a  nest] 

Strictly  speaking,  the  kingdoms  are 
the  nests  (comp.  Hab.  ii.  5),  the 
eggs  are  the  treasures.  Metaphors 
from  bird-catching  occur  both  in 
Assyrian  and  in  Egyptian  royal  in- 
scriptions.  None  tbat  fluttered 

a  wingr]  None  that  even  attempted 
the  feeble  resistance  of  a  bird  de- 
fending its  nest. 

'2  Him  who  lifteth  it  up]  The 
participle  is  in  the  plural,  suggest- 
ing that  Jehovah  is  referred  to.  So 
Uv.  5  Hebr. Not-wood]  A  com- 
pound e.xpression,  =  different  from 
wood  (comp.  xxxi.  8). 

i«-i9  Assyria's  punishment  de- 
scribed under  the  familiar  images 

of  pining  sickness  and  fire. His 

fat  parts]  i.e.,  his  strong  warriors, 
as    Ps.    Ixxviii.    31.      Same   figure, 

xvii.   4. A  burning-]     It  is  the 

fire  which  symbolises  the  anger  of 
God  against  sin  ;  (comp.  xxx.  27, 
33,  xxxi.  9,  x.xxiii.  14.  See  next 
verse. 

'^  Israel's  Xiierht]  Again  a  phrase 
of  mythic  origin  used  nobly  as  a 
symbol  (comp.  on  xxx.  27,  xxxi.  9, 
and  especially  xxxiii.  14).  Notice 
the  accumulation  of  Divine  titles. 


expressive  of  the  fulness  and  awful- 

ness  of  the  Divine  perfections. 

His  briars  and  his  thorns]  Comp. 
ix.  18.  Not  the  common  soldiers, 
as  opposed  to  the  stately  forest-trees 
of  the  leaders  (Lowth,  Hitz.,  Evv.)  ; 
this  is  too  realistic.  The  serried 
battalions  of  Assyria  remind  the 
prophet  of  a  forest  (comp.  Dante, 
Inferno,  iv.66),and  their  destruction 
of  a  forest-conflagration.  The  fire 
first  catches  hold  of  the  thorns  and 
briars,  and  then  passes  to  the  crowd 

of  stately  trees. In  one  day]  i.e., 

in  one  battle  (see  on  ix.  3). 

^^  His  g:arden-land]  A  favour- 
ite word  of  Isaiah's.  Hebr.  kaniiel, 
i.e.,  land  planted  with  the  choicer 
fruit-bearing  trees,  such  as  vines 
and  olives  (see  crit.  note  on  v.  i). 

Both    soul    and    body]      An 

abrupt  change  of  metaphor  (comp. 
i.  6).  'Body,'  Ht.  flesh.  Biblical 
Hebrew  has  no  word  to  express 
our  conception  of  'body.'  The 
last  clause  is  difficult  ;  see  crit. 
note. 

>*•  rew]  Lit.,  a  number.  The 
word  is  cognate  with  the  verb  in 
the  next  clause. "Write]  Chil- 
dren, then,  could  write ;  comp. 
Judg.  viii.  14.' 

>  '  The  chief  interest  of  the  inscription  [in  the  rock-tunnel  of  Siloani]  lies  in  the 
indication  it  affords  of  the  extent  to  which  writing  was  known  and  practised  among 
the  lews  in  the  early  age  to  which  it  belongs  '  (Sayce).  Vox  it  appears  to  have  been 
carved  b>  the  workmen  theniscl\es. 


CHAP.  X.] 


ISAIAH. 


11 


few,  that  a  child  may  write  them.  ^°  And  it  shall  come  to 
pass  in  that  day  :  the  remnant  of  Israel :  and  the  escaped  of 
the  house  of  Jacob,  shall  no  longer  rely  upon  his  smiter,  but 
shall  rely  upon  Jehovah,  Israel's  Holy  One,  in  faithfulness. 
^'  A  remnant  shall  return,  even  the  remnant  of  Jacob  to  God- 
Mighty-One.  ^^  For  though  thy  people,  O  Israel,  were  as  the 
sand  of  the  sea,  (only)  a  remnant  of  them  shall  return  :  a  final 
work  and  decisive,  overflowing  with  righteousness  !  ^^  For  a 
^  final  work  and  a  decisive  doth  the  Lord,  Jehovah  Sabaoth, 
execute  ^  within  all  the  ^  land. 

^^  Therefore  thus  saith  the  Lord,  Jehovah  Sabaoth,  Fear 
not,  O  my  people  that  dwellest  in  Zion,  because  of  Asshur,  if 
he  smite  thee  with  the  rod,  and  lift  up  his  staff  upon  thee  in 
the  manner  of  Egypt.  '^^  For  yet  a  very  little  while,  and  in- 
dignation is  at  an  end,  and  mine  anger  *  shall  serve  for  wasting 
them  away  ijf.     ^^  And  Jehovah  Sabaoth  shall  brandish  over 

f  So  Kay.  •>  Earth,  Sept.,  Ew.,  Naeg.,  Weir. 

»  Against  the  world  shall  cease,    Lu.,   Kr.    (dividing  the    words  in   the    Hebr. 
differently). 

20, 21  -j-j^g  remnant  of  Assyria  re- 
mains without  a  promise,  at  least 


for  the  present  (see  on  xix.  23). 
The  remnant  of  Israel,  however,  is 
thoroughly  weaned  from  its  false 
confidences,  and  returns  to  the  true 

God. His  smiter]  Assyria. 

'  In  faithfulness]  Or,  in  steadfast- 
ness.   See  Jer.  iv.  1-4. Cod  the 

IVZigrhty-One]  God  who  has  mani- 
fested Himself  as  the  mighty  one. 
They  are  the  words  {El  Gibbor) 
which  form  the  second  couple  in 
the  compound  name  of  the  Messiah. 
Yet  we  can  hardly  venture  to  take 
them  as  an  appellation  of  the  Mes- 
siah, for  it  is  Jehovah  who  acts 
alone  throughout  this  part  of  the 
prophecy.  Even  later  on,  when  the 
Messiah  does  appear  (xi.  i,  &c.),  it 
is  with  more  restricted  functions 
than  in  ix.  6,  7,  where  he  is  not 
merely  the  source  of  happiness  for 
the  future,  but  the  author  of  deliver- 
ance from  misery  (see  on  ix.  6). 

^^  A  remnant  of  them]  A  rem- 
nant certainly,  but  only  a  remnant. 
A  phrase  of  double  meaning,  such 

as  Isaiah  loves  (comp.  v.  24). A 

final  \«rork  •  •  .  ]  Isaiah  antici- 
pates the  worst  for  the  impenitent. 


Indeed,  the  judgment  seems  to  have 
begun  ;  the  Assyrians  are  already 
in  Judah.  This  phrase,  as  modilied 
in  next  verse,  recurs  in  xxviii.  22, 
Dan.  ix.  27  ;  comp.  xi.  36.  Dr. 
Weir  sees  nothing  in  it  to  hinder 
him  from  taking  2/2/.  21-23  ^s  purely 
consolatory  ('  a  remnant  shall  cer- 
tainly return'  .  .  ,  'destruction 
shall  be  kept  within  fixed  limits,' 
for  which  last  he  compares  Job  xiv. 
5).  Luther  reached  the  same  result, 
but   by   downright    mistranslation. 

Rig^hteousness]  i.e.,  righteous 

judgment,  righteous  at  once  in  ven- 
geance and  in  lovingkindness. 

'^'^  "Within  all  the  land]  Not 
merely 'in  its  midst;'  comp.  vi.  12. 

-••  The  prophet  here  turns  to 
the  believing  portion  of  the  people. 
With  these  cheering  prospects  they 

have   no   occasion    to   fear. in 

the  manner  of  Egrypt]  Again  a 
Janus-word.  For  the  oppression  of 
EgA-pt  led  to  the  Exodus  (see  v. 
26). 

''■^  A  scourg-e]  Comp.  the  flail, 
the  emblem  of  the  Egyptian  Horus, 
as  the  avenger  of  wrongs.  So 
xxviii.  15,  18,  Job  ix.  23  ;  comp.  on 
xx.x.  28. As  at  the  smiting^  of 


74  ISAIAH.  [CHAP.  X. 

him  a  scourge,  as  at  the  smiting  of  Midian  at  the  rock  of 
Oreb,  and  his  rod  over  the  sea — he  shall  lift  it  up  in  the 
manner  of  Egypt.  ^^  And  it  shall  come  to  pass  in  that  day : 
his  burden  shall  remove  from  off  thy  back,  and  his  yoke 
from  off  thy  neck  ;  yea,  the  yoke  shall  be  broken  by  reason 
of  ^  the  fat. 

"^  He  Cometh  upon  Aiath,  passeth  through  Migron  :  at 
Michmash  he  layeth  up  his  baggage  :  ^^  they  go  through  the 
pass,  in  Geba  they  have  taken  up  their  lodging ;  Ramah 
trembleth,  Gibeah  of  Saul  fleeth.  ^°  Cry  aloud,  O  daughter 
of  Gallim  ;  attend,  Laishah  !  '  answer  her,  Anathoth  !  '  3'  Mad- 
menah  wandereth  ;  the  inhabitants  of  Gebim  save  their  goods 
by  flight.     ^^  This  very  day  he  will  halt  in  Nob,  swinging  his 

^  Oil,  Vitr.,  Kay,  Weir. — (Text  probably  corrupt.  Weir.) 

1  So  Pesh.,  Lovvth,  Ew.,  Weir. — Hebr.  points,  poor  Anathoth  ! 

Midian]    (So   ix.   3.)     Or,   as  he  not  the  yoke  of  Israel  which  bursts 

smote  Midian  (Naeg.),  for  all  the  of  itself,   but  Jehovah  who  bursts 

turning-points  in  Israel's  history  are  it.     Of  course,  the  present  reading 

notable  signs  of  the  energising  of  may  be  ingeniously  defended;  but  it 

Jehovah.    The  mention  of  the  rock  is   much   more   probable  (judging 

Oreb  as  the  chief  locality  is  strange  from  the  analogy  of  many  corrupt 

(see  Judg.vii.),  but  Isaiah  may  wish  passages)  that  there  is  some  error 

to  suggest  that  the  Assyrian  army  in  the  text.  See  critical  note,  vol.  ii. 

will  not  only  be  overthrown,  but  de-  ^^~^~  It  is  this  passage  which  led 

prived  of  its  leaders,  like  the  Mi-  to  the  rectification  of  the  date  of 

dianites.      There    is   no    sufficient  the   prophecy  (see   Introd.).     The 

reason  for  supposing  that    Isaiah  details  are   to   be   taken   literally, 

followed  a  dififerent  tradition  of  the  They  are  either  Isaiah's  prophetic 

Midianitish  defeat   (Studer,  Well-  anticipations(realised  bythe  event), 

hausen). His  rod  over  tbe  sea]  or  his  retrospect,  and  relate  to  the 

'And  he  shall  pass  through  the  sea  latter  part  of  Sargon's  march  against 

Affliction,  and  shall  smite  the  waves      Jerusalem. Aiatli]  i.e.,  Ai.     It 

in  the  sea  Billows'  (Zech.  x.   11).  would  seem  that  the  kingdom  of 

The  Red  Sea  has  become  typical.  Judah  extended  nearly  as  far  north 

Comp.  xi.  15,  16.  as  Bethel.     Elsewhere  Geba  is  the 

'"  Two  figures  : — Israel  as  a  bur-  frontier-town  (e.g.,  2  Kings  .Kxiii.  8). 

den-bearer,  and  as  an  animal  under  See  Ewald,  History^  iv.  3. 

the  yoke.     The  last  clause  is  very  ^°  Anathoth]     The  name  is  im- 

uifficult  according  to  the  rec.  text.  portant  as  provmg  the  wide  preva- 

It  is  surely  strange  to  say  that  the  lence  of  cults  analogous  to  those  of 

pressure   of  the   fat  of  an  animal  Babylon.' 

will  destroy  the  yoke.    Besides,  it  is  ^^  This   very    day  .  .  .  ]      He 

1  Aiiath  is  undoubtedly  the  same  as  Antum,  the  feminine  of  the  god  Anu. 
Other  Hebrew  names  compounded  with  Anath  are  Bctlianat,  Beth-anoth — no  mistake 
is  possible,  for  Heth-anat  (Bet-anata)  is  transcribed  in  Egyptian  by  Tliothmcs  with  the 
determinative  of  Divinity.  Comp.  also  .Shamgar,  '  the  son  of  .Anath.'  The  male 
deity,  Anil,  is  only  found  in  the  Old  Test,  in  the  name  Anammelech  (.Anu-malik),  the 
god  of  the  colonists  from  Sepharvaim  or  Sippara,  2  Kings  xvii.  31.  See  De  Vogiie, 
Mdanges,  pp.  41,  42  ;  Lenormant,  Bdrose,  pp.  148-165,  and  for  Anat  or  Anta  in 
Egypt,  De  Kougd,  Mdangcs  d'arc/u'ologie,  1875,  p.  269.  fE.  Meyer  denies  that  the 
Anat  of  the  Canaanites  is  to  be  identified  with  that  of  the  neighbouring  countries 
(Z.  D.  M.  C,  1877,  p.  717).     Yet  the  view  is  intrinsically  reasonable.] 


CHAP.  XI.] 


ISAIAH. 


75 


hand  against  the  mount  of  the  daughter  of  Zion,  the  hill  of 
Jerusalem.  ^^  Behold,  the  Lord,  Jehovah  Sabaoth,  lops  off 
the  mass  of  boughs  with  a  terrible  crash  ;  and  the  high  of 
stature  are  felled,  and  the  lofty  are  brought  low  ;  ^''  and  one 
shall  cut  down  the  thickets  of  the  forest  with  iron,  and  Lebanon 
shall  fall  through  a  Glorious  One. 


will  at  once  press  on  to  Nob,  within 
view  of  the  city. — The  site  of  Nob 
is  still  uncertain.  It  cannot  pos- 
sibly be  the  same  as  Mizpeh  and 
Gibeon,  as  Lieut.  Conder  conjec- 
tured. Major  Wilson 'cannot  ima- 
gine a  more  natural  site  than  some 
place  in  the  vicinity  of  that  Scopus 
whence,  in  later  years,  Titus  and 
his  legions  looked  down  upon  the 
Holy  City.'     See  Josephus,  B.  y., 


V.    2,    3. Swinging^   bis    band] 

Threateningly. 

33,  34  jj^g  sudden  end.  A  hand 
from  above  lops  off  the  crown  of 
Assyria's  foliage,  and  lays  that 
proud  Lebanon  low.  Comp.  w. 
17-19,  xxxii.  19.     A  similar  faith  in 

xxix.   6. A  Glorious  One]  i.e., 

Jehovah  ;  see  on  x.  13,  and  comp. 
xxxiii.  21,  Ps.  xciii.  4  (see  Hebr.). 


CHAPTER    XL 

Comp.  Oracula  SibylL,  iii.  766-794,  a  fine  paraphrase  of  this  prophecy, 
which  may  possibly  in  its  turn  have  been  imitated  by  Virgil  (unconscious 
of  its  Jewish  origin)  in  the  famous  Fourth  Eclogue. 

'  And  there  shall  come  forth  a  shoot   from  the  stock  of 
Jesse,  and  a  twig  from  his  roots  shall  bear  fruit.     ^  ^nd  there 


^  Still  the  figure  of  the  tree,  but 
employed  on  a  new  subject — the 
Jewish  state.  Hence  a  striking  con- 
trast between  the  fate  of  the  cedar- 
forest  of  Assyria  and  the  oak  of 
Jesse.  The  cedar,  being  a  species 
of  pine,  throws  out  no  fresh  suckers 
(see  Kay  ad  loc.)  ;  an  interesting 
anecdote  in  Herodotus  (vi.  il)  is 
based  on  this  fact,  which  also  ex- 
plains the  dwindled  numbers  of  the 
cedars  of  Lebanon.  But  the  oak 
is  a  tree  '  in  which,  at  the  felling,  a 
stock  is  left'  (vi.  13);  or,  as  Job 
says,  'from  the  smell  of  water  it 
will  sprout  and  bring  forth  boughs 
like  a  [fresh]  plant '  (xiv.  9).  There 
is  a  future  then  for  the  country  re- 
presented by  the  oak.  As  David 
sprang  from  the  humble  family  of 
Jesse,  so  the  Messiah,  the  second 
David,    shall    arise    out   of  great 

1  See  /.  C  A.,  p. 


humiliation. — This  prophecy  sup- 
plements the  vague  predictions  in 
vii.  14-16,  ix.  6,  7.  It  tells  us  (comp. 
Mic.  v.  2)  that  the  Messiah  was  to 
belong  to  the  family  of  David  ;  this 
is  all  which  Isaiah  appears  to  have 
known.  The  house  of  David  was 
large  ;  there  was  even  '  a  sort  of 
secondary  royal  family ' — the  house 
of  Nathan  (Zech.  xii.  12).  '  Isaiah 
might  well  be  uncertain  which  of 
the  numerous  princes  who  were  de- 
scended from  David  was  the  one 
chosen  by  God  to  be  the  national 
regenerator.'  ^  There  is  nothing  to 
indicate  that  he  thought  of  Heze- 
kiah,  or  of  any  of  the  children  of 
Hezekiah. 

^  Deserting  the  figure,  the  pro- 
phet proceeds  to  describe  the  cha- 
racter, gifts,  and  public  conduct  of 
the  Messiah.     He  is  to  be  David 

38  ;  comp.  p.  239. 


76 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  XI, 


shall  rest  upon  him  the  spirit  of  Jehovah,  a  spirit  of  wisdom 
and  discernment,  a  spirit  of  counsel  and  might,  a  spirit  of 
knowledge  and  of  the  fear  of  Jehovah.  *  And  he  shall  not 
judge  according  to  the  sight  of  his  eyes,  nor  arbitrate  accord- 
ing to  the  hearing  of  his  ears,  ^  but  with  righteousness  shall 
he  judge  the  helpless,  and  arbitrate  with  equity  for  the  hum- 
ble in  the  land,  and  he  shall  smite  the  ^terrible  with  the 
sceptre  of  his  mouth,  and  with  the  breath  of  his  lips  shall  he 
slay  the  ungodly.     ^  And  righteousness  shall  be  the  girdle  of 

a  So  Bickell  (see  crit.  note).     Text  begins  the  verse,    'And  he   shall   draw  his 
breath  (or,  he  shall  find  a  sweet  savour)  in  the  fear  of  Jehovah ' ;  but? 
0  So  Kr.,  La.,  Gr.     Text,  earth  (or,  land). 


and  Solomon  in  one,  equally  great 
in  knowledge  and  in  practice.  His 
qualities  are  arranged  in  three  pairs, 
but  all  spring  from  one  source, '  the 
Spirit  of  Jehovah,'  which  'rests  (per- 
manently) upon  him'  (comp.  xlii.  l). 
They  are  (i)  moral  and  intellectual 
clearness  of  perception,  (2)  the  wis- 
dotn  and  bravery  which  befit  a  ruler 
(comp.  xxxvi.  5),  (3)  a  knowledge 
of  the  requirements  of  Jehovah 
(see  Mic.  vi.  8),  and  the  will  to  act 
agreeably  to  this  knowledge. 

*  But  'the  fear  of  Jehovah'  is 
nothing  if  not  practical,  and  the 
Messiah's  royal  calling  requires  him 
in  the  first  instance  to  be  a  judge 
(comp.  Jer.  xxi.  12).  Hence  the 
prophet  continues.  He  sball  not 
judg'e  .  .  .  ]  ie.,  the  Messiah  will 
not  be  the  sport  of  appearances, 
like  ordinary  kings,  nor  even  re- 
quire a  lengthened  investigation. 
Having  'the  spirit  of  knowledge' 
from  on  high,  he  will '  know  what  is 
in  man.' 

^  In  striking  contrast  to  the  cor- 
rupt princes  of  Judah  (i.  23,  x.  2) 
he  will  make  the  poor,  especially 
the  '  poor  in  spirit,'  his  chief  care. 
But  tbe  terrible,  him  whom  all 
men  dread  for  his  tyrannical  be- 
haviour ;  or,  as  the  next  line  ex- 
plains it,  'the  ungodly  one,'  be 
sball  smite,  &c.  This  is  exactly 
parallel  to  what  Isaiah  says  of 
the  Messianic  period  (though  the 
King  is  not  there  mentioned)  in 
xxix.  19,  20,  '  And  the  humble  shall 
increase  their  joy  in  Jehovah  .  .  . 
because  the  terrible  one  has  come 


to  nought.'  The  received  reading 
gives  the  passage  a  different  and 
rather  less  appropriate  term.  The 
'  earth  '  must  be  the  hostile,  heathen 
world,  and  the  'ungodly'  a  col- 
lective term  for  its  rulers  (comp. 
Ps.  cxxv.  3,  'the  sceptre  of  un- 
godliness '),  and  the  prophet  will 
then  allude  to  the  judicial  act  of 
vengeance  which,  down  to  the  time 
of  John  the  Baptist,  was  regarded 
as  chronologically  the  first  func- 
tion of  the  Messiah. "Witb  the 

sceptre  of  bis  moutb]  The  whole 
phrase  is  remarkable.  It  brings 
the  King  very  near  divinity,  for  the 
creative  virtue  of  the  word  belongs 
properly  to  Jehovah  :  '  I  have  slain 
them,'  says  Jehovah,  '  by  the  words 
of  my  mouth'  (Hos.  vi.  5).  It  is 
also  ascribed  to  the  Messiah  in 
Zech.  ix.  10,  '  He  shall  speak  peace 
to  the  nations,'  and  to  the  Servant 
of  Jehovah  in  xlix.  2  (see  note). 
The  bearings  of  this  point  on  the 
questions  as  to  the  nature  of  the 
Messiah  and  of  the  Servant  will  be  at 
once  evident.  There  is  a  tempting 
appearance  of  a  parallel  in  Zoroas- 
trianism  ;  but  it  is  a  mirage  ! — the 
'  word '  or  '  words '  in  a  remarkable 
passage  of  the  Avesta  {Vefididad, 
xix.  28-34)  are  too  certainly  liturgi- 
cal symbols.  Obs.  the  Messiah  is 
monarch  of  the  world,  though,  as 
Sir  E.  Strachey  truly  observes,  the 
idea  of  the  universal  kingdom  is 
not  so  prominent  here  as  in  many 
other  places. 

^  He  shall  be  always  ready  for 
acts    of   rigrbteoasness   ^i.e.,    jus- 


CHAP.  XI.] 


ISAIAH. 


n 


his  loins,  and  faithfulness  the  girdle  of  his  reins.  ^  And  the 
wolf  shall  lodge  with  the  lamb,  and  the  leopard  lie  down  with 
the  kid,  and  the  calf  and  the  young  lion  and  the  fatling 
together,  and  there  shall  be  a  little  child  leading  them. 
^And  the  cow  and  the  bear  '^  shall  graze,*'-  together  shall 
their  young  ones  lie  down,  and  the  lion  shall  eat  straw  like 
the  ox  ;  ^  and  the  suckling  shall  play  by  the  hole  of  the  asp, 
and  the  weaned  child  shall  stretch  out  his  hand  on  the 
great  viper's  ^  den.     ^  They  shall  not  °  harm  nor  destroy  in 

'^  Shall  be  friends,  La.  (but  see  Ixv.  25). 


^  So  Pesh  ,  Vulg. ,  Bochart,  Ges. 
«  Do  evil,  Vitr.,  Ew.,  Kay. 

tice)  and  faitlifulness  (i.e.,  trust- 
worthiness). Does  not  this  passage 
determine  the  sense  of  aXrjdeLa  in 
Eph.  vi.  14?  The  tautology  in  the 
repeated  g^irdle  displeases  Bishop 
Lowth  and  Dr.  de  Lagarde,but  He- 
brew ears  did  not  mind  it  ;  comp. 
XV.  8,  xvi.  7,  xvii.  12,  13,  11.  8 
(Kocher,  against  Lowth,  in  1786). 

'^'^  The  rest  of  creation  shall 
sympathise  with  this  reign  of  vir- 
tue and  piety.  Evil  having  been 
eradicated  from  human  society,  it 
would  be  incongruous  that  cruelty 
and  rapine  should  prevail  among 
the  lower  animals.  It  is  stated  as 
the  cause  of  the  Deluge  that  '  all 
flesh  (i.e.,  both  man  and  beast)  had 
corrupted  its  way  upon  the  earth ' 
(Gen.  vi.  12).  If  the  sight  of  the 
violence  and  cruelty  of  man  was 
effectual  for  the  corruption  of  the 
original  innocence  of  the  beasts  and 
birds,  surely  the  sight  of  their  peace 
and  harmony  would  be  equally  po- 
tent in  its  restoration.  It  is  singu- 
lar that  nothing  is  said  here  of  the 
products  of  the  earth,  which  gene- 
rally furnish  such  striking  features 
to  descriptions  like  the  present. 
Verses  6,  7,  and  9  are  repeated  in 
a  condensed  form  in  Ixv.  25. — Most 
of  the  ancients  and  Calvin  take  the 
description  allegorically ;  the  rabbis 
realistically  ;  Hengst.  admits  a  se- 
condary allegorical  sense  ;  Naeg., 
while  adhering  (and  rightly)  to  the 
realistic  interpretation,  takes  the 
details  to  be  simply  typical  or  sym- 
bolical of  a  real  elevation  of  the 
natural  world  :  Ew.  is  vague. 


Naeg.— Eyeball,  Targ.,  Hitz.  Ew.,  Del. 

^  Creat     viper]     Why    go     to 

Africa  for  the  basilisk  ?  One  of  the 
most  beautiful  but  most  venomous 
of  the  vipers  of  Palestine  is  the 
large  yellow  one,  called  Daboia 
xanthtJia  (Tristram). 

^  They  shall  not  harm  .  .  .] 
Most  of  those  who  adopt  alt.  rend, 
assume  that  the  allegorical  sense  of 
7rj.  6-8  is  at  least  the  primary  one, 
and  make  the  verbs  in  7/.  ()a  refer 
to  the  citizens  of  the  Messianic 
kingdom.  They  seem  to  doubt 
whether  wild  beasts  can  be  called 
'  evil,'  forgetting  Gen.  xxxvii.  20. 
Not  only,  however,  is  it  more  natu- 
ral to  continue  the  realistic  inter- 
pretation ;  but  we  are  almost  bound 
to  do  so  by  Ixv.  25  (see  note).  The 
prophet  argues  (as  suggested  above) 
from  the  improved  condition  of  the 
human  world  that  the  evil  propen- 
sities of  the  lower  animals  will  die 

out. In  all  my  holy  mountain] 

i.e.,  on  the  slopes  of  Mount  Zion, 
which  will  have  been  wonder- 
fully transformed  in  accordance 
with  the  prophecy  in  ii.  2,  comp. 
Zech.  xiv.  10,  Ezek.  xl.  2  (Naeg.). 
Or,  in  the  whole  highland-country 
of  Israel,  comp.  Ivii.  13,  Ps.  Ixxviii. 
54,  Ex.  XV.  17  (Hupf.,  Del.).  The 
first  view  is  the  safer ;  it  is  by  no 
means  certain  that  '  mountain '  in 
the  passages  mentioned  means  the 
Holy  Land. — The  next  clause  shows 
that  the  harmlessness  of  the  ani- 
mals on  the  holy  mountain  is  only 
a    symbol    of   '  paradise    regained ' 

throughout    the    whole   world. 

The  earth  .  .  .]  Such,  and  not  '  the 


7B 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  XI. 


all  my  holy  mountain,  for  the  earth  will  have  become  full  of 
the  knowledge  of  Jehovah,  as  the  waters  which  cover  the 
sea. 

^^  And  it  shall  come  to  pass  in  that  day  :  the  root  of  Jesse 
which  standeth  for  a  signal  to  the  peoples — unto  him  shall 
the  nations  resort,  and  his  resting-place  shall  be  glory.  "  And 
it  shall  come  to  pass  in  that  day  :  the  Lord  shall  stretch  out 
his  hand  a  second  time  to  purchase  the  remnant  of  his  people 
which  shall  be  left  from  Assyria   and  from  Eg}'pt,  and  from 


land,'  must  be  the  rendering,  unless 
we  are  prepared  to  limit  '  the  sea ' 
to  the  waters  washing  the  coast 
of  Palestine  !  In  the  next  verse, 
too,  we  have  '  peoples '  and  '  na- 
tions.' 

10-16  j3ut  the  '  restitution  of  all 
things '  requires  some  further  de- 
velopment on  the  side  of  humanity. 
Hence  the  details  in  the  following 
verses.  The  mention  of  the  earth 
as  a  whole  in  v.  9  suggests  to  the 
prophet  to  begin  with  the  Gen- 
tiles.  The  root]  i.e.,  the   plant 

springing  from  the  root,  as  liii.  2, 
Deut.  xxix.  17,  Sirach  xlvii.  25  (22). 
There  is  a  special  reason  for  the 
phrase  here  ;  it  emphasises  the 
contrast  between  the  outwardly 
mean  origin  and  the  ultimate  great- 
ness of  the  Messiah.  For  how  tall 
must  the  plant  have  grown,  to  serve 
as  'a  signal  to  the  nations.' — The 
passage  is  alluded  to  in  Rev.  v.  5, 

xxii.  16. Resort]  Word  specially 

used  of  prayer  (Iv.  6)  and  of  consul- 
tation ororacles(viii.  19,  xix.  3). 

His  restingr-place]  The  word  is  sig- 
nificant. The  throne  of  the  Messiah 
is  '  for  ever  and  ever '  (ix.  6),  like 

that    of  Elohim   (Ps.    xlv.    6). 

Shall  be  grlory]  viz.  the  glory  of  Je- 
hovah, for  when  Jehovah  Sab.ioth 
(whose  representative  is  the  Mes- 
siah) 'becomes  king  in  mount  Zion,' 
there  shall  be  'glory  before  his 
elders'  (xxiv.  23).     Conip.  iv.  5. 

"  Out  of  chronological  order 
(pace  Naegelsbach)  the  prophet 
now    describes   the   restoration    of 

the  Israelites. The  Xiord  shall 

stretch  out  his  hand  a  second 
time]  The  '  first  time'  was  clearly 
at  liie   Mosaic  Exodus  (x.   24,  26). 


To   purchase]     Illustrate    by 

Ex.    XV.    16   (xix.    5),  Ps.    Ixxiv.   2, 
Isa.  1.   I,  Hi.  3. From  i\.ssyria 

.  .  .]  First  the  prophet  mentions  the 
two  greatest  of  Israel's  foes,  Assyria 
and  Egypt,  or  rather  Lower  Egypt, 
(Ebers),  then  Pathros,  or  South- 
land (Brugsch),  i.e.  Upper  Egypt, 
and  Cush,  i.e.  Ethiopia,  then  Elam 
(xxii.  6)  and  Shinar  (i.e.  the  country 
enclosed  by  the  Euphrates  and  the 
Tigris  from  the  points  where  these 
rivers  approach  =  Irak-Arabi),  then 
the  neighbouring  Hamath  (see  be- 
low), and  lastly  the  more  distant 
shores  of  the  Mediterranean  Sea. 
Comp.  parallel  passage,  xxvii.  13. 
The  extent  ascribed  to  the  disper-  i 
sion  is  certainly  surprising.  Does  ' 
Isaiah,  we  must  ask,  describe  a 
present  or  a  future  state  of  things  ? 
No  doubt  the  calamities  of  war 
(especially  the  fall  of  the  northern 
kingdom)  had  brought  many  Is- 
raelites into  foreign  slavery,  and 
this  may  be  alluded  to  in  Zech.Jx. 
11-13  (Joel  iii.  6  is,  I  believe,  much 
later).  But  this  affords  a  very 
inadequate  explanation.  Nothing 
short  of  a  succession  of  severe 
judgments,  issuing  in  the  almost 
complete  destruction  of  the  Jews 
as  a  people,  will  fully  account  for 
the  emphatic  language  of  Isaiah. 
'  Jehovah  stretched  out  his  hand  a 
second  time'  : — there  must  there- 
fore be  a  correspondence  between 
the  first  and  the  second  deliverance. 
The  whole  people  was  in  Egypt ;  it 
must  be  presumed  that  the  whole 
people,  or  so  much  as  will  be  left 
from  the  sword,  will  be  languishing 
in  exile  when  Jehovah  shall  again 
interpose.     Thir^  im]>lies  that  a  sue- 


CHAP.  XI.] 


ISAIAH. 


79 


Pathros  and  from  Cush,  and  from  Elam  and  from  Shi'nar,  and 
from  Hamath,  and  from  the  ^countries  of  the  sea.  ^^  ja^^^  ^^ 
shall  lift  up  a  signal  for  the  nations,  and  shall  gather  the  out- 
cast of  Israel,  and  collect  the  dispersed  of  Judah  from  the  four 
wings  of  the  earth  ;  '^  and  the  jealousy  of  Ephraim  shall  de- 
part, and  the  s  adversaries  of  Judah  shall  be  cut  off:  Ephraim 
shall  not  be  jealous  of  Judah,  and  Judah  shall  not  be  an 
adversary  to  Ephraim.     i"  js^^^  ^^^^  ^j^^jj  p^^^^^^  ^^^^  ^^^ 

shoulder  of  Philistia  towards  the  west  :  together  shall  they 
spoil  the  sons  of  the  east  ;  on  Edom  and  Moab  shall  they 

f  See  on  xl.  15.  g  Hostile  ones,  Ges. 


cession  of  sore  judgments  will  have 
passed  over  the  land  of  Israel,  as 
the  result  of  which  not  even  'a 
tenth  part '  will  be  left,  and  '  great 
will  be  the  desolate  space  within 
the  land'  (vi.  12).  Isaiah,  like  the 
prophets  in  general,  idealises  the 
actual  circumstances,  and  '  sees 
the  entire  evolution  of  the  kingdom 
of  God  compressed  into  the  im- 
mediate   future'    (Drechsler). 

Prom  Slam]  Sargon  (Ji.  P.,  ix.  16) 
states  that  he  transplanted  Hittites 
into  Elam  ;  of  course  he  may  have 
treated  Israelites  so  too.  But  we 
are  not  bound  to  assume  this.  Jews 
from  Elam  or  Susiana  (lit.  '  sons  of 
Elam')  appear  in  the  list  of  re- 
turned exiles  in  Ezra  ii.  7. From 

Hamath]  Mentioned  here  be- 
cause the  kingdom  of  David  and  of 
Jeroboam  II.  extended  thus  far. 
Hamath,  too,  is  really  quite  as  far 
from  Jerusalem  as  Cairo  (about  ten 
days'  journey,  saj's  Mukaddasi). 
Noldeke,  Z.  d.  m.  G.,  1878.  And 
from  the  countries  of  the  sea] 
The  only  passage  in  which  this 
technical  phrase  occurs  in  the  ac- 
knowledged prophecies  of  Isaiah. 
See  on  xl.  15,  and  comp.  Last 
Words,  vol.  ii. 

^^  The  raising  of  the  signal  is 
mentioned  again,  to  associate  the 
Israelites  with  the  Gentiles.  Hence 
the  true  religion  will  be  open  to  all 

nations. The  outcast  (men).  .  . 

the  dispersed  (women)]  A  short 
way  of  expressing  that  both  sexes 
will  be  included.  \ 

"  The  inner  union  of  the  tribes 


shall  correspond  to  the  outer.  The 
great  feud  which  runs  through  all 
Israel's  history  (comp.  ix.  21)  be- 
tween north  and  south  shall  come 
to  an  end  ;  those  who  seek  to  revive 
it,  God  '  shall  cut  off.' The  jea- 
lousy of  Bphraim]  i.e.,  the  jealousy 
felt  towards  Ephraim  in  contrast  to 
'  the  adversaries  of  Judah,'  i.e.,  the' 
Ephraimites.  This  seems  to  me 
now  a  grammatically  easier  and 
therefore  more  probable  explanation 
than  its  converse — 'jealousy felt  by 
Ephraim  '  and  the  'unquiet  ones  in 
Judah.'  Obs.  the  skilful  variation 
in  the  latter  part  of  the  verse. 
Ephraim,  who  was  the  object  of 
jealousy  before,  now  becomes  its 
subject  ;  while  Judah,  at  first  the 
sufferer  from  Ephraim's  hostility, 
now  becomes  the  foremost  in  the 
feud.  So  Naeg.,  whose  note  'hrows 
great  light  upon  the  passage. 

"Another  picture  of  the  Mes- 
sianic age  is  here  presented  to  us. 
expressing  the  wishes  of  a  less  ad' 
vanced  stage  of  morality.  Some  of 
the  tribes  had  suffered  greatly  from 
their  restless  and  warlike  neigh- 
bours, whom,  owing  to  the  incom- 
plete national  union,  they  had  no 
been  able  to  repel.  Now,  however 
Israel  can  take  his  revenge.  United 
as  one  man— or  rather,  as  one  bird 
of  prey  (Hab.  i.  8)— he  shall  pounce 
on  the  shoulder  of  Philistia  (a 
coast  district,  sloping  down  to  the 
sea  like  a  shoulder,  comp.  Num. 
x.xxiv.  11),  on  the  sons  of  the  east, 
i.e.,  the  Arabian  and  Aramaic  tribes, 
E.  and  N.E.  of  Palestine,  and  lastly 


8o 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  XII. 


put  forth  their  hand,  and  the  sons  of  Ammon  shall  obey 
them.  ''^  And  Jehovah  shall  ^  lay  under  a  ban  ^  the  tongue  of 
the  Egyptian  sea,  and  shall  swing  his  hand  over  the  River 
with  his  '  violent  blast,  and  strike  it  into  seven  channels,  and 
make  men  go  over  dry-shod  ;  '''and  a  highway  shall  be  made 
for  the  remnant  of  his  people,  as  there  was  made  for  Israel 
in  the  day  of  his  coming  up  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt. 

h  Dry  up,  Sept.,  Pesh.,  Targ.,  Vulg.  (another  reading). 
>  So  Lu.,  Kr.  (see  crit.  note). — Glowing,  Ew.,  Del.,  Naeg. 


on  the  Edomites,  the  Moabites,  and 
the  Ammonites  (comp.  Zeph.  ii. 
4-IO). 

^^  A  miraculous  passage  shall  be 

made  for  the  exiles  in  Eg}'pt  and 

Assyria. — - — The  tongue,  &.c.]  i.e., 

he  Efulf  of  Akaba,  'or  its  former 


northerly  extension'  (Major  Pal- 
mer). '  Tongue,'  used  as  in  Josh. 
XV.  2,  5,  xviii.  19.     'The  Egyptian 

sea,'  i.e.,  the  Red  Sea. Swing: 

.   .  .  ]   See  on  x.  32. The  ri^^er] 

i.e.,  the  Euphrates  ;  comp.  xliv.  27. 


CHAPTER    XII. 

^  And  thou  shalt  say  in  that  day,  '  I  will  thank  thee, 
Jehovah !  for  thou  wast  wroth  with  me  :  thy  wrath  turned 
back,  and  thou  comfortedst  me.  ^  Behold,  the  God  of  my 
salvation  !  I  will  trust  and  not  be  afraid,  for  my  strength  and 
my  song  is  ^Jah,  for  he  became  unto  me  salvation.' 

^  And  ye  shall  draw  water  with  joy  out  of  the  wells  of 
salvation.     "*  And  ye  shall  say  in  that  day,  '  Give  thanks  to 

a  So  some  MSS.,  and  some  editions  of  Targ.,  (as  Ex.  xv.  2).     Sept.,  Pesh.,  Vulg., 
also  give  but  one  name  of  God.     Text,  Jah  Jehovah  ;  see  crit.  note. 


^  The  song  of  the  reunited  and 
restored  people,  with  whom  the 
prophet  unites  himself  in  spirit. 
It  is  the  counterpart  of  the  Song 
of  Moses  in  Ex.  xv.  ;  indeed,  v.  ib 
is  adopted  from  Ex.  xv.  2,  and  v. 
^a  alludes  to  the  beginning  of  the 
song,  Ex.  XV.  I. 

"^  Salvation]  The  Hebr.  y'sliu'-dh 
is  a  pregnant  word.  The  root- 
meaning  is  width  of  space ;  the 
derived  meaning  may  be  as  well 
'deliverance'  as  'liberty,'  or  'a 
state  of  happiness  '  {AN.  Job  xxx. 
15  '  welfare').  In  Isaiah,  especially 
in  the  second  part,  this  latter  mean- 
ing frequently  occurs.  The  refer- 
ence, however,  Ls  not  always  the 


same— sometimes  purely  temporal 
blessings,  sometimes  mixedly  tem- 
poral and  spiritual  (comp.  aarrjp  in 
I  Tim.  iv.  10). 

^  The  prophet  encourages  his 
people  with  a  promise.  There  will 
be  a  constant  supply  of  salvation 
(comp.  xxxiii.  6). 

■'  Israel  is  to  publish  his  mercies, 
that   the   other   nations    may    pay 

homage  to  Jehovah. Celebrate 

his  name]  Lit.,  '  call  by  means  of 
his  name.'  This  may  be  applied  in 
either  of  the  two  senses,  '  celebrate ' 
and  'invoke.'  Here,  as  in  xli.  25, 
xliv.  5,  the  former  is  alone  suitable  ; 
comp.  Ex.  xxxiii.  19,  xxxiv.  5. 


CHAP.  XIII.]  ISAIAH.  8 1 

Jehovah,  celebrate  his  name,  make  known  his  deeds  among 
the  peoples,  make  mention  that  his  name  is  exalted.  ^  Play- 
music  unto  Jehovah,  for  he  hath  done  surpassingly  ;  let  this 
be  known  in  all  the  earth.  *^  Give  a  shrill  and  ringing  cry, 
O  inhabitress  of  Zion,  for  great  within  thee  is  the  Holy  One 
of  Israel.' 


CHAPTER  XIII.-XIV.   23. 

This  is  the  first  of  a  series  of  twelve  prophecies  (chaps,  xiii-xxiii.) 
mostly  directed  against  foreign  nations.  It  announces  the  fall  of  Babylon, 
not  as  an  isolated  fact  in  its  relations  to  the  Jews  only,  but  as  the 
central  event  of  the  'day  of  Jehovah.'  Its  tone  is  in  harmony  with 
the  title,  extremely  rare  in  the  prophetic  writings,  which  it  gives  to  the 
Divine  Judge  (El  Shaddai,  see  on  v.  6)  ;  the  softer  element,  so  con- 
spicuous in  chaps,  xl.-lxvi.,  is  entirely  wanting.  This  remark  applies 
both  to  the  preliminary  prophecy  in  chap,  xiii.,  and  to  the  triumphal  Ode 
on  the  king  of  Babylon  in  chap.  xiv.  The  poetical  merits  of  the  latter 
are,  however,  so  far  superior  to  those  of  the  former,  that  I  have  been  led 
to  the  conjecture  (which  I  hope  to  defend  elsewhere)  that  the  Ode  was 
not  originally  composed  to  occupy  its  present  position.  However  this 
may  be,  it  is  not  only  a  splendid  enforcement  of  the  Biblical  doctrine  of 
retribution,  but  supplies  most  valuable  illustrations  of  the  current  beliefs 
—partly  of  the  Jews,  partly  also  of  the  Babylonians— as  to  the  other 
world.     (With  regard  to  the  form  of  the  Ode,  see  on  xiv.  3.) 

Sir  E.  Strachey  (with  the  half-assent  of  Stanley^)  has  attempted  to 
show  that  the  '  king  of  Babylon '  referred  to  in  the  Ode  is  a  king  of  Assyria 
{Jewish  History  a7td  Politics,  pp.  166-170),  but  on  insufficient  grounds. 
It  is  true  that  Sargon  is  called  'king  of  Babylon'  by  the  Babylonians 
(comp.  Lenormant,  Lcs  pi--emicres  civilisations,  ii.  253),  and  that  he 
styles  himself  '  king  of  Assyria  and  viceroy  of  Babylon  ; '  but  this  does 
not  render  it  probable  that  '  king  of  Babylon  '  in  the  mouth  of  Isaiah 
would  mean  '  king  of  Assyria' ;  would  any  of  his  readers  have  understood 
him  1  Is  not  the  Ode  precisely  parallel  to  the  song  in  chap,  xlvii.,  where 
no  one  has  yet  attempted  to  make  Babylon  equivalent  to  Assyria  1  (See 
more  against  this  view  on  xxxix.  8.) 

'  [Utterance  of  Babylon  which  Isaiah  son  of  Amoz  saw.l 

1  The   title   is   by   many  critics  prefixed  more  suitable  titles  ;  and 

ascribed  to  a  later  editor,  on  the  2.  that  the   Isaianic  authorship  is 

grounds   i.  that  ?/Z(i:i-.yrt,  '  utterance,'  opposed  by  internal  evidence.     It 

effatum,  only  occurs  in    Isaiah  in  does  not   fall  within  my  scope    to 

chaps,  xiii.-xxiii.,  and  that  in  xvii.  discuss  the  latter  point  here.—- — 

I,  xxi.   II,  xxii.    I,  it  is  difficult  to  utterance]   Not   'burden';    i.  be- 

believe  that  Isaiah  would  not  have  cause   the  word  is  prefixed   to  at 

1  Jewish  Church,  ii.,  p.   480,   note.     Mr.  G.  Smith  independently  explained  the 
phrase  of  Tiglath-Pileser  (  r.  .S^.  B.  A.  ii.  328).  ^       p  ci.ueu  me 

VOL.    I.  n 


82 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  XIII. 


"^  Upon  a  bare  mountain  lift  ye  up  a  signal,  raise  the  voice 
unto  them,  swing  the  hand,  that  they  may  enter  the  gates  of 
the  princes,  ^  I,  even  I,  have  charged  my  consecrated  ones, 
I  have  also  called  my  mighty  men  to  execute  mine  anger,  my 
proudly  triumphant  ones.  *  Hark,  a  tumult  in  the  mountains, 
like  as  of  much  people !  hark,  the  uproar  of  the  kingdoms  of 
nations  gathered  together !  Jehovah  Sabaoth  is  mustering 
the  host  of  war.  ■"'  They  come  from  a  far  country,  from  the 
end  of  the  heavens,  even  Jehovah  and  the  weapons  of  his  in- 
least  four  passages  which  are  not  of      paign  (comp.   i   Sam.  xiii.  9).     The 


a  threatening  purport  (Zech.  ix.  i, 
xii.  I,  Prov.  XXX.  i,  xxxi.  J  ;  comp. 
Lam.  ii.  14);  2.  because  the  rebuke 
in  Jar.  xxiii.  33,  &c.,  only  yields  a 
good  sense  if  we  admit  that  the 
prophets  were  accustomed  to  apply 
the  word  inassd  to  their  prophecies 
in  the  sense  of  oracle  or  utterance 
(comp.  Hupfeldon  Ps.  xv.3). — Ewald 
divides  chap.  xiii.  into  three  stanzas 
or  strophes  : — I.  v7k  2-8;  II.  vv.  9- 
16;  III.7'7/.  17-22.  This  is  plausible, 
but  seems  to  obscure  the  connec- 
tion. The  subject  suggests  a  single 
division  at  v.  14  (see  note). 

2-ia  ^\iQ  Divine  judgment  upon 
the  world. Upon  a  bare  moun- 
tain] '  Bare,'  i.e.  treeless,  that  the 
signal  may  be  clearly  seen.  So 
Balaam  '  went  to  a  bare  hill,'  to 
survey  the  tribes  of  Israel  (Num. 
xxiii.  3).  Obs.,  the  hills  of  Pales- 
tine were  not  so  bare  anciently  as 
they  are  now  ;  hence  the  writer's 
particularity.— — lift  ye  up  ...  ] 
A  mysterious  voice  is  heard  (as  in 
xl.  3-6,  Ixii.  10),  appointing  a  signal 
for  a  distant  army  (see  v.  26). 
The  summons  being  urgent,  it  is  to 
be  enforced  by  a  ringing  cry  (as 
the  army  draws  nearer),  and  by  a 
'  swinging  (or  beckoning)  of  the 
hand '  (see  for  the  phrase,  x.  32  ; 

and      comp.      xli.x.      22). The 

princes]  i.e.,  the  long-established 
dynasties,  which  the  barbarian 
parvenus  are  to  overthrow. 

^  Jehovah's  explanation  of  the 
summons  in  7'.  2.  The  war  is  to  be 
a  crusade,  a  jehdd.  Wly  conse- 
crated ones]  Warriors  were  '  hal- 
lowed '  or  '  consecrated '  by  the 
sacrifices  offered  before  the  cam- 


prophet  boldly  declares  that  the 
Persian  army  is  not  '  consecrated ' 
to  Ahuramazda,  but  to  Jehovah. 
Comp.  in  Q.  P.  Z>'.,  Jer.  xxii.  7,  Zeph. 
i.  7,  and  Jer.  li.  27,  28  (based  on  our 

passage). IVIy      proudly      tri- 

umpbant  ones]  Alluding,  says 
Hitz,  to  the  vainglorious  character 
of  the  Persians,  comp.  Herod,  i.  89. 
15ut  this  is  unnecessary ;  the  phrase 
describes  the  exuberant  spirits  of 
the  warrior,  and  refers  not  exclu- 
sively to  the  Persians,  but  to  all  the 
barbarian  peoples.  It  recurs  in 
Zeph.  iii.  11  in  a  bad  sense,  of  the 
haughty  sinners  of  Zion.  Which  of 
the  two  passages  is  the  original,  is 
a  complicated  question,  not  to  be 
settled  in  a  few  words. 

■*  How  vividly  in  three  lines  the 
gradual  approach  of  the  invading 

army  is    described  !    (Ges.) In 

tbe  mountains]  No  doubt,  there  is 
a  range  of  mountains  (Zagros)  in  the 
N.E.  of  Babylonia,  but  is  it  likely 
that  the  prophet  is  thinking  of  his 
geography  }  Are  not  the  mountains 
rather  the  ideal  barriers  which  have 
hitherto  kept  the  barbarian  peoples 
at  a  distance  from  civilisation  ? 
Nor  is  it  merely  the  Babylonian 
empire,  but  the  whole  world,  which 
is  to  be  laid  waste.  We  can  only 
understand  this  prophecy  in  con- 
nection with  the  other  eschatological 
sections  (see  on  iii.  13 ;  and  on  chap, 
xxiv.). 

*  Prom  tbe  end  of  the  heavens] 
Heaven  being  concei\ed  as  an  im- 
mense dome  resting  on  the  earth. 
So  Ps.  xix.  7,  Deut.  iv.  32  (twice), 
xxx.  4  =  Neh.  i.  9). 


CHAP.  XIII.] 


ISAIAH. 


^3 


dignation,  to  waste  the  whole  earth.  ''  Howl  ye,  for  the  day 
of  Jehovah  is  near  ;  as  a  destruction  from  him  who  is  power- 
ful to  destroy  shall  it  come.  '^  Therefore  shall  all  hands  be 
slack,  and  every  human  heart  shall  melt :  ^  and  they  shall  be 
dismayed,  taking  hold  of  pangs  and  throes  ;  as  a  travailing 
woman  shall  they  writhe,  they  shall  look  aghast  each  one  at 
the  other,  faces  of  flames  their  faces.     ^  Behold,  the  day  of 


^  Comp.  Joel  ii.  i,  Zeph.  i.  7.  A 
day  of  Jehovah  in  its  original, 
popular  sense  is  a  victory  of  Israel's 
God  over  Israel's  enemies  ('day'  as 
in  ix.  4) ;  see  Am.  v.  18,  probably  the 
earliest  passage  in  which  the  phrase 
occurs.  The  prophets  adopted  the 
phrase,  disburdened  it  of  its  grosser 
associations,  and  made  it  a  symbol 
of  the  great  judicial  retribution  in 
store  both  for  Jew  and  for  Gentile. 
A  parallel  description  to  the  present 
(and  of  a  date  equally  disputed)  is 
Joel  iii.  11-16.  'Day'  has  now 
ceased  to  mean  '  victory,'  it  comes 
nearer  to  'assize';  Jehovah,  in- 
deed, has  put  off  the  arbitrariness 
of  the  warrior  and  delights  in  even- 
handed  justice.  Justice,  however, 
is  tempered  by  mercy,  for  '  who- 
soever shall  call  upon  the  name  of 
Jehovah  shall  be  saved'  (Joel  ii. 
32).  It  is  impossible  to  unite  all 
the  various  features  of  this  '  day,' 
as  given  in  the  different  prophecies 
in  a  single  picture.  See,  however, 
H.  Schultz,  A //fes/a^;ie;i/h'c//e  Tlieo- 
logte,  pp.  690-2,  and  on  the  original 
conception,  W.  R.  Smith,  The  Pro- 
phets  of  Israel^    p.    397. As   a 

destruction  .  .  .  ]  i.e.,  with  all  the 
characteristics  (such  as  suddenness 
and  completeness,  Jer.  iv.  20,  Weir), 
of  a  direct  intervention  of  the  Lord 
of  Nature.  The  Hebr.  is  k'shod 
inish-shaddai,  an  assonance  difficult 
to  reproduce  tersely.  So  again 
Joel  i.  15.  The  name  here  given 
to  God  is  rarely  found  in  the  pro- 
phets. Wherever  it  does  occur 
(Joel  i.  15,  Ezek.  i.  24,  x.  5),  it  ap- 
pears to  express  the  more  severe 
and  awful  side  of  the  Divine  nature. 


A  similar  impression  is  produced 
by  its  use  in  Ruth  i.  20,  Ps.  Ixviii. 
14(15);  and  though  in  the  Book 
of  Job  (23  times),  in  the  Pentateuch 
(8  times,  excluding  compound 
proper  names),  and  in  Ps.  xci.  i, 
it  seems  to  be  used  as  a  mere 
synonym  for  El  or  Elohim,  it  must 
at  least  be  clear  that  force,  and 
specially  force  as  exhibited  in  a 
dangerous  aspect  in  some  natural 
phenomena,  is  the  original  meaning 
of  the  word  (a  meaning  suitable 
enough  in  early  times,  comp.  Ex.  vi. 
3).  Geiger  and  Dr. Robertson  Smith^ 
have  shown  that  the  interpretation 
Almighty  (found  in  Sept.  generally, 
in  Vulg.  Pentateuch,  and,  virtually, 
sometimes  in  Pesh.)  arises  ulti- 
mately out  of  a  false  etymology, 
presupposed,  it  seems,  by  the 
pointing,  as  if  the  word  meant 
'sufficient.'  It  is,  of  course,  still 
possible  to  derive  from  shddad,  and 
explain  '  the  destructive,'  comp.  the 
Phoenician  Sfi^iSos-^  (  =  Arab. shadid, 
violent).  But  as  Shaddai  is  in 
usage  generally  a  substantive,  and 
not  an  adjective,  to  El,  '  God,'  it  is 
plausible  to  connect  the  word  with 
Aram.  sh\-id,  'to  throw  or  pour  out.' 
It  will  then  have  meant  originally 
(i.e.,  before  its  adoption  by  Biblical 
writers)  the  rain-giver  or  the  thun- 
derer — a  sense  abundantly  justified 
by  analogies.  An  Assyrian  cognate  is 
no  doubt  still  wanting,unless  we  com- 
pare sadii.,  mountain  (projection).^ 
The  word  stands  up  in  the  later 
H  ebrew  vocabulary  like  a  rare  monu- 
ment of  a  primitive  age  (Ewald). 

®  Faces  ot  flames  their  faces] 
The     phrase    is     difficult.       Most 


^  W.  R.  Smith,   The  Old  Testament  in  the  ycivish  Church,  pp.  423-4  ;  comp.  Ge- 
sen'us,   Thesaurus,  s.v.  Shaddai. 

^_  Philo  of  Byblus;  Fraginenta  Hist.  Gr.,  ed.  Miiller.  iii.  568. 
^  Or  did  Shaddai  once  mean  'rock'?     See  critical  note,  \o1.  ii. 


84 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  XIII. 


Jehovah  comcth,  a  cruel  one,  with  fury  and  burning  anger,  to 
make  the  earth  a  desolation,  and  to  exterminate  the  sinners 
thereof  out  of  it.  ^^  For  the  stars  of  heaven,  and  the  Orions 
thereof,  shall  not  give  out  their  light  ;  the  sun  shall  be  dark  at 
his  going  forth,  and  the  moon  shall  not  cause  her  light  to 
shine.  ^'  And  I  will  punish  the  world  for  its  evil,  and  the 
wicked  for  their  iniquity ;  and  I  will  cause  the  pride  of  the 
arrogant  to  cease,  and  the  haughtiness  of  the  terrible  will  I 
abase.  '^  I  will  make  men  scarcer  than  fine  gold,  and  people  than 
the  solid  gold  of  Ophir.  ^"^  Therefore  will  I  make  the  heavens 
to  tremble,  and  the  earth  shall  move  quaking  from  its  place, 
for  the  fury  of  Jehovah  Sabaoth,  and  for  the  day  of  his  burn- 


have  attempted  to  make  it  out 
to  be  equivalent  to  the  parallel 
clause,  but  without  success,  for  a 
paralysing  terror  rather  produces 
paleness  (Jer.  xxx.  6).  But  is  this 
necessary  ?  May  we  not  suppose  a 
transition  from  horror-struck  alarm 
to  '  excitement  flashing  up  amidst 
their  terror,  as  when  flames  rise 
out  of  thick  volumes  of  smoke ' 
(Kay)  ?  Joel  ii.  6  sometimes  quoted 
is  not  in  point  ;  see  (J-  P-  B. 

'•^  For  the  stars]  '  Light  is  sown 
for  the  righteous'  (Ps.  xcvii.  ii)  ; 
consequently,  the  punishment  of 
the  wicked  takes  place  in  darkness. 

Comp.  Joel  ii.  lo. Tbe  Oricns 

thereof]  i.e.,  Orion,  and  the  con- 
stellations equal  to  it  in  brightness. 
'Orion'  is  in  Hebr.  Ji'sil  (whence 
the  name  of  the  month  Chisleu, 
Ass.  kisiluv),  the  '  foolhardy  '  giant 
who  strove  with  Jehovah,  as  He- 
brew folk-lore  told  (comp.  Job 
xxxviii.  31).  Here,  however,  the 
original  mythic  element  has  been 
almost  effaced  ;  the  name  has  be- 
come applied  to  constellations  in 
general.  (See  Last  IVon/s,  vol.  ii., 
and  comp.  Steinthal  in  Goldziher's 
Hcbreiu  Mythology,  appendix,  p. 
427.  ( 1 1  is  true,  we  have  not  absolute 
certainty  that  the  Hebrew  k'sil  is 
Orion.  The  Chalda?o-Assyrian  as- 
trology gave   the  name  kisiluv  to 


the  ninth  month,  connecting  it  with 
the  zodiacal  sign  Sagittarius.  But 
M.  A.  Stern's  argument  still  seems 
to  me  a  valid  defence  of  the  above 
view.^  We  must  beware  of  inferring 
too  much  from  the  verbal  corre- 
spondence of  allied  myths.) 

"  Tiie  world] '  That  is,  the  Baby- 
lonish empire  ;  as  77  olKovnevrj  for  the 
Roman  empire,  or  for  Judea,  Luke 
ii.  I,  Acts  xi.  28  '  (Lowth).  But  the 
analogy  of  prophecy  compels  us 
to  interpret  the  words  more  strictl)'. 
See  on  7/.  4. 

'■^  I  will  make  men  .  .  .  ]  So  in 
a  fuller  account  of  the  judgment, 
'  few  men  shall  be  left '  (xxiv.  6). 

'^  Amidst  convulsive  throes,  the 
present    world    comes    to   an  end. 

See  on  xxiv.  19,  20. Therefore] 

Clearly  this  is  in  no  immediate  con- 
nection with  the  preceding  state- 
ment that  few  men  shall  survive  the 
judgment.  Rather  it  introduces  an 
intensified  description  of  the  terror 
of  Jehovah's  Day,  and  is  explained 
by  the  latter  half  of  the  verse.  Be- 
cause Jehovah's  anger  is  so  hot, 
therefore  he  will  sweep  away  the 
scene  of  man's  rebellion.  The  cor- 
responding image  of  a  new  heaven 
and  earth  does  not  appear  in  this 

prophecy. The      earth      shall 

move  quaking-  .  .  .  ]  A  clear 
allusion    to   Job    i.x.   6,  where   the 


1  See  Stern  in  Geiger's  Jiid'nchc  Zrifsr/iriff,  1865,  pp.  258-276  ;  and  for  the  Chal- 
dsean  view,  Lenormant.  f.rs  ori,<:iiics  de  I  histoiir,  ed.  1,  vol.  i.,  p.  247,  comp.  Saycc, 
in  T.  S.  P.  A.,  in.,  164. 


CHAP.  XIII.] 


ISAIAH. 


S5 


ing  anger.  ''*And  it  shall  be  as  with  a  gazelle  which  is  chased, 
and  like  sheep  with  none  to  gather  them  ;  they  shall  turn  every- 
one to  his  own  people,  and  flee  every  one  to  his  own  land  ; 
'^  every  one  who  is  found  shall  be  thrust  through,  and  every 
one  who  *  is  caught  *  shall  fall  by  the  sword  ;  '^  and  their  .suck- 
lings shall  be  dashed  in  pieces  before  their  eyes  ;  spoiled  shall 
their  houses  be,  and  their  wives  ravished.     '^  Behold,  I  stir  up 

"  So  substantially,  Ew.,  Del,  Naeg. — Withdraweth  himself,  Ges.  (Comm.),  Weir. 


phrase  is,  so  to  speak,  at  home, 
arising  more  naturally  than  here 
out  of  the  context. 

11-22  "pj^g  £j.g(-  g^f,).  jj^  )-]^g  world- 
judgment — the  overthrow  of  Baby- 
lon. The  prophet  does  not  indeed 
mention  Babylon  at  once.  But  a 
flash  of  light  at  the  end  of  2/.  19 
clears  up  the  details  of  the  scene. 
The  place  before  us  is  a  gathering- 
point  for  strangers  from  all  coun- 
tries, and  what  should  this  be  but 
Babylon,  with  its  wide  commercial 
relations  and  its  ndnfiiKTos  o;(Xos 
{PerscE^  53  ;  comp.  xlvii.  15,  Jer,  1. 

16,  li.  9,  44)? 

^^  Found,  in  the  city  ;  caugbt, 
in  battle  or  in  flight. 

"  The  first  to  be  mentioned  by 
name  are  the  invaders.  They  are 
the  IWedes,  or,  in  Hebrew  and  As- 
syrian, Madai.  We  cannot  here 
altogether  avoid  trenching  on  the 
province  of  the  '  higher  criticism.' 
Even  the  most  cursory  examination 
of  the  text  suggests  the  twofold 
question, — How  can  Isaiah  have 
referred  to  the  Medes,  and  how  can 
a  prophet  of  the  Exile  (if  such  a  one 
be  the  author  rather  than  Isaiah, 
on  account  of '  the  Medes ')  not  have 
mentioned  the  Persians  .''  Some 
light  is  thrown  on  the  former  point 
by  the  inscriptions,  which  from  Ra- 
man-nirari  III.  onwards  (or  say, 
from  B.C.  810)  from  time  to  time  re- 
cord the  conquests  of  the  Assyrian 
kings  in  Media,  and  indeed  by  the 
Old  Testament  itself,  for,  accord- 
ing to  2  Kings  xvii.  6,  xviii.  11,  a 
part  of  the  captive  Israelites  had 
a  dwelling-place  assigned  to  them 


'  in  the  cities  of  the  Medes.'  Media, 
therefore,  was  not  beyond  the  hori- 
zon of  a  well-informed  Hebrew 
vi'riter,  and  in  spite  of  the  fact  that 
the  Medes  are  only  mentioned  in 
Isaiah  in  prophecies  of  disputed 
authorship  (here,  and  in  xxi.  2),  and 
not  again  till  the  Persian  period 
(Ezra  vi.  2,  Dan.  v.  28,  &c.,  Esth. 
i.  3),  I  conclude  that  Isaiah  may 
conceivably  have  referred  by  name 
to  the  Medes,  just  as  in  xxii.  6  he 
refers  to  Elam  (see,  however,  In- 
trod.  to  chap,  xxii.)  Then  {b)  as 
to  the  non-mention  of  the  name  of 
Persia  which  might  at  first  sight 
appear  surprising  in  a  prophetic 
writer  of  the  period  of  the  Exile. 
It  is  quite  true  that  the  name  '  Per- 
sia' occurs  in  Ezekiel  (xxvii.  10, 
xxxviii.  5),  but  this  does  not  ex- 
clude the  Captivity-origin  of  Isaiah 
xiii.  any  more  than  the  occurrence 
of  '  Medes'  for  'Persians'  in  He- 
rodotus or  Thucydides  ^  disproves 
the  contemporary  origin  of  a  work 
in  which  the  word  '  Persians '  oc- 
curs. Besides,  as  I  have  remarked 
elsewhere  (/.  C.  A.,  p.  137),  the 
name  Persia  occurs  in  Ezekiel  '  in 
company  with  other  names  which 
were  certainly  unfamiliar  to  the 
great  majority  of  Hebrews  ; '  and 
if,  on  philological  grounds,  a  critic 
should  be  led  to  maintain  that 
chap.  xiii.  was  written  by  a  prophet 
of  the  Exile,  he  can  offer  an  addi- 
tional reason  for  the  special  men- 
tion of  the  Medes  rather  than  the 
Persians,  viz.  that  the  generals  of 
Cyrus  were  apparently  Medes  {e.g.^ 
Mazares  and  Harpagus,  Herod,  i. 


•  It  is  worth  noticing,  too,  that  the  Egyptian  commentator  on  Egyptian  prophecies 
made  known  to  us  by  M.  Revillout,  always  calls  the  Persians  Medes  {Rcvuc  Egypto- 
logique,  1880-81). 


86 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  XIII. 


the  Mcdes  against  them,  who  regard  not  silver  and  take  no 
pleasure  in  gold.  '*^  And  bows  shall  dash  in  pieces  the 
youths,  and  on  the  fruit  of  the  womb  they  shall  have  no  com- 
passion ;  their  eye  shall  not  be  sorry  for  children.  '^And 
Babylon,  the  splendour  of  kingdoms,  the  proud  ornament  of 
Chaldea,  shall  be  as  at  God's  overthrow  of  Sodom  and 
Gomorrah.  ^°  It  shall  be  uninhabited  for  ever,  and  be  un- 
peopled for  successive  generations  ;  and  the  Arab  shall  not 
pitch  tent  there,  and  shepherds  shall  not  cause  to  lie  down 
there.      '^'  But  wild  cats    shall    lie  down   there,   and  jackals 


157,  162).  The  latter  circumstance 
is  rather  remarkable.  It  may  be 
accounted  for  partly  from  the  im- 
portant share  which  the  Median 
army  had  taken  in  Cyrus's  ear- 
liest victory  (they  revolted  against 
Astyages,  and  sent  him  captive  to 
Cyrus),  and  partly  from  the  fact,  so 
repugnant  to  the  Persian  mind,  that 
Cyrus,  an  Aryan  by  origin,  had  be- 
come practically  a  non-Aryan,  as 
being  King  of  '  Anzan  '  or  Elam — 
he  does  not  indeed  call  himself  a 
Persian.    See  the  Cyrus  inscription 

commented  upon  in  Essay  xi. 

V/bo  regard  not  silver]  Either 
because  it  is  a  war  for  vengeance, 
not  for  booty  (Del.),  or  because 
gold  and  silver  money  was  confined 
to  the  Semitic  world,  i.e.  to  Phce- 
nicia  and  the  regions  with  which 
it  was  in  relation. 

^^  As  at  God's  overthrow  .  .  •  ] 
Evidently  the  phrase  has  become 
proverbial.  vSee  Am.  iv.  1 1  in  the 
Hebrew,  and  see  on  i.  7. 

-"  The  Arab]  Nomad  Arabian 
tribes  are  mentioned  by  Sargon  on 
the  other  side  of  the  Tigris  as  far 
as  Elam. 

ai,22  Parallel  passage,  xxxiv.  14. 
The  precise  species  of  the  animals 
are  not  always  certain  ;  one  of  the 
words  used  has  Assyrian  affini- 
ties (see  crit.  note).  The  first 
clause  of  the  verse  is  antithetical  to 
the  last  of  v.  20.  A  worse  fate  is 
reserved  for  Babylon  than  for  less 
guilty  cities  (comp.  v.  17)  : — not 
flocks  of  sheep,  but  their  deadly 
enemy,  the  jackal,  '  shall  lie  down 
there.'    Then,  as  for  '  their  palaces, 


where  luxury  late  reigned  '  (see  con- 
text in  Far.  Lost.,  xi.  750),  the  only 
inhabitants  shall  be  demons  and 
demon-like  animals.  It  is  worthy 
of  remark,  that  there  is  no  mention 
of  demons  or  evil  spirits,  except  in 
prophecies  upon  regions  utterly  ex- 
cluded from  the  kingdom  of  Jeho- 
vah, such  as  Babylon  and  Edom 
(chaps,  xiii.,  x.xxiv^),  prophecies,  too, 
which  are  denied  by  many,  if  not 
most,  critics  to  Isaiah. — Uid  the 
writer  or  writers  of  these  prophecies 
themselves  believe  in  the  existence 
of  the  demons .''  They  may  have 
done  so  (at  any  rate,  if  exiles  in 
Babylonia),  or  they  may  have  used 
them  as  poetical  decorations  ;  but 
in  either  case,  they  entirely  sub- 
ordinated them  to  the  One  God, 
Jehovah.  None  of  the  great  pro- 
phets could  have  written  the  words 
which  Mr.  Budge  has  rendered  thus 
from  an  Inscription  (14)  in  vol.  iv. 
oi  Brit.  Mils.  Coll.,  '  An  incantation 
to  the  desert  places  holy  may  it  go 
forth  !'  It  is  more  than  probable, 
however,  that  the  belief  in  the 
demons  of  the  desert  at  any  rate 
increased  among  the  Jews  during 
the  Exile,  owing  to  its  prevalence 
in  Babylonia  and  Assyria — see 
Lenormant,  La  iMagic,  p.  29,  and 
comp.  Levy,  Z.  d.  m.  G.,  ix.  461-491. 
There  is  a  striking  Assyrian  parallel 
to  the  present  passage  in  the  A/i- 
iials  of  Assurbaiiipal  (Cyl.  A.  col. 
7,  1.  7,  8,  Smith  and  Lenormant). 
As  a  feature  of  the  devastation  of 
Elam,  the  king  relates,  '  Wild  asses, 
serpents,  beasts  of  the  desert,  and 
bull-shaped  demons,  safely  I  caused 


CHAP.  XIV.] 


ISAIAH. 


87 


shall  fill  their  houses  ;  and  ostriches  shall  dwell  there,  and 
^  satyrs  shall  dance  there  ;  ^^  and  hyaenas  shall  cry  in  ^  the 
castles  thereof,*"  and  wolves  in  the  palaces  of  luxury  ;  near 
coming  is  its  season,  and  its  days  shall  not  be  prolonged. 

••  Wild  goats,  Saadya  (d.  942),  Alexander,  Henderson. 

'  So  Pesh.,  Targ.,  Vulg.,  Lo.,  Houb. ,  de  Rossi ;  their  widows,  Text. 


to  lie  down  in  them.'  This  passage 
is  remarkable  for  its  occurrence  in 
a  historical  inscription.  As  for  the 
Babylonian  documents  on  magic, 
they  simply  abound  in  references 
to  the  demons  of  the  desert  who 

lie   in    wait   for   human   prey. 

Satyrs]  i.e.,  demons  or  goblins 
shaped  like  goats,  which,  we  know 
from  Lev.  xvii.  7,  2  Chron.  xi.  15, 
were  sacrificed  to  by  some  of  the 
Israelites.  The  combination  is, 
no  doubt,  an  odd  one  to  Western 
readers,  'jackals,  ostriches,  de- 
mons,  hyaenas.'      But   there   is   a 


similar  one  in  the  passage  quoted 
from  Assurbanipal,  and  we  shall 
meet  with  another  in  xxxiv.  14. — 
Coverdale's  'apes,'  Kay's  'baboons,' 
are  against  usage.  Alt.  rend,  is, 
however,  quite  admissible  ;  see  in 
support  of  it  Alexander's  note,  and 
De  Goeje,  De  Gids^  1865,  pp.  546-7. 
Several  interesting  questions  are 
connected  with  the  Hebr.  word 
{se^trhn)  ;  see  Gesenius's  Coiiiiiicn- 
tary  or  Thesaurus^  and  Baudissin, 
Studien^  i.  136-9.  Our  passage  is 
imitated  in  Jer.  1.  39  ;  comp.  also 
ch.  xxxiv.  14,  15. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

^  For  Jehovah  will  have  compassion  upon  Jacob,  and  will 
yet  again  choose  Israel,  and  settle  them  on  their  own  ground  ; 
and  the  foreigner  shall  join  himself  to  them,  and  they  shall 
attach  themselves  to  the  house  of  Jacob  ;  ^  and  peoples  shall 
take  them  and  bring  them  to  their  place,  and  the  house  of 
Israel  shall  take  them  in  possession  on  Jehovah's  ground  for 
bondmen  and  for  bondmaids  :  and  they  shall  become  the 
captors  of  their  captors,  and  shall  subdue  their  tyrants. 


1-23  'Y\\Q.  general  reason  of  the 
judgment  on  the  world  is  the  world's 
accumulated  sin  (chap.  xiii.).  The 
special  reason  of  that  upon  Babylon 
is  the  servitude  in  which  it  has  held 
Israel. 

^  "Will  yet  again  choose]  The 
Captivity  seemed  to  imply  a  resig- 
nation on  Jehovah's  part  of  his 
rights  over  Israel.  Comp.  Hos.  ix. 
3,  '  They  shall  not  dwell  in  Jehovah's 
land,' and  Ixiii.  19. The  foreign- 
er] Lit.  the  sojourner  (comp.  Ex.  xx. 
10,  'thysojourner').  Acharacteristic 
idea  of  II.  Isaiah  ;  see,  e.g.,xliv,  5, 


Iv.  5,  Ivi.  3  (see  note)  ;  as  also  is  that 
of  the  friendly  escort  given  by  the 
Gentiles,  xlix.  22,  Ix.  9.  In  later 
Hebrew  '  sojourner '  =  proselyte. 

^  For  bondmen  and  for  bond- 
maids] This  is  no  doubt  partly 
intended  as  a  righteous  retribution 
— hence  the  allusion  to  their  '  ty- 
rants.' But  in  the  case  of  some 
of  the  Gentiles,  we  are  meant  to 
suppose  that  fear  will  have  passed 
into  love,  and  that  they  will  press 
for  admission  into  the  community 
of  Israel  in  even  the  lowest  capa- 
city.    This  is  clearly  a  part  of  the 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  XIV. 


^  And  it  shall  come  to  pass  in  the  day  that  Jehovah 
giveth  thee  rest  from  thy  travail  and  from  thy  disquiet,  and 
from  the  hard  service  which  men  laid  upon  thee,  that  thou 
shalt  take  up  this  taunt-song  upon  the  king  of  Babylon,  and 
shalt  say  : — ''  How  is  the  tyrant  stilled — the  ^  raging  stilled  ! 
*  Jehovah  hath  broken  the  staff  of  the  wicked,  the  rod  of  the 
rulers,  ^  which  smote  peoples  in  passion  with  an  unceasing 
stroke,  which  trampled  down  nations  in  anger  with  a 
^  trampling  unrestrained  !  ^  Quiet  and  at  rest  is  all  the  earth  ; 
they  burst  out  into  a  ringing  sound.  ^  The  pine-trees  also 
rejoice  at  thee,  the  cedars  of  Lebanon,  *  Since  thou  liest  low, 
the  feller  cometh  not  up  against  us.' 

a  So  Sept.,  Aquila,  Pesh.,  Targ.,  Ges.,   Ew.,  Weir,   Naeg.,   Bi. — Text,   golden 
(city). 

b  So  Doderlein,  Ges.,  Ew.,  Alexander. — Text,  persecution. 


prophet's  meaning  ijf  the  song  tuas 
originally  written  for  its  present 
place),  for  he  has  just  spoken  of  a 
voluntary  adhesion  on  the  part  of 
'  the  sojourners.'  Comp.  also  xlv. 
14  ;  but  contrast  Ivi.  6,  7,  where  the 
'  foreigners  '  are  allowed  to  '  join 
themselves  unto  Jehovah'  on  equal 

terms    with    born    Jews. Shall 

subdue  .  .  .  ]  Thus  the  promise 
in  Deut.  xv.  6  shall  be  ultimately 
fulfilled. 

^  The  liard  service]  See  on  xlvii. 

6. This  taunt-song]  Hebr.  md- 

shdl,  i.e.,  a  parallelistic  poem 
{Dichtung) — the  parallelism  may 
consist  either  in  the  moral  applica- 
tion of  emblems,  or  simply  in  the 
parallel  disposition  of  the  lines 
and  the  sense.  From  the  fact  that 
emblems  were  generally  applied  in 
a  witty,  satirical  manner,  vidshdl 
sometimes  obtains  the  meaning  of 
taunt-song,  as  here,  and  in  Mic.  ii. 
4,  Hab.  ii.  6.  Sept.  translates 
6f)fivnv,  a  rendering  of  mdshdl 
which  is  nowhere  else  found,  but 
which  though  unsuitable  enough  to 
the  contents  (the  condolence  in  vv. 
10,  12  being  only  bitter  affectation), 
is  justified  by  the  form  of  this 
vidshdl.  Its  resemblance  to  the 
first  four  Lamentations  is  all  the 
more  remarkable,  as  xiii.  i-xiv.  2, 
and  xiv.   22,  23,  are  written  in  an 


entirely  different  style. — The  song 
falls  into  five  strophes,  each  con- 
sisting of  seven  long  lines  {v.  17  b 
is  the  only  exception).  This,  how- 
ever, involves  accepting  Ewald's 
arrangement  of  w.  19,  20  (see  end 
of  note  on  v.  id).  Verses  22  and 
23  form  an  epilogue  or  appendix. 

'^  They  hurst  out  .  .  .  ]  The 
phrase  only  occurs  besides  in  II. 
Isaiah  (4  times)  ;  the  verb  also 
in  Ps.  xcviii.  4  (comp.   Isa.  Hi.  9). 

^  The  pine-trees]  According  to 
Schrader  the  Hebr.  frdsli  and  Ass. 
biira^u.,  mean  the  so-called  sherbin- 
tree  (my  own  rend,  oifa^hir  in  xli. 
19,  see  note)  ;  Tristram  prefers  the 
Aleppo  pine,  a  tree  highly  character- 
istic of  Lower  Lebanon,  and  only 
inferior  to  the  cedar.  The  cypress, 
which  Ewald  and  many  others  have 
adopted,  is  said  to  be  rare  in  Le- 
banon, and  probably  had  another 
name  in  Hebrew  corresponding  to 
Ass.  tabran  and  Aram,  dafrono 
(see  Schrader,  K.  G.  F.,  p.  218). 
— — Rejoice  at  thee]  The  poet 
knows  nothing  of  our  modern  dual- 
ism. Man  and  nature  s)'mpathise 
(comp.  Gen.  iii.  18).  The  passage 
is  therefore  not  really  parallel  to 
Virgil's  '  Intonsi  montes,'  &c.  (see 
Conington's  Vergil,  vol.  i.,  Intro- 
duction.) But  why  are  the  trees 
of  Lebanon  mentioned.      Because 


CHAP.  XIV.] 


ISAIAH. 


89 


9  Sheol  beneath  is  disturbed  at  thee,  to  meet  thee  at  thy 
coming  :  it  stirreth  up  for  thee  the  shades,  all  the  °  bell-wethers 
of  the  earth  ;  it  maketh  to  arise  from  their  thrones  all  the 
kings  of  the  nations.  ''  They  all  answer  and  say  unto  thee. 
Thou  also  art  made  weak  as  we  ;  thou  art  made  like  unto  us  ! 
11  Thy  pride  is  brought  down  to  Sheol,  (and)  the  sound  of  thy 

c  So  Kay. 


they  had  been  cut  down  (a  type  of 
Israel's  ruin)  by  the  Babylonians, 
see  on  xxxvii.  24. 

»  Sbeol  is  disturbed]  Starts  up 
in  excitement  on  the  arrival  of  so 
eminent  a  stranger.  The  same 
verb  is  applied  to  the  shade  of 
Samuel  (i  Sam.  xxviii.  15).  In  this 
first  clause,  therefore,  Sheol  may 
perhaps  be  used  collectively  of  the 
entire  population  of  shades.^  In 
the  next  clause,  however,  the  choice 
of  the  verb  and  the  change  of  gen- 
der from  feminine  to  masculine  in- 
dicates that  Sheol  is  personified  as 
a  single  Will,  whose  electrifymg 
influence  not  even  kingly  shades 
can  resist.  The  personification 
{aiidacissima,  Rosenmiiller)  may  be 
aided  by  a  lingering  consciousness 
of  the  original  mythical  demigod 
Sheol  (if  the  theory  offered   on  v. 

14  be  correct). Stirreth  up  the 

shades]  The  'shades'  are  the 
'weak,'  the  'nerveless,' as  their  name 
in  Hebrew  and  Phoenician  r'fMm 
indicates — comp.  ei'SwXa  /ca/xoi/rcoi'. 
Hence  they  need  to  be  '  stirred  up.' 
A  similar  phrase  occurs  in  the 
Babylonio-Assyrian  Legend  of  Ish- 
tar  (ed.  Schrader,  pp.  8,  9),  where 
the  goddes   Ishtar   threatens   that 

she  will  '  stir  up  the  dead.' The 

bell-wethers]  i.e.,  the  princes.  So 
Zech.  X.  3,  comp.  Jer.  1.  8,  and  so 
in  Accadian  and  Assyrian  (Friedr. 
Del.).  Bell-wethers  and  rams  are 
frequently  used  as  figures  in  Arab 
war-songs  (Kremer),  and  a  Hebrew 
proverb-writer,  in  a  list  of  comely 
things,  mentions  a  he-goat  and  a 
king.  Comp.  Tristram's  Natural 
History  of  the  Bible,    p.    X'^ 


l«aketh  to  arise  .  .  .  ]  If  we  may 

interpret  this  on  the  analogy  of  the 
superstitions  of  primitive  races  else- 
where, it  would  seem  to  indicate  a 
lingering  popular  belief  among  the 
Jews  that  the  political  and  social 
relations  once  formed  were  not  in- 
terrupted by  death.  Once  a  king, 
for  ever  a  king.  (Again  comp.  the 
Legend  of  Ishtar.)  Hence  the  kings 
here  are  said  to  be  seated  on  their 
thrones  ;  hence  the  dead  warriors 
in  Ezek.  xxxii.  27  have  their  swords 
buried  with  them  (to  ensure  a 
phantom-sword  in  Sheol)  ;  arid 
hence  the  prophet  Samuel  is  said 
to  come  up  from  Sheol  wearing  his 
accustomed  robe  (i  Sam.  xxviii.  14). 
It  would  seem,  too,  as  if  the  kings 
and  warriors  were  believed  to  have 
a  whole  compartment  of  Sheol  to 
themselves  (see  on  v.  14). 

10  The  astonishment  of  the  kings 
at  the  fall  of  so  great  a  being 
(comp.  Lucian's  13th  Dialogue  of 
the  Dead  {ad  init.). Shall  an- 
swer] '  To  answer '  is  used  widely 
in  Hebrew.  Sometimes  the  ques- 
tion is  expressed,  sometimes  only 
suggested  by  the  circumstances  as 
here  (comp.  Job  iii.  2).  Here  the 
address  of  the  shades  is  at  an  end. 
"  Contains  a  triumphal  exclama- 
tion of  the  Jews.  The  cause  of 
their  joy  only  comes  out  by  de- 
grees. First,  it  seems  to  be  the 
cessation  of  all  that  pomp  and 
luxury  for  which  Babylon  was 
famous.  Then,  the  collapse  of  the 
king's  blasphemous  dreams  of  dei- 
fication. Finally,  the  insults  heaped 
upon  his  dead  body  are  detailed. 
The   sound  of  thy  cymbals] 


1  Comp  a  strikinjTly  parallel  description  of  Amenti,  the  Egyptian  Hades,  trans- 
lated from  a  papyrus  by  Lepsius,  and  given  in  English  in  Bonwick  s  Egyptian  Belief 
and  Modern  Thought,  pp.  46,  47. 


90 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  yiv. 


cymbals  :  beneath  thee  the   maggot  is   spread  out,  and  thy 
covering  is  the  worm  ! 

'^  How  art  thou  fallen  from  the  heavens,  O  Shining  One,  son 
of  the  Dawn  !  how  art  thou  hewn  down  to  the  ground,  that 
didst  overpower  the  nations  !     '^  And  tJiou  didst  say  in  thine 


On  Babylonian  music,  comp.  Dan. 
iii.   5,   &c.,  and    Prof.    Rawlinson's 

A7icie>it  Monarchies,  iii.  19,  20. 

Beneath  thee  •  •  •  ]  Worms  are 
his  only  cushion  and  coverlet. 

^~  Ho\7  art  thou  fallen  •  •  •  ] 
Parallel  passages,  Lam.  ii.  i,  Matt, 
xi.  23.  In  his  pride  and  splendour 
the  king  of  Babylon  had  been  like 
the  morning-star  (comp.  Rev.  xxii. 
16),  here  described  as  a  '  sofi  of  the 
Dawn '  (the  Dawn,  personified,  is 
a  relic  of  the  mythic  stage  ;  comp. 
in  the  Hebr.  Job  iii.  9,  xli.  10,  Ps. 
cxxxix.  1 1 ).  The  Assyrian  texts 
refer  to  a  masculine  as  well  as  a 
feminine  Venus.  The  former  had 
a  title  {iiiustclil)  closely  related  to 
the  Hebr.  he  lei,  rendered  here 
'  Shining  One '  ;  its  period  was 
from  sunset  onwards,  that  of  the 
feminine  Venus  from  sunrise  on- 
wards.' Rosters'^  finds  here  an 
allusion,  parallel  to  that  in  xxiv. 
21,  to  the  belief  in  the  jurisdic- 
tion of  the  star-spirits  over  the 
kingdoms  of  the  earth.  This  seems 
to  be  supported  by  the  words  of 
the  king  in  the  next  verse  (on  which 
Dr.  Kay  propounds  a  similar 
view). 

13, 14  The  sin  of  the  king  of 
Babylon,  self-deification.  Let  me 
remark  here  that,  amply  justified  as 
the  Hebrew  poet  is  by  the  language 
of  some  parts  of  the  inscriptions,  the 
sentiment  of  humility  and  repent- 
ance was  not  unknown  to  the  kings 
of  Assyria  and  Babylon.  '  lis  sa- 
vaient  faire  un  retour  sur  eux- 
memes,  et  s'avouer  pecheurs  sous 
les  coups  qui  les  frappaient.'  *  They 
were  '  gods  of  the  nations  '  (Ezek. 
xxxi.  1 1 ),  but  avowed  their  weak- 
ness before  the  only  'great  gods.' 


See  the  penitential  Psalms,  trans- 
lated by  Sayce  {R.  P.,  vii.  1 53-6). 

And    thou]     {tlwu,    who    art 

brought  so  low)  .  .  .  To  the  hea- 
vens will  X  go  up]  This  is  not  a 
mere  hyperbole  of  rhetorical  origin 
(comp.  Job.  XX.  6,  and  perhaps  Ps. 
Ixxiii.  9),  any  more  than  the  saluta- 
tion '  O  king,  live  for  ever  ! '  is  a 
mere  hyperbole  ;  it  has  rather  a 
solid  foundation  in  primitive  reli- 
gious belief.  We  must  not,  how- 
ever, connect  it  with  the  stories  of 
Titans  scaling  the  heavens,  but 
with  the  Oriental  belief  in  kings  as 
mcarnations  of  the  Divine.  The 
Egj'ptians,  no  doubt,  gave  the  ful- 
lest expression  to  this  belief,  but 
the  Assyrian  kings  (e.g.,  Shal- 
maneser  and  Assurbanipal)  are 
distinctly  called  sons  of  this  and 
that  deity — the  proto-Babylonians 
went  even  further,  as  we  inay  argue 
from  the  determinati\'e  of  divinity 
prefixed  to  some  of  the  kings' names 
(see  Last  Words,  vol.  ii.).  It  was 
but  rational  to  take  the  next  step, 
and  admit  these  semi-divine  beings 
to  a  share  in  the  family  life  of  their 
celestial  parents.  I  do  not  know 
that  this  can  be  proved  as  yet  in  the 
case  of  the  Assyrians  and  Baby- 
lonians, though  the  mention  of  the 
'land  of  the  silver  sky'  (  =  heaven), 
in  the  Royal  Psalm  translated  by 
Schrader,  and  less  accurately  by 
Fox  Talbot  (v?.  F.,  iii.  133),  confirms 
the  conjecture  that  such  a  belief 
existed.  Even  apart  from  this,  we 
have  the  same  right  to  use  the 
statement  of  the  prophet  as  to  a 
Babylonian  belief  that  we  have  to 
use  the  parallel  statement  of  Ezekiel 
relative  to  the  Tyrian  doctrine  on 
the  same  subject  (Ezek.  .xxviii.  2,  6, 


'  Oppert,  Journal  Asiatiquc,  1871,  p.  448  ;  Schrader,  Thcol.  Stud.  u.  Kritiken, 
1874,  p.  337  ;  Friedr.  Delitzsch,  German  translation  of  Smith's  Cliald.  Genesis,  p.  271. 

'^   Theologisch  Tijdschrift,  1876,  \).  50. 

3  Lenormant,  La  divination,  p.  212  ;  comp.  his  paper  in  Revue  politique  et  lit- 
tiraire,  Sept.  i,  1877. 


CHAP.  XIV.] 


ISAIAH. 


91 


heart,  To  the  heavens  will  I  go  up,  above  the  stars  of  God 
will   I   raise   my  throne,  and  I  will  sit  on  the  mountain  of 


9,  13,  14).  How  largely  this  view 
increases  the  force  of  the  passage, 

1  need  hardly  point  out.  The  king 
of  Babylon  expected  to  join  the 
ranks  of  the  gods.  No,  replies  the 
prophet,  thou  shalt  be  hurled  down 

to  Sheol  {v.  I  5). The  mountain 

of  assembly]  or  .  .  .  of  meeting. 
The  expression  is  not  found  else- 
where, but  the  meaning  is  clear.  It 
is  a  mountain  whose  summit  is 
among  the  '  stars  of  God,'  and 
whose  base  is  'in  the  recesses  of 
the  north.'  Mount  Zion,  which 
early  writers  fix  upon  with  one 
consent  (comp.  '  tent  of  assem- 
bly,' or  'of  meeting,'  Ex.  xxvii.  21, 
&c.),  is  therefore  at  once  excluded, 
unless,  with  Dr.  Weir,  we  regard  it 
'  with  the  eye  of  faith '  as  the  Zion 
of  the  Messianic  age,  which  shall 
be  '  exalted  above  the  hills  '  (ii.  2  ; 
comp.  Heb.  xii.  22-24),  and  even 
then  we  have  only  tried  to  remove 
half  the  difficulty,  for  from  a  Hebrew 
point  of  view  Jerusalem  was  the 
centre  of  the  earth  (Ezek.  v.  5), 
and  from  a  Babylonian  certainly 
not  in  the  extreme  north.  No  one 
probably  would  have  thought  of 
mount  Zion,  were  it  not  for  the 
apparent  parallelism  of   Ps.  xlviii. 

2  (3)  :  '  Beautiful  of  elevation,  the 
joy  of  the  whole  earth,  mount  Zion, 
the  recesses  of  the  north,  the  city 
of  the  great  King.'  What  this  pas- 
sage means,  no  one  has  yet  been 
able  satisfactorily  to  explain,  and 
very  possibly  the  words  '  the  re- 
cesses of  the  north  '  are  an  interpo- 
lation due  to  a  scribe  who  inter- 
preted '  the  city  of  the  great  King  ' 
of  Nineveh.  At  any  rate,  we  have 
no  right  to  interpret  a  clear  pas- 
sage by  our  private  hypothesis  re- 
specting an  obscure  one.  Dr.  Weir's 
candid  concession,  however,  greatly 
simplifies  the  discussion  between 
the  advocates  and  the  adversaries 
of  the  traditional  explanation.  Let 
it  be  granted,  for  the  moment,  that 


the  Babylonian  king  anticipates 
lording  it  over  the  sacred  mountain 
of  Israel.  Still  it  is  not  of  that 
mountain  in  its  phenomenal  but  in 
its  ideal  character  that  he  speaks — 
not  of  mount  Zion  as  it  appears,  but 
as  it  is  before  God,  and  will  be  one 
day  before  men.  N  ow,  a  conception 
of  this  kind  would  be  unintelligible 
to  a  Babylonian,  unless  he  could 
connect  it  with  some  similar  beliefs 
of  his  own  people.  That  similar 
beliefs  existed  among  the  Indians, 
Iranians,  Greeks,  and  other  races, 
has  long  been  known,  bnt  it  is  only 
since  the  recent  advances  of  Assy- 
riology  that  we  have  learned  their 
existence  among  the  Assyrians  and 
Babylonians.  Among  the  titles  of 
the  great  god  Assur  is  '  king  of  all 
the  assembly  of  the  great  gods  ' 
(Sayce,  R.  A,  iii.  83),  and  there  is 
a  fragment  of  Berosus  (Moses  of 
Khorene,  i.  7),  which  speaks  of  a 
7)i02C7itain  of  the  assembly  of  the 
gods.  In  the  inscriptions  this 
mountain  is  most  frequently  called 
'  the  mountain  of  the  lands  '  (i.e.,  of 
the  world),  and  in  a  bilingual  text 
( /F.^./.,  iv.  27,2)weread  that,  like 
Atlas,  '  its  head  rivals  heaven ' 
(Sayce ;  Friedr.  Del.).  That  it 
was  placed  in  the  north  has  not 
yet  been  ascertained,  but  may  be 
assumed  from  our  passage  as  not 
improbable. 

We  are  not  bound,  however,  to 
identify  the  'mountain  of  assembly' 
either  with  mount  Zion  or  (tempt- 
ing as  this  may  be)  with  any  spe- 
cially Babylonian  mythic  mountain. 
Ezek.  xxviii.  13,  14  proves  that  there 
was  a  tradition,  akin  to  the  Baby- 
lonian, among  the  Jews  themselves, 
of  a  '  holy  mountain  of  Elohim,'  on 
the  slopes  of  which  lay  the  garden 
or  rather  paradise  (park)  of  Eden.^ 
This  tradition,  which  may  have 
been  a  primitive  heirloom,  is  quite 
sufficient  to  account  for  the  lan- 
guage poetically  given  to  the  Baby- 


'  Comp.  Dante's  Terrestrial  Paradise  on  tlic  summit  of  the  mountain  of  Purgatory. 


92 


ISAIAH. 


[CHAP.  XIV. 


assembly  in  the  recesses  of  the  north  ;  •"*  I  will  go  up  above 
the  heights  of  the  clouds,  I  will  make  myself  like  the  Most 
High.  '■''  Nevertheless,  thou  art  brought  down  to  Sheol,  to 
the  recesses  of  the  pit. 

^^  Those  who  see  thee  shall  look  narrowly  and  gaze 
earnestly  at  thee,  '  Is  this  the  man  who  made  the  earth  to 
tremble,  who  made  kingdoms  to  quake,  '''  who  made  the 
world  as  a  wilderness,  and  broke  down  the  cities  thereof; 
who  released  not  his  prisoners  to  their  home  .'' '  ^^  All  the 
kings  of  the  earth,  even  all  of  them,  lie  in  honour,  each  one  in 
his  house  ;  '^  and  tJioii  art  flung  away  from  thy  grave,  as  an 
abhorred  shoot,  clothed  with  those  who  are  slain,  who  are 
thrust  through  with  the  sword,  as  a  carcase  trodden  under 
foot. 

^^  ^  Those  who  have  gone  down  to  the  stones  of  the  pit,** 

^  This  forms  part  of  the  last  line  but  one  of  v.  19  in  Hebr.  text.     See  below. 


Ionian  monarch. The  recesses 

of  the  north]  There  was  a  myste- 
rious sanctity  attaching  to  the  north ; 
comp.  Lev.  i.  11,  Ezek.  i.  4,  Job 
xxxvii.  22.  The  Sabians  in  Harran 
turned  to  the  north  in  prayer  (En- 
Nedim,  ap.  Chwolson).  Comp.  also 
Servius  ad  Virg.  JEn.  ii.  693,  &c. ; 
Laws  of  Mann ^  i.  67,  ii.  52,  70. 

i"*  The  Most  Kig-h]  A  favourite 
phrase  in  Daniel,  and  in  the  Apo- 
crypha. See  Plumptre,  Biblical 
Studies,  pp.  17-36;  Geiger,  Ur- 
schrift,  p.  33. 

^*  N-evertheless]  Said  in  grave 
satire.  Not  to  the  recesses  (or  far 
parts)  of  the  north,  but  to  those  of 
the  pit.  Instead  of  scaling  the 
heights  of  Olympus,  thou  art  thrust 
within  the  gates  of  Hades  at  its 
base  !  It  was  the  Babylonian  be- 
lief that  the  dark  land  of  Aralu 
(  =  Sheol)  lay  underneath  the  World- 
mountain.  Hence  Sargon  speaks 
of  the  gods  and  goddesses  who  have 
been  '  steadfastly  ijdnis)  brought 
forth  amidst  the  house  of  the  moun- 
tain of  the  lands,  of  Aralu'  (Khor- 
sabad  Inscr.,  1.  156).  See  P'riedr. 
Del.,  Paradies,  117;  Schrader, 
K.A.  T.  389.  Obs.  the  conceptions 
of  the  pit  (or  grave)  and  Sheol  tend 


towards  fusion.  Comp.  Ixvi.  24 
(note),  where  only  the  torments  of 
the  dead  body  are  spoken  of,  but 
those  of  the  soul  (or  shade)  are 
equally  in  the  mind  of  the  writer, 
and  are  only  not  described  from 
his  sense  of  their  indescribable- 
ness. 

iG-19  ^  further  reason  for  the 
triumph  of  the  singers  of  the  iiiashdl. 
The  scene  is  the  field  of  battle  (as 
Ixvi.  24) ;  the  object  of  contempla- 
tion no  longer  the  feeble  shade, 
but  the  unburied  corpse. 

^^  Other  kings  of  more  modest 
pretensions  are  buried  honourably, 
each  one  in  his  house,  i.e.,  in  a 
sepulchre  of  his  own.  The  trouble 
which  Eg)'ptian  kings  took  about 
their  pyramid-graves  is  well  known. 
The  Babylonian  tyrant,  too,  had 
built  one  for  himself  ('  thy  grave '), 
but  was  never  to  occupy  it.  'House' 
=  grave,  as  in  Eccles.  xii.  5, 'his 
(man's)  perpetual  house,'  and  as  in 
Pha-nician  {Melit.  ii.  i)  and  Egyp- 
tian (Ebers,  Aegypteii,  i.  169). 

Clothed]      But    not    with    grave- 
clothes  !  A  strange  expression,  and 
the  correctness  of  the  text  may  be 
doubted. 
'^^  A  curse  supposed  to  be  pro- 


CHAP.  XIV.] 


ISAIAH. 


93 


with  those  thou  shalt  not  be  joined  in  burial,  because  thou 
hast  destroyed  thy  land  and  slain  thy  people  ;  unnamed  for 
ever  shall  be  the  seed  of  evil-doers !  ^'  Prepare  ye  for  his 
sons  a  place  of  slaughter,  because  of  the  iniquity  of  their 
fathers  ;  that  they  may  not  arise  nor  take  the  land  in  posses- 
sion, nor  fill  the  face  of  the  world  with  ^  heaps. 

-^  And  I  will  arise  against  them,  is  the  oracle  of  Jehovah 
Sabaoth,  and  cut  off  from  Babylon  name  and  remnant,  and 
progeny  and  offspring,  is  the  oracle  of  Jehovah.  ^^  And  I 
will  make  it  a  possession  of  the  bittern,  and  pools  of  water, 


Sept. 


So  Hitz. — Terrible  ones,  E\v. — Cities,  or  enemies  (Targ.   Ges.),  Text. — Wars, 


nounced  upon  the  king  and  his 
family  (Ex.  xx.  5) — still  upon  the 
field  of  battle.  He  himself  is  ex- 
cluded from  burial  with  his  prede- 
cessors— for  a  king  the  highest 
possible  disgrace  (2  Chr.  xxi.  20, 
xxiv.  25,  Jer.  xxii.  19,  Ezek.  xxix. 
5).  The  phraseology  of  the  curse 
may  be  paralleled  from  various 
sources — Greek,  Egyptian,  Assy- 
rian, Babylonian,  Phoenician.  For 
the  four  former,  see  Y.hQvs^Aegyplen, 
i.  169 ;  Schlottmann,  EscJuniuiazar^ 
p.  37  ;  Records  of  the  Past,  v.  26, 
ix.  36  ;  and  for  the  latter  comp. 
these  lines  from  the  Inscr.  of  Esh- 
munazar,  king  of  Sidon  (iv.  4-6, 
Schl.)  :  '  Let  him  (the  king  who 
opens  the  lid  of  this  couch)  not 
have  a  couch  with  the  shades,  and 
let  him  not  be  buried  in  the  grave, 
and  let  him  not  have  son  and  seed 
in  his  stead.'  Thus,  the  king  of 
Babylon  is  mulcted  of  immortality 
in  two  senses  :  he  neither  drinks 
of  the  water  of  life  with  the  gods 
(comp.  on  V.  13),  nor  lives  again 
(according  to  the  old  Semitic  view) 
in  his  children.  And  the  cause  of 
all  this  (regarding  the  sin  of  the 
king  from  a  fresh  point  of  view)  is 
that  his  ambitious  wars  have  been 
the  ruin  of  his  country — because 
thou  hast  destroyed  tby  land;  &.C. 
The  words  here  placed  at  the  head 
of  the  verse  have  received  a  most 
unsuitable  place  in  the  received 
text.    It  is  difficult,  in  fact,  to  make 


any  strict  exegesis  of  them  there. 
How  is  it  possible  that  those  who 
have  been  slain  by  the  side  of  the 
king  of  Babylon  should  be  described 
as  'those  who  are  buried  in  a  costly 
tomb  built  of  hewn  stones'.?  for  such 
is  clearly  the  meaning  of  the  words 
those  ■who  have  grone  do'wn  (or  go 
down)  to  the  stones  of  the  pit. 
Surely  this  was  a  most  unlikely 
honour  for  the  masses  of  the  slain  ! 
Ewald's  arrangement  is  both  natu- 
ral in  itself,  and  greatly  relieves 
V.  19,  which  before  was  awkwardly 

long. Heaps]  i.e.,  ruined  cities; 

comp.  xvii.  i,  Ps.  Ixxix.  i.  'Cities' 
gives  no  good  sense.  Why  should 
cities  be  denounced  so  unquali- 
fiedly ?     See  crit.  note. 

22, 23  -pj-jg  song  is  at  an  end,  and  is 
supplemented  by  a  direct  revelation 
from  Jehovah,  extending  the  punish- 
ment to  the  whole  of  Babjdon. — 
The  assonances  in  v.  22  are  in- 
imitable.   Bittern]     Generally 

'  hedgehog,'  but  this  does  not  fre- 
quent the  marshes.  The  bittern  is 
still  common  in  the  reedy  swamps 
of  the  Euphrates,  and  its  '  strange, 
booming  note'  (Tristram)  is  as 
awesome  a  sound  as  the  wail  of 
the  hyaena.  Comp.  Last  Words, 
vol.  ii. The  besom  of  destruc- 
tion] Dr.  Goldziher's  reference  to 
a  supposed  myth  {Hebrew  Myth- 
ology, p.  27)  is  ingenious,  but  un- 
necessary ;  comp.  '  the  sieve  of 
annihilation '  (xxx.  28). 


94  ISAIAH,  [chap.  XIV. 

and  will  .sweep  it  with  the  besom  of  destruction,  is  the  oracle 
of  Jehovah  Sabaoth. 


vo.  24-27.  A  solemn  repetition  of  Jehovah's  assurance  of  the  impend- 
ing destruction  of  the  Assyrian  invaders.  The  circumstances  closely 
resemble  those  of  chap.  x.  5-xii.  6  ;  and  a  part  of  7/.  25  is  almost  identical 
with  a  part  of  x.  27.  The  passage  must  once  have  stood  close  to  the 
former  prophecy,  without,  however,  strictly  speaking,  belonging  to  it. 

^'^  Sworn  has  Jehovah  Sabaoth,  saying,  Surely,  according 
as  I  have  planned,  so  shall  it  be  ;  and  according  as  I  have 
purposed,  that  shall  stand;  ^Uo  break  Assyria  in  my  land, 
and  upon  my  mountains  to  tread  him  under  foot,  and  his  yoke 
shall  remove  from  off  them,  and  his  burden  remove  from  off 
his  back.  ^"^  This  is  the  purpose  which  is  purposed  concern- 
ing all  the  earth,  and  this  is  the  hand  which  is  stretched  out 
over  all  the  nations.  "  For  Jehovah  Sabaoth  hath  purposed, 
and  who  can  annul  it,  and  his  is  the  outstretched  hand,  and 
who  can  turn  it  back  ? 


vv.  28-32.  The  Philistines  are  exulting  over  the  death  of  their  op- 
pressor ;  but  the  prophet  sees  that  their  joy  is  premature.  Meantime 
Judah  is  enjoying  repose  after  her  troubles. — This  is  the  first  of  a  series 
of  prophecies  on  foreign  nations  called  forth  by  the  alarming  progress 
of  the  Assyrians.  '  Out  of  the  north  a  smoke  cometh.'  It  is  a  question 
whether  the  king  of  Assyria,  whose  hosts  are  referred  to,  is  Tiglath- 
Pileser,  Sargon,  or  Sennacherib.  The  late  Mr.  George  Smith  ( T.  S.  B.  A., 
ii.  325)  supposed  him  to  be  the  former,  but  the  analogy  of  neighbouring 
prophecies,  in  which  only  Sargon  or  Sennacherib  can  be  referred  to,  is 
against  this  view.  It  has  also  been  doubted  whether  both  the  persons 
spoken  of  in  the  prophecy,  the  one  under  the  figure  of  a  '  rod '  or  a 
'snake,'  the  other  under  that  of  a  'great  viper'  or  a  '  flying  serpent,'  are 
Assyrian  kings,  or  whether  only  the  latter  is  so,  the  former  being  the 
Jewish  king,  Ahaz  (so  /.  C.  A.,  after  Ewald).  It  is  certainly  most  natural 
to  understand  them  as  successive  Assyrian  kings,  and  the  only  objection 
is  the  chronological  statement  in  the  heading,  which  implies  that  Ahaz  is 
the  rod  which  was  broken,  and  consequently  that  the  depredations  of  the 

25  iviy    mountains]      It    would  of    the   mountains'    (i    Kings    xx. 

seem  as  if  the  Assyrians  were  now  23). 

encamped  on  the  hills  of  Judah  be-  -*'  AH  tbe  earth]  Partly  be- 
fore Jerusalem  (comp.  x.  32).  The  cause  this  is  an  act  of  the  great 
same  phrase  in  xlix.  11,  Ixv.  9,  dramaoftheworld-judgment;  partly 
Zech.  XIV.  5,  Ezek.  xxxviii.  21.  It  because  of  the  solidarity  of  all  na- 
reminds  us  of  the  fancy  of  the  tions — '  when  one  member  suffers, 
Syrians  that  Jeho\ah  was  '  a  god  all  the  members  suffer  with  it.' 


CHAP.  XIV.]  ISAIAH.  95 

Philistines  in  the  land  of  Judah  (2  Chr.  xxviii.  18)  supplied  the  motive  for 
the  prophecy.  But  the  genuineness  of  this,  as  of  other  headings  in 
Isaiah,  is  most  questionable  (see  /.  C.  A.,p.  41)  ;  the  heading  seems  to 
have  originated  in  a  fancy  adopted  also  in  the  Targum  that  the  '  rod ' 
or  the  'snake'  {fidkhash)  meant  'the  stock  of  Jesse  (xi.  i),  Jesse  being 
identified  with  the  Nahash  of  2  Sam.  xvii.  25.'  This  vi'ould  make  Heze- 
kiah  '  the  basilisk,'  and  the  Messiah  '  the  flying  serpent ' ;  it  is,  however, 
obviously  contradicted  by  the  description  of  the  Jews  as  being  (though 
secure  themselves  from  attack)  '  poor'  and  '  helpless,'  in  fact,  as  incapable 
of  taking  vengeance  or  making  conquests. 

2*  [In  the  death-year  of  king  Ahaz  came  this  utterance.] 
^^  Rejoice  not,  entire  Philistia,  that  the  rod  which  smote  thee 
is  broken,  for  out  of  the  snake's  root  shall  come  forth  a  great 
viper,  and  its  fruit  is  a  flying  serpent.  ^°  And  *"the  first-born 
of^  the  poor  shall  feed  and  the  needy  shall  securely  lie  down; 
but  I  will  kill  thy  root  with  famine,  and  thy  remnant  shall  he 
slay.  ^'  Howl,  O  gate  ;  cry,  O  city  ;  faint,  entire  Philistia ! 
for  out  of  the  north  a  smoke  comcth,  and  there  is  no  straggler 
in  his  bands.    ^^  And  what  shall  one  answer  the  messengers  of 

*■  On  my  meadows,  Hupfeld  (conj.). 

'^  In  the  death-year  .  .  .  ]  i.e.,  ways  of  serpents  {Culturgeschichfe 

before  the  death  of  Ahaz  (comp.  on  des   Orients,    ii.    257).      Herodotus 

vi.  i). Rejoice  not]     The  news  (ii.  75,  comp.  iii.    107)  also  refers 

of  the  murder  of  Sargon,  B.C.  705,  to  winged  serpents  which  invaded 

and  the  revolt  of  Babylonia,  much  Egypt  from  Arabia — a  '  traveller's 

excited    the    smaller    nations. — —  tale.'     Comp.  on  xxx.  6. — Here  the 

Entire  Philistia]    Alluding  to  the  '  serpent '    is    the    symbol    of    the 

principalities    into  which    Philistia  destructive  power  of  Assyria.    The 

was  divided  (comp.  ix.  8  Hebr.) Hebr.   is  sdrdf;    comp.    Seraphim 

The  rod]     So  Assyria  is  called  in  (vi.  2  note). 

ix.  4,  X.  5  (20),  24,   26  ;  and  Baby-  ^°  The  first-born  of  the  poor] 

Ion  in  xiv.  5,  6.     Sargon  is  meant  i.e.,  the  most  needy,  as  '  the  sons 

here.    He  is  also  the  '  snake'  ;  just  of  the  poor'  (Ps.lxxii.  4),  are  simply 

as    Sennacherib  is    both   a  'great  the    poor.      Comp.    Job   xviii.    13. 

viper' (xi.  8)  and  a 'flying  serpent.'  Hupfeld's    conjecture  is  plausible, 

For   the  pair  of  symbols  for   one  but    unnecessary. 1   will    kill 

person,    comp.    perhaps    xxvii.    i.  ...  he    shall    slay]     Change    of 

'Root'  and  'fruit'  in    the   sequel  persons,  as    in   Zech.  ix.  10.     The 

are  suggested  by  the  '  rod.' A  subject  is  Jehovah. 

flying-  serpent]  A  popular  belief  ^'  O  gate]  So  the  wall  is  per- 
used poetically  (comp.  parallels  in  sonified  in    Lam.  ii.   8  ;  comp.   18. 

xiii.  21,  xxxiv.  14,  15) — not  a  light-  Out  of  the  north]  So   of  the 

ning-myth,  as  Goldziher,  but  to  be  Babylonian  invasion  ;  Jer.  i.  14,  x. 

compared  with  the  flying  white  ser-  22,   xlvi.   20,  xlvii.   2.     Comp.   Isa. 

pents  of  Arabic  literature  ('y^^^/zr?;?/,  x.  28-32. A  smoke]     It   is  the 

XX.  135 '),  which  were  really  y/;/;/ or  smoke    of  the  towns    and  villages 

malicious  genii.     Kremer  well  ac-  burnt  by  the  Assyrians. 

counts  for  this  from  the  ghost-like  ^^  The  messengers  of  the  na- 

1   Prof.  Robertson  Smith,  The  Prophets  of  Israel,  p.  432. 


96  ISAIAH.  [chap.  XV. 

the  s  nation  ?     That  Jehovah  hath  founded  Zion,  and  in  her 
the  afflicted  of  his  people  can  seek  refuge. 

e  Nations,  Sept.,  Pesh.,  Targ.,  Gr. 

tion]  i.e.,  either  the  Philistines  or  Hath  founded  Zion]  Jerusalem  is 

the  Assyrians  (comp.  Nah.   ii.    13  secured,  not  by  its  natural  defences, 

end),  the  one  seeking  Hezekiah's  but  by  its  God.     Comp.  xxviii.  16. 

aid,  the  other  threatening  him. 


CHAPTERS    XV.-XVI. 


Undoubtedly  a  prophecy  against  Moab  (see  xvi.  13).  I  am  not  myself 
certain  whether  the  predictive  element  pervades  the  whole  prophecy,  or 
whether  it  is  confined  (at  any  rate  in  chap,  xv.)  to  v.  g^.  All  critics, 
however,  except  Eichhorn,  adopt  the  former  alternative,  according  to 
which  the  invasion  of  Moab  is  still  future,  and  the  prophet,  with  vivid 
imagination,  describes  what  the  inhabitants  of  the  different  localities  will 
feel,  say,  and  do  in  their  distress.  The  vision  (as  it  may  laxly  be  termed) 
falls  into  three  parts  (xv.  1-9,  xvi.  1-5,  6-12),  and  is  followed  by  two  verses 
announcing  the  speedy  fulfilment  of  that  which  '  Jehovah  hath  spoken 
formerly.' 

These  two  appended  verses  are  admitted  by  all  critics  (except  Bleek 
and  Geiger)  to  be  the  work  of  Isaiah.  But  there  is  a  difference  of  opinion 
as  to  the  authorship  of  the  preceding  prophecy.  The  statement  in  the 
appendix  may  mean  either  that  Isaiah  adopts  and  ratifies  the  work  of  an 
earlier  prophet,  or  simply  that  he  is  now  enabled  to  give  a  more  specific 
revelation.  We  have  already  had  an  instance  of  the  case  supposed  by  the 
former  alternative  in  ii.  2-4,  and  Jeremiah  has  adopted  and  expanded  this 
very  oracle  in  part  of  chap,  xlviii.  One  of  the  psalms,  too,  probably  has 
the  substance  of  an  ancient  oracle  imbedded  in  it  (Ps.  Ix.).  The  con- 
jecture of  non-Isaianic  authorship  is  therefore  a  perfectly  natural  one  ; 
can  it  also  be  said  to  be  required  by  the  contents  of  the  prophecy  ?  The 
reasons  for  an  affirmative  answer  are  two  :— i.  The  flow  of  sympathy,  un- 
paralleled in  Isaiah,  towards  the  objects  of  the  predicted  judgment ;  2. 
The  writer's  minute  acquaintance  with  Moabitish  topography,  which 
points  to  a  N.  Israelite  ;  and  3.  The  tediousness  and  archaic  simplicity 
of  the  style  (note  the  accumulation  of  assonances  in  the  Hebrew,  and  of 
'  for '  and  '  therefore '),  combined  with  certain  words  and  phrases  un- 
known to  Isaiah.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  urged  :  i.  that  Isaiah  does 
occasionally  give  way  to  an  elegiac  mood  (see  i.  2-6,  21,  xxii.  4,  xxviii. 
1-4),  and  though  the  other  instances  of  this  relate  to  Judah  or  Israel, 
the  historical  connection  between  Israel  and  Moab  may  account  for 
Isaiah's  sympathy  with  this  kindred  people  ;  and  2.  (for  the  argument 
from  the  topographical  knowledge,  however  slight,  cannot  be  replied  to) 
that  the  non-Isaianic  words  and  phrases  (Knobel's  list  requires  sifting) 
may  be  balanced  by  the  Isaianic  parallels  (?),  especially  in  xvi.  4/;,  5. 
My  own  impression  is  very  strongly  against  the  Isaianic  authorship  of 


CHAP.  XV.] 


ISAIAH, 


97 


the  prophecy,  except  the  verse  and  a  half  just  referred  to.  I  would  not 
deny,  however,  that  Isaiah  may  have  altered  words  here  and  there,  as 
Jeremiah  did  afterwards,  and  the  obscurity  of  xvi.  1-4  leads  me  to  con- 
jecture that  the  original  text  has  here  been  shortened.  See  further,  Last 
Words.,  vol.  ii. 

It  would  be  unwise  to  dogmatise  as  to  the  date  of  the  original  pro- 
phecy. It  was  at  any  rate  subsequent  to  the  revolt  of  Mesha,  king  of 
Moab,  who,  as  we  learn  from  the  Moabite  Stone,  recovered  and  fortified 
('built')  the  towns  which  Omri,  king  of  Israel,  had  destroyed.  Seven 
(probably)  of  the  names  in  this  prophecy  are  mentioned  on  the  Moabitish 
monument— Dibon,  Nebo,  Arnon,  Jahaz,  Medeba,  Horonaim,  Sibmah 
(see  on  xvi.  8),  from  which  Dean  (now  Bishop)  Walsh  has  inferred  that 
'  Isaiah '  and  Jeremiah  were  acquainted  with  the  inscription.  Comp. 
further  the  writer's  Commentary  on  Jeremiah  (chap,  xlviii.). 

The  name  of  the  original  foe  of  the  Moabites  is  not  mentioned,  but 
the  description  points  to  a  nomad  or  semi-nomad  population,  either  the 
Arabs  (Ew.)  or  the  Israelitish  tribes  on  the  E.  of  the  Jordan  (Hitz.)  The 
enemy  expected,  and  perhaps  dimly  referred  to  in  xv.  9  ('  the  lion '),  is 
undoubtedly  either  Sargon  or  Sennacherib.  The  north  side  of  the  Arnon 
seems  to  have  been  a  battle-field  of  races. 

'  [Utterance  of  Moab].     For  in  the  night  Ar-Moab  was 

stormed,  was  ruined  !  for  in  the  night  Kir-Moab  was  stormed, 

was  ruined  !     ^  He  is  gone  up  to  the  temple,  even  Dibon  to 

^  Tor]  This  particle  occurs  no 
less  than  fourteen  times  in  this 
and  the  next  chapter.     It  is 


pro- 
bably in  all  cases  causal  or  ex- 
planatory, and  we  may  conjecture 
that  words  like  '  Alas  for  Moab  ! ' 
or  '  Lament  ye  for  Moab  ! '  were  in 
the  mind  of  the  writer  (comp. 
xxiii.  i.  14),  though  in  his  lyric 
excitement  he  forgot  to  express 
them.  Some  have  accounted  for 
the  frequency  of  the  word  '  for ' 
as  an  imitation  of  a  Moabitish 
peculiarity.  This  seems  to  be  at 
any  rate  the  case  with  the  next 
word  in   the    Hebrew  (see  critical 

note). In    tlie     night]     When 

the  terrors  of  a  stormed  town 
would  be  at  their  height ;  comp. 
Ps.  xci.  5,  '  the  terror  by  night.' 
Mesha,  king  of  Moab,  boasts  of 
having  assaulted    Nebo   at    dawn 

(Moabite     Stone,    /.      15). Ar- 

»loab]  i.e.,  citadel  of  Moab  (Targ. 
has  k'rakka,  i.e.  '  fortress.')  This 
was  clearly  the  capital  ;  it  seems  to 
be  the  unnamed  city  described  in 
Josh.  xiii.  9,  16,  and  also  the  Are- 
opolis  mentioned  in  Eusebius  and 
VOL.    I. 


Stephen  of  Bj^zantium,  and  in  the 
acts   of  Synods   of  the    fifth    and 

sixth  centuries. Kir-Moab]  i.e., 

city  of  Moa,b.  Probably  the  still 
existing  Kerak  (the '  Petra  Deserta  ' 
of  the  middle  ages),  which  rises 
impregnably  on  a  peak  more  than 
4,000  feet  above  the  Dead  Sea, 
surrounded  on  all  sides  by  still 
higher  mountains  (which  may  ex- 
plain 2  Kings  iii.  25  end).  Dr. 
Ginsburg,  however,  disputes  this 
and  the  last  identification.  Obs. 
no  less  than  nineteen  or  twenty 
Moabite  towns  are  mentioned  in 
this  and  the  next  chapter.  A 
similar  profusion  of  names  occurs 
in  the  inscription  of  king  Mesha 
(the  so-called  Moabite  Stone). 
These  very  early  documents,  com- 
bined with  the  many  ruined  cities 
and  temples,  the  thousands  of 
cisterns,  and  the  roads  paved 
with  squared  blocks,  prove  that 
the  fertile  plains  of  Moab  were 
once  occupied  by  a  people  not  a 
whit  inferior  in  civilisation  to  the 
Israelites. 

'^  He   is  g-one    up]   The  subject 
H 


98 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  XV. 


the  high  places  to  weep  :  on  Nebo  and  on  Medeba  Moab 
howleth  ;  on  all  their  heads  is  baldness  ;  every  beard  is  cut 
off.  ^  In  his  (Moab's)  streets  they  are  girded  with  sackcloth  ; 
on  his  roofs  and  in  his  ^  broad  places -"^  he  entirely  howleth, 
running  down  in  weeping.  ■*  And  Heshbon  crieth  out,  and 
Elealeh  ;  even  to  Jahaz  their  voice  is  heard  ;  therefore  the 
men  at  arms  of  Moab  shriek,  his  soul  quivereth  within  him, 
^  ^  The  heart  of  Moab  crieth  out  *   *   even  unto  Zoar,  a  third 

"  Bazaars,  Weir. — Market-places,  Kay. 

*>  So  partly  Sept.,  Targ.  (see  crit.    note) 

even  to  Zoar)  the  fat  heifer,  Ges.  (1829).  .  . 

of  the  verb  mu^t  be  borrowed  from 

the  second  clause. The  temple] 

Lit.  the  house.  No  doubt  the 
prophet  means  the  Beth-bamoth 
('  House  of  High  Places  ')  of  the 
inscription  on  the  Moabite  Stone 
(/.  27),  which  Schlottmann  rightly 
identified  with  the  Bamoth-Baal 
mentioned  in  Josh.  xiii.  17,  side  by 
side  with  Dibon.  Instead  of  simply 
saying  '  Dibon  is  gone  up  to  Beth- 
bamoth  to  weep,'  the  prophet  breaks 
the  clause  into  two,  for  there  can  be 
little  doubt  that  '  the  high  places  ' 
in  the  second  member  of  the  verse 
means  the  same  spot  as  'the  temple' 
in  the  first.  Conder  identities  these 
'  bamoth  '  with  a  group  of  dolmens 
at  Mushibiyeh  (Pa/.  l-liJid  Staic- 
niefit,  April,  18S2)  ;  but  would  not 
the  Moabites  prefer  altars  of  their 

own    building? Bibon]    i.e.,  its 

population,  is  naturally  said  to  '  go 
up,'  lying  as  it  does  in  a  plain  ('the 
plain  of  Medeba  unto  Dibon,'  Josh, 
xiii.  9).  It  lies  in  a  direct  line 
north  of  Aroer  and  the  Arnon. 
Here  (its  modern  name  is  Diban) 
the  famous  Moabite  Stone  was 
found — and  broke'n  up,  though  it 
has  been  skilfully  pieced  together, 
as  far  as  possible,  and  now  rests 
in  the  Louvre.  See  the  ?2nglish 
monograph  on  the  inscription  by 
Dr.  Ginsburg,  and  the  (German 
ones  by  Schlottmann  and  Noldeke. 
— Dibcm  was  one  of  the  towns 
claimed  by  the  Reubenites  (Num. 
xxxii.  34),  but  the  Inscription  of 
Mesha  states  (line  10)  that  '  the 
men  of  (}ad  dwelt  in  the  land  .  .  . 
from  of  old.' —   On  Nebo  and  on 


For  Moab  (whose  fugitives  fiaiic  come 
.   her  fugitives  have  come  unto  Zoar,  even 

Medeba]  Nebo  is  of  course  not 
the  mountain-range  so  called,  but 
a  town  near,  deriving  its  name  from 
the  same  old  Semitic  divinity. 
Medeba,    at    any    rate,    is    on    an 

eminence. On  all  their  heads 

is  baldness]  Comp.  xxii.  12  : 
'And  in  that  day  did  the  Lord 
Jehovih  .Sabaoth  call  to  weeping, 
and  to  mourning,  and  to  baldness, 
and  to  girding  with  sackcloth,' 
Job  i.  20,  Mic.  i.  16.  Had  this 
cutting  of  the  hair  originally  a 
sacrificial  import  (comp.  Deut. 
xiv.  I,  and  Tylor,  Primitii<e 
Ciiltu7-e,  iii.  364).''  It  may  be  so, 
but  here  it  is  merely  symbolical. 
It  was  also  the  primitive  Arabic 
custom  ;  see  Krehl,  Religio>i  der 
vorishmiit.  Arabei'^  p.  33,  note  i, 
and  compare  Herod,  ii.  36. —Je- 
remiah further  elaborates  the  de- 
scription (xlviii.  37). 

^  Running;  do\irn  .  .  .  .  ]  Lit. 
coming  down.  So  Jeremiah,  'that 
our  eyes  may  run  down  in  tears ' 
(ix.  18,  comp.  xiii.  17,  xiv.  17).  By 
a  bold  extension  of  the  figure,  the 
whole  person  is  represented  as  im- 
mersed in  tears. 

*  Heshbon  .  .  .  Elealeh]  Neigh- 
bouring hill  towns. Jahaz]  Far 

to  the  south,  about  midway  between 

Heshbon     and     Kir-hareseth. 

His  soul  .  .  .  ]  The  Moabitish 
people  is  personified.  There  is  a 
play  upon  sounds  in  the  two  verbs 
rendered  '  shriek '  and  '  quivereth  ' 
('  wail '  and  '  quails,'  Rodwell). 

*  The  prophet    now  turns  more 

to    the  south    of    Moab. Zoar] 

Mr.  drove  places  Zoar  at  the  north 


CHAP.  XV] 


ISAIAH. 


99 


year  heifer^  ;  for  the  ascent  to  Luhith — with  weeping  doth  he 
ascend  it,  for  in  the  ^  way  to  Horonaim  a  cry  of  destruction 
they  "^  shout.  "^  For  the  waters  of  Nimrim  become  desolate  ; 
for  withered  is  the  grass,  gone  is  the  herbage,  verdure  there 
is  none.  ^  Therefore  the  abundance  which  they  have  ac- 
quired, and  their  store — over  the  torrent  of  the  poplars  must 
they  carry  it,     *  For  the  cry  hath  gone   round  the  border  of 

those  of  the  fat  heift  r,  Luzzatto.  .  .  .  whose  bars  (so  Weir)  reached  even  to  Zoar — the 
fat  heifer  (so  Naeg.),  Vulg.,  Del.  (Vowel-points,  too,  suggest  rendering,  for 
'fugitives,'  'bars'  (i.e.  defences);  whilst  Ew.,  Graf  on  Jer.,  and  Dietrich  in  Merx's 
Archivx.  342-6,  for  '  the  fat  heifer,'  render,  '  to  the  third  Eglath.') 

"  Descent,  Graf  (with  Jer.  xlviii.  5).  <*  So  Lagarde.— Text,  raise  (?). 


end  of  the  Dead  Sea,  in  the  parallel 
of  Jericho  (Smith's  Diet,  of  the 
Bible) ;  but  I  still  follow  Wetzstein 
(excursus  in  Delitzsch's  Genesis.,  4th 
ed.),  who  fixes  it  at  the  S.E.  of  the 
Sea  in  the  Gor  e5-§afia.  The  emi- 
grants hope  to  get  round  by  this 

way  into  the  territory  of  Judah. 

A.  third  year  heifer]  It  is  doubt- 
ful whether  the  crying  of  Moab  is 
compared  to  that  of  a  thwarted 
heifer,  or  whether  the  '  heifer'  is  a 
metaphorical  description  of  the  for- 
tress of  Zoar  (comp.  accents).  I 
prefer  the  former  view,  which  is 
substantially  that  ofVitr.  and  of  the 
A.V.  of  Jer.  xlviii.  34.  It  is  a  third 
year  heifer,  just  about  to  be  broken 
in  for  the  yoke  (Plin.  Hist.  Nat. 
viii.  4,  5),  of  which  the  prophet  is 
thinking.  Those  who  adhere  to  the 
common  text  can  still  explain  the 
figure  of  Moab.  Ewald's  rendering 
assumes  that  there  were  three  Eg- 
laths  in  Moab,  which  receives  a  pre- 
carious support  from  Ezekiel's  refer- 
ence to  '  En  Eglaim  (Ezek.  xlvii.  10), 
Abulfeda's  to  an  '  Ejlim  (see  Ges.), 
and  Josephus'  to  an  Agalla  {Ant. 
xiv.   I,  4).     Comp.  also  Notes  and 

Criticisms.,     p.    20. Horonaim] 

Probably  on  the  borders  of  Edom  : 
perhaps,  too,  the  city  of  Sanballat 
'  the  Horonite.' 

®  To  the  capture  of  the  cities  of 
Moab  and  the  flight  of  the  inhabit- 
ants a  fresh  reason  for  lamentation 
is  added,  viz.,  that  the  fertiliz- 
ing waters  of  Nimrim  have  been 
stopped  up  at  their  sources  by  the 
enemy  (comp.   2  Kings  iii.  19,  25). 


These  waters  gave  their  name  to 
the  town  Beth-Nimra  (Num.  xxxii. 
36).  The  name  Nimara  occurs 
among  the  towns  conquered  by 
Thothmes  III.  Canon  Tristram 
speaks  of  the  '  plenteous  brooks 
gushing  froin  the  lofty  hills  into 
the  Ghor-en-Numeira '  (comp.  Nim- 
rim) \  another  site  is  proposed  by 
Consul  Wetzstein  in  the  Wady 
So'eb,  13.^  miles  east  of  Jordan  (ap. 
Delitzsch,  Genesis,  ed.  4,  pp.  572, 
3).  The  name  contains  a  reference 
to  the  panther,  and  appears,  like 
many  other  animal-names  of  per- 
sons and  places,  to  be  rightly  viewed 
as  a  vestige  of  totemism  (see  Last 
Words,  vol.  ii.). 

'  The  land  of  Moab  being  now 
uninhabitable,  the  Moabites  cross 
the  border  into  Edom,  carrying 
what  they  can  save  of  their  pro- 
perty with   them. The  torrent 

of  the  poplars]  Not  'the  torrent 
of  the  Arabs'  (as  Pesh.,  Saad.,  not 
Sept.),  nor  'the  torrent  of  the 
wastes'  (as  Hitz.,  Ew.,  Knob.,  cf. 
Am.  vi.  14).  Probably  the  Wady 
el-Ahsa,  which  formed  the  extreme 
northern  boundary  between  Moab 
and  Edom,  and  which  is  further 
identified  with  the  torrent  Zered, 
Num.  xxi.  12,  Deut.  ii.  13.  The 
poplar  intended  is  the  Popuhcs 
Eiiphratica,  the  only  Syrian  habitat 
of  which  is  the  Ghor.  See  Wetz- 
stein, ap.  Del.  op.  eit.  p.  567. 

8  No  part  of  the  land  escapes. 
The  cry]  i.e.,  the  cry  of  de- 
struction (?'.  5). 

H  2 


100 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  XVI. 


Moab  ;  even  to  Eglaim  its  howling  (hath  reached),  and  to 
Beer  Elim  its  howling.  ^  For  the  waters  of  Dimon  are  full  of 
blood  ;  for  I  destine  for  Dimon  fresh  (evils),  for  the  escaped 
ones  of  Moab  a  lion,  and  for  the  remnant  of  the  land. 


^  The  waters  of  Dimon]  i.e., 
the  Arnon,  just  as  the  Kishon  is 
described  (Judg.  v.  19)  as  the  waters 
of  Megiddo  (Del.).  It  might  with 
equal  accuracy  have  been  called 
'  the  waters  of  Ar-Moab,'  but  the 
prophet  wishes  to  enforce  his  words 
by  a  striking  assonance.  Dimon 
suggests  the  thoughtoi dam,  'blood,' 
as  if  it  meant  town  of  carnage. 
Comp.  Sanguinetto  =  blood-stream, 
the  name  of  a  small  brook  which 
falls  into  Lake  Thrasimene,  the 
scene  of  Hannibal's  great  battle  ; 
comp.  also  the  similar  allusions  in 
Mic.  i.  10-15.  The  name  Dimon  pro- 


bably occurs  again  in  Jer.  xlviii.  2 
(see  on  xxv.  10).  It  is  only  another 
form  of  Dibon.  St.  Jerome  tells  us 
that  in  his  day  both  names  were 

current    for   the   same    place. 

rresh  (evils)  .  .  .  a  lion  (or,  lions)] 
An  enigmatical  description  of  a 
conquering  foe,  either  Judah  (Hitz., 
Del.,  cf  Gen.  xlix.  9),  or  (more 
probably — see  xiv.  29,  xxi.  16,  17, 
and  comp.  xvi.  4,  14)  the  Assyrians, 
who,  as  the  Inscriptions  prove, 
began  to  influence  the  fortunes  of 
Palestine  as  early  as  the  time  of 
Ahab.  For  the  figure,  comp.  v. 
29,  Jer.  iv.  7. 


CHAPTER   XVI. 

' '  Send  ye  « the  lambs  of  the  ruler  *  of  the  land  from  Sela 
towai-ds  the  wilderness,  unto  the  mountain  of  the  daughter  of 

»  Tribute,  ye  rulers,  Griitz  (conj.). 


Chap.  xvi.  Verses  1-6  are  dra- 
matic in  style,  and  necessarily  rather 
obscure,  an  indication  of  the  names 
of  the  several  speakers  not  being 
customary  in  Hebrew.  It  is  very 
possible,  too,  that  the  text  is  either 
imperfect  or  misarranged. 

'  Send  ye  the  lambs]  According 
to  2  Kings  iii.  4,  Mesha,  king  of 
Moab,  '  rendered  unto  the  king  of 
Israel  100,000  lambs,  and  100,000 
rams,  with  the  wool,'  though  on  the 
death  of  Ahab  he  definitively  re- 
nounced his  .allegiance.  The  pro- 
phet, as  a  devoted  adherent  of  the 
Davidic  family,  exhorts  the  Moab- 
itcs  to  renew  their  long-suspended 
tribute  to  their  original  suzerain, 
the  king  of  Jerusalem  (see  2  Sam. 
viii.  2)  ;  or,  it  may  be,  the  chiefs  of 
the  Moabites  exhort  each  other  to 
take  this  step,  as  the  power  of  the 
kingdom  of  Samaria  is  no  longer 
adequate  to  the  protection  of  Moab. 


It  is  a  little  uncertain  whether  this 
section  presupposes  the  same  situ- 
ation  as    the    preceding    verses — 
whether,    that    is,   the    Moabitish 
fugitives  are   now  in    Edom    (this 
would  account  for  the  mention  of 
Sela  in  v.   i),  or  whether  the  pro- 
phet has  shifted  his  point  of  view, 
and  regards  the  Moabites  as  still 
on  their  own  side  of  the  border. 
In  the  latter  case,  the  speaker  or 
speakers  of  ?'.    i    recommend   for 
the    tribute-bearers    the    southern 
route,  which  passed   by  Sela   and 
traversed  the   desert,  because   the 
north    end   of    the    Dead    Sea    is 
blocked    up  by  the  enemy.      This 
view  seems  to  be  favoured  by  the 
next    verse  (see  note).      Dr.  Weir 
suggests  that  se/a  (lit.,  rock,  or  col- 
lectively   rocks)    may    mean     the 
whole    rocky  region    in   the   midst 
of  which  the  city  of  Sela  was  situ- 
ated ;  comp.  Jer.   xlviii.   28,  '  Quit 


CHAP.  XVI.] 


ISAIAH. 


lOI 


Zion.'  ^  And  it  shall  come  to  pass  ;  like  wandering  birds,  (like) 
a  scattered  nest,  shall  be  the  daughters  of  Moab  at  the  fords 
of  Arnon.  ^'  Apply  counsel,  do  the  work  of  an  umpire,  make 
as  the  night  thy  shadow  in  the  midst  of  the  noon  ;  shelter  the 
outcasts,  him  that  wandereth  betray  not.  '*  Let  ^  the  outcasts 
of  Moab*"  sojourn  with  thee,  be  thou  a  shelter  unto  them 
from  the  face  of  the  destroyer.'  For  at  an  end  is  the  extor- 
tioner, finished  is  the  destruction,  consumed  are  the  tramplers 
out  of  the  land.  ^  And  a  throne  is  established  through  kind- 
ness, and  there  sitteth  upon  it  with  faithfulness  in  the  tent 
of  David  one  that  judgeth  and  seeketh  justice  and  is  prompt 
in   righteousness. — '''We  have  heard  of  the  pride  of  Moab: 

I'  So  Sept.,  Pesh.,  Targ.,  Lowth,  Ges.,  Hitz.,  Ew.,  Weir.— My  outcasts,  O  Moab  ! 
Vowel-points,  Del.,  Naeg. 


the  cities,  and  dwell  in  the  rocks ' 
(sg/a).  Consul  Wetzstein  also  takes 
si:/a  collectively  ;  not  however  of 
the  rocky  region  of  Petra,  but  of 
the  more  northern  defiles  which 
issue  in  the  Dead  Sea,  especially 
those  of  the  Arnon,  with  their  per- 
pendicular walls  of  rock,  splendidly 
adapted  for  hiding-places.  See 
excursus  in  3rd  ed.  of  Delitzsch's 
yesai'a. 

~  We  are  not  informed  whether 
the  counsel  in  v.  1  was  accepted. 
But,  at  any  rate,  tlie  daugrhters  of 
moab,  i.e.,.  the  inhabitants  of  the 
various  townships  (see  Ps.  xlviii .  1 1, 
'daughters  of  Judah,')  collect  with 
nervous  anxiety  at  the  fords  of  the 
Arnon — they  prepare,  that  is,  to  flee 
in  the  opposite  direction  to  that  in- 
dicated in  XV.  7.     For  the   simile, 

comp.  Ps.  xi.  I,  Prov.  xxvii.  8. 

West]  i.e.,  nestlings,  as  Deut. 
xxxii.  II. 

^.  ^"  An  appeal  to  the  humanity 
of  some  neighbouring  people,  ap- 
parently the   Jews    (see  7a   i). 

Apply  counsel]  So  Kay.  Or, 
'  carry  into  execution  that  which 
has   been  proposed,'  comp.  v.    19, 

xlvi.   II    Hebr.    (Dr.  Weir). Bo 

tile  work  of  an  umpire]  i.e.,  in- 
terpose in  favour  of  the  Moabites, 

and  put  down  their  oppressors. 

In  tlie  midst  of  the  noon]  The 
glaring  Oriental  noon,  in  which  it 


would  be  impossible  to  elude  the 
ra\enous  foe. 

■* ''  Here  the  prophet  introduces 
his  own  reflection  (comp.  ii.  2^). 
The  mention  of  Moab's  '  destroyer' 
calls  up  before  his  mind's  eye  a 
picture  of  the  blissful  change  in 
store  for  the  theocratic  state,  when 
a  great  king,  of  unique  gifts  and 
character,  shall  have  put  an  end  to 
the  ravages,  as  disastrous  to  Judah 
as  to  Moab,  of  the  Assyrian  '  lion ' 
(xv.  q).  The  description  is  tho- 
roughly in  the  style  of  Isaiah  ;  see 
xxix.  20. 

*  A  throne]  We  hardly  need  to 
ask,  Whose  throne  ?  '  Kindness  and 
faithfulness,'  'justice  and  righteous- 
ness '  are,  it  is  true,  the  pillars  of 
every  divinely  prospered  king  (Prov. 
XX.  28,  xxi.x.  14),  but  here  we  are 
manifestly  in  the  Messianic  region 
of  thought.  It  is  only  after  judg- 
ment has  been  executed  on  Assyria, 
that  the  ideal  king  can  be  confi- 
dently expected  (ix.  4-7,  xi.  1-5, 
&c.).  'Kindness'  is  mentioned  as 
the  opposite  of  '  extortion,'  'destruc- 
tion,' and  'trampling';  'faithful- 
ness' means  a  sincerity  which  in- 
spires confidence. Seeketh  jus- 
tice] An  Isaianic  phrase,  i.  17. 

^  "We  have  heard  of  S^oab's 
pride  •  .  .  ]  With  the  largeness  of 
heart  which  comes  of  the  '  Spirit  of 
prophecy,'  the  writer  has  expressed 


102 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  XVI. 


proud  exceedingly  !  his  pride,  and  his  haughtiness,  and  his 
overweeningness,  the  untruth  of  his  pratings.  '^  Therefore 
shall  Moab  howl  for  Moab,  he  shall  howl  entirely  ;  for  the 
*=  raisin-cakes  of  Kir-Hareseth  shall  ye  sigh,  utterly  downcast. 
^  For  the  fields  of  Heshbon  languish  ;  the  vine  of  Sibmah — 
^  its  choice   plants   smote  the    lords  of  nations,'^  unto  Yazer 

•=  Foundations  (i.e.,  ruins),  Pesh. ,  Rashi,  Kimchi  (not  Aben  Ezra),  Ges. 
•^  The  lords  of  nations  have  smitten  down  its  choice  plants,  Ges.,  Ew. ,  Naeg. , 
Wcr. 

his  firm  belief  in  the  ultimate 
submission  and  salvation  of  Moab. 
15ut  alas  !  the  reputation  of  Moab 
for  haughtiness  and  vain  preten- 
tiousness forbids  him  to  hope  that 
its  conversion  will  be  immediate. 
These  national  characteristics  are 
well  illustrated  from  the  inscrip- 
tion on  the  Moabite  Stone.  They 
evidently  had  a  religious  basis, 
Kemosh,  the  national  god,  being  re- 
presented by  Mesha  as  the  inspirer 
of  each  of  his  plans  and  aggressive 
movements.  '  Kemosh  said  unto 
me.  Go,  destroy  Israel!' 

^  IVIoab  shall  howl  for  Moab] 
A  specimen  of  a  not  unfrequent 
tautology  arising  from  the  anti- 
thetical tendency  of  Hebrew  style. 
Comp.  viii.  i8,  xxiii.  2,  Zech.  xii.  6, 
Gen.  xix.  24  (where  inattention  to 
this  peculiarity  has  led  even  Ewald 
into  serious  error,  Histoy  of  Israel^ 

ii.      157)- The      raisin-cakes] 

Cakes  of  pressed  grapes  seem  to 
have  been  the  chief  commodity  of 
Kir-Hareseth.  The  destruction  of 
the  vintage  cut  off  this  valuable 
source  of  profit.  There  may  also 
be  an  allusion  to  the  sacrifical  feasts 
at  the  vintage,  as  in  Hos.  iii.  i.  Alt. 
rend,  may  be  fairly  justified  from 
Assyrian  and  Arabic,  but  is  con- 
trary to  the  use  of  the  same  word 
elsewhere  (Hos.  iii.  i  same  plural 
form,  comp.  2  Sam.  vi.  19,  Cant, 
ii.  5).  Note  the  weakened  reading 
of  Jer.  xlviii.  31,  follnwcd  liy  Targ. 

and  Sept.  of  Isa. X,ir-HaresethJ 

or  Kir-Heres  {v.  11);  usually  ex- 
plained as  'brick-fortress,'  and  iden- 
tified with  Kir-Moab.  Prof.  E.  H. 
Palmer,  however,  suggests  another 
meaning.  '  Asking  one  of  the  Arabs 
where  the  Moabite  Stone  was  found, 


the  latter  replied  that  it  was  "  be- 
tween the  hdrithein"  i.e.,  between 
the  two  hdriths.  ...  On  Mr.  Pal- 
mer's demanding  a  further  expla- 
nation, the  Arab  pointed  out  the  two 
hillocks  upon  which  the  ruined  vil- 
lage of  Dhibdn  stands.  .  .  .  Nearly 
all  the  towns  in  Moab  are  built 
upon  similar  eminences,  and  Mr. 
Palmer  found  that  they  are  invari- 
ably called  Hariths  by  the  Arabs' 

{At/iciicFi/in,  August  19,   1871). 

Sibmah]  ace.  to  St.  Jerome  was 
nearly  500  paces  from  Heshbon, 
which  would  approximate  to  the 
distance  of  Siimia,  which,  with  its 
tombs  and  ruined  vineyard-towers, 
Conder  identifies  with  Sibmah, 
{Stateviciit  of  Pal.  Explor.  Fund., 
1882,  p.  9).  The  place  is  referred 
to  on  the  Moabite  Stone,  /.  13,  as 
Seran  (for  Seban).  It  was  claimed 
by  the  Reubenites,  Num.  xxxii.  38. 

Its  choice  plants  smote.   .   .  ] 

Such  was  the  strength  of  the  gene- 
rous wine  of  Sibmah.  Comp.  xxviii. 
I,  Jer.  xxiii.  9,  and  perhaps  Ps. 
Ixxviii.  65,  and  similar  expressions 
in  Greek  and  Latin.  The  following 
lines  describe  the  extensive  culture 
of  this  kind  of  vine.  Its  northern 
limit  was  Yazer,  its  eastern  the 
sands  of  the  desert,  its  southern  or 
western  the  farther  shore  of  '  the 
sea,'  i.e.,  the  Dead  Sea.  For  the 
words  passed  over  the  sea  must 
surely  be  taken  literally.  It  was  in 
a  fertile  nook  on  the  western  bank 
of  the  Dead  Sea  that  En-gedi,  so 
famous  for  its  vines  (Cant.  i.  14), 
was  situated.  By  a  stroke  of  imagi- 
nation the  prophet  traces  the  excel- 
lence of  these  to  a  Moabitish  origin. 
Jer.  xlviii.  32  reads:  'They reached 
unto  the  sea  of  Yazer,'  but  though 


CHAP.  XVI.] 


ISAIAH. 


lO 


they  reached --they  strayed  into  the  wilderness,  its  tendrils 
spread  out — they  passed  over  the  sea.  ^  Therefore  I  will  weep 
with  the  weeping  of  Yazer  for  the  vine  of  Sibmah :  I  will 
water  thee  with  my  tears,  O  Heshbon  and  Elealch,  for  upon 
thy  fruit-harvest  and  upon  thy  vintage  the  cry  hath  fallen. 
'0  And  taken  away  is  joy  and  gladness  from  the  garden-land, 
and  in  the  vineyards  there  is  no  singing,  no  shouting  ;  the 
treader  treadeth  not  wine  in  the  presses  ;  the  cry  have  I  brought 
to  stillness.  ''  Therefore  my  heart  shall  sound  like  the  lute 
for  Moab,  and  my  bosom  for  Kir-Heres.    ^^  And  it  shall  come 


the  Heb.  ydin  may  mean  'reservoir,' 
(comp.  r  Kings  vii.  23),  it  is  more 
likely  that  '  the  sea  (of)'  has  got  in 
by  accident  ;  it  is  omitted  in  Sept. 
of  Jeremiah. 

^  The  prophet,  as  a  man,  cannot 
but  sympathise  with  the  mourning 
of  the  Moabites  ;  there  is  no  rhe- 
torical artifice  in  it  (as  Calv.).- 

The  cry  bath  fallen]  Here  is  a 
striking  contrast,  implied  in  a  single 
word.  '  The  cry '  \hcdad)  is  pri- 
marily the  cheerful,  musical  note 
with  which  the  vintagers  pressed 
out  the  juice  of  the  grapes  {v.  10, 
Jer.  XXV.  30,  &c.).  But  here  it  is 
the  wild  shout  with  which  the  foe 
lays  waste  the  fields  and  vineyards 
so  full  of  promise,  or  as  it  is  called 
in  Jer.  xlviii.  -^Z^ '  a  cheer  which  is  no 
cheer.' 

'°  Singing]  The  word  is  inaccu- 
rate :  it  means  rather  a  long-toned 
cry  (see  Hi.  8),  the  hcddd.  Comp. 
Jer.  XXV.  jpb  (a  very  striking  pas- 
sage).   Have     I    brought     to 

stillness]  '  They  are  God's  words. 
Amidst  all  his  true  and  deep  human 
sympathy,  the  prophet  is  still  de- 
livering a  message  from  God'  (Dr. 
Kay).  ^         ^ 

"  IVly  heart]  More  lit.,  r;  koiXm 
fiov,  Sept.  But  Koikia  =  Kap- 
^\a,  as  the  same  word  is  rendered 
by  Sept.  Cod.  Vat.,  Ps.  xxxix.  (Heb. 

xl.)  8.- Iiike  the  lute]  'vibrating 

with  thrills  of  grief '  (Dr.  Kay.)  The 
ki7i}io7\  like  the  Kivvpjj,  was  used  at 
mourning  ceremonies.  Jer.  xlvii. 
36  substitutes  khalalhn^  '  flutes.' 

^'^  We  can  hardly  suppose  that 
this  verse  contains  a  mere  repeti- 


tion   of  the   inability  of  Moab  to 
save  himself  by  supplication  to  his 
gods.    Indeed,  this  would  be  incon- 
sistent with  V.  3,  in  which  the  Moab- 
ites  are   represented   as    throwing 
themselves  entirely  on  the  merciful 
consideration  of  Judah.     The  turn 
of  the  phrase  itself  indicates  that  a 
few  words  have  fallen  out  of  the  text. 
To  render  it  in  the  ordinary  way 
('  .  .  .  he  shall  not  prevail ')  pro- 
duces a  mere  tautology,  for  it  has 
already  been  said  that  Moab's  reli- 
gious efforts  are  but  a  '  wearying  of 
himself.'     The  parallelism,  too,  re- 
quires that  as  the  words  '  when  he 
appeareth '  are  matched   by  '  and 
Cometh  to  his  high  place  to  pray,' 
so  the  words    '  when    he  wearieth 
himself  should  be  matched  by  'and 
prevaileth  not.'     Further,   the  ten- 
der  compassion    of  the    prophetic 
writer  for  Moab  leads  us  to  expect 
that  some  happier  prospect  will  be 
opened    than    a   useless    religious 
ceremony.     Lastly,  the  idea  of  con- 
version as  resulting  from  a  terrible 
judgment  lies  at  the  very  foundation 
of  Old  Testament  prophecy.     See 
also  xix.  24,    25,  Ixvi.  19-21,  Zeph. 
iii.  8,  9,   Jer.  xii.  15-17,   and   espe- 
cially xlviii.  12,  13,  comp.  47.   From 
the  latter  passage,  Ewald  has  with 
great  sagacity  restored  what  in  all 
probability  embodies  the  sense  of 
the    lost    apodosis  : — 'Then    shall 
Moab  be  ashamed  of  Kemosh  his 
confidence,  and  turn  unto  Jehovah.' 
Dr.  Weir  objects  that  such  an  in- 
sertion   is    out    of    harmony   with 
what  immediately  follows.     But   i. 
the  epilogue  is,  according  to  Ewald, 


I04 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  XVI. 


to  pass :  when  Moab  appearcth,  when  he  wearieth  himself  on 
the  high  place,  and  cometh  to  his  sanctuary  to  pray,  ^  and 
prevaileth  not,  [then  shall  Moab  be  ashamed  of  Kemosh  and 
turn  unto  Jehovah.*^] — ^^  This  is  the  word  which  Jehovah  spoke 
concerning  Moab  heretofore.  '^  And  now  Jehovah  hath 
spoken,  saying,  In  three  years,  as  the  years  of  a  hireling,  shall 
the  glory  of  Moab  be  disgraced,  with  all  the  great  multi- 
tude, but  the  remnant  *'  in  a  very  little  while  will  I  bring  unto 
honour.^ 

^  So  E\v. — That  he  shall  not  prevail,  Hebr.  text. 

<■  So  Hoffmann  ;  Text,  (shall  be)  very  small  (?),  not  great.     (See  crit.  note). 


not  by  the  same  hand  as  the  pro- 
phecy, and  2.  the  epilogue,  even 
without  Hoffmann's  correction,  does 
not  contradict  the  statement  of  the 
inserted  passage,  that  in  his  ex- 
tremity Moab  (or  the  remnant  of 

Moab)  shall  turn  to  Jehovah. 

The  high  place]  Bamuth,  or  'high 
places,'  is  the  general  term  for  local 
sanctuaries  among  the  Canaani- 
tish  peoples.  The  Israelites  long 
persisted  in  worshipping  at  them 
(Kings, passz'm).  The  Phoenicians 
had  them  also  (see  the  famous 
eight-lined  Inscription  of 'Umm-el- 
Awamid)  ;  and  the  Moabites,  e.g., 
the  stele  of  King  Mesha  is  called  a 
bivnah  (I.  3,  4).^  The  term  is  ap- 
plied not  only  to  the  height,  whe- 
ther natural  or  artificial,  on  which 
an  altar  or  sacred  pillar  was  gene- 
rally speaking  erected  ;  but  also  to 
the  altar  or  sacred  pillar  without 
reference  to  its  position.  The  stele 
of  Mesha,  for  instance,  was  found 
in  a  depression  between  the  two 
hillocks  {hdrithein,  see  on  v.  7)  on 
which  the  ruins  of  Diban  stand, 
and  the  Israelites  had  Bamoth  in 
the  Valley  of  Hinnom,  Jer.  vii.  31. 

And  prevaileth  not]  or,  '  and 

is  not  able '  (Ew.,  Gciger),  i.e.,  is 
too  full  of  despair  to  pray  ;  but  this 
seems  too  subtle. Kemosh]  The 


national  god  of  the  Moabites,  but 
also  the  object  of  worship  to  other 
nations,  for  the  name  occurs  in  a 
Phoenician  inscription  found  in 
Sicily  (Gesenius,  Man.  PJiaii.,  I59)» 
also  on  a  stone  found  by  M.  Renan 
in  Phoenicia  (Mission  de  Phmicie, 
p.  352),  and  in  a  Babylonian  name 
B.C.  524  (Oppert,  Revue  archco- 
logiqiic,  sept.  1866,  p.  166). 

IS  This  is  the  word]  So  Isaiah, 

xxxvii.     22. Heretofore]      The 

phrase  is  quite  vague,  and  would 
apply  ecjually  well  to  a  much  earlier 
prophecy,  or  to  one  of  recent  date. 
In  Ps.  xciii.  2  it  is  parallel  with  'from 
everlasting,'  but  in  Isa.  xlviii.  7  it 
clearly  means  simply  '  at  an  earlier 
period ' ;  comp.  xliv.  8,  2  Sam.  xv.  34. 
*^  And  now  Jehovah  hath 
spoken  .  .  .  ]  Not  '  But  now,' 
as  A.V.  Isaiah  recognises  the  old 
prophecy  as  a  true  revelation,  and 
liere  supplements  it  by  fuller  details. 

. In  three  years,  as  the  years 

of  a  hireling:]  i.e.,  speedily  ;  there 
will  be  no  grace  time  (see  on  vii. 
16).  The  same  phrase  in  xxi.  16. 
. Shall  the  glory  •  •  •  ]  Tho- 
roughly Isaianic,  see  xvii.  3,  4, 
xxi.  16  ;  also  x.  25,  xxix.  17.  The 
remnant  of  Moab,  like  that  of 
Israel,  is  the  germ  of  a  regenerated 
people.     See  on  v.  12. 


.   .  .  And  I  made  this  bainah  to  Kemosh  in  Qorkhah. 
Because  he  delivered  me  oU  of  all.   .   .   . 


CHAP.  XVII.]  ISAIAH.  105 


CHAPTER  XVIL 

The  impending  ruin  of  Syria  and  Ephraim.  At  first  this  calamity  is  de- 
scribed as  leaving  nothing  behind,  but  the  second  comparison  leaves 
a  door  of  escape  for  at  least  a  remnant  of  Ephraim.  Thus,  in  the  pros- 
pects of  the  future,  Isaiah  steadfastly  refuses  to  identify  Israel  altogether 
with  Judah. 

The  combination  of  Syria  and  Ephraim  seems  unnatural  to  some  critics, 
but  seems  explained  by  the  alliance  of  Syria  and  Ephraim,  referred  to  in 
vii.  I.  Thus  we  get  the  end  of  the  reign  of  Jotham  for  a  terminus  a  quo 
(2  Kings  XV.  37)  ;  the  termttius  ad  quetn  is  the  captivity  of  Damascus 
and  Samaria  (2  Kings  xvi.  9,  xvii.  6).  No  allusion  being  made  to  the 
siege  of  Jerusalem,  there  is  no  reason  to  date  the  prophecy  much  after 
the  first-mentioned  period.  The  calmness  of  its  tone  contrasts  strongly 
with  the  impassioned  energy  of  ix.  8-x.  4  ;  this  prophecy  is  evidently 
the  fruit  of  a  more  meditative  mood. 

'  [Utterance  of  Damascus.]  Behold,  Damascus  is  removed 
from  being  a  city,  and  becometh  ^  a  ruin.''  ^  Forsaken  are  the 
cities  ^  of  Aroer,''  unto  flocks  shall  they  belong  ;  and  they  shall 
lie  down,  none  making  them  afraid.  ^  And  the  fortress  shall 
cease  from  °  Ephraim,  and  the  kingdom  from  Damascus  and 
the  remnant  of  Aram — like  the  glory  of  the  children  of  Israel 

"  (See  crit.  note.)     A  heap  (?),  ruin,  Hebr.  text. 
*>  For  ever,  Sept.,  Lo. ,  La.  "^  Aram,  Houb.,  Lo.,  Gr. 

^  Obs.  the  heading  does  not  en-  laid  bare')  was  significant  of  their 
tirely  cover  the  contents  of  the  pro-  fate.  It  is  a  short,  enigmatical 
phecy,  at  least  if  Ephraim  in  v.  3  way  of  expressing  what  is  said  in 
is  genuine.  It  is  not  by  Isaiah  full  in  Jer.  li.  58^  (see  the  Hebrew), 
(seeonxiii.  i). x^emoved  .  .  .  ]  Bishop  Lowth's  and  Lagarde's  em- 
Struck  out,  as  it  were,  from  the  list  endations  (based  on  Sept.)  are 
of  cities.  plausible  but  unnecessary,  and  ef- 

*  The  cities  of  Aroer]  i.e.,  the  face  the  characteristic  paronomasia 

cities  of  the  trans-Jordanic  region,  '•ih'ey  '■aroer. 

among    which    were    two    named  ^  And  the  fortress  .  .  .  ]  Hav- 

Aroer.     One  of  these '  is  referred  ing    threatened    Syria    and    Israel 

to  in  the  Assyrian  inscriptions  as  separately,    the   prophet    now   de- 

Qarqara,   '  thrown   down,   dug   up,  scribes  their  common  doom.    Their 

burned  with  fire'  by  Shalmaneser  fortresses   and    independent    sove- 

II.,  and  again   'reduced  to  ashes  reignty   shall    cease — the    prophet 

by  Sargon '  {R.   P.   iii.   99,  ix.  6).  gives  the  former  to  Ephraim,  and 

Thisparticular  district  ismentioned,  the   latter    to    Damascus,    but   he 

because  the  Assyrians  would  pass  means  that  both  losses  are  expe- 

through  it  first  on  their  invasion  of      rienced    in    common. Shall  be 

Israel,  and  these   particular  cities  like    tlie    glory  .  .  .  ]    i.e.,    like 

because   their   name    (Aroer  = '  the  that  which  is  left  of  the  glory  of 

1  So  G.  Smith,  T.  S.  D.  A.,  ii.,  32S.  For  the  interchange  of  sounds,  conip.  ar'd 
and  arqd  in  Chaldec. 


io6 


ISATAII. 


[chap.  XVII. 


shall  they  be  :  an  oracle  of  Jehovah  Sabaoth. — *  And  it  shall 
come  to  pass  in  that  day  ;  the  glory  of  Jacob  shall  be  en- 
feebled, and  the  fatness  of  his  flesh  shall  become  lean.  ^  And 
it  shall  be  as  when  '^  one  gathereth  standing  corn  at  harvest,'^ 
and  his  arm  reapeth  the  ears  ;  yea,  it  shall  be  as  with  one 
who  gathereth  ears  in  the  valley  of  Rephaim.  ''And  glean- 
ings shall  be  left  thereof,  as  at  the  striking  of  an  olive-tree, 
two  or  three  berries  at  the  uppermost  point,  four  or  five  on  the 
branches  of  the  fruit-tree  ;  an  oracle  of  Jehovah,  the  God  of 
Israel.  ^  In  that  day  shall  the  earth-born  look  toward  his 
Maker,  and  his  eyes  shall  have  regard  to  the  Holy  One  of 
Israel,  ^  and  he  shall  not  look  unto  the  altars  the  work  of  his 

^  So  Luz.,   Naeg. — The  harvestman  gathereth  corn,   A.  E.,  Kimchi,  Vitr. ,  Gcs., 
Del.,  Weir. — The  harvest  taketh  away  the  corn,  E\v. 

the  Israelites.  The  meaning  of  this 
is  unfolded  in  the  following  verses. 

•'-'*  The  immediate  prospects  of 
Israel  are  described  under  three 
figures  :  i.  that  of  an  emaciated 
body  ;  2.  that  of  a  harvest  field  ; 
and  3.  that  of  beaten  olive-trees. 

^  His  arm  reapeth  the  ears] 
'  Ears '  is  strictly  accurate,  as  the 
Israelites  cut  off  the  stalk  close 
under  the  ear.  Indeed,  ever)^word 
of  the  description  tells.  Its  effect 
is  heightened  by  its  being  localised 
in  the  valley  of  Rephaim,  a  plain 
stretching  to  the  S.W.  of  Jerusalem, 
if,  as  most  suppose,  this  was  a  spe- 
cially fruitful  corn  district  (though  a 
comparison  of  2  Sam.  v.  25  and 
Psalm  Ixx.xiv.  6  may  perhaps  throw 
a  doubt  upon  this). 

'■  A  turning-point  in  the  pro- 
phecy. Few,  indeed,  should  be  left 
of  the  inhabitants,  and  yet,  by  God's 
mercy,  a  few  should  be  left  (x.  22  is 
just  parallel).  Thus  the  doom  of 
Israel  is  softened.  Contrast  the 
unbroken  thrcatenings  of  the  pro- 
phecy  in   ix.   8-x.   4. Thereof] 

i.e.,  of  Jacob. As  at  the  strik- 
ing: of  an  olive-tree].  The  oli\e 
croj)  was  gathered  by  beating(Deut. 
xxiv.  20),  but  the  technical  word 
for  the  beating  is  not  used  here. 
The  '  striking '  is  supplementary  to 
the  'beating';  this  appears  from 
xxiv.  13,  where  it  is  parallel  to  'the 
grape-gleaning,   when   the   vintage 


is  done.'  But  the  point  of  compa- 
rison is  not  the  '  striking,'  but  the 
fewness  of  the  berries  remaining  to 
be  struck. 

"•  ®  The       religious       revolution 
brought  about  by  these  calamities. 

The    earth-born]       Implying 

that  the  Israelites  have  forgotten 
the  duty  which  they  owe  as  crea- 
tures    to     the     Creator. The 

altars]  viz.,  those  of  the  deities 
next  mentioned.  Comp.  Hos.  viii. 
II,  X.  I,  xii.  II.  It  would  be  too 
subtle  to  see  with  Lagarde  an  im- 
plied rebuke  of  Ahaz  (2  Kings  xvi. 
10-13). 

^  The  Asherahs]  i.e.,  the  sym- 
bols of  Asherah,  a  goddess  wor- 
shipped by  the  Canaanites  as  the 
giver  of  fertility  and  good  fortune. 
The  symbol  seems  to  have  been  a 
pole  or  artificial  tree  (comp.  the 
sacred  tree  in  the  Assyrian  sculp- 
tures) ;  see  Judg.  vi.  25,  Deut.  xvi. 
21,  where  the  word  for  'plant' 
means  simply  to  set  into  the  ground, 
as  Eccles.  xii.  11,  and  comp.  the 
singular  rendering  of  Vulg.  3  Kings 
XV.  13. — It  must  be  admitted,  how- 
ever, that  side  by  side  with  the 
passages  in  which  Asherah  (first 
letter  Aleph)  is  spoken  of  as  one  of 
the  chief  deities  of  Canaan,  there 
are  others  in  smaller  number 
which  mention  Ashtorcth  or  the 
Ashtoreths  (first  letter  Ayin)  where 
we  should  have  expected  Asherah, 


CHAP.  XVII.] 


ISAIAH. 


107 


hands,  and  that  which  his  fingers  have  made  he  shall  not 
regard,  and  the  Asherahs  and  the  sun-images  ["^  he  shall  break 
up.^]  ^  In  that  day  his  fortified  cities  shall  be  like  the  de- 
serted places  of  the  Hivites  and  the  Amorites  ^  vv^hich  they 
deserted  before  the  children  of  Israel  ;  and  it  shall  become  a 
desolation.     "^  For  thou  didst  forget  the  God  of  thy  welfare, 

«  Not  in  Hebr.  text. 

'  So  Sept.,  Houb.,  Lo.,  La.  ;  the  deserted  places  of  forests  and  hill-tops  (?),  Ew. , 
Del.,  Naeg.,  &c.  ;  that  which  is  left  of  a  forest  and  a  tree-rop,  Vitr.,  Kocher,  Ges. 
(Comm.). 


see  Judg.  x.  6  (comp.  iii.  7),  i  Sam. 
vii.  3,  4,  xii.  10.  These  passages, 
however,  may  be  due  to  a  later 
editor,  in  whose  time  the  distinc- 
tion between  the  deities  had  been 
forgotten.  At  any  rate,  Ashtoreth 
or  Astart  seems  to  have  been  less 
popular  than  Asherah  ;  in  other 
words,  the  Canaanites  felt  more 
attracted  to  the  feminine  side  of 
the  Babylonian  Istar  (the  luxurious 
goddess  of  sensual  love)  than  to 
the  masculine  (the  stern  god  of  war), 
and  even  the  latter  they  converted 
into  a  goddess. — As  to  the  deriva- 
tion, Asherah,  as  Dr.  Tiele  has 
pointed  out,  is  probably  the  femi- 
nine of  the  Canaanitish  god  Asher 
=  Assyr.  dszr,  'favourable  '  (properly 
'  straight,  even,  plain,'  comp.  the 
Hebrew  phrase  '  to  smooth  the  face 
of  anyone,'  i.e.,  to  sue  for  his 
favour),  comp.  the  proper  name 
S'almanu-asir,  '  Salman  is  kind.' 
Another  form  of  the  same  word  is 
Asur  or  Assur,  the  name  of  an 
AssjTian  god  and  city,  and  Asurit, 
an  epithet  of  the  goddess  Ishtar. 
Dr.  Tiele  is  inclined  to  identify 
Asher  and  Assur,and  the  suggestion 
is  well  worth  considering.  It  is,  how- 
ever, not  absolutely  necessary  to 
identify  all  the  deities  who  received 
the  titles  Asher  or  Asherah,  any 
more  than  it  is  to  identify  all  those 
who  were  named  Baal. — Against 
the  view  that  Asherah  is  not  the 
name  of  a  goddess,  but  means  'a 
pole,'  see  Lasi  Words,  vol.  ii.,  and 
compare  Kuenen's  Religion  of 
Israel,  i.  88-93,  Tiele,  Vergelijkende 
Geschiedeiiis  der  oude  Godsdiensteu, 
I.  i.  pp.  462-3,  810,  Movers,  J^ie 
Plwnisier,  I.  i.   pp.   561-2. The 


sun-iniag:es]  i.e.,  the  figures  of 
Baal  Khamman,  the  sun-god,  often 
spoken  of  in  Phoenician  votive  in- 
scriptions. (Comp.  Yi^r.khammah^ 
'  heat,'  used  poetically  for  the  '  sun.') 
There  is  a  trace  of  this  cultus  in 
Hammon,  the  name  of  a  place  in 
N.  Palestine,  Josh.  xix.  28,  i  Chr.  vi. 
^6.  In  2  Chr.  xxxiv.  4,  these  figures 
are  mentioned  as  standing  on  the 
altars  of  Baal.  Perhaps  they  were 
modifications  of  the  conical  stones, 
which,  at  any  rate,  among  Turanian 
peoples,  symbolise  the  generative 
power  of  the  sun.  Comp.  Movers, 
Die  Phonizier,  I.  i.  p.  411. — A  verb 
seems  wanting  at  the  end  of  the 
verse,  as  Lagarde  points  out,  unless 
with  Stade  (see  his  ZeitscJirift  1882, 
p.  12),  we  regard  the  closing  words 
as  an  intrusive  gloss  on  the  fore- 
going. 

°""  Here  the  prophet  drops  the 
subject  of  the  Israelitish  penitents. 
In  xxviii.  5,  it  is  apparently  implied 
that  they  were  to  share  the  pro- 
sperity of  the  pious  kernel  of  Judah. 
Of  N.  Israel  in  general  it  is  stated 
that  its  infidelity  shall  be  punished 
by  a  desolation  like  that  which 
ancient  Canaan  experienced  at  the 

hands  of  the  Israelites. Deserted 

places]  i.e.  ruins.  The  text  read- 
ing is  generally  defended  by  2  Chr. 
xxvii.  4,  where  mountain,  country, 
and  forests,  are  referred  to  as  the 
localities  of  fortresses.  See,  how- 
ever, crit.  note.  The  decision  is 
difficult. 

'°  The  Rock  .  .  •  ]  See  on  xxx. 

29,  xxvii.  5. Plants  of  Adonis]. 

Comp.  on  Ixvi.  17.  The  ordinary 
rend,  does  not  give  a  suitable  con- 
trast. The  Israelites  ha\e  forsaken 


io8 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  XVII. 


and  the  rock  of  thy  fortress  thou  rememberedst  not,  therefore 
thou  didst  plant  ^  plants  of  Adonis,^  and  with  vine-slips  of  a 
stranger  didst  sow  it :  "  in  the  day  of  thy  planting  thou  didst 
make  a  hedge,  and  in  the  morning  didst  make  thy  seed  to 
blossom — ^  a  harvest-heap ''  in  the  day  of  sickness  and  in- 
curable pain. 


7JV.  12-14.     ^^^^  sudden   destruction   of  the  Assyrian  army} — 'The 

three  last  verses  of  this  chapter  seem  to  have  no  relation  to  the  foregoing 

prophecy,  to  which  they   are  joined.     It  is  a  beautiful  piece,  standing 

singly  and  by  itself ;  for  neither  has  it  any  connection  with  what  follows  ; 

g  Pleasant  plantations.  Del.,  Naeg.,  Weir,  &c. 
h  Fled  is  the  harvest,  Ges.,  Ew.,  Weir. 

their  Rock  (a  religious  term),  there-       phrase  of  primitive   origin   (hence 


fore  they  have  planted  pleasant 
gardens.  Nor  does  it  suit  the  im- 
mediate context.  The  term  '  stran- 
ger '  in  '  vine-slips  of  a  stranger '  is 
most  naturally  taken  as  = '  a  strange 
god'  ;  comp.  on  xliii.  12.  We  are 
therefore  almost  compelled,  as  Ew. 
first  saw,  to  explain  the  parallel 
word  (Hebr.  na'-amdnini)  as  a  Di- 
vine title,  even  if  there  be  no  evi- 
dence of  its  being  such  still  extant. 
There  were  so  many  Divine  epithets, 
often  used  by  themselves  as  Divine 
names,  that  it  would  be  no  wonder 
if  some  had  left  few  traces.  But 
we  have  some  presumptive  evi- 
dence. There  is  the  proper  name 
Naaman  'the  Syrian'  (2  Kings  v. 
i),  and  its  Arabian  equivalent, 
No'man  (the  name  of  a  king  in 
Tebrizi'ii  scholia  to  Haindsa)  ; 
proper  names  like  these  have  al- 
ways a  claim  to  be  interpreted  as 
Divine  titles,  if  possible.  There  is 
also  Nahr  Na'man,  the  modern 
Arabic  name  of  the  river  Belus,  near 
Acco  (Acre),  which  evidently  in- 
cludes a  title  of  the  god  Baal  (else- 
where known  as  Adoni  or  Adonis). 
Lastly,  there  is  a  singular  Arabic 
name  for  the  red  anemone,  given  in 
Lane's  magnificent  Lexicon, p.  1578, 
shakdiku-n-no^mdn^  explained  first 
by  Lagarde  (following  out  a  hint  of 
Ewald,  History,  iv.  86)  as  'the 
wounds  of  Adonis,'  and  evidently  a 

'  Not  that  of  Rczin  and  Pckah  (Ilit/i.ii) 


the  word  anemone)  : — Lagarde  well 
compares  the  ai\ia  'A6r]vas  {Semitica, 
p.  32).  Classical  students  will  of 
themselves  illustrate  Isaiah's  phrase 
by  the  'gardens  of  Adonis'  (pots  or 
baskets  filled  with  herbs,  which  soon 
withered  in  the  sun,  as  Adonis  was 
killed  by  the  boar),  the  proverbial 
phrase  for  something  which  arises 
quickly,  but  does  not  last.  First 
mentioned  in  Plato's  Phcedrus,  p. 
276^.  There  is,  I  think,  a  similar 
proverbial  application  of  the  Hebrew 
phrase  included  in  the  meaning  here. 
'  How  quickly  the  Adonis-gardens 
fade  !  So  quickly  shall  the  devo- 
tion of  the  Israelites  to  false  gods 
end  in  disappointment  !  '  vSuch 
appears  to  be  the  thought  of  the 
prophet.  We  thus  obtain  a  trace 
of  Tammuz-worship  earlier  than 
(not  to  mention  Ixvi.  17)  Ezek.  viii. 
17,  or  even  than  Jer.  xxii.  18, 
which  probably  contains  the  bur- 
den of  the  Tammuz-dirge.— — — 
Sow]  Used  inexactly  for  'plant.' 

"  A.  harvest-heap]  i.e.,  the 
flourishing  plantation  shall  become 
like  a  heap  of  reaped  corn.  As 
Hupfeld  points  out  (after  Clericus), 
'  heap  '  [iicd)  is  used  in  this  special 
sense  in  Ex.  xv.  8,  Ps.  xxxiii.  7, 
Ixxviii.  13.  So  too  Del.,  who  com- 
pares the  use  of  '  harvest '  for  Ciod's 
judicial  punishment  in  IIos.  vi.  11, 
jer.   li.    '^'}^.     Thus  we  have  in  the 

see  '  xxix.  5,  xxxi.  8,  9,  x.xxiii.  i,  3,  where 


the  rtfcrcnce  to  the  Assyrians  is  iini)uestior.aVjlc '  (A  C.  A.,  p.  93). 


CHAP.  XVII.]  ISAIAH.  109 

whether  it  stands  in  its  right  place  or  not,  I  cannot  say.'  I  quite  agree 
both  with  what  Bishop  Lowth  here  asserts  and  with  what  he  suggests. 
An  unforced  connection  with  xvii.  i-i  i  cannot  be  produced  ;  and  though 
most  recent  critics  connect  these  three  verses  with  chap,  xviii.,  the  con 
eluding  words  of  v.  14  are  decidedly  against  this;  besides  which  there  are 
no  phraseological  affinities  in  vv.  12-14  to  chap,  xviii.,  and  the  former 
passage  describes  the  ruin  of  the  enemy  under  an  image  which  is  clearly 
inconsistent  with  those  in  chap,  xviii.  I  venture  to  place  this  brief  but 
well-rounded  prophecy  during  the  victorious  march  of  the  corps  d^  armee 
which  seems  to  have  been  detached  by  Sennacherib  from  his  main 
army  at  Lachish  to  force  Judah  back  into  allegiance  to  Assyria.  It 
seems  to  have  been  framed  on  the  rhythmic  model  of  the  slightly 
earlier  prophecy,  chap,  xviii.,  and  is  one  of  the  most  vigorous  and 
picturesque  in  Isaiah's  works. 

'^  Ah,  the  tumult  of  many  peoples,  like  the  tumult  of 
the  seas  they  are  tumultuous;  and  the  uproar  of  nations, 
like  the  roaring  of  mighty  waters  they  roar!  '^The 
nations— like  the  roaring  of  mighty  waters  they  make  an 
uproar,  but  he  rebuketh  it,  and  it  fleeth  far  away,  and  is 
chased  like  the  chaff  of  the  mountains  before  the  wind,  and 
like  things  that  are  whirled  before  the  hurricane.  ^^  At 
eventide,  behold  terror  !  before  morning,  it  is  gone  !  This 
is  the  portion  of  those  who  spoil  us,  and  the  lot  of  those 
who  plunder  us. 

same  prophecy  a  double  application  the  short  clauses  crowd  upon  each 

of  the    figure    of  harvest,  first   to  other  in  sharp  contrast  to  the  long- 

the    Assyrians    '  reaping  a  harvest  drawn-out  clauses  which  precede, 

of  cities  and  their  inhabitants,'  and  So  quickly  follow  the  blows  of  Di- 

then  to  the  Israelites  '  transplanting  vine  vengeance.     The  tense  in  the 

heathen    gods    into    their  worship,  Hebr.  is  the  perfect  or  '  fact-tense ' 

and  reaping  God's  abandonment  of  as  it  may  be  called.     The  prophet 

their  nation  as  the  fruit '  (Strachey.)  is  set  free  from  all  personal  feeling, 

^-  Isaiah    on  his  'watch-tower'  anddescribes  the  events  which  loom 

hears,  and  we  seem  to  hear  with  as  it  were  bodily  before  him. it] 

him,  the  ocean-like  roar  of  the  ad-  Or,    him  ;    see   on  v.    26. The 

vancing  Assyrian  hosts  (comp.  Ps.  cbaff  of  the  mountains]  Thresh- 
xlvi.  3,  6,  Ixv.  7).  Full  of  sympa-  ing-floors  being  usually  on  high 
thetic  surprise  at  the  tragic  spectacle,  ground,  for  the  sake  of  the  current 
he  exclaims,  Ah!  the  tumult  of  of  wind  i  Sam.  xix.  22  Sept.,  2 
many  peoples  (alluding  to  the  va-  Sam.  xxiv.  18,  2  Chron.  iii.  i). 
ried  composition  of  the  Assyrian  '*  The  judgment  upon  the  Assy- 
army).  The  particle  rendered 'Ah!'  rians  is  to  begin  in  the  evening, 
has  several  meanings,  and  the  con-  and  to  end  before  morning  in  their 
text  must  decide  which  is  to  be  pre-  complete  destruction.     Comp.  xxix. 

ferred.     Del.  takes  it  to  be  expres-  7,    8,    xxxvii.    36. This    is   the 

sive  here  of  indignation  (as  i.  4,  x.  portion  .  .  .  ]  The  solemn  judg- 
i),  and  in  xviii.  i  of  pity  (as  Iv.  i).  ment  of  the  spectators  (comp.  Judg. 
He    rebuketh    it]     Obs.   how  v.  31). 


no  ISAIAH.     ■  [CHAP.  XVllf. 


CHAPTER   XVIII. 

The  sudden  destruction  of  the  Assyrians,  and  the  homage  of  Ethiopia  to 
Jehovah.  Such  is  the  prophet's  theme,  which  is  worked  out  in  a  most 
picturesque  and  dramatic  way.  The  king  of  Ethiopia,  stirred  by  the 
approach  of  the  Assyrians,  is  sending  messengers  in  the  hght  river-vessels 
to  spread  the  news  through  the  empire  as  rapidly  as  possible,  and  to  call 
together  the  troops.  Shabataka,  at  this  time  nominally  king  of  Egypt, 
was  really  much  more  of  an  Ethiopian  than  an  Egyptian  prince  : — he 
belongs  indeed  to  the  25th  or  Ethiopian  dynasty.  Hence  we  can  account 
for  Isaiah's  confining  his  prophecy  to  Ethiopia,  which  would  be  strange 
indeed  had  Egypt  been  united  under  a  single  native  king.  Isaiah  evi- 
dently sympathises  (as  in  the  case  of  Merodach-Baladan  ;  see  on  xxi. 
i-io)  with  Ethiopia's  hostility  to  the  general  enemy,  Assyria,  and  salutes 
its  people  with  honourable  epithets  ;  but  he  regards  its  anxiety  as  mis- 
placed, for  Jehovah  is  looking  on,  and  will  himself  interpose  at  the  right 
moment.  Then,  he  predicts,  with  a  true  intuition  of  the  far-reaching 
consequences  of  the  great  event,  will  the  distant  lands,  united  under  the 
sceptre  of  Ethiopia,  recognise  the  divinity  of  Jehovah  at  '  the  place  of  his 
Name'  (comp.  i  Kings  iii.  2)  and  the  scene  of  the  great  deliverance- 
Jerusalem. — It  is  sometimes  said  {e.g.  recently  by  Mr.  Hodgkin)  that 
Tirhakah  (Egyptian,  Taharaka)  is  the  name  of  the  Ethiopian  king 
referred  to  ;  comp.  xxxvii.  9.  This  is  against  the  Egyptian  chronology, 
if  Tirhakah  reigned  from  693  to  666  (Brugsch).  We  may  either  suppose 
the  late  compiler  of  xxxvi.-xxxix.  to  have  confounded  Shabataka  with 
the  better-known  Tirhakah,  or,  with  Lenormant,  that  Tirhakah  acted  as 
general  against  Sennacherib  for  his  royal  father.— Possibly  Shabataka 
may  have  sent  an  embassy  to  Jerusalem;  this  will  account  for  Isaiah's 
graphic  description  of  the  Ethiopians'  appearance  ;  only  we  must  not, 
with  Ewald,  quote  v.  2  in  behalf  of  this  theory,  as  the  mention  of  the 
Nile-boats  confines  the  scope  of  the  messengers  to  Ethiopia.^-  -Against 
the  view  that  the  Jews  are  the  nation  referred  to,  which  makes  the  whole 
prophecy  unintelligible,  as  well  as  on  Mr.  Hodgkin's  theory,  see  Last 
Words,  vol.  ii. 

The  prophecy  falls  into  two  symmetrical  strophes,  or  paragraphs,  each 
consisting  of  three  verses  of  four  lines  or  members  each,  and  followed  by 
an  epilogue  in  one  verse  of  five  lines. 

'Ah!  land  ^ of  the  clang  of  wings,^  which  art  beyond 

«  So  Ges.,  Del.,  Weir,  Naeg.— Of  overshadowing  wings,  Kay.— Of  winged  boats, 
Sept.,  Targ.,  Kimchi,  Ew.,  Merx  (on  Job  .\1.  31). 

1  Ah!]  Here  a  cry  of  pity  (Del.),  be   a   rhetorical    synonym   for   the 

or  perhaps  rather  of  sympathy  with  buzzing  swarms  of  flies  character- 

thc  anxiety  of  the  Ethiopians. istic  of  Egypt  and  Nubia  (Ex.  vni. 

The  clang  of  wings]     This  would  21,  24),  which  are  compared,  as  m 

'  Scbrader  (A'..-J.r.,  p.  406)  prices  chap,  xviii.  shortly  before  the  series  of  events 
vvliicli  led  to  tlie  battle  of  Raphia  (see  Sniiili,   His'ory  of  Assyria,  p.  95).     There  js 


CHAP,  xvni.] 


ISAIAH. 


I  I  I 


the  rivers  of  Ethiopia,  ^  which  art  sending  heralds  on  the  sea, 
and  in  vessels  of  papyrus  on  the  face  of  the  waters  !  Go,  ye 
fleet  messengers,  to  the  •  nation  *'  tall  and  "  polished,  to  the 
people  terrible  ever  since  it  arose,  the  ^  strong,  strong  ^  nation 


b  Strong,  Ges. 

<=  So  Del.,  Weir,  Naeg.— Naked,  Ges.  (Thes. 

'1  See  below  and  crit.  note. 


-Nimble,  E\v. — Beautiful,  Stade. 


vii.  1 8,  to  the  hosts  of  enterprising 
Egj'ptian  and  Ethiopian  warriors. 
Possibly  Isaiah  may  refer  to  a  par- 
ticular fly  commonly  known  as  the 
tsetse,  but  among  the  Gallas  as  the 
tsaltsal^  a  name  which  closely  re- 
sembles the  Hebr.  word  for  clangour. 
This  would  supply  an  appropriate 
symbol  for  warriors,  as  it  is  the 
most  dreaded  of  all  the  insects  of 
the  interior  of  Africa. .  Others  have 
thought  of  the  sacred  beetle,  so 
familiar  a  form  in  Egyptian  sym- 
bolism, or  of  a  kind  of  grasshopper 
or  locust  referred  to  under  the  name 
iseldtsal  ('  clangour  ')  as  peculiarly 
destructive  to  vegetation  in  Deut. 
.xxviii.  42  (this  has  also  been  identi- 
fied with  the  tsetse).  Again,  seeing 
that  the  Hebr.  tselatsal  has  also 
the  meanings  of  cymbal  and  har- 
poon ( =  whizzing  spear),  we  may, 
if  we  please,  render  the  phrase 
'winged cymbals '  or  'winged spears' 
(in  either  case  a  fit  name  for  the 
tsetses).  It  is  the  practice  in  Se- 
mitic to  add  a  qualifying  word  like 
'  winged,'  when  a  word  may  be 
understood  in  more  than  one  sense 
(see,  e.g.,  xxxviii.    14,  Gen.  xxxvii. 

31). Beyond     the     rivers     of 

Bthiopia]  i.e.,  not  only  Seba  or 
Meroe  (Assyrian  Miliikhkhi\  which 
is  nearly  surrounded  by  rivers,  but 
the  country  farther  to  the  south, 
which  was  under  the  Ethiopian  rule 
(Del.).  The  prophet's  object  is  to 
emphasize  the  greatness  of  Ethio- 
pia, which  has  dominion  over  such 
distant  countries.  The  remoteness 
of  Ethiopia  seems  greatly  to  have 
impressed   the  Hebrew  writers,  in 


this  early  stage  of  geographical 
knowledge,  see  Ps.  Ixxii.  10,  comp. 
8. — There  is  a  remarkable  allusion 
to  this  passage  in  Zeph.  iii.  10. 

'^  Heralds]    to    the    various    dis- 
tricts of  the  empire. The  Sea] 

i.e.,  the  Nile  (as  xix.  5,  Nah.  iii.  8, 
see  Pusey),  still  called  el-Bahr,  '  the 
sea.'     Comp.  Sindhu,  '  the  sea,'  the 

Sanskr.  name  of  the   Indus. in 

vessels  of  papyrus],  such  as  are 
mentioned  under  another  name  in 
Job  ix.  26,  comp.  Rawlinson's  Hero- 
dotus (on  ii.  96),  where  a  picture  of 
a  papyrus-canoe  is  given  ;  for  a 
modern  parallel,  see  Last  Words^ 
vol.  ii.  Pliny  {H.N.^  vi.  22)  repre- 
sents these  ships  as  crossing  the 
sea  to  the  island  of  Taprobane 
(Ceylon),  but  is  evidently  misin- 
formed. The  word  here  used  for 
papyrus  {gome)  also  occurs  in 
Egyptian.  The  root,  however, 
seems  clearly  Hebrew  ('  to  ab- 
sorb ').  The  native  Egyptian  name  is 

Sufi. Go,  ye  fleet  messengrers] 

The  speaker  may  be  either  Isaiah 
or  the  king  of  Ethiopia,  but  most 
probably  the  fomier,  in  accordance 
with  V.  3.  The  prophet  leaves  us 
to  guess  what  he  would  have  the 
messengers  say.  The  king,  their 
master,  doubtless  means  them  to 
give  notice  of  the  danger  which 
threatens  the  empire,  and  to  call  to- 
gether the  available  troops.  Isaiah 
tacitly  consents  to  the  former  part 
of  their  message,  but  not  to  the 
latter ;  for  the  next  verses  assure 
us,  Jehovah  himself  will  inter- 
pose.  To  the  nation  tall   and 

polished  .  .  .  ]  Why  this  accumu- 


however,  nothing  in  the  chapter  itself  to  suggest  this  date  ;  in  particular,  there  is  no 
allusion  to  negotiations  between  Egypt  and  Ethiopia  and  the  small  states  of  Palestine 
— negotiations  which  drew  from  Isaiah  a  by  no  means  complimentary  description  of 
Egypt  (xxx.  7,  contrast  xviii.  2).  It  is  true,  chap,  xviii.  is  placed  among  prophecies  of 
the  reign  ofSargon,  but  this  is  owing  to  its  subject— the  oracles  en  foreign  nations 
being  placed  together. 


I  12 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  XVI II. 


and  all-subduing,  whose  land  rivers  "■'  cut  through.*^  ^  j^\\  y^ 
inhabitants  of  the  world  and  dwellers  on  the  earth,  when  a 
signal  is  raised  on  the  mountains,  look  ye  ;  and  when  a  trum- 
pet is  sounded,  hear  ye. 

*  For  thus  hath  Jehovah  said  unto  me,  I  will  be  still  and 
look  on  in  my  mansion,  ^  while  there  is  *"  clear  heat  in  sunshine, 

•  Despoil,  Targ.,  Vulg.,  4  Hebr.  MSS.,  Vitr.,  Xaeg. 
'  Like,  Ew.,  Weir,  Naeg. 

lation  of  minute  features,  instead  of 
a  simple  mention  of  the  name  of 
the  Ethiopians  ?  There  is  perhaps 
a  divine  irony  in  the  contrast  be- 
tween the  immense  preparations  of 
this  great  and  powerful  people  and 
the  ease  with  which  Jehovah,  nulli- 
fying all  human  calculations,  will 
extinguish  the  pride  of  Assyria  in 
a  single  night  (Del.).  Isaiah,  how- 
ever, does  not  mean  to  be  contemp- 
tuous. All  ancient  writers  agree  in 
their  high  opinion  of  the  Ethio- 
pians. Isaiah  has  probably  met 
with  ambassadors  of  this  hitherto 
unknown  race,  and  mentions  the 
points     that     struck     him    (comp. 

Herod,     iii.      20,      23,      114). 

Polisbed]  alluding  to  the  appear- 
ance of  the  skin  of  the  Ethiopians. 
Herodotus  mentions  the  same  cha- 
racteristic.  The  strong:,  strongr 

nation  and  all-subduing]  Isaiah 
doubtless  alludes  to  the  Egyptian 
conquest  of  Shabaka,  the  first 
king  of  the  25th  or  Ethiopian 
dynasty  of  Manetho,  and  celebrated 
for  his  cruelty  to  the  unfortunate 
IJokchoris  (Eg>'ptian  Bokenranf). 
A  tradition  of  the  victories  of  the 
Ethiopians  has  been  perpetuated 
by  Megasthenes  (Strabo,  .\v.  i, 
6),  who  couples  Tearco  (Tirhdkah) 
with  Sesostris. — The  above  rend, 
is  much  disputed,  but  is  far  the 
most  probable  one.  The  only  rea- 
sonable doubt  relates  to  the  first 
part  of  it.  McGill  and  Del.,  for 
instance,  objecting  to  an  unneces- 
sary ana^  Xeyo>f  w<i/,  and  to  compar- 
ing the  Arabic,  render  literally  '  a 
nation  of  line-line  and  trampling,' 
i.e.,  '  a  nation  that  takes  possession 
of  the  territories  of  other  nations 
and  subjugates  them'  (McGill),  or 
taking  'line'  in  the  sense  of  com- 


mand (?)  as  marking  out  the  h'ne  of 
conduct,  'an  imperious  and  vic- 
torious nation'  (Del.,  Naeg.).  But 
the  reduplication  of  'line'  seems 
hardly  called  for  on  the  former  hy- 
pothesis, and  the  meaning  given  to 
'line'  by  Del.  is  not  sufficiently 
supported  by  the  stammering 
speech  of  the  drunkards  in  xxviii. 

10. Rivers  cut  throughJComp. 

Herod,  ii.  108  :  KareT^rjOr)  f]  AiyvTT- 
Tos  (Bottcher).  The  modern  Nubia 
abounds  in  rivers  and  mountain- 
torrents  (comp.  on  V.  i).  Canon 
Cook,  rendering  '  have  spoiled,' 
sees  an  allusion  to  the  neglect 
into  which  the  dykes  and  re- 
servoirs of  Eg)'pt  had  fallen  (see 
on  xix.  5).  But  the  prophet  is  not 
speaking  of  Eg^'pt,  nor  is  he  pic- 
turing a  period  of  decline. 

^  Assyria  is  a  hosiis  hiofiatii 
geticris  ;  therefore  the  whole  world 
is  invited  to  the  spectacle  of  its 
overthrow. A  signal]  This  'sig- 
nal '  is  not  to  be  understood  as  set 
up  by  the  Ethiopians,  on  the  watch 
against  a  sudden  irruption  of  the 
Assyrians.  It  is  a  symbolical  ex- 
pression for  the  notice,  supernatu- 
rally  given,  of  the  approacli  of  the 
decisive  moment.  Comp.  xi.  10,  12. 
For  a  verbal  parallel  see  xiii.  2. 

*  Explanatory.  In  the  midst  of 
all  this  excitement,  of  the  Assy- 
rians on  the  one  hand,  and  of  the 
Ethiopians  on  the  other,  Jehovah  is 
calmly  waiting  till  the  fruit  of  As- 
syrian arrogance  is  all  but  ripe. 
Favouring  circumstances  are  has- 
tening the  process  (clear  heat,  &c.), 
and  when  perfection  seems  just 
within  reach,  Jehovah  will  interpose 

in      judgment. My     mansion] 

Hebr.    iii'koni   (see   on  iv.    5). 

Clouds  of  night  mist]  Not  'clouds 


CHAP.  XIX.]  ISAIAH,  113 

*" while  there  are*"  clouds  of  night-mist  in  the  heat  of  the 
vintage.  ^  For  before  the  vintage,  when  the  blossom  is  over, 
and  the  bud  becometh  a  ripening  grape,  he  shall  cut  off  the 
branches  with  pruning-knives,  and  the  shoots  he  hcweth 
away.  ^  They  shall  be  left  together  to  the  birds  of  prey  of 
the  mountains,  and  to  the  beasts  of  the  land,  and  the  birds  of 
prey  shall  summer  upon  them,  and  all  the  beasts  of  the  land 
shall  winter  upon  it.  ''  At  that  time  shall  a  present  be 
brought  unto  Jehovah  Sabaoth  ^  from  the  ^  people  tall  and 
polished,  and  from  the  people  terrible  ever  since  it  arose,  the 
strong,  strong  nation  and  all-subduing,  whose  land  the  rivers 
divide,  to  the  place  of  the  Name  of  Jehovah  Sabaoth,  mount 
Zion. 

e  (Even)  the,  Hebr.  text,  Del.,  Naeg. 

of  dew,'  which  is  a  contradiction  in  iii.  20),  but  this  would  not  be  cor- 

terms.     The    Hebrew   and   Arabic  rect  of  either  rain  or  dew.     For  the 

/«/  is    '  a   copious    mist    shedding  Arabic  usage,  comp.  Koran,   Sur. 

small  invisible  rain,  that  comes  in  ii.  267.    The  vintage  may  be  placed 

rich  abundance  every  night  about  in  August  and  September. 
12  P.M.  in  the  hot  weather  when  ^  The  effect  upon  Ethiopia.  The 

west  or  north-west  winds  blow,  and  text-reading  is  generally  explained 

which    brings   intense   refreshment  on   the  analog}'  of  Ixvi.   20,  but  is 

to  all  organised  life '  (Neil,  Palestine  opposed  by  the  parallel  line.      No- 

Explored,  p.  136).     Lane  hesitates  thing  is  here  said  of  the  conversion 

whether    to    call   it    rain    or    dew  of  the  Ethiopians  (contrast  xix.  21, 

{Arabic  Lexicon,  s.  v.),  but  neither  22). Tbe  place  of  the  Name] 

conveys  a  true  impression.     'The  Comp.  i  Kings  viii.  17,  and  note  on 

clouds  drop  down  the  taP  (Prov.  xxx.  27. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 


This  prophecy  consists  of  two  parts,  vv.  1-15  describing  the  judgment 
impending  over  Eg>'pt,  vv.  16-25  the  results  of  it.  The  first  part  falls 
into  three  stanzas  or  strophes,  nearly  equal  in  length  ;  the  second  into 
five  paragraphs,  each  beginning  with  '  In  that  day.'  The  first  exhibits 
a  prospect  of  unmingled  gloom  ;  the  second  admits  Egypt,  upon  its 
conversion  to  the  true  religion,  and  Assyria,  to  equal  privileges  with 
Israel. 

There  are  great  difficulties  in  the  right  understanding  of  this  oracle. 
Eichhorn  actually  denied  the  authorship  to  Isaiah  altogether  ;  and 
Ewald,  who  admits  the  authenticity,  finds  a  general  prolixity  and  an 
occasional  peculiarity  of  expression  which  distinguish  the  discourse  from 
the  other  writings  of  Isaiah.  The  points  of  contact  with  the  prophet's 
acknowledged  works  are,  however,  sufficiently  numerous  (Gesenius,  Com- 
mentary, p.   594)  to    justify   our  adherence  to  the   traditional    \iew    with 

VOL.    I.  1 


I  1 4  ISAIAH.  [chap.  XIX. 

more  confidence,  it  is  true,  so  far  as  vv.  1-15  are  concerned,  than  with 
regard  to  the  remainder.  But  it  must  still  be  left  an  open  question 
whether  a  disciple  of  Isaiah  has  not  given  the  prophecy  its  present  form, 
working  of  course  on  the  basis  of  Isaiah's  notes. 

The  Eg^^ptian  and  Assyrian  inscriptions  have  thrown  great  light 
on  the  historical  references,  (i)  We  have  a  proclamation  of  Piankhi 
Mer-Amon,^  who  in  the  latter  part  of  the  eighth  century  B.C.  united 
under  his  sceptre  the  whole  of  Egypt  and  Ethiopia.  It  appears  from 
this  valuable  state-paper  that  the  whole  of  Lower  Egypt  was  divided 
among  rival  princes,  whose  connection  with  their  overlord  was  merely 
nominal.  One  of  these,  named  Tafnekht,  revolted,  and  made  himself 
master  of  Lower  Egypt.  Piankhi,  in  the  inscription,  recounts  how  he 
suppressed  the  revolt.  Still  the  expression  a  '  hard  lord  '  {y.  4)  does  not 
suit  Piankhi,  who  enjoyed  a  character  for  clemency,  which  was  only  once 
stained  by  his  conduct  at  Memphis  (Inscr.  line  96).  The  chief  value  of 
his  inscription  is  the  evidence  which  it  supplies  of  the  imperfect  centrali- 
sation of  the  government  of  Egypt,  and  of  the  civil  wars  which  from  time 
to  time  resulted.  It  is  clear,  however,  that  many  of  the  petty  princes 
remained  in  undisturbed  possession  of  their  fiefs,  so  that  upon  any  serious 
disaster  happening  to  the  supreme  power,  the  old  evil  of  anarchy  would 
at  once  show  itself.  (2)  From  inscriptions  of  Sargon  (Smith,  Assyrian 
Ca7wn,  pp.  125-6),  we  learn  that  in  720  B.C.  he  defeated  Sibahki  (the 
Egyptian  king  Shabaka),  at  the  battle  of  Raphia.  It  is  possible  that 
Isa.  xix.  was  written  on  the  arrival  of  this  news.  Isaiah  was  doubtless 
sufficiently  well  acquainted  with  the  previous  history  of  Egj'pt  to  know 
that  the  loosening  of  the  central  authority  meant  the  revival  of  the  local 
chieftainships  and  incipient  anarchy.  He  might  also  well  suppose  (for  of 
course  the  '  spirit  of  prophecy  '  does  not  exclude  natural  means  of  know- ' 
ledge)  that  Sargon  would,  either  now  or  later,  follow  up  his  advantage* 
and  display  his  natural  '  hardness '  or  cruelty  in  the  subjugation  of 
Egypt.  All  that  was  revealed  to  him  was  that  Egy^pt  should  be  shaken 
to  its  centre ;  the  precise  time  and  instrument  of  this  were  hidden  from 
him.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  conquest  of  Egypt,  at  least  of  Upper 
Egypt,'^  was  reserved  for  Esar-haddon  in  672,  who  divided  the  country 
into  twenty  small  tributary  kingdoms.  (3)  It  is  not  impossible  that 
Isa.  xix.  may  refer  to  this  event  (the  conquest  by  Esar-haddon) — see 
Smith,  History  of  Assyria,  p.  135;  Assurhaiiipal,  pp.  15,  16.  If  so,  it  will 
fall  into  the  old  age  of  Isaiah,  who  would  be  about  90  (assuming  762  for 
his  birth-year).  We  might  also  ascribe  it  to  a  disciple  of  Isaiah. 
Either  supposition  will  account  for  the  pale  reflection  which  it  gives  of 
the  grand  Isaianic  style. 

The  Isaianic  authorship  oivv.  16  (or  l8)-25  is  questioned.  So  much 
at  least  is  self-evident,  that  they  must  have  been  written  later  than 
the  rest  of  the    chapter  :— the   prophecy  is,   from    a   literary  point    of 

1  See  R.  P.,  ii.  79-104,  and  .1  series  of  articles  by  De  Roufj^  and  Lcnomiant,  in  the 
Ri'vue  archiloloi^ique,  1871-73.  Also  Canon  Cook's  The  Inscription  of  Pionchi  Afcr- 
Amon  (Lond.  1873),  and  Brugsch's  translation  in  his  GachicJite  Aegyptcns,  pp. 
68-707. 

*  k.  P.,  i.  61  (Annals  of  Assurlianipal). 


CHAP.  XIX.]  ISAIAH, 


115 


view,  complete  vvitl  out  them,  and  the  tone  of  prophecy  and  appendix  is 
entirely  different.  Of  course,  Isaiah  may  have  added  these  verses  on  a 
later  revision  of  his  works — and  indeed  we  can  hardly  imagine  a  more 
'  swanlike  end '  for  a  dying  prophet ;  or  some  later  writer — it  may  be  a 
disciple  of  Isaiah's — also  in  his  degree  a  prophet,  may  have  been  their 
author.  We  know,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  that  prophecy  becomes  more 
minute,  more  circumstantial,  the  further  we  go  from  the  age  of  Isaiaji,  so 
that  it  would  not  be  an  audacious  conjecture  that  a  prophet  considerably 
more  recent  than  Isaiah  made  this  addition.  Gratz  suggests  the  author 
(or  one  of  the  authors)  of  the  latter  part  of  Zechariah  (comp.  Zech.  xiv.), 
which  on  purely  philological  grounds  must  be  separated  from  the  former. 
Others  (Ges.,  Hitz.,  Merx,  Oort)  seem  to  themselves  to  discover  allusions 
to  the  age  of  the  Maccabees,  when  Judasa  was  for  the  time  independent, 
and  when  Egypt  and  Syria  (here,  according  to  them,  called  Assyria)  were 
equally  powerful.  The  time  of  the  Maccabees,  it  is  urged,  also  accounts 
for  the  prediction  in  v.  18,  '  One  shall  be  called  Sun-city,'  which  was 
framed  {ex  hypoth.)  in  order  to  justify  the  erection  of  a  temple  at  Leonto- 
polis  (in  the  nome  of  Heliopolis)  by  Onias  IV.,  about  160  B.c.^  The 
successes  obtained  soon  afterwards  by  the  Jews  might,  it  is  ur^ed  en- 
courage the  formation  of  such  extravagant  hopes,  and  the  friendly  alliance 
between  the  three  nations  in  v.  23  corresponds  to  the  fact  related  in 
1  Mace.  X.  51-66  (see  Hitzig's  powerful  argument, /^j-a/<a:,  pp.  219,  220). 

The  verses  are  no  doubt  peculiar,  but  we  have  no  right  to  ascribe 
them  to  the  time  of  the  Maccabees  simply  on  the  ground  of  the  question- 
able reading  '  Ir  ha-khc'res,  Sun-city,'  and  the  questionable  interpretation 
'Asshur'  =  Syria  (see  on  vv.  18-23).  Knobel  has  already  indicated 
points  of  contact  between  the  disputed  verses  and  the  acknowledged  pro- 
phecies of  Isaiah  ;  nor  are  the  ideas  radically  inconsistent  with  those  of 
the  acknowledged  prophecies  of  Isaiah  (comp.  ii.  3,  xvi.  12  (.?),  xviii,  7) 
though  no  equally  '  catholic'  passage  can  be  quoted.  One  feature  in  the 
description,  moreover,  points  decidedly  to  a  time  when  the  Deuteronomic 
laws  were  not  known,  or  at  any  rate  not  observed, — that  of  the  mai^ce'bah 
or  pillar  unto  Jehovah  (see  on  v.  19).  Note  also  that  Assyria  and  Egypt 
are  the  powers  hostile  to  Israel  in  vv.  23-25,  as  in  xi.  11-16. 

The  site  of  the  Eg>'ptian-Jewish  temple  is  placed  by  tradition  at  Tel- 
el-Yahoodeh,  '  the  Mound  of  the  Jew,'  about  20  miles  from  Cairo,  on  the 
Suez  line ;  and  this  is  probably  correct.  See  Hayter  Lewis  in  Trans.  Soc. 
Bibl.  Arch.  1881,  pp.  177-191,  and  comp.  Sayce  in  Pal.  Fund  Quarterly 
Stateinent,  1880,  pp.  136-8. 

1  [Utterance  of  Egypt.]  Behold,  Jehovah  rideth  upon  a 
swift  cloud,  and  cometh  to  Egypt,  and  the  not-gods  of  Egypt 

^-"  Threatenings.  Propheticper-  a   cherub,    and    did   fly '—for   the 

fects  in  the  Hebrew.  '  cherub '   is  a  form  of  speech  re- 

^  Rideth  upon   a  swift  cloud]  tainedfrommyth-making  times,  and 

Comp.  Ps.  xviii.  10  :' He  rode  upon  meaning   the  storm-cloud.     Child- 

1  Josephus  {Ant.,  xiii.  3,  i  ;  Wars,  vii.  10,  3)  makes  Onias  appeal  to  the  predic- 
tion in  Isaiah  of  an  Egyptian  temple  to  be  built  to  Jehovah,  but  without  referring  to 
the  phrase  '  city  of  the  sun." 


ii6 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  XIX. 


shall  shake  before  him,  and  the  heart  of  Egypt  shall  melt 
within  it.  ^  And  I  will  ^  spur  Egypt  against  Egypt,  and  they 
shall  fight  every  one  against  his  brother  and  every  one  against 
his  fellow,  city  against  city  and  kingdom  against  kingdom. 
3  And  the  spirit  of  Egypt  shall  be  made  empty  within  it  ;  and 
its  counsel  will  I  annihilate  ;  and  they  shall  resort  to  the 
not-gods,  and  to  the  mutterers,  and  to  those  who  have  familiar 
spirits,  and  to  the  wizards  ;  "  and  I  will  shut  up  Egypt  into 
the  hand  of  a  hard  lord,  and  a  fierce  king  shall  rule  over  them 
— the  oracle  of  the  Lord,  Jehovah  Sabaoth. 

^  And  the  waters  shall  dry  up  from  the  sea,  and  the  River 
become  parched  and  dry  ;  ''  and  the  rivers  shall  stagnate,  the 

a  Arm,  Ges.,  E\v. 


like  language  to  childlike  men. 

The  not-gods  of  Eeryp*  .  .  •  ]  So 

Ex.  xii.  12  :  'And  against  all  the 
gods  of  Eg}'pt  I  will  execute  judg- 
ment.' 

^  Egypt  against  Egypt]  One 
canton  or  one  province  of  Egypt 
against  another  (see  Introd.). 

*  The  mutterers]  viz.,  of  sacred 
formuLTe  ;  or  perhaps  they  were  ven- 
triloquists, who  imitated  the  voice  of 
the  shades.  Comp.  on  viii.  19. — — 
Ttie  wizards]  Magic  was  held  in 
great  honour  in  ancient  Egypt, 
and  magical  books  abound.  The 
standard  work  on  the  subject  is 
M.  Chabas'  Le  Papyrus  magique 
Harris  {1^66).     Comp.  on  t/.  ii. 

■»  A  hard  lord]  The  description 
suggests  a  complete  stranger  to  the 
culture  of  Egypt,  i.e.,  an  Assyrian 
rather  than  Ethiopian  conqueror. 
Piankhi,  moreover,  was  Egyptian 
by  race  (see  Introd.). 

*  The  drying  up  of  the  Nile,  and 
the  death  of  vegetation.  The  verse 
is  taken,  with  slight  alterations, 
from  Job  xiv.  11,  where  the  special 
reference  to  the  Nile   is   dropped. 

The  sea]    i.e.,    the    Nile  (see 

on  xviii.  2),  or  more  strictly  the  Pe- 
lusiac  stream  (according  to  Sharpe, 
History  of  Egypt,  i,  13^)-  Canon 
Cook  calls  attention  to  the  fact  that 

'   I  asjrec  with  Friedr.  Del.  [Paradies,  p. 


great  trouble  was  caused  by  the 
neglect  of  the  dykes  and  reservoirs 
during  periods  of  civil  disorder  (cf. 
Herod,  ii.  137).  '  The  complete 
overthrow  of  the  Ethiopian  dynasty 
was  naturally  followed  by  a  recur- 
rence of  the  old  evil,  which  was  at 
length,  after  many  years,  arrested 
by  the  energetic  measures  of  Psam- 
metichus,  described  by  Diod.  Sic. 
i.  66'  (Cook,  Inscription  of  Pianchi 
Mer-Amon,  p.  14). 

^  The  canals]  Hebr.  ydrim  ;  see 
on  xxxiii.  21.  The  maintenance  of 
the  canals  (on  which  see  Herod,  ii. 
108,  and  Sir  G.  Wilkinson's  note 
ad  loc.  in  Rawlinson)  was  essential 
to  the  fertility  of  the  soil,  and  has 
ever  been  a  test  of  good  govern- 
ment   in    Egypt. Egypt]      Or, 

the  Fortified  Land  (and  so  xxxvii. 
25,  Mic.  vii.  12).  Ewald,  Distress- 
land,  but  nothing  in  the  context 
suggests  this  (contrast  Zech.  x.  11). 
The  Hebr.  .lAff ^r  (  =  Ass.  Mut;ur) 
is  simply  an  uncommon  equivalent 
of  Mit^raiin  (the  same  root  with  the 
local  termination  in  -aim,^  like  Eph- 
raim,  IMahanaim,  Jerushalaim,  Se- 
pharvaim).  It  is  not  an  Egyptian 
word,  but  one  of  its  meanings  in 
Hebr.  is  fortification  (see  Ps.  xxxi. 
22).  Hence  Ebers  thinks  it  origin- 
ally meant  Lower  Egypt,  which  was 

309)  that  Mifraim  lias  nothing  to  do  with 


UiMinr  and  Lower  Egvpt,  but  (with  !•,.  Meyer)  prefer  to  explain  the  -aim  as  above, 
and  not  to  correct  il.'with  Frie.lr.  Del.,  i.Uo  -in,.  His  scepticism  as  to  Maror  sccnis 
to  me  unfounded. 


CHAP.  XIX.] 


ISAIAH. 


117 


canals  of  Egypt  shall  become  shallow  and  parched  up,  reed 
and  papyrus  shall  waste  away.  ^  The  meadows  by  the  Nile, 
by  the  shore  of  the  Nile,  and  every  seed-plot  by  the  Nile, 
shall  dry  up  and  vanish  away,  and  be  no  more.  *And  the 
fishers  shall  sigh,  and  all  who  cast  hook  into  the  Nile  shall 
mourn,  and  those  who  spread  nets  on  the  face  of  the  waters 
shall  languish.  ^  And  those  who  prepare  combed  flax  shall 
be  ashamed,  and  those  who  weave  white  cloths.  '"  And  its 
pillars  shall  become  broken  in  pieces,  and  all  those  who  work 
for  hire  (.'')  shall  be  grieved  in  soul. 

"  Utter  fools  are  the  princes  of  Zoan  ;  the  wisest  coun- 
sellors of  Pharaoh — senseless  counsel  !  How  can  ye  say  unto 
Pharaoh,  A  son  of  the  Wise  am    I,  a  son   of  ancient  kings  ? 


protected  by  a  wall  across  the  isth- 
mus of  Suez,  and  that  it  was  after- 
wards extended  to  Upper  Egypt  by 
the  conquering  Hyksos,  when  they 
found  that  Egy^pt  was  much  larger 
in  extent  than  the  region  protected 
by  the  wall  (Ebers,  Aegypten,  i.  88). 
Brugsch,  however,  tliinks  Ma^or 
meant  originally  the  district  of  Zoan 
or  Tanis,  which  occasionally  bears 
the  name  in  Egy^ptian  (Semitised, 
I  suppose)  of  Ta  tnazor^  '  the  for- 
tified land'  {Gesch.  Aegypiens,  189). 

Papyrus]  Hebr.  suf,  from  the 

Egy^ptian  tii/i.  A  Hebr.  term  is 
used  in  xviii.  2. 

'  The  meadovT-s]  Which  were 
proverbial  for  luxuriant  vegetation 

(comp.  Gen.  1.  11). Shore]    Lit. 

mouth.  Comp.  Gen.  xli.  3,  'lip  (i.e., 
shore)  of  the  Nile.'  A  more  com- 
plete parallel  is  wanting. Van- 
ish away]  Lit.  be  chased  away 
(like  chaff,  xvii.  13).  A  vivid  word- 
picture  of  the  re-assimilation  of  the 
narrow  oasis  of  the  Nile  to  the  arid 
desert  which  hems  it  in. 

^  The  fisherman's  occupation  is 
gone.  Fish  abounded  in  the  Nile 
(Herod,  ii.  93),  and  was  much  eaten 
(Num.  xi.  5).  To  the  priests,  how- 
ever, it  was  unclean,  on  the  ground 
of  certain  sacred  legends  (Pierret). 

®  AWho  prepare  combed  flax] 
Specially  for  the  priests'  clothing, 
and  for  the  mummy-cloths.  That 
the  Egyptian  byssus  -  flax  was 
proved  by  the  microscopic  observa- 


tions of  Bauer  {Classical  Museum^ 

vi.     152,    &c.). -Whits    cloths] 

Probably  inc'uding  cotton. 

'°  All  classes,  high  and  low,  are 

in  consternation. The   pillars] 

Comp.  Ezek.  xxx.  4,  Ps.  xi.  3,  Gal. 
ii.  9.  (I  doubt  if  the  text  of  the 
second  half  of  this  verse  is  right.) 

w.  1 1- 1 5  describe,  not  merely 
the  perplexity  of  the  Egyptian 
statesmen  when  the  calamities  have 
come,  but  the  folly  which  ac- 
celerated   their    coming. The 

princes]  i.e.,  the  king  and  his 
priestly  counsellors.  '  Books  con- 
taining magic  formulas  belonged 
exclusively  to  the  king;  no  one  was 
permitted  to  consult  them  but  the 
priests  and  wise  men,  who  formed 
a  council  or  college,  and  were  called 
in  by  the  Pharaoh  on  all  occasions 
of  difficulty.'  Cook  (note  on  Ex, 
vii.  11). — Zoan]  The  S'an  of  the 
present  day,  with  immense  heaps 
waiting  to  be  explored.  It  was  a 
frontier-city  in  the  Delta  (the  Greek 
Tanis),  and  was  sometimes  called 
Rameses,  but  is  not  to  be  cor- 
founded  with  the  Rameses  fn  m 
which  the  Israelites  started.  In 
Isaiah's  time  it  was  still  important, 

though  verging  on  its  decline. 

Kow  can  ye  say  unto  Pharoah 
.  .  .  [  '  With  what  reason  can  you 
boast,  as  you  do,  of  belonging  to  a 
royal  class '  (the  Pharaohs  belong- 
ing to  the  priestly  class,  either  by 
birth  or  by  adoption)  'i 


ii8 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  XIX. 


^2  Where  are  they,  then,  thy  wise  men  ^  Let  them,  I  pray, 
announce  unto  thee,  and  let  them  know  what  Jehovah  Sabaoth 
hath  purposed  upon  Egypt.  ^^  Become  fooHsh  are  the  princes 
of  Zoan,  deceived  are  the  princes  of  Noph  ;  those  have  led 
Egypt  astray  who  are  the  corner-stone  of  its  tribes.  ^*  Jeho- 
vah hath  mixed  into  it  a  spirit  of  perverseness,  so  that  they 
have  led  Egypt  astray  in  all  his  doing,  as  a  drunken  man 
strayeth  about  in  his  vomit.  ^^  Neither  shall  there  be  for 
Egypt  any  deed  which  the  head  and  the  tail  might  do,  the 
palm  branch  and  the  rush. 

'^  In  that  day  shall  Egypt  be  like  women,  and  shall 
tremble  and  shudder,  because  of  the  swinging  of  the  hand  of 
Jehovah  Sabaoth,  which  he  swingeth  against  it.     '^  And  the 

fusion    is    traced   to   Jehovah. 

IVXixed]  i.e.,  poured  out  a  drink  of 

mixed  ingredients. A.  spirit  of 

perverseness]  Or,  of  subversion. 
The  opposite  of  '  a  firm  spirit,'  Ps. 
li.  lo  (12).     Comp.  on  xx.wii.  7. 

^*  The  verse  is  slightly  obscure. 
It  either  says  that  neither  high  nor 
low  will  be  able  to  effect  anything 
(taking  '  and '  =  or),  or,  which  better 
suits  '  for  Egy'pt,'  that  the  general 
disunion  will  prevent  any  truly 
national  enterprise  (taking  '  and ' 
=  with,  as  vii.  i).  For  the  figure, 
bead  and  tail,  &c.,  see  on  ix.  14. 

^*^  In  that  day]  On  the  arrival 

of  the  foe  .'' The  swingring-  .  .  .  ] 

See  on  xxx.  33. 

'^  The  land  of  Judah  shall  be- 
come a  terror]  Why  ?  Because 
it  is  Jehovah's  seat  of  empire. 

18-20  Promises.  The  grand  subject 
of  this  epilogue  (with  which  comp. 
xxiii.  15-18)  is  the  turn  in  the  for- 
tunes of  Egypt  consequent  upon  its 
submission  to  Jehovah  (so  Jer.  xlvi, 
26).  The  transition  is  abrupt  ;  we 
have  passed  at  a  bound  into  the 
Messianic  period.  The  abruptness 
might  perhaps  be  an  argument 
against  the  Isaianic  authorship  of 
these  verses,  were  it  not  (i)  for  the 
prophetic  custom  of  representing 
the  final  dnoKaTcla-Taais  or  '  restitu- 
tion '  as  following  immediately  upon 
the  then  existing  crisis,  and  (2)  for 
Isaiah's  fondness  for  painting  a 
cheerful  background  to  his  gloom- 


"  The  first  proof  of  the  '  folly  ' 
of  the  wise  men.  They  cannot 
predict  the  nature  or  the  course  of 
events  in  this  ominous  period. 
Prediction  became  a  favourite  oc- 
cupation of  Eg>'ptian  religious 
writers  in  the  Ptolemjean  period 
(Revillout,  Revue  egyptologiqiie^ 
1880,  p.  145,  &c.),  and  this  may 
possibly  have  begim  at  an  even 
earlier  date.  Certainly  Herodotus 
tells  us  of  Egyptian  oracles.  The 
so-called  '  prophets,'  however,  'who 
were  generally  priests  of  the  tem- 
ples, had  the  management  of  the 
sacred  revenues,  were  bound  to 
commit  to  memoiy  the  contents  of 
the  ten  sacerdotal  books,  and  di- 
rected the  details  of  ritual  and  cere- 
monial according  to  the  prescribed 
formula;'  (Rawlmson,  TTiy//,  i.434). 

^^  A  second  proof.  They  had  led 
Egypt    astray   by   their  infatuated 

conduct  of  affairs. Noph]    i.e., 

not  the  distant  Nap  or  Napata  (the 
Ethiopian  capital),  but  Memphis, the 
most  ancient  of  all  the  great  cities 
of  Eg)'pt,  called  in  the  inscriptions 
Men-nufr,  or  'the  good  abode.'    In 

Hos.    ix.    6    called    Moph. The 

corner-stone]  Applied  collectively 
to  the  whole  priestly  class.  Comp. 
Zech.  X.  4,  Judg.  xx.  2,  i  Sam.  xiv. 
38.  The  Egyptian  word  kenbet  is 
applied  in  the  same  way.    (Rcnouf, 

Academy^  Jan.  9,  1875). Tribes] 

i.e.,  castes,  or  rather  classes. 

"  The  origin  of  this  strange  con- 


CHAP.  XIX.] 


ISAIAH. 


119 


land  of  Judah  shall  become  a  terror  unto  Egypt ;  whosoever 
^  maketh  mention  of  it,  unto  him  they  turn  shudderingly,''  be- 
cause of  the  purpose  of  Jehovah  Sabaoth,  which  he  purposeth 
against  it  (Egypt).     ^^  In  that  day  there  shall  be  five  cities  in 

•>  (Lit.  ...  he  shuddereth. ) — Mentioneth  it  unto  him,  he  shuddereth,  Ges.,  Del. — 
Recalleth  it  to  mind,  shuddereth,  Ew. 


iest  descriptions. — The   prediction 
was  not  altogether  devoid  even  of 
human  verisimilitude.      Long  ago, 
under  the  i8th  dynasty  (17th  cent. 
B.C.),  in  consequence  of  the  Syrian 
campaigns    of    the    Pharaohs,    so 
many   Semitic  words    passed   into 
Egypt  that  some  texts  of  this  period 
(e.g.,    the    Anastasi   papyrus)    are 
scarcely  more  than  half-Egyptian  in 
vocabulary ;    and  apart  from  this, 
the  population  of  Lower  Egypt,  near 
the  frontier,  was  at  least  half-Semi- 
tic (i.e.,  Canaanitish),  and  its  idioms, 
manners,    and   modes    of  thought 
must    have    constantly   influenced 
those  of  the  pure  Egyptians.     The 
political  history  of  Palestine  assisted 
this  Semitising  process.     We  know 
from  Jeremiah  (xliv.  i)  that  many 
Jews  found  refuge  in  Lower  Egypt 
after  the  fall  of  Jerusalem,  and  it  is 
a  mere  accident  that  we  have  no 
earlier   notice  of  similar  displace- 
ments caused  by  the  Assyrian  inva- 
sions.  One  of  the  towns  mentioned 
by  Jeremiah  as  the  seat  of  a  Jewish 
colony  is    Migdol,  and  it  appears 
that  this  pure  Hebrew  name  had 
been    selected    by   the   Egyptians 
themselves  under  the  form  Maktal. 
It  is  noteworthy,  too,  that  one  of  the 
names,  in  the  Inscription  of  Pian- 
chi,  viz.,  Zadkhiau,  is  not  impossibly 
the  Egyptian  form  of  Zedekiah  (so 
Canon  Cook).  Comp.  De  Rouge,  Re- 
vue archcol.  viii.  127,  &c.;  Brugsch, 
History  of  Egypt,  chap.  xi.  ;  Mas- 
pero,    Rev.    arch.,    1878,     p.     168, 
Histoire  ancienne,  prem.  ed.,  p.  338. 
^^  Five   cities    in   the    land    of 
Egypt  .  .  .  ]   Is  this  to  be  taken 
literally  ?       Vitringa     and     Hitzig 
think  so  ;  and  it  is  quite  true  that 
the  Heliopolite  nome  continued  to 
be    inhabited   by   Jews   till   a  late 
period,    one  evidence  of  which  is 
the  name  Tel-el-Yahoodeh  given  to 
various   mounds   besides    that   re- 


ferred to  above.  But  it  would  be 
strange  if  a  prophecy  which  begins 
with  such  an  absence  of  prosaically 
minute  predictions  (comp.  Naeg. 
on  vv.  2-4)  should  close  with  such 
reinarkably  circumstantial  antici- 
pations. If,  therefore,  v.  18  is  to 
be  taken  literally,  we  shall  have  to 
accept  the  theory  that  the  passage 
(and  all  belonging  to  it)  is  a  later 
addition.  It  is  well  known,  how- 
ever, that  five,  the  half  of  ten,  was 
a  favourite  round  number  both  with 
the  Egyptians  (see  Ebers.  on  Gen. 
xliii.  34)  and  with  the  Jews  (xxx. 
17,  xvii.  6,  Lev.  xxvi.  8,  i  Cor.  xiv. 
19).  The  prophet  may  therefore 
only  mean  that  there  shall  be  a 
number,  just  large  enough  to  be 
appreciable,  of  Eg^^ptian  civic  com- 
munities (not  merely  Hebrew  colo- 
nies, as  Lenormant,  see  end  of 
verse),  speaking^  the  tongue  of 
Canaan  (i.e.,  Hebrew,  see  on 
xxxvi.  11).  These  latter  words 
probably  mean  that  Hebrew  shall 
become  the  language  of  sacred 
forms  and  ceremonies  in  these  '  five 
cities,'  which  of  course  would  be 
the  natural  result  of  their  conver- 
sion to  Jehovah  (comp.  Zech.  xiv. 
9).  Granting,  therefore,  that  the  ex- 
pectation of  conversions  on  a  large 
scale  to  the  true  religion  is  in  har- 
mony with  the  rest  of  the  acknow- 
ledged prophecies  of  Isaiah,  there 
is  nothing  in  the  form  of  this  verse 

to  preclude  its  Isaianic  origin. 

Swearing  to  Jehovah  SaT>aoth] 
Not  '  swearing  by'  (as  Ixv.  16),  but 
'swearing  (fidelity)  to'  (as  xiv.  23). 

One  shall  be  named]  A  phrase 

which  constantly  introduces  a  title 
descriptive  of  character ;  see  i.  26, 
iv.  3,  Ix.  14,  Ixii.  4.  If,  however, 
we  read  the  following  words,  '  City 
of  the  sun,'  this  cannot  be  its  in- 
tention here  ;  we  must  take  it  as 
simply   equivalent    to    *  shall    be.' 


I20 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  XIX, 


the  land  of  Egypt,  speaking  the  tongue  of  Canaan,  and  swear- 
ing to  Jehovah  Sabaoth  ;  one  shall  be  named  *=  City  of  destruc- 
tion.'' '^  In  that  day  there  shall  be  an  altar  to  Jehovah  in  the 
midst  of  the  land  of  Egypt,  and  a  pillar  by  its  border  to 
Jehovah  ;  '^"and  it  shall  be  for  a  sign  and  a  witness  to  Jehovah 

<:  So  most  MSS.  and  editions,  Massora  (but  see  Geiger,  Urschrift,  p.  79),  Peshito. 
City  of  the  sun,  15  MSS.  in  text,  i  in  marg.  (Kenn.,  and  de  Rossi),  Symin.,  Vulg. , 
Saad.,  Talmud  ['  Me/idchcth,  iioa),  Rashi,  Vitr. ,  Ges.  [Thesaurus,  but  not 
Comm.),  Hitz.,  Naeg.     City  of  righteousness,  Sept.,  Geiger. 


But  where  is  there  an  analog}'  for 
this  ? City     of     destruction] 

There  is  great  doubt  whether  the 
reading  should  be  '/r  ha-hcres 
(adopted  here),  or  '  Ir  ha-kheres 
'  City  of  the  sun.'  The  main  objec- 
tion to  the  latter  is  that  it  is  not 
at  all  suitable  for  a  honorific  title 
conferred  by  a  Jewish  prophet.  An 
Assyrian  might  have  written  thus 
(comp.  R.  P.,  ix.  24),  but  not  a 
Jewish  prophet.  The  attempts  that 
have  been  made  to  provide  abetter 
meaning  for  '  Ir  ha-khcres  are  ex- 
tremely rash. — The  te.xt-reading 
has  been  well  explained  by  Targ., 
which  has  'the  city  of  Bethshe- 
mesh  ( ■=-  the  house  of  the  sun) 
which  is  to  be  laid  waste.'  In  other 
words,  the  prophet  intends  Helio- 
polis,  but  modifies  the  form  of  the 
first  letter  to  indicate  the  pious  zeal 
for  the  religion  of  Jehovah  which 
shall  one  day  inspire  its  Egyptian 
inhabitants.  It  is  as  if  he  would 
say,  No  longer  'city  of  the  false 
god  of  the  sun,'  but  'city  of  the 
breaking  down  of  idolatrous  altars.' 
(It  is  the  word  used  for  (Jidcon's 
breaking  down  of  the  altar  of  Baal, 
Judg.  vi.  25.)  Comp.  Jer.  xliii.  13, 
'He  shall  break  the  (idolatrous) 
pillars  of  the  house  of  the  sun,'  i.e., 
the  ^'Fcat  temple  in  Hcliopolis.  A 
similar  allusive  transformation  of 
the  native  Egyptian  name  An  (pro- 
nounced by  the  Jews  On)  is  made 
by  Ezekiel  (xxx.  17),  'The  young 
men  of  Aven  (  =  "nothingncss,"  or 
"wickedness")  shall  fall  by  the 
sword.'  .S(^  Seeker  {ap.  Lowth), 
Caspari,  Herzfeld,  Drechsler,  Del. 

18  A  further  development  of  v. 
18.  The  '  five  cities  '  shall  erect  an 
altar  to  Jehovah.      It  is  not  quite 


certain  how  this  is  to  be  under- 
stood. It  depends  on  our  decision 
of  certain  preliminary  questions. 
If  Isaiah  wrote  these  verses,  and  if 
Deuteronomy  was  written  after  his 
time,  the  altar  may  have  been  in- 
tended as  an  altar  of  sacrifice,  in 
accordance  with  the  primitive  law 
in  Ex.  XX.  24  (<2.  P.  B.).  If,  how- 
ever, these  verses  were  written  after 
the  composition  of  Deuteronomy 
(whether  Mosaic  or  not),  then  we 
must  suppose  that  the  altar  was 
merely  an  '  altar  of  witness,'  on  the 
principle  set  forth  in  Josh.  xxii.  23, 
24.  Or  again,  the  description  may 
be  purely  symbolical.  For  this  we 
have  a  striking  analogy  in  Mai.  i. 
II,  which  describes  how  'in  every 
place  '  among  the  Cientiles  '  incense 
is  offered  unto  the  name  of  Jeho- 
vah, and  a  pure  meal-offering,' 
where   the   symbolical  meaning  is 

indicated  by  the   context. And 

a  pillar  by  its  border]  In 
primitive  times  a  pillar  (Heb. 
ma^ct'bah)  was  the  distinguishing 
mark  of  a  holy  place.  Idolatrous 
pillars  were  commanded  to  be  de- 
stroyed (Ex.  xxiii.  24),  but  most 
critics  think  that  'pillars  '  to  Jeho- 
vah were  quite  allowable  till  the 
time  of  Hezekiah  or  Josiah,  to 
which  they  assign  the  Book  of 
Deuteronomy  (romp.  Deut.  xvi.  21, 
22).  At  any  rate,  the  prophet  gives 
an  implicit  sanction  to  the  erection 
of  a  sacred  pillar  in  Egypt.  '  By 
its  border,'  to  indicate  that  the 
whole  land  belonged  to  Jehovah. 

"^^  The  altar  and  obelisk  are  a 
sign  and  a  witness  to  God  as  well 
as  to  man,  viz.,  of  the  covenant 
now  existing  between  Jehovah  and 
his    sworn    servants    (?'.    18),    the 


CHAP.  XIX.] 


ISAIAH, 


121 


Sabaoth  in  the  land  of  Egypt :  when  they  shall  cry  unto 
Jehovah  because  of  oppressors,  he  shall  send  them  a  deliverer 
and  an  advocate,  and  shall  rescue  them.  ^'  And  Jehovah  shall 
make  himself  known  to  Egypt,  and  the  Egyptians  shall  know 
Jehovah  in  that  day,  and  shall  serve  with  sacrifice  and  offering, 
and  shall  vow  a  vow  unto  Jehovah,  and  shall  perform  it. 
^^  And  Jehovah  shall  smite  Egypt,  smiting  and  healing ;  and 
when  they  return  unto  Jehovah,  he  shall  receive  their  suppli- 
cations, and  shall  heal  them.  ^^  In  that  day  there  shall  be  a 
highway  from  Egypt  to  Assyria  ;  Assyria  shall  come  into 
Egypt,  and  Egypt  into  Assyria,  and  the  Egyptians  shall 
serve  with  the  Assyrians.     -^  In  that  day  shall   Israel  be  a 


Egyptians.  Hence,  if  some  great 
or  petty  king  should  again  attempt 
to  'oppress'  Egypt,  Jehovah  will 
send  a  '  deliverer,'  as  he  does  to 
his  ancient  people  (same  word  in 
Judg.  iii.  9,  15,  iv.  3,  Obad.  21). 

^^  And  JebovaU  sball  make 
himself  known  .  .  .  ]  Especially 
by  answering  their  prayers  (?/.  20). 
They  on  their  side  recognise  him  for 
their  God  by  ofTering  sacrilice — 
whether  on  the  altar  mentioned  in 
V.  20,  or  at  Jerusalem,  is  not  stated  ; 
but  the  latter  is  suggested  by  the 
parallel  passage,  Zech.  xiv.  16-19. 
Obs.,  the  'five  cities'  have  here 
expanded  into  '  the  Egyytians.' 
Possibly  the  former  were  the  'rem- 
nant '  which  survived  God's  ter- 
rible visitation,  and  was  to  become 
the  'seed'  of  a  regenerate  nation 
(comp.  vi.  13). 

*^  The  prophet  returns  to  the 
period  of  calamity  which  is  to  pre- 
cede the  conversion  of  the  Egy-p- 
tians.  Egypt  shall  be  smitten,  but 
with  a  view  to  its  being  healed. 
For  the  antithesis,  comp.  Deut. 
xxxii.  39,  Hos.  vi.  i,  Job  v.  18,  and 
for  the  important  idea  thus  ex- 
pressed, Zeph.  iii.  8,  9,  Jer.  xii.  15- 
17- 

*^  The  first  consequence  of  this 
wonderful  conversion  is  the  cessa- 
tion of  war  between  the  once  rival 
countries  of  Egypt  and  Assyria. 
The  mention  of  Assyria  confirms 
the  view  that  the  '  hard  lord '  is 
an  Assyrian  king. — Of  course,  this 


prophecy  presupposes  that  the  As- 
syrians have  also  been  converted 
(see  on  x.  20),  and  one  cannot  help 
regretting  that  no  more  distinct 
revelation  on    the   subject   is    still 

extant. A.     hig-hway]     i.e.,    an 

uninterrupted      passage      through 

Palestine.  The       Eg-yptians 

shall  serve  'with  the  Assyrians.] 
The  sense  of  the  word  rendered 
'serve'  is  clear  from  v.  21.  No 
Israelite  could  misunderstand  the 
phrase  any  more  than  the  term 
'  knowledge  '  for  '  knowledge  of  Je- 
hovah '  in  Hos.  iv.  6.  To  render, 
therefore,  with  Hitzig,  '  Egypt  shall 
(resign  itself  to)  serve  Assyria'  (or, 
as  he  explains  it,  Syria),  is  arbitrary, 
though  Sept.,  Targ.,  Pesh.,  Vulg., 
thoughtlessly  give  this  rendering. 
How  could  there  be  an  empire, 
whose  head  in  political  matters  was 
Assyria,  and  in  religious  Judea  ? 
A  strange  retrogression  of  the 
Messianic  belief! — Hitzig's  expla- 
nation of  Asshur  as  =  Syria  is  with- 
out authority.  No  doubt  Asshur 
could  be  and  was  used  of  a  power 
which  succeeded  to  the  place  of 
Assyria,  such  as  Persia  (see  Ezra 
vi.  22),  but  not  of  an  inferior  power, 
such  as  Syria.  In  Ps.  Ixxxiii.  8  (9) 
Assyria  cannot  =  Syria,  because  it 
is  only  mentioned  in  the  second  de- 
gree of  Israel's  enemies  ('  Assyria 
also^  are  the  Psalmist's  words). 
Lagarde,  moreover,  plausibly  reads, 
not  Asshur,  but  Geshur. 

^■*  But  a  third  factor  is  still  want- 


1 2  2  ISAIAH.  [chap.  XX. 

third  to  Egypt  and  to  Assyria,  even  a  blessing  within  the 
earth,  "^^ '' forasmuch  as'^  Jehovah  Sabaoth  hath  blessed  him, 
saying,  Blessed  is  my  people  Egypt,  and  the  work  of  my 
hands  Assyria,  and  mine  inheritance  Israel. 

d  Wherewith,  Ew. 

ing  to  complete  the  harmony,  viz.,  ^'  Hath  blessed  him]  viz.,  each 

Israel.     These  three,  Egypt,  Assy-  of  the  three  countries.     Obs.  Israel, 

ria,  Israel,  have  been  divinely  pre-  as   the  central  point  of  'blessing,' 

pared  to  become  a  blessing-  within  still  retains  a  certain  pre-eminence. 

the  earth    ('within,'    i.e.,    'within  He  is  Jehovah's  '  inheritance  ' — the 

the  entire  compass  of,'  not  merely  phrase  does  not  occur  again  till  the 

'  in  the   midst    of — blessing  is    to  second  part  of  Isaiah  (xlvii.  6,  Ixiii. 

stream  forth  from  them  in  all  di-  17),  as  Dr.  Weir  points  out. 
rections,  comp.  Gen.  xii  2b^  3<J). 


CHAPTER  XX. 


Isaiah,  in  the  habit  of  a  captive,  a  sign  for  Egypt  and  Palestine. 

The  renascence  of  Eg)'ptian  prosperity  under  Shabaka  (the  So,  or 
rather  Seve,  of  2  Kings  xvii.  4)  was  but  of  short  duration.  The  disas- 
trous battle  of  Raphia  (B.C.  720)  not  only  compelled  '  Rahab,'  the  Insolent 
One,  to  acknowledge  the  supremacy  of  Assyria,  but  again  destroyed  the 
dream  of  Egyptian  unity.  Tanis,  Bubaste,  Khnensa,  and  Sais,  each  be- 
came the  residence  of  a  petty  king  ;  Shabataka,  the  son  of  Shabaka,  was 
forced  to  content  himself  with  Thebes  and  the  '  nomes '  in  its  immediate 
vicinity.' 

It  was  not  likely  that  so  disunited  a  country  could  be  of  any  real  use 
to  Judah.  And  yet  it  appears  from  this  chapter,  compared  with  chaps. 
XXX.,  xxxi.,  that  negotiations  were  actually  entered  into  between  the  courts 
of  Palestine  (especially  that  of  Judah)  and  those  of  Egypt.  The  danger 
from  Assyria  must  indeed  have  been  urgent  to  have  suggested  so  preca- 
rious an  auxiliary,  and  Isaiah,  whose  faith  in  Jehovah  kept  him  free  from 
all  political  illusions,  lost  no  opportunity  of  counteracting  such  a  policy. 
The  special  occasion  of  the  prophecy  in  chap.  xx.  is  revealed  to  us  by  the 
Assyrian  inscriptions.  Two  different  texts'-  relate  to  the  siege  of  Ashdod 
here  so  briefly  referred  to  ;  according  to  one  (the  Kouyunjik  inscription), 
it  happened  in  the  ninth  year  of  the  reign  of  Sargon,  i.e.,  B.C.  711  ; 
according  to  a»other  (the  Annals),  in  the  eleventh,  i.e.,  B.C.  709.  It  is 
certain,  however,  that  the  siege  was  the  consequence  of  a  change  of 
political  parties  in  the  town  of  Ashdod.  A  temporary  advantage  had 
been  given  to  the  Assyrian  party  by  the  interference  of  Sargon,  who, 
some  time  after  the  battle  of  Raphia,  deposed  the  rightful  king  Azuri,  on 
a  charge  of  rebellion,  and  enthroned  his  brother  Akiiimit  in  his  place 
The  ruling  class,  however,  were  predominantly  anti-Assyrian,  and  deposed 

'  M.ispero,  Hhtoire  ancienne  de  I'  Orient,  cil.  i,  p.  3y3. 
^  (J.  Smith,  Assyrian  Discoveries,  p.  ^93. 


CHAP.  XX.]  ISAIAH.  1 2  3 

Akhimit,  setting  up  one  Yavan  as  king.  The  consequence  was  the 
siege  of  Ashdod  referred  to  by  Isaiah,  which  ended  in  the  deportation 
of  the  inhabitants  to  Assyria.— The  same  cylinder-inscription  which  re- 
lates the  siege  of  Ashdod  gives  a  list  of  the  nations  which  incurred 
the  same  guilt  of  treason,  and  among  them  appears  the  name  of  Judah 
(see  on  v.  6). 

Thus  Isaiah  had  good  reason,  on  political  as  well  as  religious  grounds, 
to  dehort  the  Jews  from  an  Egyptian  alliance.  His  ill  success  was  re- 
venged by  the  invasion  and  subjugation  of  Judah,  to  which  I  have  referred 
in  the  introduction  to  x.  5-xii.  The  conquest  of  Eg>'pt,  however,  which 
Isaiah  here  holds  out  in  prospect,  did  not  immediately  take  place.  The 
war  with  Merodach-Baladan,  king  of  Babylon,  prevented  Sargon  from 
invading  Egypt,  and  the  nominal  king  of  Egypt  and  Ethiopia  (Shabataka)i 
sent  an  embassy  to  Sargon  desiring  peace.^ 

It  seems  to  me  very  doubtful  whether  vv.  I,  2  can  have  been  written 
by  Isaiah,  as  v.  i  implies  a  confusion  of  two  distinct  sieges  of  Ashdod 
(see  on  v.  3).  The  former  reminds  us  strongly  of  chap.  vii.  Both 
chapters  have  probably  been  worked  up  on  the  basis  of  notes  of  Isaiah's 
prophecies,  and  some  historical  traditions  of  the  life  and  acts  of  Isaiah. 

'In  the  year  when  the  Tartan  came  to  Ashdod,  when 
Sargon  king  of  Assyria  sent  him  (he  warred  against  Ashdod 
and  took  it),  ^  at  that  time  spoke  Jehovah  by  Isaiah  son  of 
Amoz,  saying,  Go  and  loose  the  sackcloth  from  off  thy  loins, 

1  The  Tartan]  The  official  de-  passage  supplements  Sargon's  own 
signation  of  the  general-in-chief  of  account  of  the  siege,  for  this  king, 
the  Assyrian  army  ;  properly  Tur-  in  accordance  with  the  Assyrian 
tanu.  He  was  the  second  personage  custom,  takes  the  credit  of  the  cap- 
in  the  empire,  the  constitution  of  ture  of  Ashdod  to  himself,  {R.  P., 
Assyria  being  essentially  military.  vii.  40,  ix.  11). 

There  is,  therefore,  no  reason  to  ^  The    sackcloth]      He   means 

identify  this  Tartan  with  the  one  the  haircloth  which  the  prophets, 

in    2    Kings  xviii.    17. Sargon]  like    the    later    Christian    ascetics, 

This  Sargon  w^as  called  Sargon  the  adopted    as    their    habitual    dress. 

Later,     to    distinguish    him    from  Comp.  2.  Kings  i.  8,  Zech.  xiii.  4. 

another  king  (Sargina)  who  reigned  The  phrase  '  to  gird  sackcloth  '  im- 

in     Babylonia     several     centuries  plies  that  it  was  worn  as  an  outer 

earlier.     The    name    is,    properly,  garment.     '  Naked '  means  without 

Accadian,    and   therefore    non-Se-  this  outer  garment  ( i   Sam.  xix.  24, 

mitic  ;     but    the    Assyrians,    who  Am.  ii.  16,   Mic.  i.  8,  John  xxi.  7). 

Semitised  it  into  Sarru-kinu,  may  On  the  practical  impressiveness  of 

have  given  it   the   meaning   '  true  such  an  act  in  Jerusalem,  see  Sir  E. 

(or,  faithful  ;  or  established)  king.'  Strachey's  excellent  remarks,  Jew- 

Sargon  himself  offers  an  interpret-  ish  History  and  Politics,    p.    114. 

ation  ;     see     crit.     note,     vol.     ii.  Micah   (i.  8)  performed  a   similar 

He  warred  against  Ashdod  symbolic  act.     His  words  '  I  will  go 

.    .    .    ]     Told      by      anticipation,  stripped  and  naked  '  suggest   that 

comp.     the    parenth.     in     vii.     i.  the  appearance  of  the    prophet  is 

The   command   to    Isaiah   was   of  typical  of  the  enforced  '  nakedness  ' 

course  prior  to  the  capture.     This  destined  for  his  people. 

'  Menant,  Annates  des  rots  d' Assyric,  p.  186;  Schrader,  A".  A.  T.,  p.  406. 


124 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  XX. 


and  take  thy  shoe  from  off  thy  foot :  and  he  did  so,  going 
naked  and  barefoot.  ^And  Jehovah  said,  according  as  my 
servant  Isaiah  hath  gone  naked  and  barefoot  "  three  years  for 
a  sign  *  and  an  omen  against  Egypt  and  against  Ethiopia, 
*  so  shall  the  king  of  Assyria  lead  the  captives  of  Egypt  and 
the  exiles  of  Ethiopia,  young  men  and  old,  naked  and  bare- 
foot and  with  buttocks  uncovered,  a  shame  for  Egypt.  ^  And 
men  shall  be  dismayed  and  ashamed  because  of  Ethiopia 
their  expectation  and  Egypt  their  ornament.     ^  And  the  in- 

"  For  three  years  a  sign,  Sept.,  Vulg.,  Hebr.  accents,  Luzzatto,  Del.,  Kay. 


3  The  act  is  symbolic — the  only 
recorded  instance  of  the  sort  (as 
chap.  vi.  is  the  only  recorded  vision) 
in  the  works  of  Isaiah.  Two  diffi- 
culties have  to  be  resolved.  First, 
as  to  the  historical  character  of  the 
act  related  here.  Some  (e.g.,  Kue- 
nen,  Ondcrzoek,  ii.  76)  think  that  it 
is  not  historical,  but  an  imaginative 
embodiment  of  the  idea  of  captivity, 
and  take  the  same  view  of  the  simi- 
lar episodes  in  Hosea,  Jeremiah, 
and  Ezekicl.  But  we  ought  rather 
to  consider  each  case  separately  ; 
and  there  is,  I  think,  a  special  in- 
appropriatencss  in  ascribing  such 
a  procedure  to  a  prophet  like  the 
'royal'  Isaiah.  The  second  diffi- 
culty relates  to  the  duration  of  the 
sign.  Some  critics,  ancient  as  well 
as  modern,  have  found  it  difficult  to 
believe  that  so  strange  a  spectacle 
should  have  been  exhibited  for 
three  whole  years.  Hence,  ac- 
cording to  some  (but  see  .\xix.  10 
Heb.),  the  Massoretcs  have  put  a 
stop  (Athnakh)  after  the  word  for 
'barefoot,'  in  order  to  make  the 
second  part  of  the  verse  run  '  for 
three  years  a  sign.'  Vitr.  (doubt- 
fully), Del.,  Kay,  and  Stade  adopt 
this  view,  and  Vitr.  further  conjec- 
tures virtually  that  the  text  origin- 
ally ran  thus,  'As  my  servant  Isaiah 
hath  gone  naked  and  barefoot  three 
days,  for  three  j'ears  a  sign,'  iSic, 
which  he  supports  by  the  observa- 
tion that  Tp'ia  hr\  is  twice  expressed 
in  the  Sept.  This  latter  view  (ap- 
proved by  Lowth)  is  at  any  rate 
better  than  the  supposition  that 
Isaiah  performed  the  symbolic  act 


only  once ;  a  single  act  of  this 
kind  would  have  been  at  most  a 
nine  days'  wonder.  The  difficulty  is 
entirely  caused  by  a  preconceived 
notion  as  to  what  was  proper  con- 
duct for  Isaiah.  Apart  from  this, 
no  one  would  have  entertained  a 
doubt  that  '  three  years  '  belongs 
naturally  to  'hath  gone'  and  not  to 
'  a  sign.' — A  greater  difficulty  than 
that  of  the  '  propriety '  or  '  impro- 
priety '  of  a  three  years'  '  sign  '  of 
this  kind  arises  from  the  Annals  of 
Sargon,  which  show  that  the  (final) 
siege  of  Ashdod  lasted  only  a  part 
of  a  year  (see  Smith,  Assyrian 
Canon,  p.  129).  The  true  solution, 
I  think,  is  that  the  three  years  are 
to  be  counted  from  the  rebellion  of 
Azuri  (see  Introd.).  There  were, 
in  fact,  two  sieges  of  Ashdod,  one 
issuing  in  the  deposition  of  Azuri, 
the  other  in  the  captivity  of  the 
whole  people  of  Ashdod,  and  these 
are  fused  together  in  the  compen- 
dious   statement    of  v.    i And 

Jebovab  said]  i.e.,  at  the  end  of 
the  three  years. 

■*  The  meaning  of  the  sign — the 
shameful  captivity  of  Egypt  and 
Ethiopia. 

*•  ^  The  application.  The  ful- 
filment of  the  sign  will  radically 
cure  the  men  of  Palestine  of  their 
inveterate  confidence  in  Egj'pt.  Sec 
Last  Words,  vol.  ii. This  re- 
gion] The  reference  is  dispute. 
Chwolson,  rendering  'yonder  is- 
land,' thinks  of  Cyprus  (comp.  Jer. 
XXV.  22),  which  submitted  to  Sargon 
in  his  eleventh  campaign,  see  yud. 
Zeitsckr.,  1872,  p.  306  ;  Knob.,  ren- 


CHAP.  XXI.]  ISAIAH.  125 

habitants  of  this  ^  region  shall  say  in  that  day,  Behold,  thus 
hath  it  gone  with  our  expectation,  whither  we  fled  for  help  to 
get  deliverance  from  the  king  of  Assyria  ;  and  how  can  we 
escape  ? 

•>  Coast- land,  Ew.,  Del.,  Weir,  Naeg. 

dering 'this  sea  coast,' of  Phcenicia  'the    people    of    PhiHstia,    Judah, 

(xxiii.  2,  6)  and  PhiHstia  (Zeph.  ii.  Edom,  and    Moab,  dwelling  [who 

5);  Hitzig,  of  PhiHstia  only.     The  dwell]  beside  the  sea,  bringing  [who 

two    latter     have    seen    half    the  bring]  tribute  and  presents  to  Assur 

truth,  but  only  half,  for  Judah  can-  my  lord,    were    speaking   treason ' 

not  be  excluded,  comp.  xxx.  3.       It  (Smith,    Assyrian  Canon,  p.   130). 

seems  to  me  that  all  the  small  po-  To  those  Avho  adopt  the  rendering 

pulations  of  Palestine  are  intended,  '  this    sea-coast '    the    parallel    ex- 

which,   in    the    hope    of   Eg>-ptian  pression  used  by  Sargon  will  have 

assistance,    had    revolted    or  were  special  force.     Comp.  Ewald,  His- 

conspiring  to  revolt  from  Assyria.  tory,  \.  215. 
Comp.     Sargon's    statement,    that 


CHAPTER  XXI. 


Verses  i-io.  The  fall  of  Babylon;  the  ' vision '  which  announced  it, 
and  its  effect  upon  Isaiah. — We  must  again  digress  into  the  province  of 
the  '  higher  criticism,'  as  the  exegesis  depends  more  than  usual  on  the 
age  of  the  prophecy.  Very  many  moderns,  and  the  present  writer  him- 
self formerly,  have  found  the  date  in  the  Babylonian  exile,  and  not  with- 
out reasons  of  striking  plausibility.  In  the  first  place,  it  should  be 
observed  that  the  prophet  writes  in  the  style  and  with  the  fervour  of  a 
contemporaiy,  and  that  the  only  siege  of  Babylon  with  which  students  of 
Isaiah  have  (until  lately)  been  acquainted  is  that  at  the  close  of  the 
Exile.  Next,  the  mention  of  Elam  and  Media  agrees  with  the  fact  that 
Cyrus,  born  king  of  Elam  (see  Essay  x.),  conquered  the  Medes  before 
attacking  Babylonia,  and  the  picture  of  the  capture  of  Babylon  during  a 
banquet  reminds  us  of  Belshazzar's  feast  in  Dan.  v.  (comp.  Herod,  i.  191 
end).  Nothing  but  a  strong  sense  of  the  exegetical  difficulties  prevents 
me  from  still  adhering  to  the  modern  theoiy,  together  with  a  suspicion 
that  chap.  xxi.  i-io  hangs  together  with  chap.  xxii.  (see  Introd.).  The 
difficulties  referred  to  are— i.  the  tone  of  strong  depression  in  which  the 
prophet  announces  his  tidings  (t/?'.  3,  4,  10),  and  the  absence  of  any- 
thing even  distantly  resembling  revenge  ;  2.  the  form  of  the  second  part 
of  the  prophecy,  which  seems  to  me  to  presuppose  distance  from 
Babylon  ;  and  3.  the  fact  that  both  ideas  and  phraseology  are  in 
harmony  with  the  authorship  of  Isaiah  :  compare  v.  r  with  xxx.  6  ;  2/.  2 
with  xxxiii.  i  ;  7'.  5  (Hebr.)  with  xxii.  13  (Hebr.)  ;  v.  6  with  viii.  1 1,  xviii.  4, 
xxi.  16,  xxxi.  4  ;  {rckeb)  vv.  7,  9  with  xxii.  6;  v.  \o  with  xxviii.  28  and  22. 
These  latter  phenomena  seem  considerably  to  weaken  the  strength  of 
the  case  for  a  date  at  the  end  of  the  Exile.  Let  it  be  observed  further, 
I.  That  the  description  of  the  capture  of  the  city  during  a  revel  is  picto- 


126  ISAIAH.  [chap.  XXI. 

rial  and  imaginative,  not  predictive ;  2.  that  Isaiah  gives  Elam  an 
equally  prominent  place  in  a  besieging  army  in  xxii.  6,  and  that  even  if 
he  does  not  mention  Media  elsewhere,  yet  this  country  was  not  beyond 
his  horizon  (see  on  xiii.  17),  and,  3.  that  Assyrian  researches  have 
revealed  not  less  than  three  sieges  of  Babylon  in  the  lifetime  of  Isaiah, 
viz.,  in  710  by  Sargon,  and  in  703  and  691  by  Sennacherib  '  (see  G.  Smith's 
Ass^ffia, -pp.  107,  no,  123).  It  is  no  longer  adventurous  to  propose  the 
view  that  Isaiah  himself  may  be  the  writer,  and  that  he  may  refer  to 
some  one  of  these  three  sieges  ;  but  to  which  ?  The  language  of  v.  9 
rather  suggests  the  last  of  the  three,  the  issue  of  which  is  thus  described 
by  Mr.  George  Smith  :  '  Babylon  was  now  wholly  given  up  to  an  in- 
furiated soldiery  ;  its  walls  were  thrown  down,  its  towers  demolished, 
its  people  given  up  to  violence  and  slavery,  the  temples  rifled,  and  the 
images  of  the  gods  brought  out  and  broken  in  pieces '  (Assyria,  p.  123  ; 
comp.  Sennacherib's  Bavian  inscription,  R.  P.,  ix.  126).  The  objection 
to  regarding  this  siege  (or  that  in  703)  as  the  subject  of  the  prophecy  is 
that  the  Elamites  (who  were  now  in  alliance  with  the  Babylonians)  had 
been  in  a  state  of  revolt  from  Assyria  from  the  very  accession  of 
Sennacherib.  We  can  hardly  imagine  that  this  was  unknown  to  Isaiah  ; 
in  fact,  there  was  a  presumption  against  any  of  the  tributary  nations 
persisting  in  their  allegiance  when  the  murder  of  Sargon  had  given  the 
signal  for  revolt. 

I  conclude,  then,  that  the  siege  of  Babylon  in  710  is  not  improbably 
that  referred  to.  Sargon  did  not  indeed  destroy  the  captured  city,  but 
he  tells  us  himself  that  he  '  made  to  shake  the  entrails  of  the  town  of  Bel 
and  of  Merodach  '  ('  Annals  of  Sargon,'  by  Oppert,  P.  P.,  vii.  46).  I  am 
not  embarrassed  by  the  want  of  a  more  minute  fulfilment,  since  the 
phenomena  of  prophecy  do  not  justify  me  in  requiring  it.  The  pro- 
phecy, thus  understood,  both  illustrates  and  is  illustrated  by  the  nar- 
rative in  chap,  x.xxix. 

The  king  of  Babylon  at  the  time  of  this  siege  (and  also  in  703)  was 
Merodach-Baladan,  who,  as  we  know  from  xxxix.  i  (  =  2  Kings  xx.  12),  sent 
an  embassy  to  Hezekiah.  His  immediate  interests,  in  fact,  were  identical 
with  those  of  Hezekiah,  with  whom  he  probably  desired  to  form  an  alliance, 
and  who  responded  to  his  wishes  so  far  at  least  as  to  exhibit  all  his 
treasures  and  his  armour.  This  helps  us  to  understand  the  depression 
with  which  Isaiah  announces  his  revelation.  Although  he  recognised,  as 
a  prophet,  the  divine  necessity  of  Babylon's  fall,  he  must,  at  any  rate, 
have  known,  and  have  grieved  from  a  human  point  of  view  to  know,  that 
it  was  an  event  of  evil  omen  for  still  weaker  kingdoms.  It  is  true, 
the  king  of  Elam  was  at  this  time  favourably  disposed  to  Merodach- 
Baladan,  which  is  at  first  sight  inconsistent  with  the  summons,  '  Go  up, 
O  Elam'  (v.  2).  But  we  may  reply  —I.  that  Isaiah  need  not  have  been 
minutely  acquainted  with  the  then  shifting  political  relations  of  Elam  and 
her  neighbours  ;  2.  that  as  a  matter  of  fact  the  Elamites  were  not  all 
either  able  or  willing  to  support  their  king  in  the  line  he  wished  to  adopt 

'  The  circumstances  of  the  latter  of  these  sieges  agree  even  better  with  the  prophet's 
description  than  those  of  the  siege  by  Sargon  (see  Smith,  as  above). 


CHAP.  XXI.] 


ISAIAH. 


127 


{seel?.  P.,  vii.  44,  45)  ;  and  3.  that  part  of  Elam  appears  to  have  been  an- 
nexed to  Assyria  by  Sargon  in  721  (i?.  P.,  vii.  29). 

The  above  view  is  identical  with  that  of  Dr.  Paul  Kleinert,  Theolog. 
Studien  und  Krittkett,  1877,  pp.  174-79.  It  should  be  added  that  the  late 
Mr.  George  Smith  also  before  him  referred  this  prophecy  to  Sargon's 
conquest  of  Babylon  (7!  6".  B.  A..,  ii.  329).  The  evidence  in  its  favour  is 
exegetical,  and  will  therefore  not  command  universal  assent.  For  my 
own  part,  I  gladly  admit  that  a  fuller  knowledge  of  the  circumstances  of 
the  Jews  might  conceivably  enable  us  to  reconcile  the  prophecy  with  a 
date  at  the  close  of  the  Exile.  Let  the  other  side  as  willingly  acknowledge 
the  remarkable  contrast  pointed  out  long  ago  by  De  Wette  between  this 
prophecy  and  the  rest  of  the  group  which  relates  to  Babylon. 

'  [Utterance  of  the  wilderness  *  of  the  sea.^]  As  tempests 
in  the  southland  sweeping  along,  it  cometh  from  the  wilder- 
ness, from  a  terrible  land.  ^  A  hard  vision  is  announced  unto 
me  :  '  The  barbarous  dealer  dealeth  barbarously,  and  the 
waster  wasteth.  Go  up,  Elam  !  Besiege  Media !  All  the 
sighing  {})  thereof  will  I  bring  to  stillness,     ^  Therefore  my 

°  Sept.  omits. 


'  XTtterance  .  .  .  ]  An  enigma- 
tical title,  reminding  us  of  the  titles 
of  prophecies  in  v.  11,  xxii.  i,  xxx. 
6.  The  sense  is  probably  that 
Babylonia  was  to  become  a  marshy 
desert  (comp.  xiv.  23),  'the  sea' 
being  a  name  given  to  the  Euphra- 
tes for  a  similar  reason  as  to  the 
Nile  in  xviii.  2,  xix.  5  ;  comp. 
Herod,  i.  184,  where  it  is  said  that, 
before  Semiramis,  the  river  used  to 
make  a  sea  of  the  whole  plain. 
The  Assyrians,  too,  called  S.Chaldea 
'the  sea-land'  (Schrader,  K.  A.  T., 
p.  353).  In  Jer.  li.  36  (comp.  1.  38) 
Babylon's  '  sea '  is  again  referred 
to,  and  threatened  with  being  dried 

up. In  the  southland]  i.e.,   in 

the  south  of  Judah,  called  by  the 
special  topographical  name  Negeb, 
'  dry  country.'  For  these  '  tem- 
pests,' see  Zech.  ix.  14,  Job  xxxvii. 
9,  i.  19,  Hos.  xiii.  15,  Jer.  iv.  11, 
xiii.  24.  Comp.  also  Layard's 
description  of  the  violent  whirl- 
winds of  Babylonia  and  Susiana  : 
'  They  could  be  seen  as  they  ad- 
vanced from  the  desert,  carrying 
along  with  them  clouds  of  sand 
and  dust.  Almost  utter  darkness 
prevailed  during  this  passage'  {Ni- 
neveh and  its  Refftaifts^  chap.  v.). 


It  cometh  from  the  'wilderness] 

Babylonia  was  bordered  on  the 
S.W.  by  the  Arabian  desert.  There 
is  no  cuneiform  evidence  that  any 
invasion  of  Babylon  was  made 
from  the  S.W.  ;  but  why  should 
we  insist  on  a  literal  historical  ful- 
filment ?  It  is  a  grand  poetical 
symbol  which  we  have  before  us. 

Terrible  land]  Comp.  xxx.  6, 

Deut.  viii.  15. 

"^  Hard]  i.e.,  calamitous,  as  i 
Kings  xiv.  6. Vision]  i.e.,  reve- 
lation.  The  barbarous  dealer] 

i.e.,  the  Assyrian  army.  The  Hebr. 
boged  is  strictly  one  who  deals 
faithlessly  :  then,  one  who  has  no 
regard  for  the  law  of  humanity. — 
a  barbarous   conqueror   (as  xxxiv. 

16,  xxxiii.  i). Elam]  The  Elam- 

ites  had  been  made  tributary  by 
Sargon  in  721  {R.  P.,  vii.  29,  comp, 
40- IWedia]  The  Median  con- 
quests of  Assyria  had  begun  long 

before  Sargon  (see  on  xiii.  17). 

Sig:hingr]  i.e.,  the  '  sighing '  caused 
by  Babylon — if  the  text  be  correct. 
But  the  verb  'to  still'  rather  suggests 
a  noun,  such  as  'jubilation  '  (xvi, 
10),  or  '  arrogance '  (xiii.  11). 

^'  ■*  Such  terrible  tidings  over- 
power   the    prophet.      He    thinks 


128 


ISAIAH. 


[CHAP.  XXI. 


loins  are  filled  with  anguish  ;  pangs  have  taken  hold  of  me, 
like  the  pangs  of  a  woman  in  travail :  I  writhe  so  that  I  can- 
not hear :  I  am  alarmed  so  that  I  cannot  see.  ■*  My  heart 
beateth  ;  terror  hath  frighted  me  ;  the  evening  of  my  plea- 
sure he  hath  turned  for  me  into  trembling.  -^  Preparing  the 
table  !  ^  spreading  the  coverlet  (.^) !  ^  eating,  drinking  !  '  Arise, 
ye  princes,  anoint  the  shield.' 

''  For  thus  hath  the  Lord  said  unto  me  :  '  Go,  place  a 
watchman  ;  what  he  shall  see,  he  shall  announce.'  ^  And  ''  he 
saw  a  troop  of  horsemen  by  pairs,  a  troop  (of  riders)  on  asses, 


^  So  Hitz.— Watching  the  watch,  Del,  Naeg.— Setting 
Taking  a  horoscope  (?  ?),  E\v. 


(?)  the  watch,    Kay. — 


assuming  him  to  be  Isaiah)  of  his 
own  city,  and  of  the  fate  which 
threatens  it  (xx.\ii.  13,  14);  or,  ac- 
cording to  others,  is  far  more  sym- 
pathetic towards  the  land  of  his 
exile  (assuming  him  to  be  living 
in    Babylonia)    than    most  of   the 

exile-prophets. My  loins]    The 

loins  as  the  seat  of  the  sharpest 
pain,  Nah.  ii.  10  (11  Heb.),  Ezek. 
xxi.  6  (II  Heb.),  Jer.  xxx.  6.- — 
The  evening-  of  my  pleasure]  i.e., 
in  which  I  take  pleasure,  either  as 
the  time  of  repose,  or  (Kleinert) 
of  visionary  cominunications  from 
on  high. 

^  Preparing-  the  table  .  .  •  ] 
Historical  iniinitives,  vividly  de- 
picting the  arrogant  security  of  the 
Babylonians.  They  are  dancing 
and  revelling  at  a  banquet.  Sud- 
denly the  feasting  is  interrupted  by 
the  announcement  that  the  walls 
have  been  stormed,  and  that  the 
palace  itself  is  in  danger.  It  is 
plausible,  though  (see  Introd.)  iiot 
necessary,  to  connect  this  descrip- 
tion with  '  Belshazzar's  feast,'  which 
appears  (comp.  Dan.  v.  4  and  note 
in  Essay  -\.)  to  have  had  primarily 
a  religious  character,  whereas  this 
feast  is  apparently  nothing  but  a 
court-revel. Spreading  the  co- 
verlet] i.e.,  cither  the  cloth  on 
which  the  viands  are  set,  or  the 
coverings  of  the  scats  of  the  ban- 
queters. This  rend,  suits  the  con- 
text best,  and  accounts  best  for  the 

article,  but  is  far  from  certain. 

A.noint  the  shield]  They  had  not 


even  prepared  their  shields  for 
battle — so  confident  were  they  ! 
The  'anointing'  was  mainly  in 
order  that  the  weapons  of  the 
enemy  might  glide  off  them. 

""^  Explanatory  of  7/7/.  2-5.  Isaiah 
feigns  that  he  has  been  directed  by 
Jehovah  to  set  a  watchman,  but  the 
watchman  is  really  himself.  The 
prophet,  as  Ewald  points  out,  has, 
as  it  were,  a  double  personality, 
and  discharges  two  separate  func- 
tions at  the  same  moment.  He 
is  at  once  a  'watchman,'  intent 
upon  every  indication  of  the  Divine 
will,  and  the  prophet  who  listens 
to  the  report  (somewhat  as  a 
man  who  dreams).  Here  Isaiah 
wishes  to  make  it  clear  that  it  was 
no  political  calculation  of  his  own, 
but  a  warning  from  above,  which 
gave  him  the  certitude  of  Babylon's 
fall.  Hence  his  fiction.  Hab.  ii. 
I  is  closely  parallel. — It  seems  to 
me  easier  to  understand  the  pas- 
sage about  the  '  watchman,'  if 
written  at  Jerusalem,  than  as  the 

work  of  an  exile  in    Babylon. 

TTnto  me]  Added  for  emphasis, 
as  in  T'.  \G{/sii/a//'s),  viii.  1 1,  xxxi.  4. 

^  ilsses  .  .  .  camels]  The  com- 
mentators here  quote  Herod,  i.  80, 
iv.  129,  vii.  86,  to  show  that  some 
of  the  soldiers  in  the  Persian  army 
rode  on  asses  or  camels.  liut  asses 
and  camels  are  expressly  mentioned 
as  left  on  the  field  of  battle  by  Me- 
rodach-lialadan  (Bellino  cylinder, 
a/>.  Schrader,  A'.  A.  T.,  ed.  2,  pp. 
345,  6),  and  we  may  presume  that 


CHAP.  XXI.]  ISAIAH.  129 

a  troop  on  camels  ;  and  he  hearkened  "^  very  diligently.  *And 
he  cried  (as)  a  lion,  '  O  Lord,  I  stand  upon  the  watchtower 
continually  by  day,  and  I  remain  at  my  post  all  the  nights.' 
^And  behold,  there  came  a  troop  of  men,  of  horsemen  by 
pairs  ;  and  he  answered  and  said,  *  Fallen,  fallen  is  Babylon, 
and  all  the  images  of  its  gods  he  hath  broken  unto  the  ground  ! ' 
•°  O  my  threshed  and  winnowed  one  !  that  which  I  have  heard 
(coming)  from  Jehovah  Sabaoth,  the  God  of  Israel,  have  I 
announced  unto  you. 

•^  Should  he  see,  &c.,  he  shall  hearken,  Ew.,  Kay. 


vv.  II,  12.  A  short,  vague,  and  difificult  prophecy.  Is  it  in  prophetic 
imagination  that  Isaiah  hears  a  call  from  Seir .''  or  did  the  Edomites  really 
consult  the  prophet  of  Jehovah,  as  Ahaziah  consulted  Baalzebub,  the  god 
of  Ekron  "i  or  has  a  word  fallen  out  of  the  text,  which,  together  with  a 
slight  emendation,  would  perhaps  make  the  applicants  Simeonitish  fugi- 
tives in  Seir  (i  Chr.  iv.  42,  43),  sounding  Isaiah  as  to  their  restoration  to 
the  rights  of  citizenship  .'' '  The  first  seems  to  me  the  right  view,  as  most 
in  harmony  with  the  heading  and  with  the  position  of  the  prophecy.  It 
is  '  in  the  spirit '  that  Isaiah  hears  the  question  of  the  Edomites.  Per- 
haps they  had  already  suffered  some  great  reverse  ;  the  reading  of  the 
three  Greek  versions  may  be  correct,  and  may  be  thus  explained.  I  would 
assign  the  prophecy  to  the  reign  of  Sargon,  by  whom  (see  on  xx.  5,  6) 
Judah  and  Edom  are  brought  under  a  common  accusation  of  seditious 
plotting.     In  Sennacherib's  time  the  Edomites  paid  tribute  to  Assyria. 

they  were  sometimes  employed  in  and  coming  from  Babylon.     Then 

the  Assyrian  army. He  Iieark-  all  at  once  it  dawns  upon  him  with 

ened]  viz.,  for  a  Divine  revelation.  prophetic    certitude   that    Babylon 

The  prophet  knows  that  the  king  has  fallen.     As  a  prophet  of  Jeho- 

of    Assyria    has    taken    the    field  vah,  he  cannot  but  rejoice  at  the 

against  various  rebellious  peoples,  signal  blow  thus  inflicted  on  idola- 

but  for  some   time   his    inner   ear  try,  but  at  the  same  time  he  recog- 

catches    no   tidings    affecting    the  nises,  as  a  citizen,  the  pain  which 

interests    of  Judah.       Hence,    the  the    news   must    give   to   his   own 

imaginary  watchman  cried  (as)  a  people. 

lion  (?'.  8),  '  with   a  deep  groan  of  ^°  O    my    threshed  .  .  .  ]     '  O 

impatience.'     His  cry  is  addressed  Israel,  who  hast  lately  suffered  so 

to  Jehovah  (' O   Lord');   thus  we  much  from  the  cruel  Assyrian  in- 

have  a  key  to  the  allegoric  fiction.  vaders  (under  Sargon,  see  on  x.  5, 

The  prophet  is  the  watchman,  and  &c.),   how    gladly    would    I    have 

he  is  set  by  Jehovah  (Ezek.  xxxiii.  brought  thee  more  cheering  tidings, 

7)-  news  of  the  success  of  the  rebel- 

®  And    behold  .  .  .  ]    Just     as  lion  against  Assyria,  but  I  can  but 

the  vvatchman  had  uttered  his  com-  wait  upon  my  office.     That  which 

plaint,  the  answer  came.     He  saw  I  have  heard  ...  I  have  announced 

a   troop  of  men    riding,    in    pairs,  unto  you.'      The    prophet    clearly 

^  So  Movers,  Chronik,   p.    136,   &c.  ;  Dozy,    De   Israelitcn   te   Mekka,    pp.   72-3  ; 
Gratz,  Gesch.  deryudeii,  ii.,  i,  p.  485. 

VOL.    I.  K 


I30 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  XXI. 


'^  [Utterance  of  Dumah.]  ^  One  calleth  unto  me  out  of 
Seir  :  *  Watchman,  what  part  of  the  night  ?  Watchman,  what 
part  of  the  night  ? '  '^  The  watchman  said,  '  Morning  cometh, 
and  ^  also  night.®  If  ye  would  inquire,  inquire ;  return, 
come.' 


vv.  13-17.  This  prophecy  must  have  been  written  rather  later  than 
the  foregoing.  War  had  already  reached  the  powerful  tribe  of  the 
Dedanites,  and  forced  their  caravans  to  take  flight.  Within  a  year,  says 
the  prophet,  the  other  tribes  of  Arabia  shall  share  the  same  fate. 
Sargon  relates  how  Samsie,  queen  of  ma^  Arid/,  brought  him  tribute 
(^.  F.  vii.,  34). 

^'[Utterance  ^'in  the  evening.^      In  the  thickets  must  ye 

*  The  fugitives  call,  Dozy,  Gr.  (after  Aquila,  Theod.,  Symm.).     See  crit.  note. 

«  The  night  fleeth,  Kr.,  Gr. ,  virtually  Dozy  (emendation). 

'  So  Del.,  Naeg.  (but  supposing  an  allusion  to  the  other  reading  or  rendering), 


implies  that  there  is  more  trouble 
in  store  for  his  country  from  Assy- 
ria. But  he  suggests  the  only 
trustworthy  source  of  comfort— viz. 
that  He  who  doeth  all  this  is  '  the 

God   of   Israel.' Threshed   (or, 

trodden)  and  winnowed  one  (lit., 
son  of  my  floor)  ]  So  of  the  later 
kingdom  of  Babylon  when  approach- 
ing its  end,  Jer.  li.  ;i2-  It  must 
be  remembered  that  threshing  was 
performed  either  by  oxen  treading 
out  with  the  feet  (so  Hos.  x.  11),  or 
with  iron  wains  (xxviii.  28,  xli.  15, 
Am.  i.  3,  Mic.  iv.  12). 

"  utterance  of  Dumah]  Adumu 
in  the  Assyr.  inscriptions  is  the 
capital  of  f^iai  Aribi  (Arabia),  and 
Yakdt,  the  great  Arabic  geographer, 
mentions  several  places  called 
Duma  (though  none  in  the  moun- 
tains of  Seir).  Probably,  however, 
none  of  these  towns  is  referred  to, 
but  Edom  (Assyr.  Udumu).  The 
title  has  a  mystic  meaning  (comp. 
xxi.  i),  and  alludes  (Dumah  = 
'  silence  ')  to  the  desolation  in  store 
for  Edom.  In  the  Hebr.  of  Ps. 
xciv.  17,  c.w.   17,  Dumah  •=  Hades. 

IVhat    part     of  the    night  r] 

The  first,  second,  or  third  watch  ? 
Will  the  light  soon  dawn  ? 

'^  IMEorningr  cometh  and  also 
night]  An  enigmatical  reply  in  the 
style  of  that  '  wisdom '  which  the 


neighbouring  peoples,  and  not  least 
the  Edomites  (Obad.  8),  loved. 
Various  interpretations  have  been 
given.  I  quote  two  from  Dr.  Weir  : 
'  The  dawn  shall  certainly  come, 
but  also  night ;  i.e.,  either  the  light 
promised  is  not  to  endure  always, 
but  to  be  followed  by  another  and 
perhaps  another  period  of  darkness 
(contrast  Ix.  19,  20,  and  especially 
Zech.  xiv.  7),  or  that  which  is  morn- 
ing to  some  is  darkness  to  others.' 
I  prefer  the  former.  The  prophet 
sees  a  short  day  of  prosperity  fol- 
lowed by  a  night  of  trouble.  But 
the  text  may  be  incomplete  ;  see 

crit.  note. if  ye  would  inquire 

(or,  seek)  .  .  .  ]  'If  ye  would 
have  fuller  information,  ye  may 
come  and  ask  again.  This  is  all 
that  has  yet  been  revealed  to  me.' 
Dr.  Kay  (following  Jerome)  thinks 
'  seek  '  means  '  seek  Jehovah,'  and 
'return,  come'  =  'repent'  (comp.  Jer. 
iii.  22),  and  so  partly  Dr.  Weir.  It 
may  be  so,  but  the  sister  prophecy 
in  vv.  13-17  says  nothing  of  the 
kind,  and  'Jehovah'  would  hardly 
have  been  omitted. 

"  Utterance  '  in  the  evening '] 
The  words  '  in  the  evening '  have 
been  adopted  from  the  sequel  by 
the  Hebrew  editor  as  a  title  (similar 
cases  in  xxii.  i,  xxx.  6).  The  whole 
inscription  is  wanting  in  most  MSS. 


CHAP.  XXII.]  ISAIAH.  131 

lodge  «  in  the  evening,^  ye  caravans  of  Dedanites.  '^  To  the 
thirsty  bring  forth  water,  ye  inhabitants  of  the  land  of  Tema  ; 
with  his  bread  ^  meet  the  fugitive.  '^ '  For  before  the  swords 
have  they  fled,  before  the  '^whetted  sword,  and  before  the 
bent  bow,  and  before  the  pressure  of  war.  ^^  For  thus  hath  the 
Lord  said  unto  me.  In  a  year  more,  as  the  years  of  a  hireling, 
all  the  glory  of  Kedar  shall  be  over,  and  the  number  that  is 
left  of  1  the  mighty  archers,^  the  sons  of  Kedar,  shall  become 
small,  for  Jehovah,  Israel's  God,  hath  spoken. 

e  So  Sept.,  Targ.,  Pesh.,  Vulg.,  Lowth.  Hitz.,  Naeg.— In  (or.  on)  Arabia.     Vowe 
points,  Ew.,  Del.,  Kay.  ^  ^,  tt  u     .     . 

h  So  Sept.,  Targ.,  Pesh.,  Vulg.,  Ew.,  Weir.— They  met,  Hebr.  text. 
1  The  Sept.  of  v.  15  is  lucid,  but  very  different, 

k  So  Luz.,  Gr.  ;  drawTi  (?),  Text.  ,     .,       .  o  o  ^^    , 

I  So  Vulg.,  Lo.,  Luz.,  Noldeke  {Gotting.  gel.  Anzeigen,  1871,  p.  896),  transposmg 

two  words. 

of  Sept. In  the  thickets]  The  comp.   i    Kings  x.   15,  and   in  the 

caravans  had  had  to  leave  the  Sept.  of  Hab.  1.  8.— — Bedanites] 
beaten  track,  and  take  refuge  in  a  Mentioned  by  Jeremiah  as  belong- 
less  exposed  part  of  the  desert,  ing  to  Edom  (xhx.  8  ;  comp.  Ezek. 
where  shrubs  and  thorn-bushes  se-  xxv.  13),  and  agam  m  company 
cured  them  to  some  extent    from  with  Tema  (xxv.  23).    A  commercial 

observation  (see   Del.'s  note). people,  Ezek.  xxvii.  15,  20. 

In  the  evening]  There  are  two  ^'  Tema]  See  Job  vi  19,  Jer. 
objections  to  the  reading  of  the  xxv.  23.  On  the  E.  border  of  the 
vowel-points— one  bad  and  one  Haurdn  ranges,  a  station  (now 
good  The  bad  one  is  that  the  Taima)  on  the  route  between  Pal- 
name  Arabia  had  not  arisen  as  myra  and  Petra  (V^etzstem). 
early  as  Isaiah  (Ewald),  whereas  it  '^  As  the  years  .  .  .  ]    So  xvi. 

occurs  under  the  form  Aribu  (  =  N.       14. Kedar]  Here  used(andper- 

Arabia,  or  a  nart  of  it)  in  inscrip-  haps  m  Ps.  cxx.  5,  Cant.  1.  5)  as  a 

tions  of  Shataaneser  and  Sargon  ;  general  name  for  the  nomad  tribes 

the  good  one  is  that  the  limitation  of    N.    Arabia,    so   as   to   include 

'  in  Arabia '  would  be  rather  super-  Dedan.    The  Kidrai  are  recognised 

fluously  addressed  to  the  Dedanites.  as  Arabian  by  Assurbanipal  (Smith, 

The  same  confusion  between  'erebh  Assicrb.,  p.  271 ;  7?.  P.,  1.96).  Comp. 

and  'ardbh  appears  in  2  Chr.  ix.  14,  Sprenger,/tf2^r«.  As.  Soc.  1872,  p.  8. 


CHAPTER  XXII. 


Verses  1-14.  A  prophecy  of  judgment  upon  Jerusalem.  It  is  not  easy 
to  seize  the  right  point  of  view  for  explaining  it.  After  much  fluctuation, 
these  are  the  results  to  which  the  study  of  the  prophecy  as  a  whole  has 
led  me.  In  the  two  opening  verses  the  prophet  assumes  the  attitude  of 
a  stranger,  and  inquires  the  cause  of  the  crowd  on  the  roofs  and  the 
boisterous  merriment.  How  strangely  ill-timed  !  For  a  part  of  the 
population  has  perished  by  pestilence,  while  the  warriors  have  either  fled 
or  been  taken  prisoners.  It  is  a  calamity  little  short  of  the  destruction  of 
the  nation,  and  the  prophet  gives  himself  up  to  sorrow  {v.   4).     True, 


K  2 


132  ISAIAH.  [CHAP.  XXII. 

Jerusalem  is  still  uncaptured,  but  the  seer  on  his  watch-tower  foretells 
that  it  will  not  long  continue  so.  A  picture  unrolls  itself  before  him  of 
tumult  and  consternation  at  the  troops  of  fierce  soldiery  pouring  in.  v.  6 
begins  a  new  section.'  The  prophet  transports  himself  mentally  to  the 
first  appearance  of  the  Assyrian  army,  and  recalls  the  measures  of  defence 
hastily  taken  by  the  citizens.  In  v.  12  he  describes  a  state  of  things  which 
began  in  the  past  ('  in  that  day '),  but  reaches  into  the  present.  Though 
misfortune  has  thus  been  closing  in  upon  them,  the  people  of  Jerusalem 
have  shut  their  ears  to  the  preaching  of  repentance.  With  despair  in 
their  hearts,  they  endeavour  to  drown  thought  in  sensual  pleasure.  But 
from  heaven  it  has  been  distinctly  revealed  to  the  prophet  that  such  an 
offence  is  unpardonable,  and  must  be  punished  by  death. 

vv.  12,  13  are  the  key  to  vv.  i,  2.  It  is  the  merriment  of  despair  of 
which  the  prophet  is  the  spectator.  The  enemy  is  before  the  walls,  but 
there  is  no  thought  of  turning  to  Jehovah,  who  may  still  deliver.  Hence 
the  prophet  threatens  the  city  with  capture,  and  the  impenitent  among 
its  people  with  death. 

It  has  always  been  difficult  to  explain  the  severe  tone  of  this  prophecy, 
into  which  not  a  gleam  of  hope  penetrates.  If  it  belongs,  as  has  been 
generally  supposed,  to  the  invasion  of  Sennacherib,  it  is  no  easy  matter  to 
account  for  it,  as  the  tone  of  Isaiah  at  that  great  crisis  was  one  of  conso- 
lation and  promise.  The  most  recent  critic  confesses,  '  I  am  aware  of  no 
solution  for  this  fundamental  contradiction.' ^  But  now  that  we  know  of 
an  earlier  invasion — that  of  Sargon^we  are  relieved  from  this  difficulty 
The  circumstances  of  the  prophet  were  very  probably  different  in  the 
two  invasions.  In  the  latter  one  there  was  probably  a  union  of  feeling 
and  purpose  between  the  king  and  the  prophet ;  the  preaching,  too,  of  the 
latter  had  probably  produced  some  effect  on  the  better  minds.  It  seems 
to  have  been  otherwise  in  the  time  of  Sargon  ;  and  finding  the  prophecy 
of  Ariel  ineffectual  as  a  means  of  moral  quickening,  Isaiah  may  have  de- 
liberately chosen  (for  the  'spirit  of  prophecy'  does  not  exclude  delibera- 
tion) this  harder  and  sharper  tone  under  the  double  pressure  of  calamity 
and  opposition.  The  view  here  taken  is  not  inconsistent  with  the  reference 
to  Elam  in  v.  6.  It  is  true  that  Elam  was  not  thoroughly  conquered  by 
Sargon,  but  neither  was  it  subjugated  by  Sennacherib.  The  Elamites 
were  continually  stirring  up  trouble  in  the  Assyrian  empire  in  the  days  of 
both  these  kings  (comp.  on  xxi.  i-io).  But  the  Annals  of  Sargon  appear 
to  show  that  a  district  or  province  of  Elam  v/as  annexed  by  Sargon  as  early 
as  721  {R.  P.,  vii.  29),  and  this  is  perhaps  referred  to  here  under  the  name 
of  Elam.  The  combination  with  Kir  shows  that  Isaiah  must  intend  an 
integral  portion  of  the  Assyrian  empire  (see  on  v.  6). 

Prof.  Friedr.  Delitzsch,  in  his  work  on  the  site  of  Paradise  (p.  237  of 
the  German  edition),  offers  the  incidental  remark,  '  that  Elam  never  served 
in  an  Assyrian  host,  any  more  than  the  nomad  peoples  Shoa  and  Koa  ; 
throughout  the  cuneiform  literature  it  appears  only  as  an  ally  of  the 

1  I  cannot  help  conjecturing  that  something  has  dropped  out,  or  been  omitted,  be- 
tween vv.  5.  6,  if  not  also  between  vv.  7,  8.  .      -,  •     1    •/•       00 
^  Comill,    'Die  Composition   des   liuches  Jesaja,'  in   Stades    Zeitschn/t,    1884, 

P-  97. 


CHAP.  XXII.]  ISAIAH.  133 

Babylonians.'  If  this  is  true,  not  only  of  Elam  as  a  whole,  but  of  all 
Elamitish  territories,  and  if  Isaiah  was  bound  to  know  that  an  Elamitish 
contingent  in  an  Assyrian  army  was  inconceivable,  we  are  driven  to  the 
conclusion  that  chap.  xxii.  was  manipulated  by  some  subsequent  writer, 
who  was  but  ill  acquainted  with  the  facts  of  the  earlier  history.  The 
theory  can  neither  be  proved  nor  disproved.  At  present  the  Isaianic 
authorship  of  the  prophecy  as  a  whole  (admitting,  however,  the  possibility 
of  lacuncE)  seems  to  me  tenable  ;  the  Elamites  and  Shoites  may  have  been 
regarded  by  Isaiah  as  compulsory  allies  of  their  formidable  Assyrian 
neighbours.  But  even  if  the  description  of  the  army  were  cast  out,  the 
bulk  of  the  prophecy  must  be  Isaiah's,  and  will  still  be  comprehensible, 
and  this  is  the  main  point.  (And  if  this  be  Isaiah's,  why  not  also  xxi. 
i-io,  which  has  several  features  in  common  with  chap.  xxii.  1) 

'  [Utterance  of  the  valley  of  vision.]  What  aileth  thee, 
then,  that  all  belonging  to  thee  have  gone  up  to  the 
house-tops,  2  thou  that  art  full  of  uproar,  a  noisy  city,  a 
joyous  town  ?  Thy  slain  are  not  slain  with  the  sword, 
nor  dead  in  battle.  ^  All  thy  chief  men  have  fled  ^  together, 
without  ^  bow  they  have  been  made  prisoners  ;  all  of  them 
that  were  seized  have  together  been  made  prisoners — they 
fled  far  away.  "^  Therefore  I  say,  Look  away  from  me, 
let  me  weep  bitterly  ;  be  not  urgent  to  comfort  me  for 
the  destruction  of  the  daughter  of  my  people.  *  For  a  day 
of  discomfiture    and    of   treading   down    and    of  perplexity 

a  Together  from  the,  Ew.,  putting  (;)  at  '  bow." 

^  All  belongring-  to  thee]    The  (comp.  2  Kings  xxv.  4,  Jer.  iv.  29), 

whole  population   of  Jerusalem  is  but,  meeting   the  Assyrians,    have 

criminated  in  this  chapter  (see  In-  thrown  their  bows  away  and  sur- 

trod.). Gone  up  to  the  house-  rendered.     Comp.  the  terror  of  the 

tops]  The  meaning  of  this  and  the  '  house  of  David '  on  a  less  great 

first  part  of  the  next  verse  seems  to      occasion  (vii.  2). They  fled]  i.e., 

me  clear  from  v.   13.     It  was  the  while  they  were  fleeing, 

forcedgaiety  of  despair  which  drove  ^  The  last  stage  of  calamity  can 

the    people    to    the   banquet-table,  be  already  foreseen ;  the  prophet  de- 

and  (we  may  conclude)  to  the  (flat)  scribes  it  as  'the  destruction  '  of  his 

house-tops  also.    The  latter  appear  people  (same  word  in  xiii.  6,  Kay), 

elsewhere   as   places  of  concourse  *  A  day]  viz.,  of  judgment  (ii.  12). 

at  festivals  (Judg.  xvi.  27,  Neh.  viii.  This  'day'  is  then  described  in  a 

16). Blot  slain  with  the  sword]  series  of  inimitable  assonances.  We 

There  had  as  yet,  therefore,  been  no  seem  to  see  and  hear  the  last  hurry- 
actual  fighting,  but  the  crowding  of  ing  stages  of  the  siege  and  capture. 

refugees  from  the  country-districts       The  valley  (or  ravine)  of  vi- 

had  produced  famine  (comp.  Lam.  sion]  Probably  one  of  the  valleys 

iv.    9)  or   pestilence  (comp.  v.  25,  about    Jerusalem,  where,    as    v.   7 

Weir),  or  both.  states,  the  horsemen  had  taken  up 

^  All  thy  chief  men  ■  .  •  ]  Thy  a  position  towards  the  gate.     The 

rulers  (same  word  in  i.  10)  have  fled  meaning  of  the  phrase  must  remain 

in  despair  from  the   devoted    city  uncertain.     On  the  analogy  of  Joel 


134 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  XXII. 


hath  the   Lord   Jehovah   Sabeioth,   in   the  valley    of   vision  ; 
^Kir    undcrmineth,    and    Shoa    is    at    the    mount.*"      ^And 

^  So  Luzzatto,  Ew.  (second  ed.) — There  is  undermining  of  the  wall,  and  a  crying 
soundeth  unto  the  mountains. — Ew.  (first  ed.),  Del.,  and  most. 


V.  (iii.)  14  Mt  may  be  conjectured 
that  '  valley  of  vision  '  should  have 
some  reference  to  the  struggle  going 
on  at  the  place  so  described.  ['  Mul- 
titudes, multitudes  in  the  valley 
('t'w^/&)of  decision (  =  Jehoshaphat) ; 
for  the  day  of  Jehovah  is  near  in 
the  valley  of  decision.']  'Vision' 
may  mean  'a  vision  of  Jehovah 
directing  the  struggle  ' ;  comp.  the 
derivation  of  Moriah  in  2  Chron.  iii. 
I  (' appearance  of  Jehovah ').  This 
seems  at  any  rate  more  natural  than 
Ewald's  and  Knobel's  theory  that 
the  phrase  designates  the  quarter 
where  Isaiah  lived  and  received  his 
visions.  Others  (Ges.,  Del.,  comp. 
Vitr.)  have  supposed  it  to  be  a 
synonym  for  Jerusalem,  the  home 
of  prophecy  (comp.  Luke  xiii.  '^1). 
Why,  it  is  asked,  should  the  '  day 
of  discomfiture'  be  confined  to  one 
alone  of  the  valleys  of  Jerusalem  ? 
The  only  reply  is,  that  it  is  not 
really  so  confined ;  but  the  prophet 
is  specially  attracted  by  a  spot 
where  the  fight  was  thickest  (see 
above) ;  and  on  the  other  hand,  we 
may  ask.  What  propriety  is  there 
in  calling  Jerusalem  a  'valley'? 
It  is  surely  the  all  but  universal 
practice  of  the  Hebrew  writers  to 
describe  Jerusalem  as  a  mountain 
('  mount  Zion '),  and  we  may  add,  to 
picture  the  prophets  as  standing  on 
watch-towers,  and  not  in  the  valleys. 
True,  the  personified  people  of  Je- 
rusalem is  addressed  in  Jer.  xxi.  13 
as  'inhabitressof  ihevalley'  {'■tfiiiek), 
but  this  is  immediately  supple- 
mented by  the  words  '(even)  of  the 

rock  of  the  level  country.' Xir 

underminetb  .  .  .  ]  There  were 
iron  tools  specially  designed  for 
the  work  of  undermining  (comp. 
Josephus,  (ie  Bell.  Ji/d.,  v.  4.  2).  Kir 
and  Shoa  are  the  names  of  parts 
of  the  Assyrian  empire  (on  Kir,  see 


below).  The  latter  is  mentioned  in 
Ezek.  xxiii.  23  in  company  with  Pe- 
kod  (Puqudu,  an  Aramaean  tribe 
bordering  on  Elam  in  the  Assyrian 
inscriptions)  and  Koa.  It  has  been 
identified  by  Prof  Friedr.  Delitszch^ 
with  the  Sutii  or  Su,  a  tribe  dwel- 
ling between  the  Tigris  and  the 
southern  slopes  of  the  mountains  of 
Elam  (similarly  Koa  =  the  Qutu  or 
Qu).  The  objection  I  formerly  took 
to  the  above  rendering  was  that  the 
harmony  of  the  picture  was  de- 
stroyed by  so  abrupt  a  commence- 
ment of  the  catalogue  of  names  of 
peoples.  This,  however,  is  not  so 
serious  a  one  as  it  might  be,  if  the 
context  were  certainly  preserved  in 
its  integrity.  But,  as  I  remarked 
before,  this  is  not  the  case  ;  how 
then  can  we  be  sure  that  the  two 
halves  of  v.  5  originally  stood  to- 
gether? (See  further  in  crit.  note). 
'  The  mountains '  in  alt.  rend.,  on 
the  analogy  of  '  mount  Ephraim  ' 
for  the  hill-country  of  Ephraim, 
taking  har  collectively. 

'^  It  would  be  a  plausible  conjec- 
ture that  a  passage  has  been  omitted 
before  7'.  6,  in  which  other  contin- 
gents of  the  Assyrian  army  were 
mentioned  ;    see,  however,   xxi.    2, 

(if  Isaiah's). Elam]  See  Introd. 

and  note  on  xi.  11. Xir]     The 

region  to  which  Tiglath-Pileser 
transported  the  Damascenes  (2 
Kings  xvi.  9),  and  from  which,  ac- 
cording to  Am.  ix.  7,  the  Aramcans 
came.  This  has  been  generally 
identified  with  the  district  by  the 
river  Cyrus  (the  modern  Georgia). 
But,  besides  the  linguistic  objection 
pointed  out  by  Del.  (Kir  cannot - 
Kur),  it  appears  that  the  Assyrian 
empire  never  extended  to  the  Cy- 
rus. We  must  therefore  seek  for 
Kir  amon^  the  Assyrian  conquests 
mentioned  in  the   Inscriptions  ;  it 


»  Long  after  writing  the  above,  I  see  that  Naeg.  has  compared  the  same  passage, 
hut  with  a  very  different  result. 

''   ll'o  /ai:  (/us  Pii r.idia  ?  (Leipzig.  1881),  pp.  235-6. 


CHAP.  XXII.] 


ISAIAH. 


135 


Elam  carried  the  quiver  with  troops  of  men,  of  horsemen, 
and  Kir  made  bare  the  shield  ;  ^  and  when  thy  choice  valleys 
were  full  of  troops,  and  the  horsemen  had  set  themselves  in 
line  towards  the  gate,  ^  then  did  he  draw  aside  the  covering 
of  Judah,  and  thou  didst  look  in  that  day  to  the  armour  of 
the  forest-house,  ^  and  ye  saw  that  the  breaches  of  David's 
city  were  many,  and  ye  collected  the  water  of  the  lower 
pool,  '**  and  the  houses  of  Jerusalem  ye  counted  and  ye  broke 


may  possibly  be  a  shortened  form 
of  Kirkhi  or  Kirruri,  the  former  of 
which  lay  to  the  east  of  the  sources 
of  the  Tigris,  near  Diarbekr,  the  lat- 
ter near  the  lake  of  Urmia.  Both 
countries  were  conquered  by  Assur- 
nazirpal  (885-860).  The  suggestion 
is  Mr.  Heilprin's,  Historical  Poetry 

of  the  Hebrews^  ii.  180. Made 

bare  the  shield]  i.e.,  took  away 
its  leathern  covering,  comp.  Cks., 
deBell.  Gall.,\\.  21  (Hitz.)  See  on 
xxxvii.  33. 

'  Thy  choice  valleys]  Jerusa- 
lem was  almost  surrounded  by  val- 
leys, e.g.,  Kidron,  Gihon,  Rephaim, 
Hinnom.  Comp.  Josephus,  de  Bell. 
Jud..,  V.  4.  I. Had  set  them- 
selves in  line]  i.e.,  ready  to  enter 
as  soon  as  '  the  gate '  was  broken 
through  by  the  rams,  comp.  Ezek. 
xxi.  22  (27).  It  is  the  'great  gate' 
referred  to  by  Sennacherib  (Tay- 
lor's cylinder),  who  boasts  of  having 
'  caused  them  to  break  through '  it. 
The  remains  are  still  to  be  seen, 
says  Lieut.  Conder. 

^  Then  did  he  draw  aside  .  .  .  ] 
The  subject  is  Jehovah  (comp.  v.  5). 
'  Drawing  aside  the  curtain  '  means 
either  exposing  the  utter  weakness 
of  the  state  to  the  enemy  (Ew., 
Meier),  or,  opening  the  eyes  of  the 
Judeans  to  their  danger  (comp. 
xxix.  10,  18  Hitz.,  Knob.,  Del.).  The 
former  view  seems  the  more  suit- 
able.  Here  begins  the  account 

of  the  measures  of  defence  taken 
by  the  citizens.  Very  similar  is  the 
Chronicler's  account  of  Hezekiah's 
preparations  for  the  siege  of  Sen- 
nacherib, 2  Chr.  xxxii.  2-5,  30  (see 
Q.P.B.\  and  as  the  memory  of 
Sargon's  siege  had  faded  away  by 


the    time   of  the   Chronicler,  it  is 
possible   that  there  is  a  confusion 
between  the  precaut  ons  taken  on 
these   two  occasions.      The    com- 
piler of  Kings    alludes    briefly   to 
some  of  the  same  measures  as  the 
Chronicler,  but  does  not  assign  a 
date   (2  Kings  xx.  20).     It  was  of 
course    a   matter   of    primary   im- 
portance to  prevent  the  enemy  from 
using  the   water    of  the   fountains 
(see  on  vii.  3).  Sargon  gives  a  simi- 
ar  account  of  the  preparations  for 
the  siege  of  Ashdod  (Smith,  Assy- 
rian  Discoveries.,  p.  291  top),  'And 
they    brought    the    waters    of  the 
springs  in  front  of  the  city.'     The 
first  step  of  the  citizens,  however, 
is  to  look  after  the  supply  of  arms. 

The  forest-house] — 'thehouse 

of  the  forest  of  Lebanon'  (i  Kings 
vii.  2,  X.  17,  Jer.  xxii.  23),  a  part  of 
Solomon's  palace,  which  was  used 
as  an  arsenal  (xxxix.  2.) 

"^  And  ye  saw  .  .  .]  '  Ye,'  i.e.,  the 
princes,  who  practically  monopo- 
lised the  government  (comp.  on  vii.  2, 

xxxii.  i). The  city  of  David]  i.e. 

the  fortress  Zion,  2  Sam.  v.  7,  9. 

The  lower  pool]  Certainly  not  the 
mediaeval  tank  called  Birket-es- 
Sultan,  but  possibly  the  pool  made 
by  Hezekiah,  according  to  2  Kings 
XX.  20. 

'°  The  houses  ...  ye  counted] 
Partly  to  see  how  many  could  be 
spared,  partly  for  the  inhabitants 

to    identify   their  property. To 

fortify  the  wall]  To  withstand  the 
shocks  of  the  battering-rams.  So 
7.  Chr.  xxxii.  5,  '  and  he  built  up 
all  the  wall  that  was  broken,  and 
raised  thereupon  towers,'  and  Jer. 
xxxiii.  4  '  the  houses  .  .  .  which  are 


1^6 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  XXII. 


down  the  houses  to  fortify  the  wail,  "and  ye  made  a  lake 
between  the  two  walls  for  the  water  of  the  old  pool  ;  but  ye 
looked  not  unto  him  who  made  it,  and  him  who  formed 
it  from  afar  ye  did  not  regard.  '^  And  the  Lord,  Jehovah 
Sabcioth,  called  in  that  day  to  weeping,  and  to  lamentation, 
and  to  baldness,  and  to  girding  with  sackcloth  ;  '"  but  behold, 
joy  and  gladness,  killing  oxen  and  slaughtering  sheep,  eating 
flesh  and  drinking  wine,  '  Eat  and  drink,  for  to  morrow  we 
shall  die.'     '^  But  (this)  hath  been  made   known  "  in  the  ears 

=  So  Sept. ,  Cornill ;   most  render  the  text,    '  But  Jehovah   SabAoth  hath  revealed 
himself  in  mine  ears,  [saying.] 


thrown  down  because  of  (i.e.,  to  re- 
sist) the  mounds  and  because  of  the 
engines  of  war.' ' 

^^  A  lake]  i.e.,   a  large   pool,  or 

reservoir. Bet^ireen     tlie     fwo 

walls]  i.e.,  between  that  of  Ophel 
on  the  east,  and  that  of  the  High 
Tower  on  the  west,  where  the  Ty- 
ropason  valley  is  particularly  narrow. 

The  old  pool]  i.e.  probably  the 

'  Pool  of  Siloam'  (called  '  The  Pool' 
/>ar  exxellence  in  the  Hebrew  in- 
scription in  the  rock-tunnel  leading 

to  Siloam). But  ye  looked  not] 

A  contrast  to  '  thou  didst  look  '  {v. 

8). -Wbo  made  it  .  .  .  formed 

It]  i.e.,  in  the  counsels  of  eternity, 
as  appears  from  xxxvii.  26  (same 
words).     Comp.  on  v.  12. 

^^  And  tbs  Iiord  .  .  .  called] 
i.e.,  the  prophet,  God's  messenger, 
or  perhaps  the  silent  march  of 
events,  called  upon  you  to  repent  ; 
penitence    might  have  turned    the 

Divine  purpose,  Joel  ii.   14. To 

baldness]  So  Am.  viii.  10,  '  I  will 
bring.  .  .  baldness  upon  every  head.' 
The  prophets  accept  things  as  they 
are,  and  do  not  trouble  themselves 
with  premature  innovations.  '  Bald- 
ness,' however,  is  forbidden  in  Lev. 
xxi.  5,  Deut.  xiv.  i. 

1^  But  no  moral  effect  has  been 
produced  by  calamity.  They  rush 
to  the  banquet-table  with  despair 
in  their  hearts,  and  waste  the  pro- 


visions which  ought  to  be  husband- 
ed for  the  siege. ror  to-mor- 
row we  sball  die]  It  is  doubted 
whether  these  words  are  quoted  in 
mocker^'  from  the  prophet  (Ges.), 
or  whether  they  express  the  sen- 
sualism of  despair  (Hitz.).  The 
latter  view  is  simpler  and  more 
natural. 

^^  But  it  is  made  known  •  •  •  ] 
The  Rabbis  understand  '  this  thing ' 
for  a  subject,  and  'saith'  before 
'Jehovah  Sabdoth'  (comp.  v.  9), 
or  else  explain  as  if  they  read  '  I 
am  Jehovah  Sabdoth.'  The  ordi- 
nary explanation  is  still  more  forced. 
A  single  vowel-point  is  wrong  ;  the 
Massoretes  shrank  from  the  anthro- 
pomorphism '  the  ears  of  Jehovah.' 

Sball  not  be  cancelled  •   •   •  ] 

Death  shall  indeed  overtake  you  by 
the  hand  of  the  enemy  (as  A.E. 
rightly  explains),  as  the  punishment 
of  your  guilt.  '  Some  of  the  Jewish 
writers  understand  the  words  to 
mean  "at  death,  but  not  before,"  and 
draw  the  inference  that  death  does 
or  may  atone  for  sin '  (Alexander). 
But  it  is  not  a  Biblical  idea  that  a 
sinner  who  has  borne  his  punish- 
ment is  thereby  released  from  guilt. 
Punishment  has  only  the  effect  of 
expiation  when  borne  by  the  inno- 
cent on  behalf  of  the  guilty.  See 
Riehm,  Der  Begriff  der  Siihne 
U.S.W.,   TJieol.  Siiuiien  it.  Kritiken, 


'  Khdrebh  is  prohably  from  a  root  meaning  to  pierce  (comp.  khor,  a  hole),  and  can 
therefore  just  as  well  be  applied  to  a  battering-ram  (or  to  some  similar  engine)  as  to 
a  sword.  Here,  .is  in  jer.  v.  17,  Kzck.  x.wi.  9,  the  rendering  '  engines  of  war  '  seems 
to  be  required.  For  pictures  of  battering-rams,  see  Bonomi's  Nineveh  and  its  Palaces, 
p.  163;  notice  their  lancc-headcd  extremities. 


CHAP.  XXII.] 


ISAIAH. 


^Z7 


of  Jehovah  *=  Sabaoth  ;  surely  this  iniquity  shall  not  be  can- 
celled unto  you  till  ye  die,  saith  the  Lord,  Jehovah  Sabaoth. 

vv.  15-25.  Denunciation  of  .Shebna  and  promises  to  Eliakim.  Pro- 
bably this  prophecy  was  written  a  short  time  before  the  invasion  of 
Sennacherib,  for  in  the  narrative  of  this  event  Shebna  is  represented  as 
holding  a  lower  office  (see  on  vv.  20-24).  Isaiah's  only  invective  against 
an  individual. 


'■'^  Thus  saith  the  Lord,  Jehovah  Sabaoth,  Go,  get  thee  unto 
this  high  officer,  even  unto  Shebna,  who  is  over  the  house. 
'^  What  (right)  hast  thou  here,  and  whom  hast  thou  here,  that 
thou  hewest  thee  out  here  a  sepulchre  }  hewing  him  out  his 
sepulchre  on  high,  carving  him  out  in  the  rock  a  habitation  ! 
^^  Behold,  Jehovah  will  ^  hurl,  will  hurl  thee,  O  man,*^  and 
clutch  thee  tightly  ;  '^  he  will  roll  thee  up  (and  toss  thee)  as 
a  ball  into  a  broad  country  ;  thither  shalt  thou  go  to  die,  and 

^  Cast  thee  with  a  man's  (i.e.,  a  manly)  cast,  Del.  (but  see  crit.  note.). 


1877,  Heft  I.  Isaiah's  threat  is 
therefore  precisely  parallel  to  i 
Sam.  iii.  14. 

1^  This  hig-h  officer]  (On  ren- 
dering, see  crit.  notes.)  '  This,' 
with  a  touch  of  disparagement  (as 
vi.  9).  Shebna's  present  function  was 
that  of  '  house-steward '  (mentioned 
I  Kings  iv.  6).  Its  importance  is 
shown  by  the  fact  that  it  was  once 
held  by  a  '  king's  son,'  2  Chr.  xxvi. 
21,  and  by  the  order  of  the  court- 
officers  in  xxxvi.  3,  xxxvii.  2.  It  has 
been  well  compared  to  the  Prank- 
ish officer  of  Mayor  of  the  Palace. 

Shebna]     From    his    father's 

name  not  being  mentioned,  it  is 
probable  that  Shebna  was  not  a 
native  Israelite;  his  name  (which 
is  in  the  Aramaic  '  emphatic  state ') 
points  to  a  Syrian  origin.  If  he 
was  a  refugee  from  Damascus,  he 
would  naturally  be  an  advocate  of 
an  Egyptianizing  policy,  and  would 
thus  be  one  of  the  '  crooked  '  poli- 
ticians, whom  the  prophet  inveighs 
against  in  xxx.  12.  The  brother 
of  the  famous  Rabbi  Hillel  was  also 
called  Shebna. 

^*  Shebna,  like  eastern  grandees 
generally  (comp.  Joseph  of  Arima- 
thea,    Eshmunazar  king  of  Sidon, 


the  Pharaohs  and  Caliphs  of 
Egypt,  &c.),  builds  himself  a  se- 
pulchre   in    his    lifetime.      Comp. 

xiv.      18,     '■thy     grave.' "Wbat 

(rig-ht)  Jiast  thou  here?]  Shebna's 
offence  is  aggravated  by  his  being 
a  foreigner.  Even  at  a  much  later 
time  a  'potter's  field'  was  good 
enough  '  to  bury  strangers  in ' 
(Matt,  xxvii.  7).  '  Here,'  i.e.,  in 
Jerusalem  ;  note  the  indignant  re- 
petition.  On  hig-h]  Not  neces- 
sarily on  mount  Zion  (Knob.),  or 
on  its  eastern  slope  (Del.).  Tombs 
have  been  found  on  the  slopes  of 

all  the  hills  about  Jerusalem. A 

habitation]  Heb.  7>nshka7t,  else- 
where used  only  of  God,  and  imply- 
ing a  great  personage  and  a  long 
sojourn  (comp.   Eccles.  xii.    5,  Ps. 

xlix.   12,   Sept.,  Targ.). O  man] 

I  fonnerly  rendered  '  O  mighty 
man  ! '  supposing  a  touch  of  irony 
in  the  phrase.  This  is  certainly 
suggested  by  the  etymology,  but  is 
not  favoured  by  the  use  of  the  word 
elsewhere,  especially  in  Job,  where 
it  several  times  occurs  (but  without 
irony),  in  strong  contrast  with  God 

(see  Job  iv.  17,  x.  5,  xxii.  2). A. 

broad  country]  i.e.,  the  plains  of 
Mesopotamia. 


138 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  XXII. 


thither  shall  go  thy  glorious  chariots,  thou  disgrace  of  the 
house  of  thy  lord  !  '^  And  I  will  thrust  thee  from  thy  post, 
and  from  thy  station  shall  he  pull  thee  down.  ^^  And  it  shall 
come  to  pass  in  that  day  that  I  will  call  my  servant  Eliakim, 
son  of  Hilkiah,  ^'  and  I  will  clothe  him  with  thy  robe,  and 
with  thy  girdle  will  I  bind  him,  and  thy  authority  will  I  give 
into  his  hand,  and  he  shall  be  a  father  to  the  inhabitants  of 
Jerusalem  and  to  the  house  of  Judah  ;  2- and  I  will  lay  the  key 
of  the  house  of  David  upon  his  back,  so  that  he  shall  open 
and  none  shall  shut,  and  he  shall  shut  and  none  shall  open 
"  And  I  will  strike  him  as  a  peg  into  a  sure  place,  and  he 
shall  be  for  a  seat  of  honour  to  his  father's  house  ;  ^*  and  they 
shall  hang  upon  him  all  the  honour  of  his  father's  house,  the 
scions  and  the  offshoots,  all  the  vessels  of  small  size,  from  the 


1'  Note  the  change  of  person  ; 
Jehovah  is  the  subject,  however,  in 
both  clauses. 

^*'~^*  Nomination  of  EHakim.  We 
have  only  evidence  of  a  partial 
fulfilment  of  Isaiah's  authoritative 
word.  Eliakim  was  house-steward, 
and  Shebna  merely  secretary,  when 
the  Rab-shakeh  came  to  Jerusalem 
(x.Kxvi.  3).  Perhaps  this  was  all 
that  Hezekiah  was  able  to  effect 
against  the  opposition  of  the 
'  princes.'  Isaiah  evidently  pre- 
dicts a  complete  change  of  system, 
which  would  consist  in  the  total 
abstinence  from  a  policy  of  ex- 
pediency and  worldly  alliances. 
Hence  the  strong  language,  almost 
Messianic  in  its  tone,  with  which 
Isaiah  hails  in  spirit  the  elevation 
of  his  disciple  Eliakim. 

*'  Robe  .  .  .  girdle]  The  offi- 
cial dress  of  a  high  officer  of  state. 
The  '  robe '  is  the  long,  sleeved 
tunic  worn  by  people  of  rank,  e.g., 
Joseph  and  Tamar  (Vitr.).  The 
girdle  {abJinet)  is  a  costly  one,  such 
as  priests  wore  (see  Jos.  Ant.  iii.  7. 

2). Into  his  hand]  Comp.  Jer. 

xxxiv.  I  (Hebr.). iv  father]  The 

term  is  used  of  a  prime  minister  in 
Gen.  xlv.  8,  i  Mace.  xi.  32  ;  of  the 
chief  men  of  a  town  (i  Chr.  ii.  24, 
iv.  5,  &c.,  Ew.).  Comp.  ix.  6,  Job 
xxi.x.  16,  Judg.  V.  7. 

"^'^  X  will    lay   the   key  .   .   .  .  ] 


The  'key'  here  symbolizes  the  au- 
thority of  the  '  Deputy '  or  royal 
representative.  (See  on  ix.  6,  and 
comp.  Matt.  xvi.  19,  Rev.  iii.  7.) 
An  Eastern  key  is  as  much  as  a 
man  can  carry  (see  figures  in 
Bonomi's  Nineveh  and  its  Palaces^ 
p.  150), 

23-21  Description     of     Eliakim's 

tenure  of  office, As  a  peg  into 

a  sure  place]  i.e.,  into  a  good 
solid  wall — not  mere  plaster,  as 
in  an  ordinary  house — so  as  to  be 
able  to  support  a  large  number  of 
vessels.  (Comp.  Zech.  x.  4,  where 
'  peg' =  prince.) 

^3  All  the  honour  of  his  father's 
house]  This  is  a  strange  expres- 
sion, as  it  has  to  cover  the  undis- 
tinguished members  of  Eliakim's 
family  as  well  as  the  distinguished. 
'Honour'  must  be  almost  equiva- 
lent to  '  multitude  '  (so  Hitz.,  Del.), 
and  no  doubt  the  importance  of  a 
family  ('  father's  house  '  =  family) 
depended  chiefly  on  its  numbers. 
The  entire  passage,  too,  is  strange, 
seeming,  as  it  does,  to  give  the 
Divine  sanction  to  family-partiality. 
I  say  '  seeming,'  because  I  suspect 
that  the  fall  with  which  Eliakim  in 
his  turn  is  threatened  is  the  punish- 
ment of  an  evil  tendency  which 
Isaiah  noticed  in  Eliakim. off- 
shoots] A  contemptuous  expres- 
sion (cognate  word  Ezck.  iv.  15). 


CHAP.  XXIII.]  ISAIAH.  1 39 

bowl-shaped  vessels  to  all  pitcher-like  vessels.  ^^  In  that  day 
— an  oracle  of  Jehovah  Sabaoth — the  peg  that  is  struck  into 
a  sure  place  shall  give  way  ;  it  shall  be  cut  down  and  shall  fall 
and  the  burden  upon  it  shall  perish,  for  Jehovah  hath  spoken, 

^^  The  peg-]  It  is  doubted  whether  seem    to    co-ordinate,   by   way   of 

this  refers  to  Shebna  or  Ehakim  ;  contrast,  the  event  here  spoken  of 

but  surely  '■  the  peg''  must  be  iden-  with  that  in  v.  19.     But  we  need 

tical   with  that  mentioned    in    the  not  interpret  the  phrase  so  strictly. 

preceding  verses.    There  is  nothing  It  may,  in  v.  25,  merely  imply  that 

strange  in  the  anticipation  that  a  at   the  very  time   when   Eliakim's 

high   Eastern   official   should    not  connections    are    basking    in    the 

be  in  favour  for  ever,  and  that  his  sunshine  of  prosperity,   a   sudden 

fall  should  involve  the  ruin  of  his  change  shall  come.     Thus  Jehovah 

adherents.      The   difficulty  lies  in  will  '  profane  the  pride  of  all  glory ' 

the   words    '  in    that    day,'    which  (xxiii.  9). 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 


An  elegy,  in  three  stanzas  or  strophes  {vv.  1-5,  6-9,  10-14),  on  the  fall  ot 
Tyre,  followed  by  a  kind  of  appendix  on  the  future  revival  of  the  inerchant- 
city.     For  an  analysis,  see  /.  C.  A.,  p.  55. 

There  have  been  great  differences  of  opinion  as  to  the  date  of  this 
prophecy,  several  eminent  critics  supposing  that  the  siege  referred  to  is 
that  of  Nebuchadnezzar  (comp.  Ezek.  xxvi.  4-21).  The  main  argument 
in  favour  of  this  view  is  derived  from  2/.  13.  Taking  this  verse  together 
with  the  next,  it  was  not  unnatural  to  suppose  that  the  Chaldeans  were 
thus  prominently  mentioned  as  the  future  destroyers  of  Tyre.  But  there 
is  another  view  of  the  verse,  and  one,  moreover,  which  is  exegetically 
easier,  viz.  that  the  fate  of  the  Chaldeans  is  pointed  to  as  a  warning  for 
Tyre  : — Babylonia  had  fallen  a  prey  to  Assyria,  how  should  Tyre  escape  ? 
This  view,  natural  as  it  is,  could  not,  however,  have  been  entertained 
until  it  was  possible  to  show  that  Babylonia  had  really  been  thus  severely 
chastised  by  her  powerful  neighbour.  Now  that  this  has  been  done — now 
that  we  know  that  Babylonia  was  conquered  three  times  over  in  the  reigns 
of  Sargon  and  Sennacherib  (see  Introd.  to  xxi.  i-io),  there  seems  nothing 
to  prevent  us  from  adopting  it.^  The  selfishness  and  injustice  on  which 
the  Tyrian  empire  was  based  were  to  the  prophet  a  sure  guarantee  of  its 
overthrow,  and  a  special  revelation  appears  to  have  warned  him  to  expect 
the  event  about  this  time. 

But  which  of  the  three  Assyrian  invasions  -of  Babylonia  is  in- 
tended in  7/.  13?  There  can  hardly  be  a  doubt;  the  description  well 
applies  to  the  third,  and  to  this  alone.  '  His  (Merodach-Baladan's)  cities 
I  laid  waste,'  says  Sennacherib,  '  and  burned  with  fire.'  True,  there  is 
no  capture  of  Tyre  mentioned  as  following  upon  this  devastation  ;  it  was 
in  the  preceding  year's  expedition  that   Luli  (the  Eluloeus  of  Menander, 

*  Dr.  Tiele  was  the  first  to  see  the  bearing  of  Assyrian  discovery  on  this  chapter, 
Comp.  his  Vergelijkende  geschiedenis,  p.  707. 


1 40  ISAIAH.  [chap.  XXIII. 

Jos.,  Aniiq.,  ix.  14,  2)  king  of  Zidon,  and  suzerain  (as  appears  from  Menan- 
der)  of  Phoenicia,  fled  at  the  approach  of  Sennacherib  to  the  island  of 
Cyprus  (/?.  P.,  vii.  61).  But  it  is  no  part  of  an  interpreter's  duty  to  prove 
the  complete,  literal  fulfilment  of  a  prophecy  ;i  all  that  he  has  to  do,  in 
order  to  promote  the  enjoyment  of  the  reader,  is  to  collect  and  illustrate 
the  data  of  the  prophecy.  It  is  certain  that,  from  a  moral  point  of  view 
Phoenicia  deserved  chastisement,  certain  that  the  fate  of  Babylonia  y/KS 
an  evil  omen  to  other  vassal  states. 

The  minor  key  in  which  the  prophecy  is  pitched  reminds  us  of  xxi. 
i-io.  Tyre,  Babylon,  and  Judah  were  fellow-sufferers  from  Assyria. 
*  The  poetical  art  of  the  piece  is  in  a  very  high  degree  finished,'  remarks 
Ewald,  who,  however,  finds  the  '  elevation,  magnificence,  and  energetic 
brevity '  of  Isaiah  wholly  wanting,  and  suspects  (as  in  the  case  of  chap, 
xxxiii.)  that  a  younger  contemporary  and  disciple  of  the  prophet  is  the 
author.  This  is  possible,  as  many  phenomena  converge  to  show  that 
Isaiah's  works  were  not  always  edited  by  himself;  but  I  am  particularly 
loth  to  deny  so  artistic  a  work  to  this  great  and,  as  Ewald  admits,  many- 
sided  prophet. 

'  [Utterance  of  Tyre.]  Howl,  ye  ships  of  Tarshish,  for  it 
is  laid  waste,  so  that  there  is  no  house,  no  entering  in  !  From 
the  land  of  Chittim  it  has  been  disclosed  unto  them.  ^  Be 
dumb,  ye  inhabitants  of  the  coast,  which  Zidon's  merchants 
who  pass  over  the  sea  replenished.  ^  And  on  great  waters 
was  the  seed  of  Shihor  ;  the  harvest  of  the  River  was  its 
ingathering,  and  it  became  ^  the  gain  "*  of  the  nations.     ^  Be 

«  The  mart,  Ges.,  Ew. 

^  No  bouse  .  .  .  ]  The  fleets  are  of  Phoenicia  and  Egypt,  see  Ezek. 

homeward-bound  from  the  western  xxvii.    7,    Movers,    l)ie   Phdnisier, 

colonies.      At  the  very  last  place  ii.  3,  pp.  314-336,  Ebers,  Egypten 

of  call — Cyprus,  they  hear  the  sad  unci  die  Biicher  Mosis,  i.   147,  &c. 

tidings  that  their  harbour  and  their  The  Egyptians  had  no  timber  to 

homes  are  desolate.  build  seaworthy  ships  ;  hence  their 

-  The  coast]  i.e.,  the  Phoenician  foreign   trade  was   carried   on  for 

coast  (so  %>.  6).     True,  this  involves  them  by  the  Phoenicians. The 

atautology  with  the  next  line,  since  grain]  Not  '  mart,' for  the  Phoeni- 

Zidon  also  =  Phoenicia  (as  i  Kings  cians  themselves  distributed  their 

xi.  I,  Gen.  x.  15).  wares,    and    these    in    their    turn 

^  On  great  waters]  i.e.,  on  the  became  a  source  of  gain  to  other 

ocean-highway  (comp.  Ps.  cvii.  23,  nations  (Del.  after  Luzzatto). 

Ezek.    xxvii.    26). Shihor]    i.e.,  *  Be  ashamed,  O  Zidon]  i.e.,  O 

the   Nile,  as  Jer.  ii.   18.     Perhaps  Phoenicia  !     Tyrian  coins  bear  the 

'the  dark  grey'  (see  on  xiv.   12),  legend  'Of  Tyre,  mother  (  =  chief 

from  the  colour  of  the  water  ;  if  so,  city)     of    the    Zidonians.' The 

a  Semitic  name  for  the  Nile,   but  stronghold    of  the    sea]  i.e.,  the 

Friedr.  Del.  questions  this  {Para-  insulated  ledge  of  rocks  on  which 

dies,  p.   311).— On  the  connection  new  Tyre  was  built,  Ezek.  xxvi.  5, 

1  As  has  been  already  pointed  out,  the  oracle  upon  Tyre  was  not  completely  ful- 
filled till  the  time  of  Alexander  the  Great.  Zech.  ix.  4  may  perhaps  refer  to  this 
period. 


CHAP.  XXIII.] 


ISAIAH. 


141 


ashamed,  O  Zidon,  for  the  sea,  the  stronghold  of  the  sea, 
speaketh,  saying,  I  have  not  been  in  travail,  nor  brought  forth, 
nor  reared  young  men,  nor  brought  up  virgins.  ^  When  the 
tidings  come  to  Egypt  they  shall  be  sore  pained  at  the  tidings 
of  Tyre. — ^  Pass  ye  over  to  Tarshish  ;  howl,  ye  inhabitants  of 
the  coast !  ''  ^  Is  this,  to  your  sorrow,  the  joyous  one,^  whose 
origin  is  of  ancient  days,  whose  feet  "^  were  wont  to  carry "  her 
afar  off  to  sojourn  ?  ^  Who  hath  devised  this  against  Tyre, 
the  giver  of  crowns,  whose  merchants  were  princes,  whose 
traders  were  the  honourable  of  the  earth  ?  ^  Jehovah  Sabaoth 
hath  devised  it,  to  desecrate  the  pride  of  all  glory,  to  disgrace 
all  the  honourable  of  the  earth. — ^^  Overflow  thy  land  as  the 

•>  Fareth  it  thus  with  you,  O  joyous  one  !  Del. 
=  Carry,  Ges.,  Ew. 


14.  In  the  following  words,  Tyre 
is  aptly  described  as  daughter  of 
the  sea,  but  (a  figure  to  express  the 
completeness  of  the  ruin)  denied 
by  her  own  mother. 

^  They  shall  be  sore  pained] 
Tyre  being,  as  it  were,  an  outpost 
of  Egypt  against  the  Assyrians. 

®  To  Tarshish]  The  prophet 
counsels  the  Phoenicians  to  emi- 
grate to  their  Spanish  colonies,  as 
their  fate  has  been  determined  by 
the  fall  of  the  capital.  So  at  the 
siege  of  Tyre  by  Alexander,  the 
Tyrians  sent  their  old  men,  women, 
and  children  to  Carthage  (Diod.xvii. 
41,  Knob.),  which  Sept.  even  makes 
them  do  here  (ety  KapxT]86i'a).  Comp. 
Layard's  plate,  71,  '  Enemies  of  the 
Assyrians  taking  refuge  in  ships.' 

^  A  question  of  perplexity  and 
surprise  (comp.  xiv.  16).  Is  this 
heap  of  ruins  all  that  remains  of 
the  joyous,  the  ancient,  the  rest- 
lessly energetic  Tyre  ?  (see  crit.  note). 

Joyous]    as    Zeph.  ii.   15. 

Of  ancient  days]    see    Herod,  ii. 

44,    Josephus,    An^.  viii.  3,   i. 

"Whose  feet  w^ere  ■wont  •  .  .  ]  Allud- 
ing to  the  distant  commercial  jour- 
neys of  the  Tyrians.  Alt.  rend, 
may  be  explained  in  two  ways, — 
of  captivity  (Ges.),  or  of  flight 
(Ew).  Either  way  is  plausible.  The 
first  is  supported  by  the  strik- 
ing verbal  parallel  in  2  Kings 
xxi.    8  (overlooked  by  Ges.) ;    the 


second  gives  a  special  force  to 
the  words  '  to  sojourn,'  which  will 
mean  that  the  Phoenician  fugitives 
are  to  be  only  tolerated  fieToiKoi  ( = 
gcrim)  in  their  own  colonies.  But 
I  think  the  context  decides  that  the 
clause  must  contain,  a  feature,  not 
of  the  present  Tyre,  but  of  the  past. 
In  this  case,  too,  'to  sojourn'  is  a 
perfectly  accurate  phrase. 

^  The  g-iver  of  cro-wns],  viz.,  to 
the  kings  of  the  Phoenician  colonies, 
perhaps  also  of  the  other  Phoeni- 
cian cities.  Modern  parallels  will 
occur  to  everyone. 

®  To  desecrate]  So  Ezek.  xxviii. 
7.  Beauty  having  a  kind  of  natural 
sanctity  (comp.  Lev.  xix.  29,  Heb.). 
There  is  no  occasion  to  imagine  a 
special  reference  to  the  temples  of 
Tyre  (as  Del.). 

'°  The  fall  of  Tyre  is  the  signal 
for  the  emancipation  of  her  colonies. 
About  this  time  we  hear  of  a  revolt 
of  Cyprus,  and  the  Phoenician  cities 
assisting  Shalmaneser  (or  Sargon) 
in  the  siege  of  Tyre — Josephus, 
Ant.  ix.  14,  2.  Tarshish,  or  Tartes- 
sus,  with  its  silver  mines,  may  well 
have  been,  as  Strachey  remarks, 
the  hardest  treated  of  all  the  colo- 
nies.  As  the  Nile]  '  The  river 

that  least  regards  any  bounds.' 

There  is  no  girdle]  The  expres- 
sion is  strange.  It  looks  at  first  as 
if  it  referred  to  Tarshish  (comp.  iii. 
24),  but  this  does  not  suit  the  con- 


14^ 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  xxi:i. 


Nile  ;  O  daughter  of  Tarshish,  there  is  no  girdle  any  more. 
"  His  hand  he  stretched  out  over  the  sea,  he  made  kingdoms 
to  tremble  ;  Jehovah  Sabaoth  gave  charge  concerning  Canaan, 
to  destroy  the  fortresses  thereof.  ^^  He  said,  thou  shalt  not 
continue  to  exult,  thou  ra\nshed  \-irgin-daughter  of  Zidon  ; 
arise,  pass  over  to  Chittim  :  even  there  thou  shalt  have  no 
rest  '^  Behold  the  land  of  ^  Chaldea  ;  this  people  is  no  more  ; 
Assyria  hath  appointed  it  for  desert-beasts ;  they  set  up 
their  towers,  they  laid  low  their  palaces  ;  he  hath  made 
it  a  ruin.  '*  Howl,  ye  ships  of  Tarshish,  for  your  fortress  is 
laid  waste  1 — '*  And  it  shall  come  to  pass  in  that  day  that 

«  Canaanites,  Ew.  (conj.). 


text.  Naeg.  supposes  an  allusion 
to  some  dues  or  toll  demanded  on 
passing  a  barrier. 

"  xin^doms]  i.e.,  espeoaUy 
those   of    Phoenicia    and   S>-ria. — 

hence     'over    the     sea.' Oave 

charge]    So   of   Jehovah's    instru- 

mer.:5.    xiiL     2. Canaan]    i.e., 

Phoenicia,  comp.  Josh.  v.  i,  SepL 
The  word  means  '  depression,'  and 
was  therefore  applied  to  various 
lowland-districts  of  Syria. 

"  The  fate  of  T\Te  shall  be 
shared  bv  all  Phoenicia,  here  called 
the  daiiffbter  of  lidon— hence 
the  plural  'strongholds'   in  z:  ii. 

Pass   over  to  Cliittlm]   Lull, 

king  of  Zidon,  had  already  sought 

refuse  in  C>-pru5  :  see  Introd. 

Ttoon  sbalt  bave  no  rest]  For 
the  long  arm  of  .\5s\Tia  will  reach 
them  even  there.  The  importance 
of  C>-prus  as  a  naval  station  was 
recognised  by  the  Babylonians 
fifteen  or  sixteen  centuries  B.C 
The  inscription  of  Sargon,  king  of 
Agade,  relates  how  '  the  sea  of  the 
setting  sun  he  crossed,'  and  in  the 
third  year  conquered  a  land  which 
can  hardly  be  any  other  than  C>-prus, 
as  Mr.  Boscawen  has  pointed  out. 
The  inscription  is  translated  in 
part  by  Mr.  G.  Smith,  T.  S.  B.  A.,  ii. 
49-5 1 .  C>-pnis  was  also,  as  we  have 
seen,  conquered  by  the  Assj-rian 
Sargon. 

"  The  prophet  concludes  by 
pointing  to  a  recent  event,  fore- 
shadowing the   fate   of  Phoenicia. 


In  the  first  half  of  the  verse  he 
speaks  of  the  land  of  Chaldea ;  in 
the  second,  of  its  capital — Babylon, 
the  fall  of  which  involves  that  of 
the  land.  The  subject  in  the  latter 
part  is  throughout  -\ss>-ria.  For  the 
change  of  number,  comp.  v.  23,  26. 

cmaldea]  On  the  form  Kasdim, 

see  crit.  note.  'In  the  cuneiform  docu- 
ments Kaldi  is  a  tribe  of  the  great 
nation  of  Accad,  which  became  en- 
tirely predominant  in  the  soutJum 
pro\"inces  [on-fte  lower  Euphrates] 
firom  the  ninth  century-  B.C,  but 
certainly  existed  previously'  Lenor- 
mant).  '  Under  Merodach-Baladan 
[they]  made  themselves  so  impor- 
tant and  integral  a  part  of  its 
(Babylonia's)  population  as  to  give 
their  name  to  the  whole  country-' 
fSayce).  There  is,  therefore,  no 
historical  reason  why  Isaiah  should 
not  have  used  the  term  'land  of 
Kasdim'  for  Babylonia,  the  con- 
quest of  which  by  Sargon  might 
not  unnaturally  be  referred  to  in 
this  connection  'see  Introd.).  For 
other,  now  antiquated,  views,  see 
Xotes  and   Criticisms,  pp.    22-26. 

Por     desert-beasts]      Comp. 

xiii.  21,  xxxiv.  14,  Jer.  1.  39,  Ps. 
Lxxiv.    14,  and,  on  the  Heb.  word, 

see  Xotes  arid  Criticisms. Their 

towers]     i.e.,    their     siege -works. 

Xiaid  low]  Lit.,  laid  bare  (the 

foundations  of). 

15-1=  Yet  sevent>'  years,  and  T>Te 
shall  be  restored  to  prosperity,  and 
devote  her  profits  to  Jehovah.  Comp. 


CHAP.  XXIII.] 


ISAIAH. 


143 


Tyre  shall  be  forgotten  seventy  years,  as  the  days  of  one 
king ;  at  the  end  of  seventy  years  it  shall  be  unto  Tyre  as 
in  the  song  of  the  harlot :  '^ '  Take  the  lute,  go  round  the  city, 
forgotten  harlot  !  Play  skilfully,  sing  many  songs,  that  thou 
mayest  be  remembered.'  ^^  And  it  shall  come  to  pass  that  at 
the  end  of  seventy  years  the  Lord  shall  visit  Tyre,  and  she 
shall  return  to  her  hire,  and  play  the  harlot  with  all  kingdoms 
of  the  earth  on  the  face  of  the  ground.  ^*  And  her  earnings 
and  her  hire  shall  be  holy  unto  Jehovah  ;  it  shall  not  be 
stored  up  nor  hoarded,  but  to  those  who  dwell  before  Jehovah 
shall  her  earnings  belong  for  sufficiency  of  eating  and  for 
splendid  clothing. 


the  appendix  on  the  conversion  of 

Eg)'pt,     chapter    xix. Seventy 

years]  Most  expositors  regard  these 
seventy  years  as  those  of  the  Baby- 
lonian captivity,  according  to  Jer. 
XXV.  II,  12.  But  it  is  strange  that 
Isaiah  should  specify  the  duration 
of  the  captivity  in  connection  with 
Tyre,  and  not  with  Judah.  Is  it  not 
rather  bold  to  suppose  a  lost  pro- 
phecy on  the  subject  of  the  length 
of  the  captivity,  which  is  what  these 
expositors  ought  in  consistency  to 
do,  unless  they  are  prepared  to  bring 
down  the  appendix  to  the  age  of 
Jeremiah  ?  It  is  surely  allowable  to 
understand  these  seventy  years  as 
a  conventional  expression  for  a 
long  period,  just  as  '  forty  years '  is 
used  elsewhere  :  Ezek.  xxix.  13  (see 
Speakers  Comjn.).  Seven  is  a 
sacred  number,  and  '  the  decade 
denotes  the  fulfilment  of  times,  after 

which  a  new  son  begins.' As  tbe 

days  of  one  king:]  Meaning  not 
that  there  should  really  be  only 
one  king  during  these  seventy  3'ears, 
but  that  the  condition  of  Tyre 
should  remain  as  unchanged  as  if 
there  were,  an  Oriental  king  being 
too  proud  to  reverse  a  decree  (Esth. 

viii.  8). The  songr  of  the  harlot] 

Evidently  some  well-known  song, 
a  fragment  of  which  follows.  The 
tone  is  evidently  sarcastic;  the 
singer  by  no  means  anticipates  that 
the  harlot  will  be  '  remembered  ! ' 
The  prophet,  however,  applies  the 
song  as  if  it  were  meant  in  earnest. 
Commerce,    as   having   regard    to 


purely  worldly  interests,  is  called 
'  harlotr}','  comp.  '  the  iniquity  of  his 
covetousness,'  Ivii.  17.  A  further 
parallel  between  TjTe  and  the  har- 
lot or  bayadere  (ballatrix)  of  this 
song  lies  in  the  conditionalness  of 
the  renewal  of  prosperity.  Com- 
merce shall  revive,  but  only  as  the 
handmaid  of  religion. 

^*  Tyrian  tribute  promised  for 
the  'city  of  the  great  king'  (Ps. 
xlviii.  2)  :  tribute — not  merely  com- 
mercial intercourse,  such  as  the 
Jews  no  doubt  had  with  the  Tj-rians, 
as  Dean  Plumptre  reminds  us, 
after  the  captivity  (Ezra  iii.  7,  Xeh. 
xiii.  16).  A  strange  announce- 
ment, says  Del. ;  hcec  secundum 
hist07-iavi  necdu7ii  Jacta  comperi- 
mus,  remarks  St.  Jerome.  Holy 
unto  Jehovah]  Inconsistent  ap- 
parently with  Deut.  xxiii.  18, 
but  the  Biblical  writers  only 
adhere    to  their  metaphors  so   far 

as  suits  their  purpose. Not  be 

stored  up]  Comp.  Zech.  ix.  3,  Joel 

iii.  5- Those  \7ho  dwell  before 

Jehovah]  i.e.,  the  people  of  Jerusa- 
lem. It  is  not  said  '  those  who 
stand  before  Jehovah  : '  that  would 
mean  the  priests. Por  suffi- 
ciency of  eating-]  Implying  that 
the  prophet  wrote  at  a  time  of 
great  scarcity,  or  when  a  scarcity 
might  be  apprehended.  This  may 
of  course  be  harmonized  with  a 
post-e.xile  date  (comp.  Hag.  i., 
Zech.  viii.  12),  but  also  with  the 
times  of  Isaiah  (i.  7,  iii.  i,  7). 


144  ISAIAH.  [CHAP.  XXIV. 


CHAPTERS   XXIV.-XXVII. 

An  imaginative  picture  of  the  overthrow  of  the  mighty  power  which, 
at  the  real  or  assumed  period  of  the  prophecy,  held  the  Jews  in  bondage, 
interwoven  with  descriptions  of  the  unhappy  state  of  God's  people  prior 
to  their  deliverance,  and  of  the  glorious  lot  reserved  for  them.  This  is 
introduced  by  an  equally  imaginative  picture  of  the  Divine  judgment 
upon  the  whole  world,  and  references  to  the  world-wide  extent  of  the 
judgment  recur  at  intervals.  This  is  not  the  first  time  we  have  met  with 
an  apparent  identification  of  a  temporary  judgment  upon  the  Jews  with 
the  great  final  judgment  upon  the  world  : — see  on  ii.  12,  iii.  13,  xiii.  9.  It 
is,  however,  simply  a  combination  and  not  a  confusion.  The  Jews  have 
had  special  privileges  ;  they  are  the  '  house  of  God,'  and  judgment  natu- 
rally 'begins'  with  them  (comp.  i  Pet.  iv.  17),  and  with  the  nations  with 
whom  their  fortunes  have  been  linked. — The  historical  situation,  it  must 
be  candidly  admitted,  is  described  in  highly  enigmatical  language  (see 
below),  and  it  is  not  unnatural  that  some  critics  (both  in  Calvin's  day 
and  in  our  own)  have  denied  its  existence  altogether.  Among  these  Del. 
and  Naeg.  maybe  specially  mentioned,  who  regard  this  group  of  chapters 
as  throughout  a  symbolically  expressed  prediction  of  a  still  future  judg- 
ment upon  the  world,  and  to  whom  the  '  city  of  chaos '  is  neither 
Babylon,  nor  Susa,  nor  Jerusalem,  but  the  centre  (localise  it  where  you 
please)  of  the  antitheistic  world.  Quod  viihi  nimis  coactum  videtur 
(Calvin) ;  the  theory  compels  us  to  empty  the  most  striking  expressions 
of  their  meaning,  and  is  also  contrary  to  the  analogy  of  other  prophe- 
cies. On  the  other  hand,  the  view  adopted  above  is  both  natural  in 
itself,  and  is  supported  by  the  position  of  these  chapters  in  the  Book  of 
Isaiah.  The  latter  point  was  clearly  seen  by  Calvin.  'As  far  as  I  can 
judge,'  says  he,  '  this  prophecy  is  the  close  of  all  the  preceding  ones, 
from  chap.  xiii.  onwards  .  .  .  Having  as  it  were  traversed  all  the  regions 
near  to  and  known  by  the  Jews,  Isaiah  briefly  sums  up  their  contents.' 
Even  those  who  regard  the  prophecy  as  anonymous  may  recognise  the 
propriety  of  the  place  which  it  has  received  in  the  book.  They  will  not 
of  course  agree  with  Naegelsbach  that  the  prophet  is  here  describing 
the  final  stage  in  a  great  judgment  of  God  upon  the  Gentile  nations,  of 
which  the  denunciations  in  chaps,  xiii.-xxiii.  represent  the  preliminaries. 
Looking  at  the  prophecy  as  a  whole  in  itself,  not  written  for  its  present 
position,  however  admirably  it  may  fill  it,  they  will  rather  regard  ^the 
judgment  here  denounced  upon  Israel's  enemies  as  the  second  stage  in 
the  great  trial,  the  Babylonian  captivity  being  the  first  ('thy  chastening,' 
xxvi.  16). 

As  for  the  vagueness  or  mysleriousness  of  the  language,  this  ought  to 
be  no  difficulty  to  those  who  recognise  in  any  degree  the  eschatological 
purport  of  the  prophecy.  The  more  the  authors  of  the  prophetic  or  apo- 
calyptic literature  have  their  minds  directed  to  the  'latter  days,'  the  more 
mysterious  becomes  their  language,  the  greater  their  tendency  to  wide 
and  general  expressions. 


C/JAP.  XXIV.] 


ISAIAIT. 


^45 


'  Behold,  Jehovah  *  will  pour  ■'*  out  the  ^  earth,  and  cmpt}' 
it,  and  turn  it  upside  down,  and  scatter  its  inhabitants  ;2  and 
it  shall  be,  as  with  the  people,  so  with  the  priest  ;  as  with  the 
servant,  so  with  his  master  ;  as  with  the  maid,  so  with  her 
mistress  ;  as  with  the  buyer,  so  with  the  seller  ;  as  with  the 
lender,  so  with  the  borrower  ;  as  with  the  taker,  so  with  the 
giver,  of  money.  ^  The  earth  shall  be  poured  clean  out,  and 
utterly  spoiled,  for  Jehovah  has  spoken  this  word.  ■*  The 
earth  mourneth,  it  withereth  ;  the  w^orld  languisheth,  it 
withereth  ;  the  highnesses  of  the  people  of  the  earth  lan- 
guish. ■'  The  earth  is  become  profane  under  its  inhabitants, 
for  they  have  transgressed  commandments,  violated  the 
statute,  broken  the  perpetual  covenant  ;  ^  therefore  hath  a 
curse  devoured  the  earth,  and  those  who  dwell  in  it  are  dealt 


"  Poureth,  Hitz.     (See  below). 

'  Behold  .  .  .  ]  '  Behold '  with 
a  participle,  in  the  prophets,  ahnost 
always  points  to  the  future  (iii.  i, 
vii.  14,  xvii.  I,  &c.).  This  favours 
the  view  of  Ew.,  Del.,  Naeg.,  that 
the  whole  of  chap.  xxiv.  is  predic- 
tive. Others  (Hitz.,  Knob.,  Kuenen, 
&c.)  take  it  as  a  description  of 
e\'ents  which  are  actually  taking 
place  ;  this  may  seem  to  be  con- 
firmed by  the  perfects.  But  surely 
it  suits  the  imaginative  character 
of  the  work  better  to  regard  these 
as  prophetic — as  proceeding  from 
the  point  of  view  of  one  who  had 
attained  a  specially  clear  insight 
into  the  eternal  purposes  of  God. 

"  So  with  the  priest]  It  is  in- 
ferred by  some  that  at  the  real  or 
assumed  standing-point  of  this  pro- 
phecy the  priests  were  the  para- 
mount power  in  Judah.  It  may  be 
so — there  is  the  same  prominence 
given  to  the  priests  in  Joel.  But 
perhaps  the  prophet  selects  those 
simplest  of  relations  which  extend 
to  the  lowest  ranks  of  society. 
Every  one  comes  into  contact  with 
a  priest,  but  not  every  one  with  a 
king. 

*  Spoiled]  The  prophet  trans- 
fers to  the  world  a  feature  which 
belongs  properly  to  the  fallen  em- 
pue  of  Israel's  oppressors. 

VOL.    I. 


*•  Land,  Ges.     (So  throughout). 

^  The  earth  is  become  profane 

.  .  .  ]  '  For  blood  profaneth  the 
land,'  Num.  xxxv.  33,  comp.  Ps. 
cvi.  38.  The  blood-shedding  by 
which  the  great  empires  of  the 
East  were  founded  (comp.  xxvi.  21) 
was  a  violation  of  that  elementary 
statute  on  which  the  perpetual 
covenant  with  Noah  and  his  sons 
was  based.  The  latter  phrase 
seems  to  be  a  direct  allusion  to 
Gen.  ix.  16: — it  can  hardly  refer  to 
the  special  covenant  of  circumci- 
sion (Gen.  xvii.  13),  or  of  the  Sab- 
bath (Ex.  xxxi.  16),  for  it  is  a  judg- 
m.ent  upon  the  earth  exclusive  of 
Israel  (see  xxvi.  20,  21),  which  the 
prophet  is  describing.  The  phrases 
'  precepts,'  and  *  statute,'  mean 
more  than  'the  law  written  in  the 
heart '  (A.E.,  Del.),  and  are  best 
explained  by  the  same  passage  in 
Genesis.  Obs.,  '  commandments  ' 
in  the  plural  occurs  only  here  in 
Isaiah. 

*^  Jehovah  has  recalled  his  pro- 
mise not  to  bring  a  second  deluge 

upon  the  earth  (see  on  t'.   18). 

A  curse]  Personified,  as  in  Zecli. 
v.  3,  Dan.  ix.  ii,  Jer.  xxiii.  10 
(where  there  is  almost  the  same 
paronomasia).  Comp.  on  ix.  8. 
Are  scorched]  By  the  '  burn- 
ing anger'  1  iKX.  27)  '^f  Jehovah. 

L 


146 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  XXIV 


with  as  guilty,  therefore  the  inhabitants  of  the  earth  are 
scorched,  and  few  men  left.  ^  The  grapes  mourn,  the  vine  lan- 
guisheth,  all  the  merry-hearted  do  sigh.  **Thc  joy  of  timbrels 
is  hushed  ;  the  uproar  of  the  exulting  ones  hath  ceased  ;  the 
joy  of  the  lute  is  hushed.  '••  They  shall  not  drink  wine  with 
song  ;  strong  drink  shall  be  bitter  to  those  who  drink  it. 
'°  Broken  to  pieces  is  the  city  of  chaos  ;  every  house  is  shut 
up,  not  to  be  entered.  "In  the  "fields  is  a  crying  because 
of  the  wine  ;  all  gladness  has  set  ;  the  joy  of  the  earth  is 
banished.  ''^Of  the  city  there  is  left  desolation,  and  the  gate 
is  battered  into  ruins. 

'^  For  so  shall  it  be  within  the  earth   in   the   midst  of  the 

<:  Streets,  Nacg. 


'  8  Gesenius  finds  here  an  imi- 
tation of  Joel  i.  10-12;  Vitr. 
compares  a  strikincj  passage  in  the 
prayer  of  Judah  the  Maccabce,  i 
iMa'cc.  iii.  45,  which  he  re;^^irds  as 
describing  the  fultihnent  of  this  pre- 
diction.    Music  at  feasts,  as  v.  12. 

^  Strongr  drink  .  .  .  ]  i.e.  arti- 
ficial wine  (see  on  v.  12).  Under- 
stand, '  If  there  be  any;'  otherwise 
the  description  will  be  inconsistent. 

10  The  city  of  chaos]  i.e.,  the 
city  which  is  destined  to  become 
a  very  chaos  {fohil),  its  outer  and 
inner  order  being  destroyed,  and 
no  germ  of  life  remaining.  It  is 
an  allusion  to  the  narrative  (oral 
or  written)  of  the  Creation  ;  comp. 
'And  the  earth  was  waste  and 
wild'  {/o/ii7-Ta-do/it7),  Gen.  i.  2.  It 
is  the  most  striking  expression  for 
utter  desolation  which  the  prophet 
could  have  chosen,  and  is  specially 
characteristic  of  the  Book  of  Isaiah, 
for  1 1  out  of  the  20  passages  in 
which  it  occurs  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment are  in  Isaiah.  I  ought  to 
add  that  of  these  11  passages,  10 
occur  in  prophecies  of  disputed 
authorship. Shut  up]  Inacces- 
sible, owing  to  its  ruinous  condi- 
tion. 

"  A  crying  because  of  the 
wine]  '  Awake,  ye  drunkards,  and 
weep  ;  and  howl,  all  ye  drinkers  of 
wine,  because  of  the  sweet  wine, 
because    it   is   cut   off   from   your 


mouth,'  Joel  i.  5.  Comp.  also  xv. 
8-10.  Hitz.  remarks  that  f.  11  is 
an  unda  redundatis  of  w.  8,  9  ;  and 
7'.  12  of  7'.  10. 

"  '  for,'  in  fact,  the  condition  of 
the  world  (or,  possibly,  of  the  re- 
gion once  ruled  over  by  Israel's 
oppressors)  will  then  be  like  that  of 
an  olive-tree  after  the  regular  beat- 
ing (xvii.  6),  or  of  the  vine-plants 
when  the  vintage  is  over.  There 
will  be  indeed  a  remnant  out  of  all 
that  multitude  of  'peoples,'  but  how 
small  will  be  that  remnant  !  Of 
whom  will  it  consist  ?  Of  the  Jew- 
ish nation,  no  doubt ;  but  also  of 
some  of  the  Gentiles  ;  for  a  kindred 
prophet  writes,  '  Whosoever  shall 
invoke  the  name  of  Jehovah  shall 
be  delivered'  (Joel  ii.  32).  It  must 
be  a  part  of  this  remnant,  whose 
chorus  of  praise  to  the  God  of  Is- 
rael echoes  trava.  the  (Mediterra- 
nean) sea  (7'.  14).  But  the  survivors 
are  not  all  gathered  in  one  place. 
Hence  they  call  upon  other  escaped 
ones  in  the  (distant)  countries  of 
the  sea  (7'.  15),  to  acknowledge 
and  to  praise  the  hand  of  Jehovah. 
The  description  is  obscure,  but 
there  is  a  general  parallel  in  xlii. 
10-12,  where  the  various  regions  of 
the  earth  — the  (far)  '  countries  '  are 
also  mentioned— arc  called  upon  to 
praise  Jehovah  for  his  great  work 
of  deliverance.  Obs.  in  passing 
the  instance  which  v.   15  supplies 


CHAP.  XXIV.] 


ISAIAH. 


147 


peoples,  as  at  the  beating  of  the  oh've,  as  at  the  grape-gleaning 
when  the  vintage  is  done.  '^  Those  shall  lift  up  their  voice, 
they  shall  ring  out  a  cry; — -because  of  Jehovah's  majesty  they 
shall  shout  aloud  from  the  sea  : — '' '  Therefore  in  the  ''  countries 
glorify  ye  Jehovah  ;  in  the  countries  of  the  sea  the  name  of 
Jehovah,  Israel's  God  ! '  ^*'  From  the  skirt  of  the  earth  we 
have  heard  songs,  '  Honour  (is  come)  for  the  righteous  ! '  But 
I  said.  Wasting  away  is  for  me,  wasting  away  is  for  me,  alas 
for  me  !  The  barbarous  deal  barbarously,  and  the  barbarous 
deal  very  barbarously.  '^  A  terror  and  a  pit  and  a  snare  are 
upon  thee,  O  inhabitant  of  the  earth  !  ^^  And  it  shall  come 
to  pass  that  whoso  fleeth  from  the  report  of  the  terror  shall 


■'  So  Lowth,  Hit/..— Text,  lights. 
Notes  and  Criticisms,'  ad  lac. 


Sept.  omits  D"lX3-      See  discussion  in  my 


of  that  ascending  rhythm,  charac- 
teristic of  this  prophecy — '  in  the 
countries  ...  in  the  countries  of 
the  sea;'  comp.  xxv.  5,  xxvi.  3-7, 
II,  15  (Judg.  v.,  Ps.  xxix.,  cxxi., 
cxxiv.).  For  howa  Hebrew  prophet 
can  have  written  '  the  Hghts  '  (or 
rather  '  the  flames ')  for  '  the  East,' 
is  to  me  simply  unintelHgible, 
and  the  comparison  of  hx.  19, 
///ict/,  xii.  239,  docs  not  lessen  the 
difficulty.  A.  E.  has  already  the 
right  rend.  '  in  the  regions,'  though 
he  has  to  force  it  out  of  the  received 
text  by  comparing  '  Ur  of  the  Chal- 
dees '  (as  if  '  country'  of  the  Chal- 
dees,'  as  Sept.  of  Gen.  xi.  28).  For 
the  rend.  '  countries,'  or  '  far  lands,' 
see  on  xl.  15. 

'•^  A  new  song  is  heard  'from  the 
skirt  of  the  earth,'  viz.  Honour  for 
the  rig-hteous!  i.e.,  splendid  is  the 
lot  of  the  righteous'  (see  Sept.), 
the  righteous  being  primarily  the 
Jews  (as  in  xxvi.  2)— not  Jehovah, 
who  is  nowhere  in  O.  T.  simply 
called  'the  righteous,'  nor  said  to 
have  honour  or  splendour,  '  gloiy  ' 
being  the  word  for  Jehovah, '  honour ' 
for  the  fairest  of  created  things 
(see  Del.) — much  less  '  the  con- 
queror' (as  Hilgenfeld,  comparing 
Zech. .  ix.  9.  but  wrongly).— V/'e 
Iiave  heard  .  .  .  But  I  said]  In 
recording  the  bright  side  of  his 
vision,  the  prophet  had  lost  sight 
of  himself,  and  become  identified  in 


feeling  with  the  regenerate,  '  right- 
eous '  community  ;  but  the  interval 
of  misery  to  be  passed  through 
before  such  blessedness  can  be 
reached  wrings  from  him  a  cry  as  of 

personal  pain,  twice-repeated. 

"Wasting:  a-wray  (is)  for  me !]  It 
would  seem  that  he  laments  the 
sufferings  actually  undergone  by  the 
Jews  in  his  own  time,  just  as  the 
Psalmist  exclaims,  in  the  name  of 
the  pious  Israelites,  '  My  flesh  hath 
pined  away,  so  that  it  hath  no  fat- 
ness '  (Ps.  cix.  24).  Here,  then,  the 
prophecy  refers,  not  to  the  world's 
judgment-day  as  a  whole,  but  to 
that  single  stage  of  it  represented 
by  a  particular  period  in  the  history 

of  the  Jews  (comp.   on  7/.  3). 

The  barbarous]  i.e.,  primarily  the 
oppressors  of  the  Jews,  as  xxi.  2 
(note),  xxxiii.  i. 

'"•  "*  The  same  language  recurs 
with  little  variation  in  Jer.  xlviii. 
43,  44  (of  Moab).  The  prophet  is 
now  occupied  with  the  thought  of 
the  world-wide  extent  of  the  cata- 
strophe. No  sooner  will  one  cala- 
mity be  over, than anotherwillcome. 
If  Babylon  is  punished  to-day,  the 
countries   of  the    west    will    sufier 

to-morrow. Tor  windows  .  .   •  ] 

Again  has  '  all  flesh  corrupted  its 
way,'  and  again  must  '  all  flesh  be 
cut  off  by  a  judgment  not  inferior 
to  Noah's  flood.  Comp.  Gen.  vii. 
1 1. 


148 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  XXIV 


fail  into  the  pit  ;  and  whoso  cometh  up  out  of  the  midst  of 
the  pit  shall  be  taken  in  the  snare  ;  for  windows  from  the 
height  have  opened,  and  the  earth's  foundations  do  shake. 
'^  The  earth  is  utterly  broken  ;  the  earth  is  utterly  shattered  ; 
the  earth  tottereth  exceedingly  ;  ^o  the  earth  staggereth  like 
a  drunkard,  and  moveth  to  and  fro  like  a  hammock  ;  and  the 
rebellion  thereof  is  heavy  upon  it,  and  it  shall  fall,  and  not 
rise  again. 

2'  And  it  shall  come  to  pass  in  that  day  that  Jehovah  shall 
hold  visitation  upon  the  host  of  the  height  in  the  height,  and 


1^  The  language  here  imitates  the 
cracking  and  bursting  with  which 
the  present  world  shall  pass  away  ; 
for  nothing  less  is  the  necessary 
close  of  the  judgment,  so  far  as  the 
guilty  parties  are  concerned  (comp. 

"v-  5)- 

"^^  Iiike  a  bammock]  Like  a 
vineyard-watchman's  deserted  ham- 
mock, tossed  to  and  fro  by  the 
storm,    till    at  last  it   is  swept  far 

away. it  staall  fall]    We  must 

remember  that,  according. to  the 
Hebrew  cosmology  (and  it  was  no 
function  of  the  prophets  to  correct 
this),  the  earth  was  immovable. 
Hence  the  destruction  of  the  earth 
is  described  as  its  'fall'  (comp. 
xiii.  13).  It  is  implied  that  there 
shall  be  a  '  new  heaven  and  a  new 
earth.' 

21-23  'Jehovah  will  overthrow  the 
kings  of  the  earth  and  their  celes- 
tial patrons,  and  take  the  govern- 
ment into  his  own  hands.' Shall 

visit  upon  the  host  of  the  heig-ht] 
'  The  height '  is  a  synonym  for 
'heaven'  (see  v.  18,  xl.  26,_lvii.  15), 
and  the  '  host  of  heaven  '  is  a  con- 
stant expression  for  either  the  an- 
gels (I  Kings  xxii.  19)  or  the  stars 
(Jer.  xxxiii.  22).  The  meaning  of 
the  'visitation'  is  obscure;  but 
there  is  probably  a  parallel  in  Ps. 
Ixxxii.,  where  Bleek  (and  similarly 
Kosters)  rightly  understand  the 
Elohim  to  be  the  patron-spirits  of 


the    nations,    who    are   threatened 
with    deprivation    of  their    super- 
human character,  and  death.'     We 
have  an  early  interpretation  of  the 
passage  before  us  in  Enoch  xviii. 
13-16  (with  which  comp.  2  Pet.  ii. 
4,    Jude  6,    Rev.  xx.  2,  3)  :    'And 
horrible  was  that  which  I  saw  there ; 
seven    stars,    like     great    burning 
mountains,  and  like  spirits,  which 
besought  me.  The  angel  said.  This 
is    the    place    where    heaven    and 
earth  are  at  an  end  ;  it  serves  for 
a  prison    for  the    stars  of  heaven 
and  for  the  host  of  heaven.     And 
the  stars  which  roll  upon  the  fire 
are  those  which    transgressed    the 
command  of  God  before  their  rising, 
since  they  did  not  come  in  their 
appointed   time.     And  he  became 
wroth  with  them,  and  bound  them 
unto    the    time    when    their    guilt 
should  be  complete,  in  the  year  of 
the  secret.'     The  Book  of  Job,  too, 
contains  dark  allusions  to  struggles 
between  Jehovah  and   the  powers 
of  heaven,    and   the    Babylonians 
had  various  mythic  stories  of  a  war 
between  the  sun    and    the   storm- 
demons  (comp.  on  xxvii.   i).     It  is 
a   singularly  dark   allusion    which 
the  prophet  here  makes  to  certain 
rebellious    denizens    of    the    upper 
regions,  either  stars  or  spirits,  or 
rather  both   together,  the  celestial 
patrons  of  the  nations  of  the  world 
(comp.    on    xxxiv.    4).       Whether 


'  Aben  Ezra  has  already  compared  Dan.  x.  13  (comp.  vv.  20,  21),  where  the  '  prince  ' 
or  guardian  angel  of  Persia  is  said  to  withstand  Michael,  the  guardian-angel  of  Israel 
(Dan.  xii.  i);  see  also  Sirach  xvii.  14  (17),  and  Deut.  xxxii.  8,  Sept.  ('  he  set  the  bounds 
of  the  nations  according  to  the  Hiimber  of  the  angels  of  God  ). — With  regard  to  I's. 
Ixxxii.  see  Kosters,   Theologisch   Tijdsckrift,  1876.  p.  125. 


CHAP.  XXV.] 


ISAIAH. 


149 


upon  the  kings  of  the  earth  on  the  earth.  "  And  they  shall 
be  gathered  ^  as  captives  are  gathered  °  into  the  pit,  and  shut 
up  in  the  prison,  and  after  many  days  they  shall  be  visited. 
^•*And  the  moon  shall  be  confounded,  and  the  sun  ashamed, 
for  Jehovah  Sabaoth  hath  become  king  in  mount  Zion  and  in 
Jerusalem,  and  before  his  elders  shall  be  glory. 

^    See  crit.  note. 


these  are  to  be  imagined  as  seduc- 
ing the  earthly  kings  to  evil  (Del), 
I  cannot  say  ;  there  is,  at  any  rate, 
a  mysterious  relation  between  the 
fate  of  the  heavenly  and  of  the 
earthly  powers,  as  there  is  between 
the  fate  of  the  angels  and  of  the 
churches  in  Rev.  i.-iii.  '  All  things 
are  double,  one  against  the  other.' 
--  Pit]  i.e.,  dungeon,  as  Ex.  xii. 
29 :  the  prophet  probably  means 
Sheol.     In  Enoch  xviii.  14-16  the 

stars    find  a    prison  in  space. ■ 

They  shall  be  visited]  In  a  good 
or  a  bad  sense .''  Authorities  are 
divided.  Jerome,  Rashi,  Vitr.,  Ges., 
lean  to  the  sense  of  punishing ; 
Pesh.,  Aben  Ezra,  Calv.,  Hitz.,  Ew., 
Del.,  to  that  of  pardoning  (as  xxiii. 
17;  comp.  15).  It  is  difficult,  how- 
ever, to  see  why  there  should  be 
two  punishments — unless,  'after  the 
manner  of  men,'  we  suppose  some 
treasonable  plotting  against  Jeho- 
vah's government ;  and  it  is  more 
in  accordance  with  the  analogy  of 
prophecy  that  the  vanquished  kings 
should  cast  their  crowns  before  the 
throne  of  God.  We  need  not 
trouble  ourselves  about  the  mean- 
ing of  the  '  visitation,'  as  applied  to 


the  'host  of  heaven.'  For  these 
were  merely  mentioned  because  of 
their  connection  with  the  '  kings  of 
the  earth  ' — a  connection  which  was 
only  broken  by  the  imprisonment 
of  the  latter.  The  kings  when  re- 
leased will  be  no  longer  kings,  but 
humble  subjects.  —  This  passage 
early  excited  the  curiosity  of  Chris- 
tian readers.  It  has  contributed 
the  release,  as  xxvii.  i  contributed 
the  final  destruction, of  the  'dragon,' 
to  the  picture  in  Rev.  xx.  i-io,  and 
was  considered  by  the  Origenists 
(see  Jerome  ad  loc.)  to  favour  their 
opinion  of  the  future  salvation  of 
the  evil  spirits. 

"'  Hath  become  kingr]  So  Mic. 
V.  7.  It  is  the  phrase  for  coming  to 
the  throne,  2  Sam.  v.  4,  i  Kings  xv. 
I,  &c.  Hitherto  Israel  had  been 
subject  to  'other  lords'  (x.wi.  13), 
or  at  best  to  Jehovah's  human  repre- 
sentatives.  And    before  •  .   .  ] 

The  'elders '  are  the  representatives 
of  the  people  (see  on  iii.  2).  These 
shall  be  admitted  to  a  direct  in- 
tuition of  the  Divine  glory,  like  the 
seventy  elders  of  old  (Ex.  xxiv.  9, 
10),  and  shall  carry  the  reflection  of 
it  wherever  they  go  (Ex.  x.\xiv.  29). 


CHAPTER  XXV. 

The  judgment  upon  all  the  enemies  of  Jehovah  having  been  consum- 
mated, the  prophet,  in  the  name  of  believing  Israel,  offers  praise  to  God. 
The  hymn  reminds  us  of  chap.  xii. 

•  Jehovah  !  thou  art  my  God  ;  I  will  exalt  thee,  I  will  give 
thanks  to  thy  name  ;  for  thou  hast  done  wonderful  things  — 

'  Thou  art  my  God  •  •  •  ]  The       expressions  (or,  conceivably,  his  ex- 
prophet    uses  already  consecrated      pressions  became  consecrated).  Ex. 


50 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  XXV. 


far  off  counsels  —perfect  faithfulness.  '  For  thou  hast  made 
a  citadel  into  a  heap,  a  fortified  city  into  a  ruin,  a  castle  of 
foreigners  to  be  no  city,  not  to  be  built  again.  ^  Therefore 
fierce  peoples  glorify  thee,  cities  of  terrible  nations  fear  thee  ; 
^  for  thou  hast  been  a  fortress  to  the  weak,  a  fortress  to  the 
poor  in  his  distress,  a  refuge  from  the  storm,  a  shadow  from 
the  heat ;  for  the  blast  of  the  terrible  ones  was  like  a  storm 
against  a  wall.  ^  As  heat  in  a  parched  land,  thou  subduest 
the  uproar  of  foreigners  ;  as  heat  by  the  shadow  of  clouds,  the 
song  of  terrible  ones  is  brought  low. 

'^  And   Jehovah   Sabaoth  shall  make  unto  all  peoples  in 
this  mountain  a  feast  of  fat  things,  a  feast  of  wines  on  the 


XV.  2,  II,  Ps.  cxviii.  28,  cxlv.  i. 

Par  oflf  counsels]  Purposes  eter- 
nally conceived  (xxii.  1 1,  xxxvii.  26) ; 
or,  prophecies  long  since  uttered 
('  counsellor,'  xli.  28).  The  plural 
marks  width  of  range. 

-  Thou  hast  made  •  •  •  ]  Not, 
I  think,  a  mere  generalisation  from 
God's  providential  dealings  (comp. 
Ps.  cvii.  33),  but  either  the  mystic 
Babylon,  which  is  yet  to  be  revealed 
(virtually  the  view  of  Del.),  or — 
which  seems  easier— the  chief  city  of 
Israel's  oppressors.  Comp.  xxiv.  10. 
^  The  remnant  of  the  oppressors 
of  the  Jews  (comp.  7'.  4  d)  shall  be 
terrifiecl  into  submission  to  Jehovah 
(comp.  Rev.  xi.  13)  ;  or,  perhaps, 
nations  like-minded  with  those  may 

be  referred  to,  comp.  lix.    ig. 

riercs  peoples]  The  rend,  is  Jus- 
tified by  the  plur;d  verb,  and  by  the 
plural  noun  in  the  parallel  line. 

'  ii^ainst  a  wall]  Lit.,  of  a 
wall.  I  doubt  if  this  phrase  can  be 
correct.  It  is  almost  too  concise 
to  be  intelligible,  and  if  correctly 
explained  (as  e.g.  by  Del.), 'beating 
vainly  against  a  wall,'  scarcely  suits 
the  context.  It  is  the  violence,  not 
the  ineffectualness,  of  the  attack 
which  needs  emphasising. 

^  In  this  mountainl  Mount 
Zion  (xxiv.  23),  where  the  author 
dwells.— Unto  all  peoples]  Mem- 
bers of  all  nations,  therefore,  will 
be  incorporated  into  the  people  of 
Jehovah  (comp.  Matt.  viii.  li),  and 
enjoy  its  privileges;    Fear  in  their 


case  will  pass   into  grateful    love. 
A.  feast  of    fat    thing's]     An 

image  of  the  highest  spiritual  and 
temporal  blessings  (see  on  Iv.  i), 
not  improbably  suggested  by  the 
sacrificial  meal  connected  with  the 
Shelem  (thank-  or  peace-offering), 
as  Ps.  xxii.  26,  29.  According  to  the 
Levitical  law  the  fat  pieces  of  the 
victim  were  to  be  devoted  to  Jeho- 
vah immediately  by  burning,  and 
the  next  best  piece,  the  breast, 
mediately  by  giving  it  to  His  ser- 
vants the  priests  (Lev.  vii.  31)  ;  and 
the  Messianic  prophecy,  Jer.  xxxi. 
14,  is  in  substantial  harmony  with 
this  arrangement.  In  this  case  it 
is  presupposed  that  the  offerer  of 
the  Shelem  is  the  host,  and  Jehovah 
the  guest  (Oehler,  O.  Test.  TlicoIo^\\ 
\\.  8).  But  in  the  coming  age,  our 
author  seems  to  imply,  God  Himself 
will  be  the  host,  and  all — priests 
and  laity  alike — will  be  His  guests, 
and  receive  the  choicest  gifts  :  He 
will  require  nosacrifice  buta  broken 
heart.  A  similar  image  occurs  in 
/Vr^6'.^/W//,iii.  25,  iv.23(ed.  Taylor). 
In  the  latter  passage,  the  present 
age  i^dlavi,  al^v)  is  described  as 
'the  vestibule '  leading  to  the  in'cU- 
itium  or  banquet-hall,  i.e.,  the  age  to 
come.  The  Messianic  age  was  to 
be  unending,  and  so  too  it  is  implied 
here  that  the  feast  will  be  (see  v.  8). 
— To  understand  the  full  force  of 
the  image  of  the  Shelem  we  must 
remember  that  the  meal  which  fol- 
lowed the    sacrifice  was    a    highly 


CHAP.  XXV.] 


ISAIAH. 


'51 


Ices,  of  fat  things  full  of  marrow,  of  wines  on  the  lees  well- 
strained.  '^  And  he  shall  annihilate  in  this  mountain  the 
covering  which  covereth  all  peoples,  and  the  web  which  is 
woven  over  all  nations  ;  ^he  shall  annihilate  death  for  ever, 
and  the  Lord  Jehovah  shall  wipe  away  tears  from  off  all 
faces,  and  the  reproach  of  his  people  shall  he  take  away  from 
off  all  the  earth  ;  for  Jehovah  hath  spoken  it.  ■'  And  they 
shall  say  in  that  day.  Behold,  here  is  our  God,  for  whom  we 
have  waited  that  he  should  save  us  ;  here  is  Jehovah,  for 
whom  we  have  waited  ;  let  us  exult  and  rejoice  in  his  salva- 
tion. '°  For  the  hand  of  Jehovah  shall  rest  upon  this  moun- 
festivc  occasion.     True,  the  eucha-       vidual  members  :  this  is  a  neces- 


ristic  meals  of  the  Jews,  like  those 
of  the  early  Christians  (i  Cor.  xi. 
2i)  often  degenerated  into  sensual 
menymakings  (i  Sam.  i.  13,  where 
Eli  suspects  Hannah  of  being  drunk 
after  a  sacrificial  meal,  conip.  v.  10  ; 
so  too  Prov.  vii.  14-18),  but  mode- 
rate enjoyment  was  a  duty  (Deut. 
xii.  7).  Obs.  There  is  no  analogy  to 
this  form  of  belief  in  Zoroastrianism. 

"Wines  on  tlie  lees]  i.e.,  wine 

that  has  been  left  on  its  lees  or 
sediment,  to  heighten  its  strength 
and  flavour ;  comp.  Jer.  xlviii.  11, 
and  see  note  in  Lowth's  Isaiah. 

^  The  covering-  .  .  .  nations] 
'  A  net  (i.e.,  mortality)  is  spread 
over  all  the  living,'  Pirqe  Aboth., 
iii.  16  ;  comp.  next  verse.  David 
'  wept  as  he  went  up,  and  had  his 
head  covered '  (a  sign  of  mourning), 
2  Sam.  XV.  30.  '  Your  (spiritual) 
eyes  hath  he  closed,  and  your  heads 
hath  he  covered,'  Isa.  xxix.  10.  All 
these  are  in  point,  and  we  must  not 
specialise  too  much.  All  '  darkness,' 
whether  without  or  within,  inter- 
cepts the  '  light  of  Jehovah  :'  espe- 
cially death,  for,  fi'om  the  old  He- 
brew point  of  view,  '  in  Death  no 
man  remembereth  thee.'  Comp.  2 
Tim.  i.  10,  where  death  is  described 
as  a  power  or  principle  which  over- 
shadowed the  world,  till  Jesus  Christ 
'  abolished  death  and  brought  life 
and  immortality  to  light.' 

^  iJLnnihilate  death]  The  pro- 
mise belongs  not  only  to  the  Jewish 
nation  (as  Hos.  xiii.  14)  as  a  com- 
munity, but  to  all  its  believing  indi- 


sary  inference  from  the  individualis- 
ing reference  of  the  next  clause  ( '.  .  . 
from  off  all  faces  ').  Comp.  on  xxvi. 
19.  It  is  a  different  prospect  which 
is  held  out  for  the  citizens  of  the  new 
Jerusalem  in  Ixv.  20.  But  even  there 
the  death  which  is  still  the  portion 
of  believers  has  completely  lost  its 
sorrowful  associations.  It  is  only 
to  the  wicked  that  it  will  be  a 
curse.  But  why  does  the  prophet 
add,  He  shall  ^vipe  away  tears? 
What  place  is  left  for  tears  .?  Per- 
haps he  remembers  those  to  whom 
death  comes  as  a  blessing,  who,  as 
Job  (iii.  21)  and  Dante  {^Inf.  iii.  46) 
tell  us,  have  the  '  longing'  and  the 
'hope'  of  death.  He  concludes 
with  a  special  promise  for  the  Jews, 
who,  in  their  world-wide  dispersion 
(comp.  Joel  iii.  2),  were  nowhere 
secure  from  the  taunt,  Where  is 
thy  God  .''  (Ps.  Ixxix.  10).  This  re- 
proach of  his  people  shall  he 
take  a-wray. 

''  A  brief  strain  from  the  hymn 
of  the  redeemed. 

10-1-:!  ^  contrast.  The  happy  state 
of  the  Jews  is  resumed  in  the  words. 
For  on  this  mountain  shall  the 
hand  of  Jehovah  rest — protect- 
ingly  (xi.  2)  for  his  people,  but 
vengefully  for  his  enemies.  True, 
the  mightiest  of  these  have  been 
destroyed,  but  the  petty  foes  of  the 
Jews  were  regarded  with  intensified 
hatred.  Hence  the  declaration,  in 
a  contemptuous  figure  drawn  from 
common  life,  that  Moab  shall  be 
trampled  down  in  his  place.  The 


152 


ISAIAH, 


[chap.  XXVI. 


tain,  and  Moab  shall  be  trampled  down  in  his  place,  as  straw 
is  trampled  down  in  the  water  of  a  dung-pit  ;  "  and  ''he  shall 
spread  out  his  hands  within  it,  as  a  swimmer  spreadeth  out 
(his  hands)  to  swim,  but  he  shall  abase  his  *  pride  together 
with  the  artifices  of  his  hands.  ''^  And  the  fortifications  of 
thy  lofty  walls  shall  he  cast  down,  abase,  and  bring  to  the 
ground,  even  to  the  dust. 


(God) 


its,  Targ.,  Aben  Ezra,  Vitr.,  Kay. 


latter  words  are  not  merely  exple- 
tive ;  they  imply  that  Moab  cannot 
possibly  escape  (Del.).  Is  there  a 
historical  background  to  this?  Pro- 
bably, though  we  are  not  able  to 
determine  it  with  precision.  There 
are,  it  is  true,  some  evidences  of  a 
friendly  intercourse  with  Moab  in 
the  post-Isaianic  period  (Jer.  xxvii. 
3,  xl.  ii).  But,  on  the  other  hand, 
we  are  told  that  bands  of  Moabites 
ravaged  Judah  during  the  reign  of 
Jehoiakim  (2  Kings  xxiv.  2),  and 
Moab  is  accused  of  maliciously 
triumphing  at  the  ruin  of  their 
neighbours,  Ezek.  XXV.  8- 1 1.  San- 
ballat,  too,  was  probably  a  Moabite 

(see  on  XV.  5). Dung-pit]  Hebr. 

inadmcnah  ;  possibly  an  allusion 
to  the  local  name  Madmen,  Jer. 
xlviii.  2,  if  we  should  not  there  read 
s:am  dim  oil  instead  oi  mm  madmen. 


"   Moab  shall    spread    out  his 

bands  to  prevent  himself  from 
sinking  in  the  water.  (Vitr.  and 
Dr.  Kay,  with  Targ.,  A.  E.,  &c., 
make  Jehovah  the  subject.  The 
image  will  then  be  analogous  to 
that  of  '  riding  on  the  high  places,' 
but  does  not  harmonise  with  the 

figure    in    v.     10). His    pride] 

Comp.     on     xvi.    6. Artifices] 

Yet  I  rather  doubt  whether  '  snares  ' 
can  be  so  paraphrased.  Is  the  text 
right  ? 

1^  The  fortifications]  Most  ex- 
plain this  of  Kir  Moab,  or  of  the 
cities  of  Moab  in  general ;  Vitr.  and 
Ges.,  of  Babylon.  1  think  it  refers 
at  any  rate  to  the  '  city  '  mentioned 
in  xxiv.  10-12,  XXV.  2,  and  especially 
(note  the  expressions)  xxvi.  5.  It 
is  possible  that  the  verse  is  mis- 
placed. 


CHAPTER   XXVI. 

Future  glory,  and  the  discipline  by  which  it  is  obtained. 

'  In  that  day  shall  this  song  be  sung  in  the  land  of  Judah  : 
'  A  city  of  strength  is  ours  ;  salvation  doth  he  appoint  for 
walls  and  outworks  :  ^  open  ye   the  gates,  that  a  righteous 


'•  2  A  third  hymn.  The  picture 
is  purely  ideal.  The  new  Jerusalem 
has  no  need  of  walls,  and  yet  there 
is  a  mention  of  gates  ;  it  is  already 
rebuilt,  and  yet  there  is  an  invita- 
tion to  those  who  are  to  inhabit 
it  (Reuss).  Ewald,  it  is  true, 
thinks  the  gates  are  those  of  the 
temple  (as  Ps.  cxviii.    19,  20),  but 


there  is  the  same  (as  I  venture  to 
think)    happy  inconsistency  in    Ix. 

II,  18. Salvation]  See  note  on 

xii.  2. 

-  Open  ye  the  gates  .  .  •  ]  The 
call  proceeds  from  heaven,  comp. 
xl.  1-6.  Of  Jehovah  himself  we 
read  that  '  he  observeth  faithful- 
ness' ;^Pb.  .\x.\i.  23,  Del.). 


CHAP.  XXVI.] 


ISAIAIf. 


15. 


nation,  that  keepcth  faithfulness,  may  enter  in.'  ^  *  A  pur- 
pose estabUshed  thou  purposest — '^  peace,  peace,  for  in  thee  is 
his  trust.  "*  Trust  ye  in  Jehovah  for  ever,  for  in  Jah  Jehovah 
ye  have  a  Rock  of  Ages.  ^  For  he  hath  cast  down  those  who 
dwelt  on  high,  the  lofty  city  ;  he  hath  abased  it,  he  hath 
abased  it  to  the  earth  ;  he  hath  brought  it  even  to  the  dust. 
^  The  foot  trode  it  down,  even  the  feet  of  the  afflicted,  the 
steps  of  the  weak.  '^  The  path  for  the  righteous  is  plain  ;  thou 
makest  plain  with  a  level  the  path  of  the  righteous.     ^  Yea, 

a  A  stedfast  mind  thou  keepest  in,  Del.,    Kay.  — Firm  is    tlie  hope;    thou  wilt 
form,  Ew. 


^Apurpose  established]  'Faith- 
ful is  the  saying'  (i  Tim.  i.  15).  'AH 
his  commandments  are  true;  they 
are  estabHshed  {same  iuo7'd)  for  ever 
and  ever'  (Ps.  cxi.  7,8).  'For  I 
know  the  thoughts  which  I  think 
concerning  you  .  .  .  thoughts  of 
peace' (Jer.  x.xix.  11).  Obs., through- 
out this  first  paragraph  {yv.  1-4), 
the  writer's  mind  is  running  on  the 
security  and  immovableness  of  the 
new  Jerusalem.  This  thread  of 
thought  is  to  some  extent  broken 
by  alt.  rendering,  which  has,  how- 
ever, in  its  favour  the  (only)  ap- 
parent parallel  of  Ps.  cxii.  7,  8,  'His 
heart  is  fixed,  trusting  in  Jehovah  : 
Established  is  his  heart,  he  shall 
not  be  afraid.'  The  other  passage 
sometimes  quoted  in  its  support  is 
Phil.  iv.  7,  where  A.  V.  has  '  The 
peace  of  God  .  .  .  shall  keep  your 
hearts  and  minds,'  but  vor\\x.ara  is 
rather  '  purposes '  (Ellicott,  Alford). 
It  may  tempt  some  to  compare 
the  use  of  the  word /fV^'t'r  in  later 
Hebrew,  in  which  it  is  sometimes 
used  synonymously  with  //(^,a  heart. 
But  its  proper  meaning  in  such  pas- 
sages, which  is  almost  always  suit- 
able,   is    'impulse,  desire.' For 

purposest  some  would  render 
'  keepest,'  supposing  a  play  on  the 
two  meanings  of  the  verb — '  keep  ' 
and  '  frame '  \  this  implies  a  violent 
rendering  of  the  first  two  words, — 
'  Well-founded     is     the    thought  ' 

(Calv.,     Hitz.). Peace,    peace] 

He  refrains  from  epithets.  Such 
peace  is  indescribable  :— so  Ivii. 
19- 


'  In  Jah  .  .  .  ]  For  the  form  of 
the  phrase,  comp.  Koran  iv.  47,  '  in 
God  there  is  a  sufficient  patron.' 

^  'Rock'  is  a  Divine  title  (xxx. 
29).  As  a  proof  of  Jehovah's  right 
to  it  in  all  its  manifold  significance, 
the  prophet  points  to  the  fate  of 
the  imperial  city  (as  inxxiv.).  Obs., 
the  increased  rapidity  of  mo\ement 

in    the    style. The  feet  of  the 

afflicted]  i.e.,  of  God's  people. 
The  same  word  in  Hebr.  expresses 
poverty  and  humble-mindedness 
(the  supposed  distinction  between 
'■ani  and  'dmn'  cannot  be  made  out) ; 
the  same  word,  plainness  or  straight- 
ness,  and  uprightness. 

^  Jehovah,  who  tolerates  no  ob- 
stacle on  his  own  pathway  (xl.  3, 
4),  will  suffer  none  on  that  of  his 
people.  A  plain  path  is  theirs, 
free  from  trouble  without  and 
within.  This  is  expressed  in  the 
style  of  the  Proverbs ;  see  Q.  P.  B. 
Prov.   iii.  6,  xi.  5,  xv.    19,  and  the 

Hebr.    of    Prov.    v.  6. "With  a 

level]  i.e.,  exactly,  to  a  nicety. 

^  Again  the  lyric  tone.  The 
Church  is  the  speaker.  '  Indeed, 
knowing  this — that  thou  hadst  a 
hatred  of  all  that  exalted  itself,  we 
looked  out  for  thee  to  traverse  the 
earth  in  the  path  of  thy  judgr- 
ments,  those  judgments '  which, 
according  to  the  prophets,  were  to 

open  the  Messianic  period. For 

thy  name]  i.e.,  almost  '  for  thy 
manifestation,'  but  '  name  '  means 
not  so  much  an  act  of  self-mani- 
festation as  that  side  of  the  Divine 
Being    which    is    turned    towards 


^54 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  XXVI. 


in  the  path  of  thy  judgments,  Jehovah  !  we  waited  for  thee  ; 
for  thy  name  and  for  thy  memorial  there  was  heartfelt  desire. 
^  With  my  soul  I  desired  thee  in  the  night ;  yea,  with  my 
spirit  within  me  I  sought  thee  earnestly  ;  for  as  soon  as  thy 
judgments  come  upon  the  earth,  the  inhabitants  of  the  world 
will  learn  righteousness.  '"If  the  wicked  be  treated  favour- 
ably, he  learneth  not  righteousness  ;  in  a  land  of  rectitude  he 
dealeth  unjustly,  and  hath  no  eye  for  the  majesty  of  Jehovah. 
"  Jehovah  !  thy  hand  hath  been  lifted  up,  (but)  they  saw  it 
not  ;  they  shall  see — and  be  ashamed — the  jealousy  for  the 
people  ;  yea,  ^  fire  shall  devour  thine  adversaries.''    ''^  Jehovah  ! 

•»  Let  the  fire  of  thine  enemies  devour  them,  Ew. 


man  (comp.  Ps.  xx.  i,  and  see  on 
XXX.  27,  Ixiii.  9).  The  term  is  com- 
mon as  a  Divine  title  to  Hebrew 
and  Phoenician  :  comp.  '  Astarte, 
name  of  Baal,'  Itiscr.  of  EsJunun- 
asar  (ed.  Schlottmann),  vii.  9,  and 
see  Last  Words,  vol.  ii. Me- 
morial] a  synonym  for  name  (so 
also  in  Assyrian),  Ex.  iii.  15,  Ps. 
cxxxv.  13,  comp.  Hos.  xii.  5. 

^  Soul  .  .  .  spirit]  On  the  dis- 
tinction,    see    Oehler,     Old    Test. 

Theology,  i.  216-220. As  soon 

as  .  .  .  jHt  was  not,  then,  merely 
a  selfish  patriotism  which  moved 
the  prophet,  but  a  genuine  interest 
in  '  righteousness.'  But  this  does 
not  exhaust  the  meaning  of  the 
passage.  It  is  the  Messianic  hope 
which  we  have  before  us.  The 
spread  of  righteousness  over  the 
earth  is  connected  with  the  coming 
of  Jehovah  to  '  reign  on  mount 
Zion '  (xxiv.  23),  and  this  advent  is 
to  be  ushered  in  by  a  series  of 
judgments  on  the  unbelievers  and 
unrighteous^  '  Righteous '  =  a  wor- 
shipper of  Jehovah  ;  'unrighteous' 
virtually  =  heathen,  see  Del.  on  Ps. 
cxxv.  3.  Notice  two  indications 
of  the  point  of  time  at  which  the 
author  places  himself  :  i.  The  Jews 
are  in  constant  intercourse  with  the 
heathen ;  2.  They  suffer,  not  merely 
by  their  political  subjugation  (7/.  13), 
but  by  the  moral  gulf  between  them- 
selves and  the  heathen.  Compare 
the  I'salms  passim. 

"^  The  thought  of  7/.  9  is  enforced. 


If  judgment  be  withheld,  the  un- 
godly will  not  learn  '  righteousness.' 

A  land    of    rectitude]    i.e.,   a 

place  where  the  upright  dwell.  Ps. 
cxliii.  10  is  not  a  parallel  passage. 

"  Katb    been    lifted    up]    viz., 
against     the     enemies     of     Israel 

(comp.     Ex.    vi.   i). But    they 

saw  it  not]  '  See '  has  two  mean- 
ings, '  to  see '  with  the  eyes,  and  '  to 
feel '  with  the  whole  nature.  Both 
are  united  here  :  '  they  saw  it  not,' 
because  '  they  felt  it  not,'  not 
being  the  objects  of  those  Divine 

judgments. Jealousy    for    the 

people]  So  '  the  zeal  of  thy  house  ' 
(Ps.  Ixix.  9,  A.  V.)  should  be  'jea- 
lousy for  thy  house.'  The  clause 
means  more  exactly.  They  shall  see 
what  jealousy  for  a  people  (bound, 
as    Israel    is,   to    its    God)  means. 

rire]  '  Shall  thy  jealousy  burn 

like  fire  ? '  Ps.  Ixxix.  5,  comp.  Zeph. 
i.  18.  Ewald  strangely  compares 
2  Kings  i.  10.  Alt.  rend,  means, 
'  the  tire  with  which  thou  punishest 
thy  enemies.'  But  the  analogy  of 
'  jealousy  for  the  people  '  now  de- 
cides me  against  it.  The  construc- 
tion adopted  is,  however,  uncom- 
mon and  harsh  (see  Knobel). 

Our  work]  The  work  of  our  deli- 
verance.  For   us]      The   same 

thought  is  expressed  in  Ps.  .\c. 
16,  17,  where  'thy  deed' =  ' the 
work  of  our  hands.' — In  this  and 
the  next  two  verses,  the  prophet 
assumes  the  liberation  of  the  Jews 
to  have  been  accomplished. 


CHAP.  XXVI.] 


ISAIAH. 


Di> 


thou  wilt  stablish  peace  for  us,  for  all  our  work  also  thou  hast 
wrought  for  us.  '^  Jehovah  our  God  !  other  lords  beside  thee 
have  had  dominion  over  us  ;  only  through  thee  do  we  cele- 
brate thy  name.  •"  The  dead  live  not  (again),  the  shades 
rise  not  ;  therefore  thou  hast  visited  and  destroyed  them,  and 
made  all  their  memory  to  perish.  ^'^  Thou  hast  increased  the 
nation,  Jehovah  !  thou  hast  increased  the  nation  ;  thou  hast 
won  for  thyself  glory  ;  thou  hast  made  distant  all  the  boun- 
daries of  the  land.      ^^  Jehovah  !  in  trouble  they  looked  for 


^'  other  lords]  Jehovah  was  the 
rightful  'lord'  of  Israel  (comp. 
Ixiii.  19) ;  Nineveh  and  Babylon 
had  usurped  his  place.  Another 
view  (Hitz.  Oehler)  is  that  'lords  ' 
=  gods.  This  involves  interpreting 
'  the  dead '  in  v.  14  of  the  generation 
of  idolatrous  Jews.  In  its  favour 
may  be  urged  the  further  light 
which  the  passage  will  then  throw 
on  the  prophet's  belief  in  the  Resur- 
rection. \nv.  19  he  exclaims, '  Thy 
dead  (O  Jehovah)  shall  arise,'  i.e., 
the  believing  Israelites  shall  re- 
turn to  life,  and  help  to  people  the 
regenerate  earth.  In  ?/.  14  he  pre- 
pares the  way  for  this  by  excluding 
unbelievers  from  a  share  in  the 
future  bliss.  On  the  ordinary  ex- 
planation, the  outburst  of  faith  in 
V.  19  is  a  little  abrupt,  and  revela- 
tion does  not  disdain  those  psy- 
chological processes  by  which  the 
mind  is  fitted  for  fresh  intuitions 
of  Divine  truth.  Still  I  do  not  see 
how  V.  14  can  fairly  be  interpreted 
as  Oehler  {Old  Test.  Theology.,  ii. 
393)  pioposes,  and  (unless  by  vio- 
lent means)  the  latter  half  oi  v.  13 
is    incapable    of  being    reconciled 

with    his    view. Only    throug-Ii 

thee]  Only  through  thine  inter- 
position.   Comp.  Ps.  Ivi.  4,  10. ■ 

Celebrate]  The  word  may  mean 
no  more  than  '  invoke  '  (Ex.  xxiii. 
13),  but  more  probably  it  implies 
thanksgiving  for  a  benefit  received, 
as  Ps.  xlv.  17  (18).  Of  course  a 
mere  invocation  of  Jehovah  was 
possible  during  the  Exile. 

"'  '*  A  sudden  flight  into  the 
prophetic  future.  All  foreign  lords 
have  passed  away ;  they  are  in  the 


realm  of  the  shades,  from  which  — 
except  by  a  miracle— none  returns 
(Job  xvi.  22) ;  their  very  memory 
has  perished.  Cf  xiv.  22,  Jer.  li.  39. 
Meantime  Jehovah  has  increased 
the  population  of  Judah,  and  widely 
extended  its  borders  (cf.  xxxiii.  17). 
In  fact,  the  territory  occupied  at 
first  by  the  restored  exiles  was 
extremely   limited  ;    the  ideal  was 

still  in  the    future. Therefore] 

i.e.,  with  this  result.  Hebrew  can- 
not clearly  distinguish  between  that 
which  merely  contributes  to  a  re- 
sult and  that  which  is  worked  pur- 
posely for  that  result  :  it  has  no 
word  for  '  consequently.'  Comp. 
Winer,  Neiu  Test.  Gram.,  pp.  S73~4> 
but  obs.  that  this  idiom  occurs  in 
some  passages  in  which  a  theistic 
teleology  cannot  be  traced. 

16-18  'Y\\^  prophet  returns  to  the 

gloomy     past      and     present. 

Xiooked  for  tUee]  Or,  remembered 

thee. Poured     out     prayers] 

The  rendering  is  doubtful,  and  the 
text  has  the  appearance  of  corrupt- 
ness. Sept.  has  '  in  small  afflic- 
tion (was)  thy  discipline  unto  us.' 
Altering  a  point,  Bottcher  renders 
the  present  text,  'affliction  (was) 
the  charm  of  thy  discipline  for 
them,'  i.e.,  affliction  acted  like  a 
charm  by  bringing  them  back 
under  thy  discipline.  This,  indeed, 
is  not  free  from  difficulty,  but  '  af- 
fliction' is  probably  the  meaning 
of  the  first  word,  rendered  above 
'  they  poured  out.'  '  Charm  '  (for 
this,  not  '  prayers,'  is  the  primary 
meaning  of  the  second  word)  can 
hardly  be  right  ;  unless  (assuming 
the  late  origin  of  the  prophecy)  the 


n6 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  XXVI. 


thee  ;  they  "  poured  out  prayers  (?),  °  when  thy  chastening 
came  to  them.  '^  As  she  who  is  with  child,  and  near  her  de- 
livery, writhes,  and  cries  out  in  her  pangs,  such  were  we  be- 
cause of  thee,  Jehovah!  '^We  were  with  child,  we  writhed, 
we  brought  forth  as  it  were  wind  ;  we  made  not  the  land 
salvation,  neither  were  inhabitants  of  the  world  produced. 
»'•>'!  Thy  dead  shall  live  ;  my  dead  bodies  shall  arise.''     Avvake 

«  See  below.  ^  Let  thy  dead  ....   Ew. 


old  word  for  '  charm '  (iii.  3),  or 
amulet  (iii.  20),  acquired  some  new 
meaning  in  the  religion  of  the  Cap- 
tivity, possibly  not  unconnected 
with  the  Babylonian  incantations. 
For  not  even  a  prophet  can  disen- 
gage himself  from  the  phraseology 
and  mental  imagery  of  his  age. 
The  ordinary  rendering  '  whispered 
prayers '  seems  to  me  now  unsuit- 
able. In  the  next  verse,  the  Jews 
are  represented  as  crying  out  vehe- 
mently, and  such,  too,  is  the  lan- 
guage of  those  psalms  which  seem 
to  express  the  feelings  of  the  exiles. 
^■^  As  she  who  is  with  child]  A 
figure  for  intense  anxiety  (as  xiii. 
8,  xxi.  3).  Contrast  another  figu- 
rative description,  '  Before  she  tra- 
vailed, she  brought  forth  '  (Ixvi.  7). 

Because  of  thee]  i.e.,  because 

of  thy  hand  (Jer.  xv.  17). 

'*  "Wind]  i.e.,  that  which  was 
futile  and  useless  (xli.  29).  Or  there 
may  be  an  allusion  to  apparent 
pregnancy,     and     its     result    {em- 

f))ieu)>iatosis). Salvation]      i.e., 

thoroughly  safe  or  prosperous. 
The  following  clause  expresses  the 
disappointment  of  the  later  Jews 
at  the  scanty  population  of  Judea. 
I  must  again  remark  that  the 
real  or  assumed  period  of  the 
author    is    after   the    return     from 

exile.  Inhabitants      of      the 

world]  Perhaps  this  certainly 
strange  expression  alludes  to  the 
pre-eminent  position  soon  to  be  en- 
joyed by  the  regenerate  Israel  in  a 

regenerate    world. VTere  .  .  . 

produced]  Lit.,  fell  : — a  unique  ex- 
pression for  being  born  (see,  how- 
ever, Wisd.  vii.  3,  and  comp.  the 
use  of  TTiTrro)  and  Arab,  saqata^ 
Ges.).     We  do  meet  (e.g.,  Job  iii. 


16)  with  the  substantive  'that 
which  falls '  {ncfel)  for  '  a  birth,' 
but  only  in  the  sense  of  an  '  un- 
timely birth.'  The  prophet  selects 
the  term  to  express  the  abnormal 
and  violent  character  of  this  second 
birth  of  the  deceased  Israelites  (see 
next  verse).  So  Ochler,  Old  Test. 
Thsology,  ii.  396. 

'"  Thy  dead]  Contrast  7/.  14,  'the 
dead  (oppressors)   live  not   again.' 

Shall  live]  i.e.,  live  again.  The 

late  Hebrew  for  the  Resurrection 
is  fkhiyyath  /uii/iinc'//u'i/!,  '  the  re- 
vival of  the  dead.'  'Sublimely  re- 
covering himself,  the  prophet  cries 
that  God's  saints,  though  they  are 
dead,  shall  live'  (M.  Arnold),  and 
shall  share  the  duties  and  the  pri- 
vileges of  regenerate  Israel.  The 
passage  has  a  strong  affinity  to 
Hos.  vi.  2  :  'After  two  days  will 
he  revive  us  ;  on  the  third  day  he 
will  raise  us  up,  and  we  shall  live 
in  his  sight,'  and  Ezek.  xxxvii. 
I -10  (the  '  dry  bones  ').  The  three 
passages  agree  in  connecting  the 
Resurrection  with  the  circumstances 
of  the  Jewish  community.  This  is 
very  clear  in  Hosea  and  Ezekiel, 
but  is  hardly  less  certain  in  the 
passage  before  us.  It  is  as  'my 
dead  body'  (or,  'the  part  of  me 
that  has  faded  and  fallen  off  mc') 
that  the  departed  Israelites  are 
summoned  from  the  underworld. 
The  difference  is  that  the  descrip- 
tions in  Hosea  and  Ezekiel  are  al- 
legorical (comp.  Hos.  vi.  i,  Ezek. 
xxxvi.  27,  xxxvii.  11-14),  whereas 
the  whole  context  of  our  passage 
(especially  v.  14)  shows  that  the 
language  of  the  w  riter  is  to  be  taken 
literally.  It  is  in  fact  an  expres- 
sion of  faith  in  a  resurrection,  though 


CHAP.  XXVI.] 


ISAIAH. 


157 


and  cry  for  joy,  ye  dwellers  in  the  dust,  for  a  dew  of  "^  lights 
is  thy  dew,  and  the  earth  shall  produce  the  shades.  ^°  Go, 
my  people,  into  thy  chambers,  and  shut  thy  door  behind 
thee  ;  hide  thyself  for  a  little  moment,  until  the  indignation 

«  Herbs,  Kimchi,  Vitr. 


in  a  resurrection  as  exceptional 
as  those  of  which  we  read  in  the 
Books  of  Kings.  On  the  question 
of  the  relation  of  the  Biblical  doc- 
trine of  the  Resurrection  td  the 
Zoroastiian,  I  have  spoken  else- 
where (/.  C.  A.,  p.  130).  I  will 
only  add,  that  we  must  not  quote 
the  covert  opposition  to  Dualism 
which  most  critics  find  in  xlv.  7 
(see,  however,  note)  as  conclusive 
against  the  origination  of  the  doc- 
trine of  the  Resurrection  in  Persia. 
For  the  doctrine  of  Dualism  is 
plainly  inconsistent  with  Mono- 
theism ;  that  of  the  Resurrection 
is  not.  (Comp.  Geiger,  Jiid.  Zeit- 
schri/f,  1872,  p.  270.)  Why,  more- 
over, hunt  for  Persian  affinities  ? 
The  Babylonians  too  believed  in 
the  Resurrection  ;  they  ascribed  it 
to  the  favour  of  Marduk,  who  (as 
a  solar  deity)  himself  died  and  rose 
again.  See  Hymn  to  Marduk, 
Lenormant,  Les  premieres  civilisa- 
iions,  ii.  177-8.  I  do  not,  of  course, 
dream  of  claiming  a  Babylonian 
origin  for  the  doctrine.  Psycho- 
logically speaking,  the  revelation  of 
it  to  the  Israelites  was  prepared  for 
by  their  earnest  belief  in  retribution. 
Rewards  and  punishments  for  good 
and  evil  conduct  being  so  imper- 
fectly awarded  in  this  life,  faith  in- 
ferred a  second,  and  life  to  be  com- 
plete required  a  body.  Besides, 
the  vague  and  incidental  character 
of  the  reference  in  this  passage  is 
of  itself  a  warrant  of  its  underived 
origin.  And  now  to  return  to  the 
prophet.  If  the  reader  has  any 
further  doubt  as  to  the  meaning  of 
the  passage,  let  him  refer  to  Ixvi. 
7-9,  Ezek.  x.xxvi.  38,  which  prove 
how  much  the  prophetic  writers 
dwelt  on  the  question  of  the  re- 
population  of  the  sacred  territory. 
Comp.  also  Prof.  Drummond's  re- 
marks. The  Jcivish  Messiah^  p-  361. 


IVIy  dead  bodies]    The  Heb. 

is  in  the  sing.,  collectively  (as  Lev. 
xi.  II,Ps.  Ixxix.  2). Awake  and 

cry]   Lively  faith  anticipating  the 

event. Thy     dew  .  .  .  ]     The 

'  dew  '  here  corresponds  to  the  life- 
giving  'wind'  in  Ezek.  xxxvii.,  as 
the  'dead  bodies  '  here  to  the  '  dry 
bones '  there.  The  figure  may  be 
expanded  thus  : — The  vivifying 
energy  of  Jehovah  is  like  dew — 
not  the  common  dew,  but  '  dew 
of  lights,'  i.e.,  the  essential,  super- 
nal light  (comp.  James  i.  17,  Del.), 
which  according  to  the  primitive 
belief,  Hebrew,  Egyptian,  Persian, 
Indian,  existed  before  the  sun  (see 
Gen.  i.  3,  Job  xxxviii.  19,  xxv. 
3,  and  comp.  art.  '  Cosmogony,' 
Ett cyclop.  Brttanttica,  ninth  ed.). 
Light  and  life  are  correlative  ideas 
— Ps.  xxxvi.  9,  Job  iii.  16-20,  John 
i.  4  ;  but  light  is  a  more  pictorial 
expression,  and  a  more  suitable 
companion  for  dew.  The  prophet 
means  to  say,  '  Thy  dew,  O  Jeho- 
vah, is  so  full  of  the  light  of  life  that 
it  even  draws  forth  the  shades  from 
the  dark  Avomb  of  the  underworld.' 
Alt.  rend,  means  '  a  dew  like  that 
which   falls    upon    plants ' ;    comp. 

Hos.    xiv.    5,  Ps.    Ixxii.   6. The 

earth  shall  produce]  Lit.,  cause 
to  fall  (comp.  V.  18).  The  earth  is 
likened  to  a  devouring  monster. 
Num.  xiii.  32,  Ezek.  xxxvi.  13,  like 
Sheol  (see  on  v.  14). 

^•^  The  rapture  is  over,  and  the 
prophet  returns  to  the  sober  present. 
He  has  gained  on  behalf  of  his 
people  the  comforting  certitude 
that  a  great  exhibition  of  the 
Divine  justice  is  on  the  point  of 
taking  place  ;  and  his  counsel  is  to 
withdraw  from  the  doomed  world 
into  the  privacy  of  communion 
with  God  (Ps.  xxvii.  5,  xxxi.  21, 
Del.).  P^or  even  the  righteous  man 
shall  only    '  live    in    virtue    of  his 


I -.8 


ISATAH. 


[chap.   \XV1!. 


shall  have  passed  by.  2'  For  behold,  Jehovah  cometh  out  of 
his  place  to  visit  the  guilt  of  the  earth's  inhabitants  upon 
them  ;  and  the  earth  shall  disclose  her  bloodshed,  and  shall 
no  more  cover  her  slain. 


trust'  in  Jehovah  (Hab.  ii.  4?) 

Tor  a  little  moment  .  .  .  ]  Paral- 
lel passage,  x.  25. 

'"^i  Tot  behold,  &.C.]    The  same 

expressions  in  Mic.  i.  3. Shall 

disclose  .  .  .  her  slain]  The 
latter  clause  by  itself  might  be 
taken  as  a  prediction  of  a  resur- 
rection ;  but  with  the  words  which 
precede  it,  it  can  only  be  taken  as 


a  strong  expression  for  the  inner 
necessity  of  vengeance  for  blood. 
Comp.  Gen.  iv.  11,  Job  xvi.  18. 
A  tine  application  in  Macaulay,  vii. 
33  (field  of  Landen).  The  whole 
stress  of  the  verse  lies  on  the  pu- 
nishment of  the  actually  existing 
inhabitants  of  the  earth. — The  de- 
scription of  the  judgment  follows 
in  the  next  chapter. 


^ 


CHAPTER   XXVIL 

'  In  that  day  shall  Jehovah  visit  with  his  sword,  the  hard, 
and  great,  and  strong,  the  leviathan  the  fugitive  serpent,  and 

1  Further  details  on  '  that  day,' 
expressed,  with  the  fearless  security 
characteristic  of  the  prophets,  in 
phraseology  of  mythic  origin.  The 
object  is  to  throw  into  relief  the 
terribleness  of  Jehovah's  vengeance, 
which  is  effected  by  clothing  the  an- 
nouncement in  language  originally 
used  of  the  storm-cloud.  The  sword 
of  Jehovah  (xxxi.  8,  xxxiv.  5,  Ixvi. 
16,  Deut.  xxxii.  41,  42,  Jer.  xii.  12, 
xlvi.  10,  xlvii.  6,  1.  35-38,  Ezek.  xxi. 
9  (14),  Zech.  xiii.  7,  Judg.  vii.  20, 
comp.  Josh.  v.  13)  is  described  more 
fully  in  Gen.  iii.  24  as  the  '  turning 
sword  by  the  cherubim,'  and  the 
cherub  is  undoubtedly  a  symbol 
connected  with  the  storm-cloud  (see 
Ryicycl.  Brit.,  art.  'Cherubim'). 
The  Babylonians  had  their  parallel 
(as  wa5  first  shown  by  Lenormant ') 
in  the  sword  of  fifty  points  and 
seven  heads  belonging  to  the  god 
Marduk,  which  obviously  means 
the  lightning.  The  other  imagery 
of  the   verse  belongs  to  the  same 


order  of  conceptions.  It  is  impos- 
sible to  help  comparing  the  fourth 
tablet  of  the  Babylonian  creation- 
story,  which  describes  the  fight 
between  Marduk  and  the  dragon 
Tiamat  or  Tiamtu  ('  the  deep,'  like 
Hebr.  /'//cwz),  the  personification  of 
disorder,  who  dwelt  in  the  sea. 
Indeed,  the  Book  of  Job,  so  full  of 
allusions  to  mythology,  also  fur- 
nishes a  parallel  ;  we  read  in  xxvi. 
12,  13,— 

By  his  power  he  hath  stirred  up  the  sea, 
And  by  his  skill  he  hath  smitten  Rahab  ; 
By  his  breath  the  heavens  become  serene, 
His  hand  hath  pierced  through  the  flying 
serpent. 

Rahab  in  the  second  line  is  synony- 
mous with  the  cloud-  or  storm- 
dragon  : — this  is  certain  both  from 
its  being  placed  parallel  with  '  the 
flying  serpent '  (flying,  that  is,  from 
the  sun  or  from  the  lightning)  in 
line  4,  and  from  Isa.  li.  9  (see  note). 
It  is  hardly  less  certain  that  '  the 
sea '   in  the   first  line  is  the  upper 

1  La  Mane  chez  les  Chaldiens  (1874),  p.  151  ;  comp.  Sayce's  cd.  of  Smith's 
Chaldean  Gaicsis  (1880),  pp.  86-7,  where  the  same  lyric  monologue  of  Marduk  is 
translated.     Among  its  lines  are  the  following  :  - 

The  STin  of  fifty  faces,  the  loftv  weapon  of  my  divinity,  I  bear  .... 

Like  the  serpent  which  beats  the  sea,  (wluch  attacks)  the  foe  in  the  face. 


CHAP.  XXVI  I. j 


ISAIAH. 


159 


the  leviathan  the  wreathed  serpent,  and  he  shall  slay  the 
dragon  in  the  sea.  ^  In  that  day — '  ^  the  pleasant  vineyard  ^ 
—  sing  ye  of  it.  ^I  Jehovah  am  its  keeper;  moment  by 
moment  I  water  it ;  lest  any  should  invade  it,  by  night  and 
by  day  I  keep  it.    ''  ^  Wrath  have  I  none  ^  ;  might  I  but  have 

=>  So  Sept.,  Tnrg.  (?),  some  Hebr.  MSS.,  Lowth,  Ew.,  Del.,  Naeg.— Text,  The 
vineyard  of  foaming  wine. 

b  I  have  no  wall  [speech  of  the  vineyard],  Sept.,  Pesh.,  Lowth,  Grjitz. 


ocean  in  its  dark,  cloudy  reservoir 
(Job  ix.  8,  Ps.  xxxiii.  7,  comp.  Job 
xxvi.  8),  above  which  Jehovah  sit- 
teth  (Ps.  civ.  3)  ;  otherwise  the  first 
line  will  be  inconsistent  with  the 
rest  (comp.  also  Ps.  Ixxxix.  9,  10). 
So  here  in  Isa.  xxvii.  The  two 
leviathans,  or  '  coilers,'  and  the 
dragon,  are  slightly  varying  mythic 
expressions  for  the  storm-  and  rain- 
cloud,  the  enemy  of  the  sun  and 
of  light.  And  the  prophet  means 
to  say  that  just  as  Jehovah  is  su- 
preme in  the  physical  heaven,  and 
keeps  the  sky-dragon,  that  is,  the 
ungenial,  cloudy  darkness,  within 
bounds,  so  He  is  supreme  in  the 
moral  heaven,  and  prevents  '  the 
prince  of  the  power  of  the  air' — ■ 
the  personification  of  evil  and  dis- 
order—  from  exceeding  his  per- 
mitted functions  (Job  i.  12).'  Per- 
haps, too,  he  means  to  say  that 
there  is  a  connection  between  these 
physical,  or  physico-moral,  and 
moral  spheres  of  rebellion,  just  as 
in  xxiv.  21  the  Divine  visitation  is 
held  upon  the  host  of  the  heavenly 
patronisers  and  the  host  of  the 
earthly  patronised.  —  Most  critics 
think  that  three  particular  kingdoms 
are  referred  to  under  these  sym- 
bolic phrases — Assyria,  Babylon, 
and  Egypt,  or  Egypt,  Assyria,  and 
Tyre,  or  Media,  Persia,  and  Egypt. 
It  is  true,  the  dragon  is  elsewhere  an 
emblem  of  Egypt,  li.  9,  Ezek.  xxix. 
3,  xxxii.  2,  Ps.  Ixxiv.  13  ('the  dra- 
gons ');  but  so  also,  close  to  one  of 
these  passages,  is  the  leviathan  (Ps. 
Ixxiv.  13,  14).  If  anyone  chooses, 
therefore,  to  say  that  all  three 
phrases  mean  Egypt,  he  cannot  be 


refuted  ;  and  yet  I  think  it  is  safer, 
considering  xxiv.  21,  not  to  limit 
the  number  of  the  hostile  kingdoms 
to  one  or  even  to  three.  The  num- 
ber is  perhaps  chosen  to  correspond 
to  the  triple  description  of  the 
sword  of  Jehovah  at  the  beginning 
of  the  verse. Hard]  i.e.,  well- 
tempered  ('  cruel,'  as  Gen.  xlix.  7, 
suits  the  context  less). 

-  Here  the  bright  side  of  the  judg- 
ment begins  : — Israel  is  received 
back  into  favour.  Prophecy  passes 
into  song.  Possibly  the  words 
'  shall  this  song  be  sung '  have 
fallen  out,  and  yet  it  may  be  urged 
that  the  abbreviation  of  the  open- 
ing formula  is  in  keeping  with  the 
rush  of  the  song.  This  abruptness 
of  style  makes  the  work  of  exposi- 
tion very  difficult.  The  first  verse 
of  the  song,  no  doubt,  is  clear.  Je- 
hovah is  the  speaker  ;  he  declares 
that  he  will  in  person  be  the  guar- 
dian of  his  vineyard  (cf.  on  i.  8). 
But  7A  4,  at  any  rate  the  first  clause 
of  it,  seems  very  loosely  connected; 
indeed,  it  evidently  introduces  a 
new  cycle  of  ideas.  Then  again 
the  second  and  following  clauses 
seem  hardly  consistent  with  the 
first  :— no  wrath,  and  yet  a  hostile 
aggression  on  the  part  of  Jehovah! 
Then,  in  v.  5,  protection  and  peace 
are  offered  to  certain  persons,  ap- 
parently to  the  same  who  are  indi- 
cated by  the  phrase  'briars  and 
thorns.'  And  yet  elsewhere  '  thorns' 
are  the  symbols  of  an  obstinacy 
destined  for  destruction  (comp.  x. 
17,  xxxiii.  12,  2  Sam.  xxiii.  6,  7, 
Nah.  i.  10).  Lowth  evades  the 
difficulty  by  rendering  in  v.  i  '  sing 


'  Mr.  Budge  remarks  that  perhaps  a  similar  spiritual  meaning  was  conveyed  by 
the  Babylonian  tablet  to  those  who  read  it,  '  Tiamat  representing  wickedness  or  dark- 
ness, and  Marduk  light  and  righteousness'  {Proceedings  of  S.  B.  A.,  1883,  p.  6). 


i6o 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  XXVI I. 


briars  and  thorns  before  me  !  with  war  would  I  stride  against 
them,  I  would  burn  them  up  together  ;  ^  else  he  must  '^  take 
asylum  in  me  *=  (and)  "^make  peace  with  me.' "^  ^  In  (days)  to 
come  Jacob  shall  take  root,  Israel  shall  blossom  and  bud,  and 
they  shall  fill  the  face  of  the  world  with  fruit. 

^  Hath  He  smitten  him  as  He  smote  his  smiter  .'  or  was 
he  slain  as  his  ®  slayers  were  slain  ?     *  *"  In  exact   measure  *", 

•^  Lit.,  take  hold  of  my  asylum  ;  or,  my  defence,   Ges.,   Evv.,  &c.     See  on  .\x.\.  2. 

«•  TEXr  repeats  these  words. 

«  So  Sept.,  Pesh.,  Lowth,  Ew.— Slain  ones.     Hebr.  points. 

f  So  Ges.,  Del.,  Naeg.,  Kay.— By  driving  her  away,  Hitz.,  Ew. 


ye  a  responsive  song '  (comp.  E.\. 
XV.  21  :  same  verb  apparently,  but 
different  conjugation)  ;  reading 
'  wall '  instead  of  '  wrath  '  in  v.  4, 
and  distributing  the  song  anti- 
phonally— an  attractive  theory,  but 
not  entirely  consistent  with  the 
present  text.  Drechsler  regards 
the  song  as  the  counterpart  of  the 
song  and  oracle  in  v.  1-7.  'There 
the  Lord  pronounced  a  judgment 
of  rejection  upon  Israel,  using  the 
figure  of  the  vineyard ;  in  our 
passage  he  declares  that  he  receives 
his  people  back,  and  takes  the 
parable  of  the  vineyard  for  his 
theme.'  This  view  seems  to  me 
correct  ;  it  enables  us  to  give  a 
reasonable  exegesis,  though  it  does 
not  entirely  remove  the  suspicion 
that  the  present  text  may  contain 

some    errors. "Wrath    have    Z 

none]  i.e.,   I   have  no  longer  any 

wrath  towards    it. Briars   and 

thorns]  i.e.,  those  referred  to  in  v.  6, 
only  that  what  is  there  an  unex- 
plained detail  of  the  parable  has 
here  become  a  speaking  figure  for 
the  hostile  peoples,  which,  like 
parasitical  plants,  have  overrun 
(Sod's  heritage.  There  is  therefore 
a  combined  reference  to  v.  6  and 
X.  17. 

'  Or  else  .  .  .  .  ]  A  truly  evan- 
gelical belief  that  God  is  willing  to 
be  reconciled  even  to  His  enemies. 
Its  presence  here  gives  the  pro- 
phecy a  spiritual  superiority  over 
the  other  prophetic  descriptions 
of  the  judgment  upon  the  hostile 
nations,  e.g.,lxvi.  16.  Even  accord- 
ing to  xix.  22  Egypt  must  be  first 


smitten  in  order  that  it  may  be 
healed. Take   asylum  in  me] 

Let  him  take  sanctuaiy  in  the  Name 
of  Jehovah,  which  is  'a  strong 
tower  ;  the  righteous  runneth  into 
it  and  is  safe'  (Prov.  xviii.  10);  in 
short,  let  him  become  a  believing 
servant  of  Jehovah.  'Fortress 'in 
alt.  rend,  would  be  a  symbolical 
name  for  a  protecting  deity,  as 
xvii.  10,  Ps.  Hi.  7  (9). 

**  Israel  likened  to  a  colossal 
tree,  '  the  leaves  of  which  are  for  the 
healing  of  the  nations '  (Rev.  xxii. 
2),  i.e.,  the  blessing  of  salvation 
{yesJui'-ah)  shall  extend  to  the  whole 
world  (the  '  new  earth '  ?).  Partly 
parallel,  xxxvii.  31,  Hos.  xiv.  6. 

"•  *  The  prophet  returns  to  the 
point  of  view  adopted  at  xxvi.  8. 
He  reminds  his  people  of  the 
moderation  with  which  Jehovah  has 
treated  them.  Their  punishment, 
however  painful,  was  not  so  severe 

as  that   of  their   enemies. His 

smiter]      Comp.      x.      20. His 

slayers]  No  critic  can  be  surprised 
at  the  misplacing  of  a  Vav.  The 
received  reading  is  most  obscure. 
It  ought  to  mean  the  slain  Israel- 
ites, but  this  is  clearly  against  the 
context ;  so  the  commentators  per- 
foice  explain  it  of  the  enemies  of 
the  theocracy,  slain  either  by  Je- 
hovah (Del.)  or  by  Israel  (Knob., 
Naeg.,  &c.). 

^  In  exact  measure]  '  Dealing 
out  punishment  in  carefully  adjusted 
quantities'  (Kay).  Lit.,  '  in  a  seah, 
a  seah '  ;  a  seah  is  \  of  an  ephah 
(see  on  v.  10),  and  therefore  a  very 
small  measure.     A  singular  phrase- 


CHAP.  XXVII.] 


ISAIATT. 


i6i 


when  dismissing  her,  thou  didst  contend  with  her  ;  he  scared 
her  away  with  his  rough  blast  in  the  day  of  the  east  wind. 
^  Therefore  ^  on  these  terms  s  shall  the  guilt  of  Jacob  be  purged, 
and  this  shall  be  all  the  fruit  of  taking  away  his  sin,  when  he 
maketh  all  the  altar-stones  like  lime-stones  dashed  in  pieces, 
that  Ash^rahs  and  sun-images  rise  up  no  more.  "^  For  the 
fortified  city  ''  shall  be  ''  solitary,  a  homestead  dismissed  and 
deserted  as  the  wilderness  ;  there  shall  the  calf  feed,  and  there 
lie  down,  and  browse  upon  the  branches  thereof.     "  When  its 

s  So  Riehm.— Hereby,  Ges.,  E\v.,  Del.  &c.  ^  Or,  is. 


and  perhaps  corrupt  :  comp.  for  the 
form  of  the  Hebr.,  kav-kdv^  xviii.  2. 
Alt.  rend,  seems  to  me  now  pre- 
carious ;    see,  however,  Notes  and 

Criticism^  p.  29. In  the  day  of 

the  east  wind]  A  figure  for  a 
national  catastrophe,  the  east  (more 
strictly,  south-east)  wind  being  spe- 
cially violent  and  destructive,  comp. 
Job  xxvii.  21,  Ps.  xlviii.  7,  and 
especially  Hos.  xiii.  15. 

"  An  inference  from  the  Divine 
moderation.  Jehovah  has  only  ban- 
ished, not  destroyed,  his  people, 
consequently  repentance  is  still 
possible,  and  Jehovah  will  merci- 
fully accept  this  repentance  as  an 

atonement  for  guilt. On  these 

terms]  viz.,  of  destroying  the  em- 
blems of  idolatry.  Rend,  as  in 
Gen.  xxxiv.  15,  22,  i  Sam.  xi.  2} 
Alt.  rend,  seems  hardly  in  accord- 
ance with  prophetic  theology  (see 
on  xxii.  14),  at  least  if  'hereby' 
means  '  by  undergoing  his  punish- 
ment of  captivity.'  The  next  clause 
is  difficult  :  we  should  expect, '  And 
the  putting  away  of  his  sin  is  en- 
tirely the  fruit  of  this.'  But  there 
is  a  meaning  in  this  violation  of 
the  parallelism.  In  one  sense  (i.e., 
from  a  human  point  of  view)  Israel's 
repentance  was  the  cause  ;  in  an- 
other (i.e.,  from  a  divine  point  of 
view)  it  was  the  result,  of  his  for- 
giveness. Justice  and  mercy  are 
combined  in  the  removal  of  guilt, 
according  to  the  Old  Test,  as  well 
as  the  New.  Obs.,  too,  that  'guilt' 
and  'sin'  are  parallel,  as  in  v.  18. 


That    A.sherahs  .  .  .  ]     The 

mention  of  the  symbols  of  Asherah 
(see  on  xvii.  8)  is  not  what  we 
should  expect  from  a  writer  living 
during  the  Babylonian  exile.  The 
phenomenon  is,  of  course,  not 
decisive  of  the  critical  question  at 
issue,  but  ought  to  have  its  due 
weight. 

^°  Very  different  meantime  shall 
be  the  fate  of  the  world's   metro- 
polis.      Its   fortifications    shall    be 
razed  ;    its  population  '  dismissed  ' 
(into  exile  or  to  Sheol)  ;    its  only 
visitors  pasturingflocks,  and  women 
in    search    of  wood.     Calv.,    Ges., 
Del.,    Knob,    think    the    fortified 
city  is  Jerusalem,   but  surely  the 
context  is  against  this  view.     It  is 
true  that  the  Jews  are  said  to  be 
without  knowledge  in  i.  3,  and  that 
Jehovah  is  their  'former'  (xliii.  i), 
but  the  same  things  are  said  of  the 
heathen   (xliv.    17,    Ps.    Ixxxvi.    9). 
The  irremediableness  of  the  ruin, 
expressed  analogically  by  the  '  un- 
mei'cifulness '  of  Jehovah,  certainly 
suits  a  great   heathen    city  better 
than  Jerusalem : — Jon.  iv.  11  stands 
unique   in  the  Old  Test. Bis- 
missed]    i.e.,    deprived    of  its    in- 
habitants. 

"  Its  twig-s]  i.e.,  those  of  the 
bushes  which  will  grow  up  wild  on 
the  site  of  the  now  levelled  city 
(comp.  vii.  25).  A  striking  contrast 
to  the  parks  and  gardens  which 
an  Oriental  city  enclosed  within 
its  limits. — For  the  suppression  of 
the  noun  of  the  genitive,  comp.  v.  14. 


'   Riehm,  D-jr  Begriff  dii  Siikne  im  A.  T.  pp.  12,  13,  note  2. 
VOL.    I.  M 


1 62  ISAIAH.  [CHAP.  XXVIII. 

twigs  are  dry,  they  shall  be  broken  off ;  women  shall'  come 
and  set  them  on  a  blaze  :  for  it  is  not  a  people  of  under- 
standing ;  therefore  he  who  made  it  hath  no  compassion 
upon  it,  and  he  who  formed  it  sheweth  it  no  favour.  '-  And 
it  shall  come  to  pass  in  that  day,  that  Jehovah  shall  beat  out 
*(corn)  from  the  '^swelling  stream  '^  of  the  River  unto  the  torrent 
of  Egypt,  and  ye  shall  be  gathered  one  by  one,  ye  children  of 
Israel.  ^^  And  it  shall  come  to  pass  in  that  day  that  a  great 
trumpet  shall  be  blown  ;  and  those  shall  come  who  were  lost 
in  the  land  of  Assyria,  and  outcasts  in  the  land  of  Egypt, 
and  shall  worship  Jehovah,  in  the  holy  mountain,  in  Jeru- 
salem. 

'  Or,  fruit,  Hitz.,  Ges.  ''  Or,  ear  (of  corn).     (There  may  be  a  double  meaning). 

'^. '^  A   concluding  prophecy  of  tirely  on  the  analogy  of  xi.  11-16. — 

comfort.       Here    again   there   are  Ges.  however  thinks  that  the  Eu- 

great  difficulties   of  interpretation.  phrates  and  the  Wady  el-'Arish  are 

The  point  of  view  assumed   in  the  here  the  extreme  boundaries  of  the 

rest  of  the  chapter  is  in  the  midst  promised  land  of  Israel  (Gen.   xv. 

of    a    period    of    exile— as    most  18,  i   Kings  viii.  65),  and  that  the 

critics     believe,     the     Babylonian  passage    means  that    Jehovah  will 

exile.     But   the   point    of  view    in  people  the   kingdom  in    its  fullest 

these  two  verses  is  that  of  Isaiah,  extent  as  rapidly  and  numerously 

in  whose  time  Assyria  and  Egypt  as  berries  fall  from  the  olive-trees. 

were    Israel's    principal    foes,   and      Beat  out]  As  a  more  careful 

who     distinctly     anticipates     that  plan  than  threshing  (comp.  Judg.  vi. 

when     Jehovah     interposes     'the       1 1,  Ruth  ii.  17). A  grreat  trum- 

second  time  '  his  people  will  be  dis-  pet]  The  same  signal  for  a  Divine 

persed  chiefly  in  Assyria  and  Egypt.  interposition  as  in  xviii.  3,  comp.  xi. 

I  venture  to  hold  confidently  that       12,    Matt.    xxiv.    31. Outcasts] 

these  verses  must  be  explained  en-  Same  phrase  as  in  xi.  12. 


CHAPTER  XXVIII. 


A  GLANCE  at  the  sad  fate  of  Samaria,  followed  by  an  invective  against 
the  frivolity,  perversity,  and  superstition  of  the  ruling  classes  of  Judah, 
and  closed  by  a  persuasive  parable.  The  chapter  divides  naturally  at 
V.  14  and  V.  23.  It  must  be  taken  in  connection  with  the  four,  if  not  five, 
following  chapters,  which  were  probably  circulated  together  among  the 
disciples  and  adherents  of  Isaiah  as  a  separate  work.  It  is  true,  they 
have  no  heading,  but  their  Isaianic  origin  and — in  spite  of  some  slight 
differences  in  the  chronological  data— their  close  connection  (especially 
that  of  xxix.-xxxii.)  cannot  for  a  moment  be  called  in  question.  They 
were  evidently  delivered  at  various  stages  of  the  Assyrian  intervention 
under  Sargon  (see  on  chaps,  x.  5,  &c.,  and  xx.). 

'The  most  noteworthy  feature  of  this  important  group  of  discourses 
is  the  wise  distinction  everywhere  made  between  the  various  classes  of 


CHAP,  xxvin.]  ISAIAH.  I  6 


o 


opponents.  Isaiah  well  knew  that  the  mass  of  the  people  erred  rather 
from  weakness  and  fear  than  intentionally,  and  that  only  individual 
defiantly  rash  '  princes  '  had  so  miserably  gone  astray  in  their  aims  and 
calculations.  He  therefore  varies  his  tone  and  manner,  according  as  he 
addresses  the  leaders  of  the  nation  or  the  people  themselves.  In  the  first 
case,  the  Divine  words  come  from  his  mouth  with  a  crushing  force  ;  in 
the  second,  they  are  full  of  gentle  seriousness  and  hope '  (Ewald).  This 
variety  of  tone  is  specially  exhibited  in  chap,  xxviii. 

^  Woe  to  the  proud  crown  of  the  drunkards  of  Ephraim, 
and  the  fading  flower  of  his  glittering  bravery,  which  is  on 
the  head  of  the  fat  valley  of  those  who  are  smitten  down  by 
wine.  2  Behold,  a  strong  and  unflinching  one  hath  '"^  Jehovah  ; 
like  a  storm  of  hail  (and)  a  tempest  of  destruction,  like  a 
storm  of  mighty,  overflowing  waters,  he  shall  cast  it  to  the 
ground  with  force.  ^  With  the  feet  shall  it  be  trampled  upon 
—the  proud  crowm  of  the  drunkards  of  Ephraim  ;  •'  and  the 
fading  flower  of  his  glittering  bravery,  which  is  on  the  head 
of  the  fat  valley,  shall  become  as  an  early  fig  before  the  fruit- 
harvest,  which  whoso  seeth,  while  it  is  yet  in  his  hand  he 
swalloweth  it.     ^  In  that  day  shall  Jehovah  Sabaoth  be  for  a 

1  So  many  MSS.  ;  Text,  the  Lord. 

^  Isaiah  opens  with  a  woe  upon  olives'  (Strachey).     The  luxury  of 

Samaria.     He  has  before  now  said  Samaria  reflects  itself  in  the  tribute 

(viii.  6,  comp.  Mic.  i.  6,  &c.)  that  the  of  Jehu  to  Shalmaneser,  which  in- 

storm  of  judgment  must  first  break  eludes   bowls,    cups,    bottles,    and 

upon  Samaria,  and  then  upon  Jeru-  vessels   of  gold   (Smith,  Assyrian 

salem — not  merely  for  geographical  Canon, 'p.   114). — • — Smitten  down 

reasons,   but  because  the  spiritual  by  wine]  Comp.  on  xvi.  8. 

condition  of  both  cities  is  similar.  "^  TTnflincliing]    An     uncommon 

He  mentions  drunkenness,  not  as       word  ;    again    in    xl.    26. Hatb 

the  root  of  the  national  evil,  but  Jehovah]  As  his  prepared  instru- 

rather  as  its  flower.     The  appalling  ment.      So  '  Jehovah  hath  a  day,' 

thing   is   that   when  all    is  on   the       ii.      12,     x.xii.     5. Destruction] 

point  of  collapsing,  those  respon-  Word  only  found  here  and  in  Deut. 

sible  for  the  state  should  be  given      xxxii.  24,  Ps.  xci.  6. Porce]  Lit., 

up  to  self-indulgence.     Comp.  Hos.  hand;  comp.  Ex.  xiv.  31.    So  Assy- 

vii.  5  and  Am.  iv.  i  (Samaria),  Am.  rian  idu  (  ^  Wfthr.  ydd),  constantly, 

vi.  4-6  (Zion  and  Samaria). The  both  of  gods  and  of  men  (Norris's 

proud  crown  .  .  .  ]  '  Isaiah  fuses  Assyrian  Did.  i.  209). 
into  one  image  the  heads  of  the  '  An  early  flgr]  A  special  deli- 
nation,  crowned  with  flowers  at  cacy  ;  comp.  Hos.  ix.  10,  Alic.  vii.  i, 
their  habitual  debauches,  and  the  Nah.  iii.  12,  Jer.  xxiv.  2. 
capital  cities — Samaria  and  Jerusa-  ^  When  this  great  act  in  the 
lem(.?)' — each  reposing  in  its  fertile  drama  of  judgment  is  over,  there 
valley,  and  crowned  with  a  chaplet  will  be  an  incipient  fulfilment  of  the 
oftowers  intertwined  with  vines  and       Messianic    promise. Unto    the 

1  Surely  not  Jerusalem,  which  is  nowhere  described  as   situated  in  a  valley.     See 
on  xxii.  5. 

M  2 


1 64 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  XXVIII. 


crlittering  crown,  and  for  a  brave  diadem  unto  the  remnant  of 
his  people,  ''and  for  a  spirit  of  judgment  to  him  who  sitteth 
on  the  judgment-scat,  and  for  valour  to  those  who  turn  back 
war  to  the  gate.  ^  But  even  these  reel  with  wine  and  stagger 
with  strong  drink  ;  priest  and  prophet  reel  with  strong  drink, 
they  are  swallow^ed  up  through  wane,  they  stagger  with  strong 
drink  ;  they  reel  in  the  vision,  they  totter  in  judgment.  ^  For 
all  tables  are  full  of  filthy  vomit,  so  that  no  place  is  left. 
^  Whom  would  he  teach  knowledge,  and  whom  would  he  make 
to  understand  the  Tidings  }  Those  who  are  weaned  from  the 
milk,  and  separated  from  the  breasts  .-'  '"  For  (it  is)  '  command 


remnant    of    his     people]       The 

meaning  is  not  very  dear.  Does 
'his  people'  include  Judah  as  well 
as  Israel,  or  only  Israel?  The 
analogy  of  viii.  6  makes  it  probable 
that  the  former  view  is  correct, 
though  the  promise  is  doubtless 
inserted  here  out  of  fairness  to 
Ephraim,  which  still  had  its  stand- 
ing-ground in  Jehovah's  covenant. 
But  we  must  evidently  supplement 
the  promise  from  x.  21.  It  is  a 
converted  '  remnant '  of  which  the 
prophet  speaks. 

<=  Civil  justice  is  still  (as  in  chap, 
xi.)  the  most  prominent  feature  of 
the  Messianic  period  as  it  mirrors 
itself  in  the  mind  of  the  prophet. 
Jehovah,  he  says,  shall  inspire  the 
judges  with  a  spirit  of  Judgment. 
He  specially  refers  to  the  priests, 
see  V.  7,  and  comp.  Deut.  xvii.  8- 
12,  Ex.  xxi.  22,  2  Chr.  xix.  5-8. 
Judgment-seat]  Same  mean- 
ing of  mishpdi'm  xli.  i,  comp.  Job 

ix.    32,    xxii.    4. To    the    gate] 

i.e.,  probably,  to  the.  gate  of  the 
city  from  which  the  enemies  came  ; 
comp.  2  Sam.  xi.  23. 

'  Here  the  prophet  seems  to  be 
summing  up  a  fresh  cycle  of  pro- 
phecies.— A  scene  worthy  of  Sama- 
ria is  being  enacted  in  Jerusalem 
(comp.  Am.  vi.  1-7,  Mic  ii.  n). 
Priests  and  prophets  come  visibly 
drunk  (from  the  sacrificial  feasts? 
see  on  xxv.  6)  to  their  most  solemn 
functions  of  judgment  (sec  above) 
and  prophecy.  Isaiah  refers  of 
course  to  the  lower  order  of  pro- 


phets, who  had   no   revelations  of 
spiritual  truih  like  himself. 

^'  ^°  The  drunkards  mocking 
Isaiah  over  their  cups.  Does  he 
not  know  what  respectable  persons 
he  is  dealing  with,  not  like  children 
who  need  leading  strings,  but  edu- 
cated priests  and  prophets  ?  They 
have  caught  up  from  Isaiah  one  of 
his  favourite  words  (probably),  and 
repeat  it  with  a  sneer — viz.,  Ti- 
dings, i.e.,  revelation,  that  which 
the  prophet  has  '  heard  from  Jeho- 
vah' V.  11,  comp.  xxi.  10).  The 
word  occurs  again  in  this  sense  in 
V.  19,  liii.  I,  Ob.  I.  It  is  from  these 
passages  that  «Kon  gets  its  peculiar 
meaning  in  Rom.  x.  16,  17.  Snow- 
ledg-e  is  also  a  term  for  the  pro- 
phetic preaching,  i.  3,  xxxiii.  6.  [I 
am  not  sure  that  the  above  inter- 
pretation (Ew.,  Del.,  Naeg.)  is  cor- 
rect ;  it  is  at  any  rate  possible  and 
worthy.  Others  take  '  weaned  from 
the  milk'  as  an  allegoiy  either  of 
simplicity  of  faith  (Kay)  or  of  the 
verj'  opposite  of  this  (Weir),  omit- 
ting of   course  the    interrogation.] 

Por    (it  Is)    command    upon 

command  .  .  .  ]  He  is  always 
interfering  with  his  moral  and  (see 
7'.  12)  political  recommendations; 
always  findmg  some  'little'  point 
to  censure  and  correct.  Comp.  the 
word  used  by  Micah's  opponents, 
'  Do  not  go  on  dro])ping,'  an  old 
phrase  for  prophesying  with  a  new 
unfavourable  implication  (Mic.  ii. 
6).  The  monosyllabic  forms  in  the 
liebr.    {^i!V  h't-coA'  qav  la-cjav)  re- 


CHAP.  XXVIII.] 


ISAIAH. 


165 


upon  command,  command  upon  command,  rule  upon  rule, 
rule  upon  rule,  a  little  here,  a  little  there,'  "  Yea,  with 
stammerings  of  lip  and  with  another  tongue  shall  he  speak 
unto  this  people  ;  '^  because  he  said  unto  them,  This  is  the 
rest,  give  ye  rest  to  the  weary  ;  and  this  is  the  refreshment, 
but  they  would  not  hear.  ^^  But  the  word  of  Jehovah  shall 
be  unto  them  'command  upon  command,  command  upon 
command,  rule  upon  rule,  rule  upon  rule,  a  little  here,  a  little 
there,'  that  they  may  go  away,  and  stumble  backward,  and  be 
broken,  and  be  snared,  and  taken. 

'*  Therefore  hear  the  word  of  Jehovah,  ye  men  of  scorn, 
rulers  of  this  people  which  is  in  Jerusalem.     ^^  Because  ye 


present  at  once  the  stammer  of  a 
drunkard,  and  the  monotonous  cha- 
racter attributed  to  Isaiah's  teach- 
ing. 

^'  The  prophet  retorts  their  own 
language  upon  them.  Yes  ;  it  shall 
be  in  fact  as  you  say.  This  childish 
monotone  shall  indeed  sound  in 
your  ears.  The  description  which 
you  give  of  the  revelations  of  Je- 
hovah shall  be  exactly  applicable  to 
the  harsh,  laconic  commands  of  a 
merciless  invader.  For  Assyrian, 
although  closely  allied  to  Hebrew, 
was  sufficiently  different  from  it 
both  in  grammar  and  in  vocabulary 
to  seem  a  '  stammering '  or  '  bar- 
barous' tongue  to  Isaiah's  contem- 
poraries. The  common  diplomatic 
and  commercial  language  of  Syria 
and  Assyria  was  Aramaic  (seexxxvi. 
11). Sball  he  speak]  The  As- 
syrians being  God's  instruments. 
So  xxix.  3  :  '  /  will  lay  siege  against 

thee.' This    is    the  rest]    i.e., 

the  true  rest.  Isaiah  practically 
grants  the  monotony,  or  rather  uni- 
formity, of  his  preaching.  But  there 
was  but  one  remedy  for  the  evils 
of  the  time.  '  Through  returning 
and  rest  shall  ye  be  saved '  (xxx. 
15).  It  was  the  'rest,' not  of  pas- 
sive obedience  to  Assyria,  but  of 
hearty  faith  in  Jehovah,  which  he 
recommended.  Comp.  Rlic.  ii.  10, 
Jer.  vi.  16. 

""^*  Jehovah  pronounces  judg- 
ment. He  addresses  —  not  the 
king,  who  is  passed  over  in  silence 


in  most  of  the  Hezekian  discourses 
of  Isaiah  (comp.  on  vii.  2) — but 
the  '  rulers,'  the  politicians.  These 
are  designated  men  of  scoz-n  (comp. 
7A  22,  and  xxix.  20).  The  title 
'  scorners  '  seems  to  be  given  in 
Proverbs  to  those  who  opposed 
or  despised  the  counsels  of  the 
'  wise  men,'  and  broke  through 
the  restraints  of  law  and  religion 
(comp.  Prov.  xv.  12,  xxi.  24). 
Mere  politicians  were  '  scorners ' 
to  Isaiah  and  Hosea  (vii.  5). — 
The  divine  oracle  has  two  aspects, 
like  that  addressed  upon  a  similar 
occasion  to  Ahaz:— it  holds  forth  at 
once  a  curse  and  a  blessing.  The 
ruling  classes  at  Jerusalem  had  se- 
cured themselves,  as  they  thought, 
by  an  Egyptian  alliance  (only,  it  is 
true,  in  its  first  stage  as  yet)  against 
any  damage  to  themselves  from  an 
Assyrian  invasion.  A  policy  of 
'  lying,'  which  would  avenge  itself 
upon  its  authors!  Only  those  who 
trusted  in  Zion's  'foundation-stone' 
would  hold  their  ground.  The  vacil- 
lation of  the  politicians  has  excited 
Isaiah's  indignation.  First,  they 
have  acted  a  '  lie '  against  Jehovah 
by  calling  in  Assyria  (2  Kings  xvi. 
7)  ;  next  they  shift  their  confidence 
from  Assyria  to  Egypt  (comp.  Jer. 
ii.  17-19)- 

^^  A  covenant  with  death]  Not 
=  '  an  alliance  with  the  fatal  power 
of  the  Assyrians'  (R.  Smith,  T/ie 
Prophets  0/ Israel,  p.  284).  Isaiah 
adopts  'a  kind  ofj^roverbial  express 


1 66 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  XXVIII. 


have  said,  We  have  entered  into  a  covenant  with  Death, 
and  with  Shcol  have  we  made  an  agreement  ;  the  flooding 
scourge,  when  it  passeth  along,  shall  not  come  unto  us,  for  we 
have  set  lies  for  our  refuge,  and  in  falsehood  have  v/e  hid 
ourselves: — ""'Therefore,  thus  saith  Jehovah,  Behold,  I  ^will 
found ''  in  Zion  a  stone,  a  tried  stone,  a  precious  corner-stone 
of  solid  foundation  ;  he  that  hath  faith  shall  not  '"give  way.*' 
'^And  I  will  set  justice  for  a  line,  and  righteousness  for  a 
plummet,  and  hail  shall  sweep  off  the  refuge  of  lies,  and  the 

*>  So  Sept.,  Koppe,  Weir. — Am  he  that  hath  founded.     Hebr.  points. 
e  Make  haste.     Hebr.  text. 


sion  to  denote  perfect  security  from 
evil  and  mischief  of  any  sort. 
Job  V.  23,  Hos.  ii.  18,  Lucan  ix. 
894  (of  the  Psylli  :  Pax  illis  cum 
morte  data  est)'.  Lowth.  —  Obs.,  the 
*  scorners '  or  free-thinkers  have  re- 
tained a  strong  belief  in  the  infernal 
powers,  Death  and  Sheol  (see  on 
xxxviii.  18),  though  little  enough  in 

those   supernal. The    flooding 

scourg-e]  A  mixture  of  metaphors. 
'  Scourge,'  as  in  x.  26  ;  '  flooding,' 
with  a  sceptical  reference  to  the 
prophecy  of  the  'overflowing  wa- 
ters,' which  shall  '  sweep  along  into 
Judah '  (viii.  7,  8),  or  to  similar 
prophecies. 

'"  Behold,  I  will  found  in  Zion 
a  stone]  (See  crit.  note).  To  un- 
derstand the  form  of  this  prophecy, 
we  must  recollect  the  enormous 
size  and  cost  of  the  foundation- 
stones  of  Eastern  public  buildings  : 
— comp.  Job  xxxviii.  6  '  who  cast 
(as  a  trifling  burden)  the  earth's 
foundation-stone,'  i  Kings  v.  17 
'  great  stones,  costly  stones,  hewed 
stones,  to  lay  the  foundation  of  the 
house.'  But  what  is  this  '  stone  '  ? 
Isaiah  cannot  mean  to  connect  the 
peace  and  security  of  Zion  (or  of 
the  pious  Israel)  with  a  material 
stone.  He  has  told  us  elsewhere 
that  Jehovah  is,  on  the  one  hand, 
'  the  Rock  of  Israel'  (xxx.  29)  ;  on 
the  other,  '  a  stone  to  fall  against ' 
to  many  nominal  Israelites.  Jeho- 
vah then  must  be  meant  here. 
There  may,  indeed,  be  an  allusion 
to  the  old  popular  superstition 
which  attached  a  peculiar  sanctity 


to  sacred  stones  (e.g.,  at  Delphi 
and  Troy),  but  if  so,  Isaiah  only 
alludes  to  it  to  discountenance  it. 
It  is  not  said  '  he  who  believeth  on 
the  stone  shall  not  give  way,'  but 
simply  '  he  who  believeth ' : — now 
the  object  of  absolute  faith  can  be 
but  one,  Jehovah.  But  the  foun- 
dation-stone of  the  temple  in  the 
solid  rock  of  Zion  (from  which  the 
mosque  called  Kubbet  es-sakhra, 
or  '  the  dome  of  the  rock,'  derives 
its  name)  might  well  be  regarded 
as  a  type  of  the  unchangeableness 
of  that  temple's  God.  This  view 
is  confirmed  by  the  peculiar  intro- 
ductory form  of  expression,  '  I  will 
found  /';;  Zion  ; '  it  is  the  manifes- 
tation of  the  Divine  faithfulness 
towards  believers  which  is  meant. 
Jehovah  will  in  Zion  verify  his 
revealed  character.  The  security  of 
believers  will  justify  their  faith,  even 
as  the  permanence  of  the  temple- 
building  verifies  the  solidity  of  the 
foundation  (comp.  especially  xiv. 
32).     There  is  perhaps  an  allusion 

in  Ps.  cxviii.  22. Shall  not  grive 

way]  The  text-reading  does  not 
suit  the  connection.  Sept.,  Targ., 
Pesh.,  feeling  that  something  was 
wrong,  render  freely  '  shall  not  be 
put  to  shame  '  (see  crit.  note). 

11-19  jj.j  contrast  to  Zion's  inuno- 
bile  saxum,  all  other  subjects  of 
confidence  shall    be   swept    away. 

For      tramplingr     upon]      So 

again    of    the   Assyrian    invasion, 

X.    6. Take    you    away]    The 

image  is  that  of  a  flood,  which 
carries  off  more  and  more  human 


CHAP.  XXVIII.J  ISAIAH.  167 

hiding-place '^  of  falsehood '^  shall  waters  flood  away;  "*  and 
your  covenant  with  Death  shall  be  "^  annulled,  and  your  agree- 
ment with  Sheol  shall  not  stand  :  the  flooding  scourge,  when 
it  passeth  along — ye  shall  be  unto  it  for  trampling  upon;  ^^as 
often  as  it  passeth  along,  it  shall  take  you  away,  for  morning 
by  morning  shall  it  pass  along,  by  day  and  by  night ;  and  it 
shall  be  simply  a  terror  to  understand  the  Tidings.  '^^  [^  For 
too  short  is  the  bed  for  one  to  stretch  himself  out  at  length, 
and  too  narrow  the  covering  when  one  wrappeth  himself  in  it.^] 
^^  For  Jehovah  shall  arise  as  on  mount  Perazim,  he  shall  be 
stirred  as  in  the  valley  of  Gibeon  ;  to  do  his  work — alien  is  his 
work,  and  to  carry  out  his  task  —strange  is  his  task.  ^'^  And 
now — behave  not  as  scorners,  lest  your  bonds  become  fixed, 
for  final  and  decisive  is  that  which  I  have  heard  (coming) 
from  the  Lord,  Jehovah  Sabaoth,  over  all  the  land. 

^^  Give  ye  ear,  and  hear  my  voice  ;  attend  ye,  and  hear 
my  speech.  ^^  Is  a  ploughman  continually  ploughing  in 
order  to  sow  ;  (or)  opening  and  harrowing  his  ground .'' 
^^  When  he  hath  levelled  the   surface   thereof,  doth  he  not 

<>  These  words,  which  are  necessary  to  complete  the  sense,  are  wanting  in  text  and 
versions. 

"  So  Targ.,  Seeker,  Lo.,  Hoab.,  Hupf.,  Weir,  Wellh. ;  Text,  cancelled  (see  crlt, 
note). 

f  (Of  doubtful  genuineness,  Kuenen  and  others). 

victims  at  each  time  of  its  appear-  suit  our  prophecy,  comp.  vi'.  2,  17). 

ance.  Repeated  Assyrian  invasions.       But  both   may   be   combined. 

To  understand  the  Tidings]  Allen    is  his  "work]  '  AHen,'  such 

A  clear  reference  to  v.  g.    Men  shall  as  might  be  understood  if  worked 

then   understand  but  too  well  the  upon  foreigners,  but  not  upon  Je- 

'  Tidings  '  which  they  once  scorned.  hovah's  '  peculiar'  people.     See  on 

Or,   perhaps,    on    the   analogy    of  i.  7,  and  comp.  Job  xxxi.  3,  A.  V.  '  a 

7/.  13  ;  As  they  refused  a  spoken  re-  strange  punishment  to  the  workers 

velation,  they  shall  be  compelled  to  of  iniquity'  (see  Hebr.)  ;  also  Jer. 

understand  the  preaching  of  facts.  ii.  14.     '  His  work,'  i.e.,  his  work  of 

^°  For  .  .  .  ]  Perhaps  a  prover-  judgment,  as  x.  12,  Ps.  Ixiv.  9,  Hab. 

bial  expression  for  a  state  of  pain-  i.  5. 

ful  uneasiness.     The  view   that    it  "  Again  an  appeal  to  the  politi- 

is  an  interpolation  is  confirmed  by  cians,  who  are  ambitious  of  break- 

the  presence  of  an  Aramaism.  ing  the  bonds  of  the  Assyrian  yoke 

-'  Perazim  .  .  .  Gibeon]  Scenes  (x.   27,   Nah.  i.    13),  and  who  scorn 

of  David's  victories  over  the  Phi-  the  prophet  of  ill-tidings.     But  this 

listines  ;  see  2  Sam.  v.  20  ('  Baal  of  is  only  the  way  to  fix  their  bonds, 

Perazim,'  because  the  hill  was  sur-  and,  even  worse  than  this,  to  invite 

mounted  by  a  sanctuary  of  Baal),  certain    destruction. — The   closing 

25  (Geba),  i  Chr.  xiv.  16  (Gibeon).  words  recur  in  x.  23,  suggesting  the 

Ew.  however  denies  this  reference,  nearly  contemporaneous  origin  of 

and  thinks,  rather,  of  the  events  of  both  prophecies. 

Josh.  X.  10  (the  natural  phenomena  *'  A  turn  takes  place  in  the  dis- 


i68 


IS  AT  Air. 


[chap,  xxviij. 


scatter  fennel -flower,  and  cast  abroad  cummin,  and  plant 
wheat  and  ^  barley,  and  ^  vetches  as  the  border  thereof  ^''And 
^  he  correcteth  each ''  as  is  fitting,  his  God  instructing  him. 
^^  P^or  fennel-flower  is  not  threshed  with  a  sledge,  nor  is  a 
cart-wheel  rolled  over  the  cummin,  but  fennel-flower  is  beaten 
out  with  a  staff,  and  cummin  with  a  rod.  ^^  *  Is  bread-corn 
crashed  to  pieces?  Nay',  not  for  ever  is  he  threshing  it,  or 
driving  his  cart-wheel  and  his  horses  (over  it)  ;  he  doth  not 

e  Text  repeats  this  word  in  a  corrupt  form,  Wellhausen  (see  cnt.  note). 
''  (God)  traineth  him,  Vulg.,  A.E..  Kimchi,  Ges.,  E\v.,  Del. 
•  Bread-corn  is  threshed,  but,  Ew.  (another  read.) 


course.  The  style  is  gnomic — that 
of  the  so-called  Khokma  or  '  wis- 
dom '-literature  ;  obs.  especially  the 
word  rendered  '  wisdom,'  which 
occurs  ten  times  in  the  ethical 
books  of  Proverbs  and  Job.  Comp. 
xxxii.  6-8,  which  is  also  in  the 
gnomic  style,  andxxix.  24  (see  note). 
The  inference  is  that  the  literary 
style  of  the  prophet  was  influenced 
by  that  of  his  less  purely  religious 
fellow-teachers,  the  '  wise  men.' — 
The  parable  which  follows  admits  of 
more  than  one  interpretation.  We 
may  suppose  {a)  that  its  object  is  to 
comfort  iDelicvers.  The  operations 
of  ploughing  and  threshing  are  a 
silent  sermon,  teaching  those  who 
have  the  inner  ear  the  meaning  of 
Israel's  t7-ibiilatio7Ts.  The  delicate 
fennel-flower  is  not  threshed,  neither 
does  Jehovah  thresh  his  people  ;  or 
if  some  wise  purpose  leads  him  now 
and  then  to  do  so,  he  does  not 
crush  them  to  pieces,  his  object 
being  to  purify,  and  not  to  destroy. 
(So  ^Drechsler,  Del.,  Naeg.)— Or 
\b)  with  Ewald,  we  may  ^■iew  it  as 
a  final  appeal  to  the  politicians. 
'The  husbandman  does  nothing 
without  regard  to  its  proper  manner 
and  measure.  Ye  niagnates  and 
philosophers,  who  imagine  your- 
selves to  be  far  more  than  a 
husbandman,  will  ye  observe  no 
moderation  and  propriety.^  v. ill  ye 
go  on  in  your  wild,  irrational  life?' 
It  would  be  fatal  to  agriculture  to 
desert  its  sacred  traditions  (see  on 
V.  26)  ;  and  equally  fatal  will  it  be 
to  you  to  scorn  the  constantly 
proffered  advice  of  Jehovah's  pro- 


phet. Even  the  politician  cannot 
disregard  religious  sanctions  and 
traditions.  If  we  adopt  (a),  we 
must  suppose  the  notes  of  a  fresh 
prophecy  to  have  been  tacked  on 
to  the  foregoing  ;  if  {b)^  we  have  a 
justification  which  has  till  now  been 
withheld  of  the  '  rule  upon  rule ' 
complained  of  by  the  '  scorners.' 
I  now  prefer  the  latter,  with 
Robertson  Smith  and  Wellhausen. 
—On  the  agricultural  allusions  in 
this  section  see  Mr.  Houghton's 
papers  on  the  botany  of  the  Bible 
in  the  Bible  Educator.  In  the  ren- 
dering vetches,  I  follow  Wetzstein 
ap.  Ucl.  ed.  2,  p.  705.  Apparently 
a  kind  of  vetch  was  planted  round 
the  fields  of  grain  as  a  protecting 
border — obviously  a  much  more 
suitable  border  than  one  of  spelt, 
the  most  delicate  of  the  cereals. 
According  to  Wetzstein,  the 
7-2a')!!/s  is  still  cultivated  with  this 
object. 

•''  And  he  correcteth  each  .  .  .] 
Not  only  the  soil,  but  the  seed,  is 
in  a  certain  sense  '  chastised '  or 
'corrected,'  regard  being  had  in 
each  case  to  the  character  of  the 
seed.  Comp.  Jer.  xxx.  11,  xlvi.  28, 
where  the  same  plirase  occurs. 
Dcl.'s  rend,  seems  less  natural  and 
forcible,  though  it  has  the  support 
of  the  older  interpreters. in- 
structing: him]  From  Jehovah 
proceed  the  unwritten  laws  alike  of 
social  custom  and  of  agricultural 
operations.  The  Eastern  jieasant 
never  dreams  of  improving  his 
methods  ;  he  accepts  the  wisdom 
of  remote  ancestors  as  a  divine  ap- 


CHAP.  XXIX.] 


LSAIAH. 


169 


crush  it  to    pieces.     ^^  This    also    proceedeth    from  Jehovah 
Sabaoth  ;  wonderful  counsel  hath  he,  great  wisdom. 

pointment.     One   may  without  ir-  prophesying  of  Isaiah,  is    an   ap- 

reverence  compare  the  mythic  re-  pointment  of  that  manifold  wisdom 

velations  of  Osiris  and  Oannes.^  which   will    swallow   up   the   puny 

"'■'  This    also  .  .  .  ]    viz.,     hus-  wisdom    of  the   scoffei'S  (xxix.  14). 

bandry,  which,  like  the    despised  Comp.  'Wonder-Counsellor,'  ix.  6. 


CHAPTER    XXIX. 

A  SUMMARY  of  two  discourses.  Vv.  1-12  contain  the  riddle  of  Ariel 
and  its  explanation  ;  vv.  13-24  a  prediction  of  a  sweeping  judgment 
on  the  untheoretically-minded  members  of  the  church-nation.  In  the 
latter  part  {v.  15)  we  meet  with  the  first  allusion  to  the  negotiations 
with  Egypt,  which  are  more  distinctly  denounced  in  chaps,  xxx.  xxxi. 
The  politicans  as  well  as  the  prophet  are  awake  to  the  pressing  dan- 
ger from  Assyria,  but  the  efforts  of  the  former  being  but  worldly-wise 
will  utterly  fail.  Within  a  year,  says  the  prophet,  '  Ariel '  will  be  re- 
duced to  extremities.  In  xxxii.  9-20  the  interval  allowed  is  slightly 
longer. — Isaiah  implies  that  his  unsusceptible  hearers  did  not  well  under- 
stand his  language ;  no  wonder,  then,  if  we  find  it  difficult,  even  in  the 
light  of  a  sympathetic  and  comparative  study  of  his  works. 

'  Alas  for  Ariel,  Ariel,  city  where  David  encamped !     Add 

the  Assyrian  inscriptions.  Thus 
in  the  Monolith  Inscription  of 
Shalmaneser  we  find  'the  city  of 
Nappigi '  endowed  with  the  second 
name,  'The  Law  of  Assur,'  and 
'the  city  of  Ruguliti'  also  called 
'  The  Command  (of  Assur) ' ;  A'.  P., 
iii.  92.  So  too  at  Babylon  the  two 
great  walls  were  called  respectively 
Imgur-Bel  or  '  Bel  is  gracious,' 
and  Nimitti-Bel,  or 
of  Bel'  (Delitzsch, 
Paradics?  p.  215). 
Isa.  xix.  18  if  '  City  of  the  Sun  '  be 

the   right   reading. Encamped] 

i.e.,  not  in  a  hostile  sense,  as  Sir 
E.  Strachey,  following  Sept.  and 
Vulg.,  but  =  dwelt  (comp.  '  To  your 
tents,    O    Israel!'),    perhaps   with 


'  Alas  for]  '  Wo  to  '  (A.V.)  does 
not  suit  the  context,  which  is  one 
of  promise  as  well  as  of  threatening. 
Ariel]  One  of  Isaiah's  favour- 
ite symbolic  names  (comp.  Rahab, 
Valley  of  Vision,  &c.),  and  signify- 
ing either  God's  hearth  or  altar,  or 
more  probably  (see  crit.  note)  God's 
Lion (Ewald, 'Lioness');  comp. Gen. 
xlix.  9,  Ezek.  xix.  2,  3.  From  one 
point  of  view,  Jehovah  is  Jerusa- 
lem's Lion  (xxxi.  4)  ;  from  another, 
Jerusalem  is  Jehovah's  Lion.^  Why 
not,  then,  Arijah  (Lion  of  Jehovah)? 
Probably  because  the  form  Ariel 
was  already  in  use  (xxxiii.  7,  2  Sam. 
xxiii.  20,  comp.  Gen.  xlvi.  16,  Num. 
xxvi.  17).  Parallels  for  this  sym- 
bolic name  of  Jerusalem  abound  in 

1  The  true  interpretation  has  been  best  given  by  Robertson  Smith  ( The  Prophets 
of  Israel,  pp.  285-7),  following  Wellhausen  [Gesch.  Israels,  ed.  2,  pp.  417  8). 

-  Hitzig  finds  an  allusion  to  the  physical  resemblance  of  the  motmtain-city  to  a 
lion  in  repose  {Gesch.  des  Volkes  Israel,  p.  32),  Ewald,  to  the  lion's  being  the  ensign 
(might  we  say  the  totem  ?  see  on  xv.  6)  of  the  tribe  of  Judah  (comp.  Gen.  xlix.  9, 
Ezek.  xix.  2) ;  History,  iii.  "250. 


'  Foundation 

Wo   lag  das 

Comp.    also 


170 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  XXIX. 


year  to  year,  let  the  feasts  run  their  round  ;  ^  then  will  I 
straiten  Ariel,  and  there  shall  be  moaning  and  bemoaning, 
but  she  shall  be  unto  me  as  an  Ariel.  ^And  I  will  encamp 
in  a  circle  about  thee,  and  lay  siege  against  thee  with  a 
^  mound,  and  set  up  siege-works  against  thee  ;  ''  and  thou  shalt 
speak  being  abased  from  the  ground,  and  thy  speech  shall 
be  subdued  (coming)  from  the  dust,  and  thy  voice  shall  be 
as  that  of  a  ghost  from  the  ground,  and  from  the  dust  thy 
speech  shall  come  chirpingly.  ■'  But  the  multitude  of  thy 
enemies  shall  become  as  small  dust,  and  as  the  flitting  chaff 
the  multitude  of  the  terrible  ones,  and  it  shall  come  to  pass  in 
a  moment,  suddenly.  '^  From  Jehovah  Sabaoth  ^  shall  she  be 
visited  ^  with  thunder,  and  with  earthquake,  and  a  great  noise 
with  whirlwind  and  hurricane  and  the  flame  of  devouring  fire  ; 
^and  as  a  dream,  a  vision  of  the  night,  shall  be  the  multitude 
of  all  the  nations  that  go  to  war  against  Ariel,  even  all  that 
go  to  war  against  her  and  her  entrenchments,  and  those 
that   straiten  her.     ^  And  it  shall  be  as  when  a  hungry  man 

»  Palisade,  Kay.  ^  A  visitation  sliall  be  held,  Ges. ,  Del. 


the  added  notion  of  '  strength  and 

security'  (Dr.  Weir). Add  year 

to  year]  This  may  mean  either, 
Complete  one  more  year  ;  or 
merely,  Enter  upon  the  new  year. 
Probably  the  latter,  since  i.  'Add 
ye '  implies  a  solenm  act  on  the 
part  of  the  persons  addressed,  such, 
for  instance,  as  the  celebration  of 
the  new  moon  of  the  first  month  ; 
and  2.  the  phrase  can  thus  be  har- 
monised with  the  analogous  de- 
scription in  a  /afer  passage,  xxxii. 
10.  [Wcllhausen,  Gesch.  Israels,  i. 
98,  supposes  the  interval  allowed 
here  jjy  the  prophet  before  the 
siege  to  be  the  same  as  in  xxxii.  10. 
This  implies  that  xxxii.  9-20  is  a 
part  of  the  same  discourse  as  chap. 
xxix.,  which  is  highly  improbable, 
considering  the  varied  contents  of 

the    intermediate    prophecy]. 

Run  their  round]  A  cognate  noun 
is  used  for  the  closing  of  the  cycle 
of  feasts,  Ex.  xxxiv.  22. 

-  But  she  shall  be  ...  ]  But 
in  the  very  extremity  of  her  need  I 
will  enable  her  to  verify  her  name, 
'  God's  Lion.' 


^  About  thee]  '  Thee  '  is  femi- 
nine, referring  to  the  daughter  of 

Zion. VTith  a  mound]  This  was 

for  the  purpose  of  using  the  batter- 
ing-ram, comp.  Jer.  xxxiii.  4,  and 
Prof.  Rawlinson's  Ancient  Mon- 
afc/u'cs,  i.  472. 

*  As  that  of  a  grhost]  See  on 
viii.  19,  where  the  same  word,  ren- 
dered '  chirp,'  occurs. 

^  But  the  multitude  .  .  .  ]  Dr. 
Kay  prefers  '  and  '  to  '  but,'  on  the 
ground  that  '  a  comparison  of  7>v. 
4,  6,  shows  that  7/.  5  must  still  re- 
late to  the  humiliation  of  Jerusa- 
lem.' The  continuity  of  the  dis- 
course is  at  first  sight  in  favour  of 
this  view  ;  but  the  expression  'thy 
strangers'  (i.e.,  thy  foes),  cannot 
easily  be  reconciled  with  it.  The 
simplicity  with  which  v.  5  is  ap- 
pended to  V.  4,  is,  perhaps,  a  rhe- 
torical artifice  to  heighten  the  con- 
trast. Comp.  the  way  in  which  vii. 
17  is  attached  to  vii.  13   16. 

^<  ^  Twofold  application  of  the 
figure  of  a  dream.  The  enemies 
of  Zion  shall  come  to  nothing, 
like  a  dream  ;  they  shall   also  be 


CHAP.  XXIX.] 


ISAIAH. 


171 


dreameth,  and  behold  !  he  eateth  ;  but  he  waketh,  and  his 
soul  is  empty  ;  and  as  when  a  thirsty  man  dreameth,  and 
behold  !  he  drinketh  ;  but  he  waketh,  and  behold  !  he  is  faint, 
and  his  soul  craveth  :  so  shall  it  be  with  the  multitude  of  all 
the  nations  which  go  to  war  against  mount  Zion. 

^'^ Astonish  yourselves,^  and  be  astonished;  blind  your- 
selves, and  be  blind  !  They  are  drunken,  but  not  with  wine  ; 
they  stagger,  but  not  with  strong  drink.  '°  For  Jehovah  hath 
poured  out  upon  you  a  spirit  of  deep  sleep,  and  hath  closed 
your  '^eyes  which  see,  and  your  ^  heads  hath  he  covered,  "  so 
that  the  vision  throughout  is  become  unto  you  as  the  words 
of  a  sealed  book  which  if  one  delivers  to  a  man  that  is  book- 
learned,  saying.  Pray  read  this,  he  saith,  I  cannot,  for  it  is 
sealed  ;  '-  and  should   the   book  be  delivered  to  one  that  is 

"  Shew  yourselves  hesitating,  Hebr.  text.  ^  Eyes,  the  prophets,  Hebr.  text. 

•^  Heads,  the  seers  (or,  the  seeing),  Hebr.  text  (see  crit.  note). 


disappointed,  as  one  who  dreams  of 
eating  and  drinking. 

^  The  hearers  stare  in  astonish- 
ment at  a  prophecy  seemingly  so 
out  of  relation  to  facts.  The  pro- 
phet warns  them  that  if  they  wil- 
fully deaden  their  spiritual  faculties, 
there  will  be  no  emerging  after- 
wards from  this  state  of  blindness 
and  stupefaction.  Jehovah  will  judi- 
cially fix  them  in  it. iVstonish 

yourselves]  Implying  that  the 
state  is  self-caused.  So  Hab.  i.  5. 
It  is  mainly  the  ruling  class  which 
is  addressed,  hence  the  prophet 
says,  They  are  drunken,  but  not 
with  wine,  alluding  to  xwiii.  7. 

10,11  They  are  thus  spiritually 
asleep,  with  eyes  closed,  and  heads 
wrapped  up  (in  Oriental  fashion). 
Not  only  the  revelation  in  w.  1-8, 
but  the  whole  body  of  Isaiah's 
prophecy,  is  become  non-existent 
to  them.  Their  eyes  that  seem  to 
see  are  baffled  entirely  by  Isaiah's 
'vision.'  This  is  further  illustrated 
by  a  comparison.  The  educated 
portion  of  the  ruling  class,  having 
a  mere  secular  intelligence,  is 
like  a  man  who  is  asked  to  read  a 
book,  but  is  unable  to  '  loose  the 
seals'  (Rev.  v.  2).  We  may  fairly 
infer  from  this  passage  that  pro- 
phecies of  Isaiah  were  already  cir- 


culated in  a  written  form.  The 
words  inserted  after  '  eyes '  and 
'heads'  in  Hebr.  text  throw  the 
whole  passage  into  confusion.  The 
word  'you'  in  v.  10  mi^sf  mean 
the  same  persons  as  '  yourselves ' 
in  V.  9,  viz.  the  ruling  class,  in- 
cluding, of  course,  the  prophets. 
Must  one  add  that  to  be  asleep 
involves  the  closing  of  the  eyes, 
which  cannot  here  be  meant  alle- 
gorically.  Still  no  one  would  ven- 
ture to  emend  the  text,  were  it  not 
for  the  existence  of  so  many  other 
glosses,  both  in  the  Hebrew  Bible 
and  in  the  Sept.  Comp.  especially 
ix.  15. 

^^  And  should  the  book  •  •  .  ] 
A  further  comparison,  growing  out 
of  that  in  v.  11.  Isaiah  chiefly 
attacks  the  ruling  class,  but  these 
only  as  representatives  of  the 
people.  The  judgment  will  fall 
with  equal  certainty  on  both  the 
ruled  and  the  rulers.  He  there- 
fore adds  a  word  for  the  former. 
Being  equally  devoid  of  secular  and 
spiritual  intelligence  (comp.  Jer.  v. 
4),  they  are  like  a  man  who  can 
neither  unseal  nor  read  a  book 
(see  on  viii.  i).  Both  in  form  and 
in  contents  the  prophecies  of  Isaiah 
are  quite  out  of  their  reach. — It  is 
this  verse  which  gives  a  colour  of 


172 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  XXIX. 


not  book-learned,  saying,  Pray  read  this,  he  saith,  I  am  not 
book-learned.  '^  And  Jehovah  said.  Because  this  people 
draweth  near,  with  their  mouth  and  with  their  lips  honouring 
me,  while  their  heart  is  far  from  me,  and  (because)  their  fear 
of  me  is  (nothing  but)  a  commandment  of  men  which  hath 
been  taught;  '•'therefore  behold  I  will  continue  to  deal 
wonderfully  with  this  people,  even  very  wonderfully,  and  the 
wisdom  of  their  wise  men  shall  perish,  and  the  understanding 
of  their  understanding  ones  shall  hide  itself  ''^  Woe  unto 
those  who  deeply  hide  their  purpose  from  Jehovah,  so  that 
their  work  is  done  in  a  dark  place,  and  they  say,  Who  sceth 
us  and  who  noticelh  us  ?  ^''  O  your  perverseness !  Should 
the  potter  be  accounted  as  clay,  that  the  work  should  say  of 
him  that  made  it.  He  made  me  not  ?  and  the  thing  formed 
say  of  him  that  formed  it,  He  hath  no  understanding  ? 

''  Is  it  not  yet  a  very  little  while,  and  Lebanon  shall  be 


reason  for  the  distribution  of  v.  10 
among  two  classes  of  Jews.  But 
then  this  verse  is  an  appendix,  and 
prepares  the  way  for  the  sentence 
upon  'this  people'  in  v.  13. 

^^"'-'^  A  summary  of  a  fresh  dis- 
course. The  Judahites  are  no- 
minally worshippers  of  Jehovah, 
but  it  is  merely  formal  lip-service; 
consequently  Jehovah  will  continue 
to  deal  wonderfully  with  them. 
This  is  a  very  strong  expression, 
implying  that  Jehovah's  dealing 
with  his  people  is  nothing  short  of 
inconceivable  (see  on  ix.  6),  inas- 
much as  it  seems  to  run  counter 
to  his  covenant-promises  to  Israel; 
the  phrase  is  parallel  to  '  foreign 
in  his  work,'  &c.,  in  xxviii.  21  (see 
note).  '  Continue,'  because  the  in- 
vasion of  Rezin  and  I'ekah  had 
already  destroyed  the  illusion  of 
Judahs  security. A  command- 
ment of  men]  Alluding  to  />rc- 
fa;w;//Va/ collections  of  laws,  which, 
we  may  infer  from  Hos.  viii.  12, 
Jer.  viii.  8,  were  current  in  some 
circles  in  the  times  of  the  i)re-Exile 
prophets.  However  essential  the 
canonical  law-book  was  felt  to  be 
by  the  s|)iritual  leaders  of  newborn 
Israel,  the  importance  of  an  au- 
thoritative law-book  was  not  by  any 


means   clear  to  their  predecessors. 

Comp.     on     i.     11.  Taug-htJ 

This  is  verbally,  but  not  more,  in- 
consistent with  Ps.  xxxiv.  1 1. 

'*  The  hypocrisy  of  the  ruling 
class  shows  itself  in  their  worldly- 
wise  but  underhand  policy.  They 
tacitly  recognise  the  justice  of 
Isaiah's  claims  to  political  as  well 
as  spiritual  direction  (see  on  xxx. 
2),  and,  like  Ahaz  on  a  similar 
occasion  (see  on  chap,  vii.),  seek  to 
throw  the  veil  of  secrecy  over  their 
untheocratic  pursuit  of  worldly 
alliances.  But  Isaiah  detects  an 
alteration  in  their  manner.  He 
divines  their  purpose,  and  in  figu- 
rative language  exposes  its  'per- 
versity.' 

"'  Sbould  tbe  potter  .  .  .  ]  A 
favourite  comparison  with  the 
Biblical  writers,  comp.  xlv.  9,  Ixiv. 
8  (7),  Jer.  xviii.  6,  Sirach  xxxiii.  13, 
Rom.  ix.  20. 

"  Is  it  not  .  .  .  ]  Isaiah  reminds 
his  hearers  of  what  he  had  pro- 
bably often  told  them — the  future 
material  and  spiritual  (i7roK«rdm-oo-if, 
or  restitution.  The  connection  of 
ideas  is  more  clearly  traceable  in 
the  parallel  passage,  xxxii.  14-19 
(see  notes).  The  result  of  God's 
great    judgment    upon    Jerusalem 


CHAP.  XXIX.] 


ISAIAH. 


/  O 


turned  into  garden-land,  and  garden-land  accounted  a  forest  ? 
^^  And  in  that  day  the  deaf  shall  hear  the  words  of  a  book, 
and  out  of  gloom  and  darkness  the  eyes  of  the  blind  shall 
see,  1^  and  the  humble  shall  obtain  fresh  joy  in  Jehovah,  and 
the  poor  among  men  shall  exult  in  the  Holy  One  of  Israel. 
2°  P'or  the  terrible  one  will  have  come  to  naught,  and  the 
scorner  be  gone,  and  all  that  watched  for  iniquity  be  cut 
off,  21  that  make  people  sinners  ^  by  words,*'  and  lay  snares 
for  him  that  reproveth  in  the  gate,  and  deprive  the  righteous 
by  a  mere  nothing.  ^'^There^ovQ  thus  saith  Jehovah  con- 
cerning the  house  of  Jacob  p  he  that  delivered  Abraham  "]  : 
Jacob  shall  not  henceforth  be  ashamed,  neither  shall  his  face 
henceforth  turn  pale  ;    ^s  fQj.   ^vhen  he  seeth    ['^  namely,    his 

f  For  a  (mere)  word,  Vitr.,  E\v.,  Del. 


e  Perhaps  interpolated. 

will  be  a  temporary  withdrawal 
of  His  life-giving  Spirit  from  both 
land  and  people.  But  in  a  very 
little  time  (to  the  eye  of  faith)  there 
will  be  a  fresh  outpouring  of  the 
Spirit  ;  oppression  will  be  at  an 
end  ;  desolation  more  than  reme- 
died ;  and  the  moral  character  of 
Israel  regenerated.  Most  com- 
mentators prefer  to  take  v.  1 7  figu- 
ratively. But  a  comparison  of  the 
parallel  passage  favours  a  combined 
literal  and  symbolical  interpreta- 
tion. Isaiah's  symbols  are  very 
seldom  mere  symbols  (and  then  he 
takes  care  to  tell  us  so),  and  one 
of  his  most  characteristic  ideas  is 
a   future  transformation  of  nature 

corresponding  to  that  of  man. 

Xiebanon]  is  merely  a  poetical  sy- 
nonym for  '  forest ' ;  comp.  x.  34.  It 
corresponds  to  '  pasture-land '  in 
xxxii.  15,  both  being  opposed  to 
cultivated  plantations  ;  comp.  x.  18. 

^^  Here  there  can  be  no  doubt 
that  the  description  is  symbolic  ; 
see  xxix.  10.  The  ignorant  masses 
shall  understand  '  the  words  of  a 
book'  (he  means,  of  a  written  pro- 
phecy, see  on  vv.  10,  11),  and  the 
self-blinded  {v.  9)  shall  acquire 
spiritual  perceptions.  Thus  the  sen- 
tence in  vi.  10  shall  be  reversed. 

"°  The  terrifcle  one]  i.e.,  the  foes 

without    {v.     5). The     scorner] 

i.e.,  the  foes  within  (.\xviii.  14,  22). 


'■  See  below. 

-^  That  make  people  sin- 
ners by  T»-ords  •  .  .  ]  i.e.,  that 
effect  their  condemnation  by  false 
testimony.  (Compare  Hos.  xi.  4, 
'  they  have  spoken  words,  swearing 
falsely').  Thus  we  obtain  a  close 
parallelism  with  the  last  clause  in 

the  verse. tay  snares  for  ...  ] 

i.e.,  seek  to  compass    the  ruin   of 

Him  that  reproveth    in    the 

g-ate]  In  the  chief  place  of  con- 
course, where,  too,  the  judges  sat. 
So    Amos,    '  They   hate   him   that 

reproveth  in  the  gate  (v.   10). 

Deprive]  Lit.  turn  aside,  viz.  from 
the  favourable  verdict  due  to  him. 
Same  idiom.  Am.  v.  12,  Mai.  iii.  5. 
More  fully,  Ex.  xxiii.  6,  '  Thou  shalt 
not  turn  aside  the  right  of  the  weak.' 

A.   mere  nothing-]    i.e..    by   a 

baseless  accusation. 

•'^-'^^  Conclusion.  Israel  will  in 
future  be  spared  the  shame  of  op- 
pression and  captivity,  for  he  will 
have  learned  the  lesson  of  the  sole 

divinity  of  Jehovah   his  God. 

He  that  delivered  Abraham]  If 
these  words  are  genuine,  they  refer 
to  the  migration  of  Abraham  from 
Mesopotamia  as  caused  partly  by 
the  'vexing  of  his  righteous  soul' 
by  his  idolatrous  kinsmen  (comp. 
Josh  xxiv.  2,  3).  There  may  how- 
ever be  an  allusion  to  the  fire  out  of 
which,  as  a  Talmudic  legend  de- 
clares, explaining    Ur    Kasdim    as 


174 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  XXX. 


sons^]  the  work  of  my  hands  in  his  midst,  they  shall  count 
my  name  holy,  and  count  holy  the  Holy  One  of  Jacob,  and 
the  God  of  Israel  shall  they  count  dreadful  ;  ^*  and  those  that 
erred  in  spirit  shall  get  understanding,  and  they  that  mur- 
mured shall  receive  instruction. 


'  the  fire  of  the  Chaldees,'  Abraham 
was  rescued.  In  this  case,  the 
words  must  be  interpolated  (Well- 
hausen).  There  is,  I  fear,  no  analogy 
for  holding,  with  Dozy,  that  Abra- 
ham here  =  Israel. Jacob]  Is  it 

Jacob  the  patriarch  who  is  here 
represented  as  taking  a  sympathetic 
interest  in  the  fortunes  of  his  de- 
scendants.'* This  is  Ewald's  opinion. 
But  though  a  similar  view  may  per- 
haps be  traced  elsewhere  in  the 
Bible  (see  on  Ixiii.  i6),  Jacob  is 
more  probably  a  collective  term  for 
the  people  of  Israel ;  otherwise,  how 
are  we  to  account  for  the  words  '  in 
his  midst ' .'' His  sons]  I  sus- 
pect this,  with  Ew.  (in  first  but  not 
second  edition)  and  Knob.,  to  be  an 


early  gloss,  intended  to  explain  the 
plural  '  f/iej'  shall  count  holy,'  and 
originally  written  in  the  margin. 
The  word  used  (yi'/ed,  not  di'»)  is 
not  found  with  'Jacob'  or  '  Israel' 
elsewhere.  I  have  not,  however, 
ventured  to  excise  the  suspected 
words.  For  the  change,  which  the 
proposed  reading  implies,  from  the 
collective  singuhir  to  the  plural, 
comp.  xlii.  24,  25.— — The  work  of 
my  bands]  i.e.,  the  divine  judgment 
(comp.  V.  12). 

-'  Erred  in   spirit]  So   Ps.  xcv. 
ID,  '  erring  in  the  heart.'    Comp.  on 

xxxii.  6. Instruction]   A   word 

in  the  gnomic  style  (six  times 
in  Proverbs).  Comp.  on  xxviii. 
23-29. 


CHAPTER  XXX. 

IS.MAH  denounces  the  irreligious  embassy  to  Egypt,  which  has  now  ac- 
tually been  sent.  He  predicts  that  Egypt  will  furnish  no  cfiective  help 
to  Judah,  and  that  this  flagrant  unbelief  of  the  Jews  will  be  punished  by 
the  ruin  of  the  state.  But  suddenly  an  impulse  conies  upon  Isaiah  to 
soften  his  tone,  and  offer  consolation.  True,  affairs  are  getting  worse 
and  worse,  but  at  the  last  extremity  Jehovah  will  interpose  for  his  waiting 
people.  A  splendid  description  is  then  given  of  the  Messianic  glories, 
followed  by  a  definite  prediction  of  the  catastrophe  in  store  for  Assyria. 
(See  Analysis,  /.  C.  A.,  p.  69.) 

'  Alas  for  the  unruly  sons  (it  is  Jehovah's  oracle),  carrj-ing 
out  a  pm-pose  which  is  not  from  me,  anil  "  weaving  a  web  " 
without  my  spirit,  that  they  may  add  sin  to  sin  ;  '  who  set 

•  Pouring  oul  a  libation,  Gcs. ,  Xacg. 

''  The  embassy  and  its  useless-       Hos.   viii  4. "Weaving  a  wob] 

ness.      Ala*    for]     So    Dr.     Kay,  i.e.,  the  proposed  treaty  with  Kgypi. 

comparing  i.  4. Wot  from  rae]  See  Del.  on  lenckring. 

Same  phrase  in  similar  connection,  -'  Have   not   asked]     A  signifi- 


CHAP.  XXX.] 


ISAIAH. 


175 


forth  to  go  down  to  Egypt,  and  have  not  asked  at  my  mouth, 
to  flee  unto  the  ^  asylum  of  Pharaoh,  and  to  take  refuge  in  the 
shadow  of  Egypt.  ^  But  the  ^  a.sylum  of  Pharaoh  shall  be 
unto  you  for  shame,  and  the  refuge  in  the  shadow  of  Egypt 
for  confusion.  "*  For  when  his  princes  appear  in  Zoan,  and 
his  messengers  arrive  at  Hanes,  ^  all  shall  be  ashamed  of 
people  who  cannot  profit  them,  who  are  not  for  help  nor  for 
profit,  but  for  shame  and  also  for  reproach.  ^  [^^  Utterance  of 
the  beasts  of  the  south-country.^]  Through  a  land  of  trouble 
and  distress,  whence  come  lioness  and  lion,  viper  and  flying 
dragon,  they  carry  upon  the  necks  of  young  asses  their  riches, 
and  upon  the  humps  of  camels  their  treasures,  to  people 
who  cannot  profit  them.     '  Yea,  the  Egyptians — in  vain  and 

*>  So  Del.  ;  Fortress,  Ges.,  E\v.  &c.  (see  Del.'s  note  here  and  on  Ps.  .\xxi.  3). 

<=  See  below. 


cant  indication  of  the  place  de- 
manded by  the  prophets  in  the 
theocracy. 

^'  *  The  predominant  or  regula- 
tive tense  (speaking  occidentally) 
is  the  perfect.  Isaiah  in  spirit  sees 
the  ambassadors  arrived  in  Egypt, 
and  meeting  with  a  disgraceful  dis- 
appointment.  Zoan  .  .  .  Hanes] 

Zoan  (see  on  xix.  11)  and  Hanes 
(from  the  Egyptian  Chenensu)  or 
Heracleopolis  magna,  had  given 
dynasties  to  Egypt,  and  were  now 
the  capitals  of  petty  kingdoms  (see 
Introd.  to  chap.  xix.).  Like  Zoan, 
it  is  still  untouched  by  exploration. 

People    -wtio     cannot    profit 

them]  So  the  Rab-shakeh  (xxxvi. 
6),  and  so  Sargon,  '  The  people  and 
their  evil  chiefs,  To  fight  against 
me  unto  Pharaoh,  The  King  of 
Egypt,  a  monarch  who  could  not 
save  them,  Their  presents  carried 
and  besought  his  alliance,'  (Smith, 
Assyrian  Caiton,  p.  130).  Comp. 
Introd.  to  chap.  xxxi. 

'^  ITtterance  of  the  beasts  of 
the  south]  An  early  reader  ap- 
pears to  have  written  this  in  the 
margin,  as  a  kind  of  catch-word  to 
mark  this  very  peculiar  verse.  Or, 
perhaps  an  editor  inserted  it,  not 
in  the  margin,  but  in  the  text,  sup- 
posing  a    new  prophecy  to    begin 


with  this  verse.  It  is,  however, 
impossible  to  separate  vv.  6,  7 
from  the  preceding  verses,  without 
which  they  are  unintelligible.  By 
the  '  beasts  of  the  south,'  the  inter- 
polator meant  those  mentioned  in 
V.  6.  Del.,  however,  who  still  main- 
tains the  Isaianic  origin  of  the  title, 
thinks  the  word  rendered  '  beasts  ' 
should  rather  be  translated  'river- 
ox,'  or  'river-horse'  (hippopotamus), 
the  Behemoth  of  Job  xl.  15.  This, 
he  remarks,  is  peculiarly  suitable 
in  this  connection  as  an  emblem 
of  the  pretentious  but  slow-moving 

Egypt. A  land  of  trouble  .  .  .  ] 

i.e.,  the  desert  between  Palestine 
and  Egypt.     Comp.  Deut.  viii.  15, 

Jer.     ii.    6. Viper    and    flying- 

drag:on]  King  Esar-haddon,  relat- 
ing the  hardships  he  underwent 
in  a  province  of  Arabia,  says  that 
'  of  snakes  and  scorpions  like  flies 
(Delitzsch,  "locusts")  the  land  was 
full'  (Fox  Talbot,  after  Oppert, 
T.  S.  B.  A.,  iv.  260).  As  to  the 
'  flying  dragon,'  see  on  xiv.  29. — — 
Their  riches]  i.e.,  their  presents 
for  the  Pharaoh. 

'  I  proclaim  .  .  •  ]  The  ob- 
jection to  alt.  rend,  is  that  it  does 
not  suit  the  following  words,  which 
present  not  a  new  name,  but  an 
explanation  of  an  old  one.      Isaiah 


176 


ISAIAH. 


[CIIAP.  XXX. 


empty    is    their   help,  therefore  ''  I    proclaim  concerning  it '' 
(Egypt),  '  Rahab  !  they  are  utter  indolence.' 

^  Now  go,  write  it  on  a  tablet  before  them,  and  inscribe  it 
on  a  scroll,  that  it  may  serve  to  an  after-day  '^^  for  a  testimony  *^ 
for  ever.  ^  For  it  is  a  disobedient  people,  lying  sons,  sons  that 
will  not  hear  the  teaching  of  Jehovah,  '°  who  say  to  the  seers. 
Ye  shall  not  see,  and  to  the  prophets.  Ye  shall  not  prophesy 
unto  us  right  things  ;  speak  unto  us  smooth  things,  prophesy 
illusions,  "  turn   aside  from  the  way,  decline  from  the  path, 

•^  I  name  it,  Ges.,  Hitz.,  E\v.,  Del.,  Naeg. 
•  So  Sept.,  Pesh.,  Vulg.,  Targ.,  Lo.,  Ew.,  Kr. — For  a  perpetuity.  Vowel-points. 


avails  himself  of  the  popular  taste 
for  pungcntly  ironical  humour.  The 
riddle  of  '  Ariel '  receives  its  coun- 
terpart in  that  of  Rahab  I  .  .  .  in- 
dolence] '  Rahab-hem-shcbheth.' 
Rahab  was  a  name  for  Er^pt  in 
Hebrew  poetry  (see  li.  9,  with  note, 
Job  xxvi.  12,  Ps.  Ixxxvii.  4,  Ixxxix. 
10),  derived  from  mytholof^y  and 
expressing  the  characteristic  and 
immense  '  arrogance '  of  the  Egyp- 
tians ('  ventosa  et  insolens  natio,' 
as  Pliny  in  his  Panegyric  calls 
them).  Simply  in  Jer.  1.  31,  32 
Babylon  is  called  '  Pride '  (zadon). 
Isaiah's  point  is  that  the  name 
Rahab  had  better  be  exchanged 
for  Shebheth,  i.e.,  '  inaction,'  so  in- 
capable have  its  bearers  showed 
themselves  of  carrying  out  their 
promises.  Obs.  Rahab  is  used 
collectively,  like  '  Egypt '  in  the  first 
verse-half  [I  do  not  feel  sure,  how- 
ever, that  the  text  is  correct.  Comp. 
Olshausen's  note  on  Jol)  ix.  13.] 

*••"  Here  Isaiah  pauses  in  his 
discourse,  warned,  perhaps,  by  the 
threatening  looks  of  the  bystanders. 
An  inner  voice  bids  him  (so  I  un- 
derstand V.  8)  first  of  all  write  a 
few  words,  such  as  '  Rahab — they 
are  all  inaction,'  upon  a  tablet  in 
the  large  common  character  to  be 
set  up  '  before  them  '  in  ]>ublic  (pre- 
cisely as  in  viii.  i),  and  then  in- 
scribe the  prophecy  more  fully  on' 
a  scroll.  For  the  latter  a  special 
reason  is  added.  Isaiah's  contem- 
poraries refuse  to  listen  to  any  l)ut 
flattering  prophecies,  so  thai  milcss 


perpetuated  by  writing,  the  recent 
revelation  will  be  ineftectual.— This 
is  probably  the  earliest  passage  of 
certain  date  in  which  a  Biblical 
author  distinctly  asserts  the  per- 
petual validity  of  his  writing.  Of 
course,  in  order  to  be  'a  testimony 
for  ever,'  the  prophecy  of  Isaiah 
must  be  stripped  of  its  temporary 
references,  and  Rahab  and  Israel 
regarded    as   types    of    permanent 

phases  of  character. inscribe] 

Lit.,  carve  or  engrave,  synonymous 
with  '  write,'  as  x.  i,  Job  xix. 
23,    and    in    late    Hebrew    (Zunz, 

Z.D.M.G.    XXV.    441). Scroll] 

Hebr.  scfcr.  The  Chald.  fornn-yr?/' 
is  used  in  the  Mishna  of  the  skins 
of  animals  (Low,  Bcitrage,  p.  115). 
Root,  to  scrape  or  smooth. 

"^  Prophets  .  .  .  prophesy] 
The  Hebr.  has  'seers  .  .  .  see' — 
different  words  from  the  preceding. 
The  Germans  well  'schcr'  and 
'schauer.' Ye  shall  not  pro- 
phesy] We  can  already  detect  the 
germs  of  the  persecution  which 
broke  out,  as  niayl)e  rightly  inferred, 
with  such  severity  under  ^ianasseh  ; 
comp.  V.  20,  Mic.  ii.  6,  1 1,  Am.  ii.  12 
and  2  Chr.  xxiv.  20,   21   (the  fate 

of  Zochariahl Speak  unto  us 

smooth  thing's]  Here  is  the  secret 
of  the  opposition  between  the  two 
classes  of  prophets  (the  'true'  and 
the  '  false '),  viz.,  that  the  one  makes 
prosperity  conditional  on  righteous- 
ness or  repentance,  the  other  does 
not.  See  Jer.  xxiii.  21,  22  (quoted 
in  /.  C.A.,  p.  73\  and  cf.  Kzck.  xiii. 


CHAP.  XXX. J 


ISAIAH. 


177 


abolish  out  of  our  sight  the  Holy  One  of  Israel  !  '^  There- 
fore thus  saith  the  Holy  One  of  Israel,  Because  ye  reject  this 
word,  and  trust  in  *'wile  and  policy,  and  rely  thereon,  '^there- 
fore this  guilt  shall  be  unto  you  as  a  rent  portion  that  falleth, 
bulging  out  in  a  high  wall,  whose  breaking  cometh  suddenly 
in  a  moment  ;  '^  and  he  will  break  it  as  one  breaketh  an 
earthen  pitcher,  shivering  it  unsparingly,  so  that  not  a  sherd 
is  found  in  its  shivered  pieces  for  taking  fire  from  the  hearth, 
or  drawing  water  from  a  cistern.  '^  For  thus  hath  the  Lord 
said,  even  Jehovah,  the  Holy  One  of  Israel,  By  returning  and 
rest  should  ye  be  saved,  in  quietness  and  in  confidence  should 
be  your  strength,  but  ye  have  refused  ;  ""and  ye  have  said, 
No,  but  on  horses  will  we  fly  ;  therefore  shall  ye  flee  ;  and, 
On  the  swift  will  we  ride  ;  therefore  swift  shall  be  those  that 
pursue  you.  '^  One  thousand  at  the  rebuke  of  one,  at  the 
rebuke  of  five  shall  ye  flee,  till  ye  be  left  as  a  pine  on  the  top 
of  a  mountain,  and  as  a  signal  on  a  hill.     '^  And  therefore 

'  So  Gr.  (transposing  two  letters). — Oppression,  Hebr.  te.xt.    (See  crit.  note.) 


^'^  TMs  word]  i.e.,  the  prophecy 
against  the  Egyptian  alliance,  the 
policy  of  which,  in  contrast  with 
simple  faith  in  Jehovah,  is  called  in 
the  parallel  line  wile  an<l  policy 
(lit.  perverseness  and  crookedness), 
comp.  x.xi.x.  1 5.  The  reading  '  op- 
pression '  is  explained  to  mean  the 
oppressive  measures  used  for  col- 
lecting the  subsidy  to  Egypt  (comp. 
2  Kings  XV.  20),  but  this  is  rather 
forced,  and  spoils  the  parallelism. 

"  Therefore  this  guilt  •  •  •  ] 
Sin,  when  it  is  mature,  develops 
into  punishment — one  of  the  fun- 
damental laws  of  God's  kingdom, 
according  to  the  prophets  (see  on 
v.  18,  and  comp.  i.  31,  xxxiii.  11,  12, 
James  i.  15).  On  the  figure  which 
follows,  see  Sir  E.  Strachey,  Hebrew 
Politics,  p.  285. 

"  Not  a  sherd  .  .  .  ]  '  It  is  very 
common  to  find  at  the  spring  or  the 
pit  pieces  of  broken  jars  to  be  used 
as  ladles,  either  to  drink  from  or  to 
fill  with  ;  and  bits  of  fractured  jars 
are  preserved  for  this  purpose.' 
Thomson,  The  Land  and  the  Book 
(1881),  p.  37. 

^^  The  conditions  of  the  proffered 
deliverance  are  returninir  and  rest. 
VOL.    I. 


''Returning'  here  is  not  'conver- 
sion '  (as  Henderson,  comp.  i.  27), 
but  the  abandonment  of  the  dis- 
quieting, distracting  search  for 
earthly  aids  (comp.  Ps.  cxvi.  7). 
Thus  Ew.  and  Del.  both  have  frag- 
ments of  the  meaning. 

'^  Horses  and  fly  rhyme  in  the 
Hebr.  The  horses  are  those  of 
Egypt,  xxxi.  3  ;  they  are  of  course 
representative  of  creaturely  objects 
of  confidence. 

^^  One  thousand  •  .  .  ]  A  fa- 
vourite hyperbole,  see  Deut.  xxxii. 
30,  Josh,  xxiii.  10,  Lev.  xxvi.  8.  An 
Egyptian  parallel  in  the  inscription 
of  king  Pianchi,  transl.  by  Cook  : 
'  Many  shall  turn  their  backs  on  a 
few,  and  one  shall  rout  a  thousand.' 

'^  Therefore]  Because  of  the 
extremity  of  your  need.  So  x.  23, 
24  ;  '  The  Lord  shall  make  a  con- 
sumption. .  .  .  Therefore  .  .  .  bq 
not  afraid  of  Assyria.'— The  ren- 
dering and  meaning  of  this  passage 
are  much  disputed  (see  crit.  note)  ; 
the  two  verbs  of  the  received  text 
seem  to  me  entirely  inconsistent ; 
the  emendation  of  a  '  tittle  '  (Matt, 
v.  18)  restores  harmony.  —  Here,  I 
cannot  help  thinking,  we  have  an 

N 


.78 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  XXX. 


will  Jehovah  long  till  he  can  be  graciou.s  unto  you,  and 
therefore  will  he  « wait  in  stillness  «  till  he  can  have  com- 
passion upon  you,  for  Jehovah  is  a  God  of  righteousness  ; 
happy  are  all  those  that  long  for  him  ! 

'-'  For  ^  a  people  shall  dwell  '*  in  Zion,  in  Jerusalem  ;  thou 
shalt  weep  no  more  :  he  will  surely  be  favourable  unto  thee  at 
the  voice  of  thy  cry  ;  as  soon  as  he  heareth  it,  he  hath  an- 
swered thee.  ^°  And  '  though  the  Lord '  give  you  bread  in 
short  measure  and  water  in  scant  quantity,  thy  ^  teachers  shall 
no  more  have  to  conceal  themselves,  but  thine  eyes  shall  con- 
stantly see  thy  ^  teachers  ;  ^'  and  thine  ears  shall  hear  a  word 
behind  thee,  saying,  '  Ihis  is  the  way,  walk  ye  in  it,'  when  ye 
turn  to  the  right  hand,  and  when  ye  turn  to  the  left.  -^And 
ye  shall  defile  the  covering  of  thy  silver  graven  images,  and 
the  overlaying  of  thy  golden  molten  images,  thou  shalt  scatter 

e  (Adopting  another  reading.)     Be  on  high,  Hebr.  te.xt. 
^  O  people  who  dwellest,  Ew. 
'  The  Lord  shall  [taking  the  verse  as  a  qualified  promise],  Del. ,  Kay. 
k  Teacher,  Ew.,  Kay,  Wellh.  {Gesck.  Isr.  i.  60),  Robertson  Smith  (The  Old  Testa- 
ment, &c.,  p.  282)  ;  not  Del. 

hiding-places  (see  on  v.  10),  and 
the  Divine  oracles  be  once  more 
constantly  heard.  Alt.  rendering 
is  quite  possible,  and  is  temptingly 
set  forth  by  Dr.  Kay  ;  but  the 
image  of  Jehovah  in  person  as  a 
guide  and  teacher  has  no  analogy 
in  this  prophecy.  In  chaps,  xl.- 
Ixvi.  it  would  be  more  intelligible 
(comp.  xl.  1 1). 

^'  A  new  figure,  not  a  continua- 
tion of  7/.  20.  With  the  inner  ear, 
the  Jews  shall  have  a  divinely 
whispered  warning,  whenever  they 
are  tempted  to  leave  the  straight 
path.     The  opposite  of  xxviii.  11. 

''-  But  before  a  fresh  shower  of 
blessings  can  descend,  the  nation 
must  make  a  decided  break  with 
the  past  : — they  must  destroy  the 
instruments  of  their  sin,  the  idols. 
The  '  high  places '  are  not  men- 
tioned ;  was  Isaiah  indift'ercnt  to 
their  abolition  ?  Has  the  narrative 
in  Kings  exaggerated  the  reforms  of 
Hezekiah.''     See  Last  li'on/s,  vol. 

ii. And  ye  .  .  .  ]  So  text ;  but 

it  may  be  an  error  for  the  second 

person  sing. Craven  .  .  .  mol- 

teo  images]  'Graven,  i.e.,  carved. 


instance  of  the  combination  of  dis- 
courses delivered  at  different  times. 
The  paragraph  to  which  v.  18  forms 
the  transition  seems  to  me  distinctly 
to  imply  that  invaders  are  already  in 

the  land. A  Ood  of  rigrbteous- 

ness]  A  God  who  faithfully  carries 
out  his  covenant,  showing  favour 
to  his  people  and  wrath  to  his 
enemies. 

19-33  i^he  true  confidence,  and  its 

reward. Por]  Because  Jehovah 

is  secretly  longing  to  show  mercy. 
Or,  confirmatory  of  the  last  clause, 

=  yea. A  people  shall  dwell] 

The  national  continuance  is  as- 
sured.  Xn  Sion]  With  an  allu- 
sion to  the  sacredness  of  Jehovah's 
abode.  Zion  was  the  title  for  Jeru- 
salem regarded  as  a  holy  city  (comp. 
ii.  3,  iv.  3,  xviii.  7).  But,  to  prevent 
any  misunderstanding,  or,  with  af 
fectionate  emphasis,  the  prophet 
adds,  '  in  Jerusalem.' 

■^0  Tbougb  ttie  Ziord  give  you 
.  .  .  ]  Judgment  shall  be  temi)cred 
with  mercy.  The  first  compensating 
benefit  arising  out  of  the  siege  will 
be  that  the  silenced  prophets  of 
Jehovah    shall    emerge  from   their 


CHAP.  XXX.] 


ISAIAir. 


them  as  loathsomeness  ;  thou  shalt  say  unto  it,  Go  out.  ^3  And 
he  shall  give  rain  for  thy  seed,  with  which  thou  sowest  the 

ground,  and  bread-corn  as   the  increase  of  the    ground it 

shall  be  juicy  and  fat ;  thy  cattle  shall  feed  in  that  day  in  a 
broad  pasture,  ^j  And  the  oxen  and  the  young  asses  which 
till  the  ground  shall  eat  mixed  provender  with  salt,  winnowed 
with  the  shovel  and  with  the  fan.  "  And  on  every  lofty 
mountain  and  on  every  high  hill  shall  be  rivulets  and  water- 
courses, in  the  day  of  the  great  slaughter,  when  the  towers 
fall.  26  And  the  light  of  the  moon  shall  be  as  the  light  of  the 
sun,  and  the  light  of  the  sun  shall  be  sevenfold  •  in  the  day 
that  Jehovah  bindcth  up  the  breach  of  his  people,  and  healeth 
the  wound  of  their  stroke. 

"Behold,  the  Name  of  Jehovah  cometh  from  far,  burnino- 

'  fc> 

'  Text  inserts,  '  as  the  light  of  seven  days. ' 

iii.  1 8,  and  especially  Ezek.  xlvii. 
Obs.  the  streams  flow  not  only  in 
the  plains,  but  among  the  sun- 
parched  mountains  and  hills  (so 
xli.  i8).  The  meaning  of  the  Hebr. 
root  yabhal  (  =  Ass.  abdlii)  is  '  to 
bring'  (here  of  artificial  water- 
courses).  Slaug-hter  .  .  towers] 

The  '  slaughter  '  is  that  of  Jehovah's 
enemies,  within  Israel  (xxviii.  i8- 
2i)  as  well  as  without.  The  'towers  ' 
are  all  irreligious  means  of  security 
(comp.  ii.  12),— not  the  Assyrian 
warriors,  an  image  without  analogy 
in  Isaiah. 

^"^  'God,  in  whose  light  we  see 
light,will  make  the  days  go  brighter" 
['gratior  it  dies,'  Horace]  '  in  the 
sense  of  his  favour  and  peace'  (R. 
Williams).  Comp.  Job  xi.  17.  But 
Isaiah  meant  more  than  this.  It  is 
the  glorification  of  nature  to  which 
the  prophet  here,  as  in  chap,  xi., 
refers.  '  Largior  hie  campos  sether 
et  lumine  vestit  Purpureo '  (Virgil, 
.■En.  vi.  640).  The  arithmetical 
interpretation  found  in  text  (see 
note')  belongs  to  some  late  scribe 
(in   Palestine,  not    in    Egypt,   see 

Sept.). Buildeth       up       the 

breach  .  .  .  ]  Same  image  as  in  i.  5. 
"~23  A  symbolic  description  of 
the  judgment,  introduced  byatheo- 
phany.  It  is  indeed  not  Jehovah 
in  the  absolute  sense  who  comes 


in  reference  to  the  inner  solid  figure 
of  wood  ;  molten,  i.e.,  overlaid  or 
covered,  in  reference  to  the  out- 
ward metalline  case  or  covering. 
Sometimes  both  epithets  are  ap- 
plied at  once  :  "  I  will  cut  off  the 
graven   and  molten    image,"  Nah. 

i.    14,'    (Bishop    Horsley). The 

covering-]  Specially  mentioned  as 
a  proof  of  earnestness,  the  overlay- 
ing being  the  most  costly  part  of 
the  images.  The  practice  of  gilding 
images  was  also  an  Assyrian  and 
Babylonian  one  (comp.  Dan.  iii.  i). 

• Scatter     them]     Comp.     Ex. 

xxxii.  20,  2  Kings  xxiii.  6. 

"^  After  this,  we  should  expect 
to  hear  of  the  destruction  of  the 
foe  (as  in  xxxi.  8,  comp.  7),  but  this 
grand  feature  in  the  description  is 
reserved  for  the  end.  First  of  all, 
the  minds  of  the  hearers  are  relieved 
as  to  their  means  of  living. 

''■'  '  His  mercies  are  over  all  his 
works.'  The  idea  of  the  '  solida- 
rity '  of  all  living  creatures  pervades 

the  O.T. Shovel    and    fan]     I 

retain  this  conventional  rendering. 
On  the  very  primitive  instruments 
which  are  probably  intended,  see 
Consul  Wetzstein,  in  an  excursus 
to  Delitzsch'sy^i-aza,  ed.  2,  p.  707. 

"  The  irrigation  of  the  soil — a 
prominent  feature  of  Messianic 
descriptions  ;  see  Am.  ix.  13,  Joel 


I  So 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  XXX. 


with  anger,  and  in  thick  uplifting  of  smoke  ;  his  lips  are  full 
of  indignation,  and  his  tongue  like  devouring  fire  ;  "^^  and  his 
breath  is  like  an  overflowing  torrent,  dividing  even  to  the 
neck,  to  swing  nations  in  the  fan  of  nothingness,  and  a  bridle 
which  leadeth  astray  (.shall  be)  upon  the  cheeks  of  the  peoples. 
^^  From  you  the  song  shall  be  as  in  the  night  when  a  feast 


but  the  name  of  Jehovah,  i.e.,  that 
side  of  Jehovah  which  is  mani- 
fested to  the  world,  or,  as  Del.  con- 
cisely puts  it,  '  the  God  of  Revela- 
tion.' The  form  of  expression  was 
easilyintelligible  to  Isaiah's  readers, 
being  common  to  the  Hebrew  with 
the  Phoenician  religion  (see  on  x.wi. 
8).  There  is  no  figure  of  speech  in 
it  ;  Isaiah  has  a  firm,  though  not 
logically  defined,  belief  in  the  mani- 
foldness  of  the  Divine  Being.  The 
Name  is  obviously  a  '  person,'  or 
perhaps  better  a  '  persona.'  See 
xviii.  7,  xxvi.  8,  and  notes  on  lix.  19, 
Ixiii.  9.  Also  Del.'s  note  on  Prov. 
xviii.  10  In  the  description  which 
follows,  the  two  figures  of  a  storm 
and  of  an    angry  man    are     fused 

together. indignation]        Dr. 

Robertson  Smith,  'angry  foam.' 
But  the  cognate  word  in  Arabic  is 
used  of  the  roaring  of  an  irritated 

animal.    Devouring       fire] 

Comp.  ix.  19,  X.  17,  xxix.  6,  xxxiii. 
14,  Ex.  xxiv.  17,  Deut.  ix.  3. 

'*  The  awful  appearance  comes 
stormily  along.  His  breath  is  like 
a  torrent  in  autumn  time,  which  all 
but  covers  the  man  who  has  fallen 
into  it  (comp.  viii.  8)  ;  and  his  ob- 
ject is  to  swlngr  nations  (i.e.,  to 
sift  them  with  a  violent  motion  of 
the  hand)  in  the  fan  of  (reducing 
them  to)  notbingrness  (comp.  xxix. 
5).  The  good  (Jsiris,  too,  in  his 
character  of  judge,  is  said  to  be 
represented    with  a  flail  or    whip. 

And  a  bridle  .  .  .  ]    A  fresh 

figure,  borrowed  form  hunting 
(comp.  Ezek.  xix.  4,  xxix.  4),  with 
perhaps  an  allusion  to  a  cruel 
practice  of  Eastern  conquerors 
(see  on  xxxvii.  29).  A  new  and 
terrible  feature  is  suggested  in  the 
words,  'which  leadeth  astray.'  The 
Assyrians  are   to    be   led    against 


their  will   into  paths  which  end  in 
ruin  (so  Job  xii.  24,  25). 

*"  The  fall  of  Assyria  shall  be 
greeted  with  dancing  and  with 
music.  Sir  E.  Strachey  appositely 
quotes  the  similar  conduct  of  the 
neighbours  of  Athens  on  the  de- 
struction of  the  Piraeus  (Grote,  ix. 
449).  In  neither  case  can  we  quite 
sympathise  ;  still  there  are  certain 
collateral  thoughts  in  Isaiah's  mind, 
to  be  gathered  from  this  and  the 
other  prophecies,  which  give  a  dif- 
ferent colour  to  its  anticipated 
rejoicing.    Comp.  also  Ps.  Iviii.  10, 

II. As    in  tbe  night  \irhen  a 

feast  Is  consecrated  (i.e.,  opened 
by  an  introductory  religious  cere- 
mony ;  compare  Ex.  xix.  22). 
It  is  not  improbable  that  the 
Passover  had  just  taken  place. 
Isaiah  had  predicted  (xxix.  i) 
that  when  the  feasts  had  '  gone 
round,'  the  dreaded  enemy  should 
be  brought  low,  so  that  when 
the  ne.xt  Passover  had  ushered  in 
the  new  (religious)  year,  it  would 
be  time  to  expect  the  fulfilment. 
The  appropriateness  of  the  refer- 
ence is  obvious,  the  danger  from 
Assyria  being  hardly  less  than 
that  at  the  Exodus.  There  is  also 
an  allusion  to  the  Passover  in  xxxi. 
5  (see  note).  The  mention  of  the 
night-celebration  ('  as  in  the  night ' 
&c.)  agrees  with  the  directions 
about  the  Passover,  Ex.  xii.  6,  8, 
42,  comp.  Matt.  xxvi.  o;  and  Ibn 
Ezra  even  refers  to  a  (doubtless 
Agadic)  story  that  Sennacherib's 
army  i)erished  on  the  Paschal  night. 
On  the  other  hand,  Ew.ild  and 
Wellhausen  (the  latter  influenced 
by  xxxii.  10)  think  it  is  the  Feast 
of  Tabernacles  (or  of  the  Ingather- 
ing) which  is  intended.  This  was 
essentially  a   joyous    festival,  and 


CHAP.  XXX.] 


ISAIAH. 


I8l 


is  consecrated,  and  there  shall  be  joy  of  heart,  like  his  who 
setteth  forth  to  the  flute  to  come  to  the  mountain  of  Jehovah, 
unto  the  Rock  of  Israel.  3°  And  Jehovah  shall  cause  the 
""  peal  of  his  voice  to  be  heard,  and  the  lighting  down  of  his 
arm  to  be  seen,  in  fury  of  anger,  and  the  flame  of  devouring 
fire,  the  bursting  of  clouds,  and  a  storm  of  rain,  and  hailt 
stones.  31  For  at  the  voice  of  Jehovah  shall  Asshur  be  panic- 
stricken,  when  he  shall  strike  with  the  rod  ;  ^^  ^nd  it  shall 
come  to  pass  that  whenever  the  destined  staff  passeth  over, 
which  Jehovah  letteth  down  upon  him  from  above,  it  shall  be 
with  timbrels  and  with  lutes  ;  and  with  battles  of  swinging 
will  he  fight  against  them.  33  poj.  ^  Topheth  hath  been  set  in 
order  beforehand  ;  it  "  also  is  "  prepared  for  °  Moloch  ;  he  hath 


So  Dr.  B.  Davies. 


"  The  king,  Evv.,  Del.,  Naeg.,  &c 


°  Is  also,  Ew. ,  Del. 


at  a  later  time  there  was  a  very 
elaborate  night-ritual  for  its  ob- 
servance (see  Haneberg's  Relig. 
Altc7'thHmer,  676-9).  It  is  men- 
tioned by  Hosea  (xii.  9),  and  is 
constantly  referred  to  as  '  the  feast,' 
see  I  Kings  viii.  2,  65,  xii.  32,  Ezek. 
xlv.  25  (see  Hebr.),  2  Chr.  vii.  8,9, 
and  throughout  the  Mishna  (Zunz)i 
— the  Passover  is  only  so  called  in 
the  NewTestament  (e.g.  Matt.  xxvi. 
5).  It  is  of  course  possible  that 
Isaiah  was  not  referring  to  one 
feast  more  than  another  ;  see,  how- 
ever,  on  xxix.    I   b  (against  Well- 

hausen). "Who     setteth     forth 

to  the  flute]  This  must  be  a  day- 
celebration  which  is  referred  to — 
-probably  the  festal  processions  of 
pilgrims  from  the  country.  Vitrin- 
ga  and  others  think  of  the  proces- 
sion of  those  who  brought  up  the 
first-fruits,  comparing  the  Talmudic 
treatise  Bikkf/riin,  iii.  3,  not,  how- 
ever, a  perfectly  reliable  authority 
(Herzfeld,  Gesch.  iii.  128,  159). 
Obs.,  there  is  no  mention  of  the 
Levitical  singers  here,  but  Jerusalem 
is  distinctly  recognized  as  the  re- 
ligious centre  (comp.  xxxiii.  20). 

The  Rock  of  Israel]  '  Rock '  was 
one  of  the  synonyms  for  Jehovah  ; 
so  xvii.  10,  xliv.  8,  comp.  Deut.  xxxii. 


(six  times),  also  the  proper  names 
Zuriel,  Zurishaddai.  Again  a  phrase 
of  mythic  origin. 

^•^  The  peal  of  his  voice]  See 
Del.  on  Job  xxxix.  20.  The  'voice  ' 
is  the  thunder  ;  comp.  Ps.  xxix. 

^-  The  destined  staft"]  Comp. 
Hab.  i.  12  :  '  O  Jehovah,  thou  hast 
appointed  them  {same  verb)  for 
Judgment.'— The  timbrels,  &c.  are 
those  with  which  the  Jews  are  prais- 
ing God. Battles  of  swinging'] 

i.e.,  those  in  which  Jehovah  swings 
his  rod  and  deals  blows  to  his  ene- 
mies, comp.  xix.  16. 

"  A  Topheth]  Hebr.,  tophteh, 
perhaps  a  derivative  of  Topheth  = 
a  place  suitable  for  human  sacri- 
fices, like  Topheth  (or  rather  the 
Topheth,  as  it  is  an  appellative). 
See  Jer.  xix.  13,  'the  place  of  the 

Topheth.' Beforehand]  viz.,  in 

the  Divine  counsels. it  also  is 

prepared  for  Aloloch]  '  It  also,' 
like  the  high  places  of  the  Topheth, 
is  prepared  for  a  great  burning  for 
Moloch  (the  heavenly  '  king,'  or  na- 
tional god).—'  What  greater  honour 
could  there  be  for  the  god  who 
delights  in  human  sacrifices,  than 
that  Sennacherib  and  his  army 
should  be  slain  and  burned  in  his 
honour.?'      There    is    a    precisely 


1  Plutarch  also,  in  treating  of  the  Jewish  festivals,  speaks  of  this  as  'their  greatest 
and  most  perfect  one'  [Symp.  iv.  6,  2).  ^ 


I«2 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  XXXI. 


made  it  deep  and  broad  ;  the  pile  thereof  hath  fire  and  much 
wood  ;  the  breath  of  Jehovah,  Hke  a  torrent  of  brimstone, 
shall  kindle  upon  it. 


similar  form  of  expression  in  xxxiv. 
6,  where  the  (figurative)  sacrifice  is 
destined  for  Jehovah.  It  is  true, 
Isaiah  nowhere  else  refers  to  Mo- 
loch, but  we  know  from  Jer.  vii.  31, 
xix.  13,  2  Kings  xxiii.  10,  comp. 
Isa.  Ivii.  5,  that  sacrifices  of  children 
were  offered  to  Moloch  in  the  pre- 
Exile  period,  and  the  Chronicles 
specially  mention  the  reign  of 
Ahaz  as  one  in  which  this  took 
place.  This,  which  I  prefer,  is  also 
the  view  of  Geiger,  Krochmal,  and 
Dr.  Payne  Smith.  In  a  slightly 
different  form  it  is  held  by  Luzzatto, 
Del,  and  Kuenen,  who  find  in  the 
passage  a  witty  allusion  to  the 
double  meaning  of  Melek.  The 
realTopheth  was  for  Moloch  (rather 
Molek,  a  dialectic  form  of  Melek), 
the  heavenly  king,  the  metaphori- 
cal one  for  the  king  of  Assyria. 
In  this  case,  we  must  substitute 
'  the  king'  for  '  Moloch.'  Alt.  rend., 
however,  is  quite  justifiable ;  see 
Del.  on  Job.  ii.  10.  It  makes  the 
clause  simply  the  statement  of  a 
fresh  fact  concerning  the  Topheth. 


The  king  wiU  then  be  simply  '  the 
great  king,  the  king  of  Assyria,' 
who,  though  he  has  to  be  burned 
like  a  malefactor  (Josh.  vii.  25, 
Lev.  XX.  14,  xxi.  9),  deserves  at  any 
rate  these  grandiose  preparations. 
If  this  view  be  adopted,  the  pro- 
phecy will  be  slightly  inconsistent 
with  that  in  xxxi.  8,  9,  where  Isaiah 
seems  to  speak  as  if  the  enemy 
would  take  flight,  and  return  to  his 
own  land  (comp.  xxxvii.  34).  This, 
however,  is  no  objection,  for  as  Dr. 
Riehm  remarks,  '  the  prophets  in 
order  to  make  their  threatenings 
and  promises  forcible  and  impres- 
sive, frequently  painted  in  detail 
the  features  of  approaching  judg- 
ment or  mercy,  without  attaching 
particular  importance  to  the  details 
themselves,  or  wishing  to  make  the 
truth  of  the  prediction  dependent 
upon    their    harmony '    {Messianic 

Prophecy^    p.    2d6). Seep    and 

broad]  To  take  in  the  Assyrian 
king  and  his  whole  army  (as 
xxxiii.  12). 


CHAPTER   XXXI. 

Unable  to  prevent  the  negotiations  with  Egypt,  Isaiah  exhibits  forcibly 
their  disastrous  consequences  to  both  the  parties  concerned.  He  speaks 
as  if  he  expected  that  the  Egyptians  would  actually  go  out  to  fight  against 
the  Assyrians,  but  that  they  would  suddenly  be  overthrown  by  the  hand 
of  Jehovah  (ta  3).  As  a  further  explanation,  the  prophet  adds  that 
Jehovah  himself  will  descend  to  save  mount  Zion  from  its  besiegers,  and 
appeals  to  his  countrjmen  to  return  to  their  allegiance  to  Jehovah. 

'  Woe  unto  those   that  go  down  to  Kg)-pt  for  help,  and 
rely  upon  horse.s  ;  and  that  trust  in  chariots  because  they  are 


'  Rely  upon  horses]  Comp, 
XXX.  16.  The  only  power  which 
could  compare  with  Assyria  in  its 
equipments  for  war  was  Egypt, 
the  reputation  of  whose  cavalry  is 


forcibly  shown  by  Sennacherib's 
description  of  the  battle  of  Altaku 
(A*.  J\  i.  36).  Every  petty  local 
king  had  his  stud  ;  his  noblest 
tribute  is  '  the  best  horses  of  his 


CHAP.  XXXI.] 


ISAIAH. 


iS 


many,  and  in  horsemen  because  they  are  very  strong,  but 
have  not  looked  unto  the  Holy  One  of  Israel,  and  have  not 
consulted  Jehovah  ;  ^  (though  he  also  is  wise,)  but  he  will 
bring  evil  to  pass,  and  his  words  he  will  not  set  aside,  and 
will  arise  against  the  house  of  evil-doers,  and  against  the 
helpers  of  those  that  work  wickedness.  ^  Yea,  the  Egyptians 
are  men  and  not  God,  and  their  horses  flesh  and  not  spirit  ; 
and  if  Jehovah  stretch  out  his  hand,  he  that  helpeth  will 
stumble,  and  he  that  is  helped  will  fall,  and  they  all  will  be 
consumed  together,     ^  For  thus  saith  Jehovah  unto  me.  As 


stables  ' — see  Lenormant,  Les  pre- 
niit'res  civilisations^  i.  31 1-3,  and 
comp.  Horn.,  //.  ix.  383,  4,  Ex.  xiv. 
6,  9,  I  Kings  X.  28,  29.  Strange  to 
say,  however,  there  is  no  represen- 
tation of  Egyptian  cavalry  on  the 
monuments.  The  weakness  of 
Judah  in  cavalry  is  strikingly  shown 
by  xxxvi.  8.  Isaiah  censures  the 
efforts  to  remedy  this  weakness  as 
religious  treason,  comp.  on  ii.  8. 

^  Thou^b  be  also  is  virise] 
Ironically ;  '  he  also,'  as  well  as 
the  Jewish  politicians  (xxix.  14). 
As  Evvald  remarks,  it  was  a  novelty 
to  call  Jehovah  wise,  due  to  the 
influence  of  the  Wise  Men  (see  on 

xxviii.    23-29). His    words]     A 

revealed  word  being  self-fulfilling 
(see  on  ix.  8).  The  '  words '  referred 
to  here  are  such  as  xxix.  14,  xxx. 
13-22. Tbe  bouse  of  evil- 
doers .  .  .  those  tbat  work 
wickedness]  i.e.,  the  untheocratic 
Jews  who  direct  the  affairs  of  the 
nation. 

^  I^en  and  not  God]  Comp. 
V.  8.  So  Hos.  xi.  9,  '  I  am  God  and 
not  man,'  i.e.,  specifically  different 

from  man  (see  on  x.  15). E'lesb 

and  not  spirit]  i.e.,  dependent 
creatures,  without  any  life  in  them- 
selves (xl.  6,  7),  and  sure  to  disap- 
point (Jer.  xvii.  5,  6).  The  idea  of 
'  flesh '  as  essentially  sinful  is  a 
derived  one. 

*  As  tbe  lion  .  .  .  ]  No  pas- 
sage in  the  book  of  Isaiah,  observes 
Del.,  has  such  a  Homeric  ring  as 
this  (comp.  //.  xviii.  16 1-2,  xii. 
299-302).  As  the  lion  will  not  give 
up   his  prey,  so  Jehovah  will  not 


allow  the  Assyrians  to  rob  him  of 
his  '  peculiar  treasure,'  Jerusalem. 
The  title  Jehovah  Sabdoth  is  here 
peculiarly  appropriate  (see  appendix 
to  chap,  i.) ;  it  has  also  governed 
the  selection  of  the  verb  for  fight. — 
The  rendering  '  fight  upon  '  (and  not 
'  fight  against ')  mount  Zion  seems 
to  me  to  be  required  by  the  terms 
of  the  figure  ;  and  to  be  confirmed 
by  the  title  '  God's  Lion '  in  xxix. 
I.      The    'growling'    of    the    lion 
'  over    his    prey '    corresponds    to 
the   thunder  amidst  which  (comp. 
xxix.  6)  Jehovah  shall  join  the  fray 
'  tipo?i  mount  Zion.'     If  the  prophet 
had    merely    meant    to    say    that 
Jehovah  would  execute  vengeance 
upon  Jerusalem,  he  would  not  have 
selected  a  figure  expressive  of  the 
determination  with  which  the  lord 
of  a  valuable  possession  resists  all 
attempts  to  deprive  him  of  it.     In 
fact,  supposing  that  the  descent  of 
Jehovah  is  hostile  to  Jerusalem,  the 
object  compared  to  Jehovah  must 
surely  be,  not  the  lion  who  resists, 
but    the    shepherds    who     attack, 
which  of  course  the  tenor  of  the 
description  renders  impossible.     It 
is  a  subsidiary  argument  in  favour 
of    my   view   that   the   next    verse 
contains  a  promise.     The  figure  of 
the  hovering  birds  exactly   corre- 
sponds to  that  of  the  lion  growling 
over  his  prey.     It  is  natural,  then, 
to  regard  v.  6  as  a  further  develop- 
ment   on  the  same  lines  as  v.  5. 
Still,  I  freely  admit  that,  were  Del.'s 
interpretation  of  v.   5   in  itself  the 
more    probable,  we  could    explain 
V.  6  on  the  analogy  of  xxix.  2,  which 


1 84 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  XXXI. 


the  Hon  with  the  young  Hon  growleth  over  his  prey,  against 
whom  there  is  called  a  troop  of  shepherds, — at  their  cry  he  is 
not  dismayed,  and  at  their  noise  he  is  not  cast  down, — so 
shall  Jehovah  Sabaoth  descend  to  fight  =*  upon  mount  Zion 
and  '"^  upon  the  hill  thereof.  ''  Like  birds  hovering,  so  shall 
Jehovah  Sabaoth  shelter  Jerusalem,  sheltering  and  delivering, 
passing  over  and  rescuing.  ^  Return  ye  unto  him,  against 
whom  they  have  gone  deep  in  transgression,  O  children  of 
Israel. 

^  For  in  that  day  they  shall  reject  every  one  his  not-gods 
of  silver  and  his  not-gods  of  gold,  which  your  hands  made  you 
for  a  sin,  *  and  Assyria  shall  fall  by  the  sword  of  one  who  is 
not  a  man,  and  the  sword  of  one  who  is  not  earth-born  shall 
devour  him  ;  and  he  shall  take  his  flight  from  the  sword, 
and  his  young  men  shall  be  put  to  forced  labour  :  ^  and  ^  his 
rock  shall  pass  away  ^  through  terror,  and  his  princes  shall  be 

•  SoGes.,  Ew. — Against,  Del.,  Kay,  Weir,  Naeg. 
^  He  shall  pass  by  his  rock,  Gas.,  Ew. 


has  a  transition  as  abrupt  as  that 
which  Del.  supposes  to  exist  in  7'.  6. 

*  Jehovah  is  like  a  lion  to  his 
foes,  but  like  a  mother-bird  to  his 
own.  Strong  and  bold  and  coura- 
geous as  the  lion,  tender  and  pro- 
vident as  the  bird,  but,  unlike  even 
the  eagle,  able  under  all  circum- 
stances to  repel  the  assailant. 
There  is  a  similar  effective  contrast 
of  figures  in  Mic.  v.  y,  8.  For  the 
comparison  of  Jehovah  to  a  lion, 
see  xxxviii.  13,  Hos.  v.  14,  x.  10, 
Am.  i.  2,  Jer.  xxv.  38  ;  to  a  bird, 
Deut.  xxxii.  11.  Other  bird-similes 
in  I.  Isaiah,  x.  14,  xvi.  2  ;  in 
II.  Isaiah,  xl.  31,  lix.  11,  Ix.  8.— — 
Passing:  over]  The  explanation 
of  the  Passover  (Pesakh)  presup- 
posed in  Exodus  (xii.  13)  seems  to 
be  well  known  to  Isaiah. 

^  Return  ye  ...  ]  Those  who 
adhere  to  the  ordinary  sense  of  the 
imperative  have  to  supply  the  con- 
nection from  the  statements  of 
Isaiah  elsewhere.  Jerusalem  will 
be  sifted  'in  that  day,'  and  only 
those  who  '  return,'  or  are  converted, 
will  be  saved.  Therefore,  return 
in  time.  It  is  also  ])ossible  to  take 
the  imperative  here  as  conveying  a 


strong  assurance  ;  comp.  x.  21  for 
the  thought  and  xxxiii.  20  for  the 
idiom.  (The  change  of  person  is 
harsh,  but  see  next  verse.) 

'  The  casting  away  of  the  idols  is 
not  a  mark  of  despairing  irritation 
(as  in  ii.  20),  but  of  repentance. 
What  the  prophet  asked  for  in  v.  6, 
he  predicts  in  v.  7. 

*  The  sword]  This  symbolic 
phrase  (see  on  xxvii.  i)  suggests  a 
storm  of  thunder  and  lightning ; 
comp.  xxix.  6. 

^  His  rock]  (lit.,  his  cliff)  i.e., 
the  king  of  Assyria  (Luther,  Del., 
Riehm,  Naeg.),  whose  name  and 
power  had  hitherto  been  '  as  the 
shadow  of  a  huge  clift"'  to  his  ser- 
vants. The  expression  is  singular, 
but  not  more  so  than  xix.  13  (which 
see).  Two  points  must  be  held 
firmly,  i.  that  '  his  rock'  is  the  sub- 
ject, on  account  of  the  parallelism, 
which  is  very  closely  preserved  in 
this  chapter;  and  2.  that  the  'rock' 
is  a  person. — Hitzig's  explanation, 
'  the  rock  on  which  Asshur  thought 
himself  so  firmly  planted'  (comp. 
Ps.  XXX.  7),  is  unsuitable  to  the 
words  'through  terror.'  Perhaps 
the  word  for  '  cliflf '  was  selected  in 


CHAP.  XXXII.]  ISAIAH.  185 

panic-stricken    at   the  signal  :    the    oracle    of  Jehovah,  who 
hath  his  fire  in  Zion,  and  his  furnace  in  Jerusalem. 

preference   to   that  for   '  rock '   on  furnace]  Not  with  reference  to  the 

account    of  the  specially  religious  altar  of  sacrifice  (comp.  xxix.  i .?),  for 

acceptation  of  the  latter  term  (e.g.,  '  furnace '    is    never   used    in    this 

Deut.    xxxii.    31). The    sig-nal]  connection,     but    symbolically    of 

The  sight  of  the  signal-pole,  which  the  light  of  Jehovah's  presence  on 

formed    the    Jewish   rallying-point  mount  Zion,  which  is  a  protection 

(xni.   2),  shall  throw  the  Assyrian  to  his  friends,  a  destruction  to  his 

prmces  into  a  panic. Tice  .  .  .  enemies  (Del.).     Comp.  x.  17. 


CHAPTER  XXXII. 


Vv.   1-8   ought  clearly  to  be  separated  from  vv.   9-20.      They   corre- 
spond to  the  close  of  another  great  anti-Assyrian   prophecy— chap  xi 
and  describe  the  happy  condition  of  Judah  when  idols  have  been  cast 
away  (xxxi.   7),  and  the  rod    of  Assyrian  tyranny  has    been  removed 
A  more  just  and  merciful  government— nay,  an  absolutely  perfect  Go- 
vernment-shall then  be   enjoyed,  the  result   (as  we    must   infer  from 
xxxn.  15)  of  a  large  outpouring  of  the  divine  Spirit.     'As  the  conse- 
quence of  this,  moral  distinctions  shall  no  longer  be  confounded  men 
shall  be  estimated  at  their  real  value ;  a  general  prediction,  which  is 
here  applied   to  two  specific   cases,   vv.    5-8'  (Alexander).— The  pro- 
phecy is  Messianic,  but    not    in   the    narrower  sense  which  has  been 
derived  from  a  mistranslation  of  7,/.  2.     It  seems  as  if  Isaiah  sometimes 
(comp.  xxxiii.  17)  cherished  the  hope  that  the  hereditary  wearer  of  the 
Davidic  crown  would  prove  a  worthy  vicegerent  of  the  supreme  King, 
Jehovah.     All  prophecy  is  conditional.     The  tone  of  Isaiah  in  another 
prophecy  written  probably  in  the  same  period  (x.  5-xi.),  but  somewhat 
later,  seems  to  me  to  prove  that  there  had  really  been  an  outpourino- 
of  the    divine  Spirit  on  the  ruling  class  of  Jerusalem   (comp.   Introd'' 
to  chap,  xxii.,  end).     If  Hezekiah  had  been  capable  of  receiving  the 
Messianic  gifts  in  full  measure,  the  prediction  in  ix.  6,  7,  would \ave 
been    (from  the  prophetic    point  of   view)  sufficiently  fulfilled  in  him. 
When  Isaiah  wrote  xxxii.  r,  he  may  have  had  grounds  for  the  chari- 
table  belief  that  his  sovereign  would  really  be  equal  to  the  demands 
providentially   made   upon    him.        All    that    was    certain    to  him  was 
the  coming  of  a  new  era  for  Israel  and  for  the  world,  and  whether  the 
leadership    of  Israel    would    then    be  granted    to    the    natural    heir  of 
David,  or  to  Another,  depended  on   Hezekiah's  responsible  exercise  of 
his  free  will. 

'  Behold,  righteously  the  king  shall  reign,  and  the  princes 

;-8  Regenerate  Judah.  (as  in  xx.xiii.   17).     If  Hezekiah  is 

The  klngr]  Or  rather,  royalty—      meant,     his    character    has    been 

putting  aside  the  person  altogether      purged  of  its  dross.     At  any  rate 


1 86 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  XXXII. 


justly  shall  they  rule:  ^  and  ""a  great  man  ^  shall  be  as  a 
hiding-place  from  the  wind,  and  a  covert  from  the  rain-storm, 
as  rivulets  in  a  parched  land,  as  the  shadow  of  a  huge  cliff 
in  a  thirsty  land.  ^  And  the  eyes  of  those  who  see  shall 
not  be  closed,  and  the  ears  of  those  who  hear  shall  hearken ; 
*  and  the  heart  of  the  hasty  shall  perceive  distinctly,  and  the 
tongue  of  the  stammerers  shall  be  prompt  to  speak  plainly. 
^  No  more  shall  the  fool  be  called  noble,  and  the  knave  shall 
no  more  be  named  gentle.  ^  For  the  fool  speaketh  folly,  and 
his  heart  prepareth  wickedness,  practising  profanity,  and 
uttering  error  concerning  Jehovah,  to  make  empty  the  soul 
of  the  hungry,  and  to  cause  the  drink  of  the  thirsty  to  fail ; 
'  and  ^  the  machinations  of  the  knave  ^  are  evil,  it  is  he  who 
deviseth  plots,  to  ruin  the  afflicted  by  lying  words,  even  when 
the  poor  speaketh  that  which  is  right,  ®  but  the  noble  deviseth 
noble  things,  and  /it^  to  noble  things  shall  stand. 

a  A  man,  Kay.     Vir  (ille),  Vitr. — Each  one,  Ges.,  E\v.,  Del,  Naeg. 
•>  As  for  a  mean  man,  his  means,  Rodwell  (a  paronomasia). 


Vv.  9-20.  A  supplementary  address  to  the  women,  gathered,  we  may 
suppose,  at  a  little  distance  from  the  rest,  and  testifying  their  indifference 
(comp.  iii.  16-24).     The  prophet  warns  them  that  their  self-pleasing  and 


nothing  indicates  that  the  Messiah 
is  intended  ;  king  and  princes  are 
placed  quite  on  a  level,  in  accord- 
ance with  the  actual  state  of  things 
under  the  so-called  Monarchy. 
Indeed,  the  character  of  the 
'  princes '  is  of  almost  more  import- 
ance than  that  of  the  king — hence 
the  stress  laid  in  the  foil,  verses  on 
the  changed  character  of  the  go- 
verning classes.  Contrast  the  re- 
buke in  iii.  14,  15. 

'^  A  grreat  man]  Strictly,  anyone 
(king  or  prince)  who  belongs  to  the 
class  of  great  men  (/ii'S/jfr).  Against 
the  rend,  'each  one,'  see  Dr.  Kay's 
note. 

^  A  spiritual  change  described 
in  symbols.  Those  who  see  .  •  •  ] 
who  ought  to  sec,  but  are  judicially 
hardened  (xxix.  10). 

■'  The  heart]  i.e.,  the   mind  (sec 

especially    i    Kings   x.   2,  24). 

Hasty]     Precipitate    in    decisions, 


perhaps  with  an  allusion  to  the 
Egyptian  alliance  (Weir).  (Same 
word  differently  applied,  xxxv.  4.) 

The      stammerers]        Those 

whose  thoughts  and  words  are  in- 
definite and  inconsistent  (Del.)  ; 
not,  mockers,  comp.  xxviii.  14,  &c. 
(Knob.,  Drechsler). 

*~^  Obs.  the  undercurrent  of  irony 
towards  the  governing  classes  ;  also 
the  growing  tendency  to  the  pro- 
verbial style  (see  on  xxviii.  23-29, 
xxxi.  2). The  fool]  i.e.,  the  un- 
godly man,   sin  being  the  highest 

folly  ;  see  v.  6. XVoble     .     .     . 

g:entle]  In  rank  ;  not  (as  in  7'.  8) 
in  character. 

"  Error]  Dr.  Weir  renders 
'heresy.'  In  fact,  in  Rabbinic 
Mebr.  and  in  Aramaic  the  stem 
does  acquire  the  meaning  of  heresy 
(and  in  Assyrian,  of  madness); 
here,  however,  it  is  rather  'practi- 
cal atheism'  which  is  meant,  comp. 


CHAP.  XXXII.] 


ISAIAH. 


1S7 


security  will  not  last  much  longer.  He  then  describes  the  impending 
judgment,  and  contrasts  the  true  security  with  the  false.  There  is  a 
point  of  contact  with  the  foregoing  long  prophecy  in  •z/.  1 5  (see  note). 

^  Ye  women  who  are  at  ease,  rise  up,  hear  my  voice  ;  ye 
^  confident  daughters,  give  ear  uiito  my  speech.  '"  In  a  year 
and  days  ye  shall  shudder,  ye  confident  ones  ;  for  the  vintage 
is  consumed,  the  fruit-gathering  cometh  not.  "Tremble,  ye 
that  are  at  ease  ;  shudder,  ye  confident  ones  ;  strip  you,  and 
make  you  bare,  and  gird  sackcloth  upon  your  loins.  '^  They 
shall  smite  upon  the  breasts  for  the  pleasant  fields,  for  the 
fruitful  vine.  '^Upon  the  land  of  my  people  thorns  and 
briars  shall  come  up  ;  yea,  upon  all  joyous  houses  of  the 
merry  town.     '"*  For  the  palace  shall  be  forsaken  ;  the  hum  of 

•=  Self-flattering,  Weir. 


xxix.   15,  Ps.    xiv.     I.      A    similar 

phrase    in  xxix.   24. To  make 

empty  the  soul  .  .  .  ]  To  deprive 
him  of  that  which  would  satisfy  his 
needs  (see  xxix.  8).  Compare  the 
character  of  '  Nabal '  (  =  Fool),  i 
Sam.  XXV. 

^  "Who  are  at  ease]  i.e.,  uncon- 
cerned. Always  in  a  bad  sense 
(Am.  vi.  I,  Zech.   i.    15,   Ps.  cxxiii. 

4),  except  V.  18  and  xxxiii.  20. 

Confident]  In  a  bad  sense,  com- 
pare Am.  vi.  I,  'who  are  confident 
in  the  mountain  of  Samaria.'  In  a 
good  sense,  xii.  2,  Ps.  xxvii.  3. 

'°  In  a  year  and  days]  Lit. 
(Add)  days  (whether  many,  as 
Num.  ix.  22  Q.  P.  B.^  or  few,  as 
Gen.  xxiv.  55)  to  a  year.  Comp.  on 
xxix.  I. The  vintag:e  is  con- 
sumed] It  is  the  perfect  of  pro- 
phetic certitude.  If  the  harvest 
was  already  over  when  this  short 
prophecy  was  delivered  (this  would 
bring  the  date  down  to  July),  the 
words  will  have  double  force. 

"  Strip  you]  See  on  xx.  2. 

^2  They  shall  smite  .  .  .  ]  A 
participle  in  the  masc.  gender. 
'  Upon  the  breasts,'  for  the  sake 
of  a  play  upon  words  {shaddyini 
'  breasts,'  s'de  '  fields  '). 

'*  The  palace  shall  be  for- 
saken .  .  .  ]  Perhaps  the  '  palace 
of  the  king's  house'  (i  Kings  xvi.  18, 
comp.   2    Kings  xv.   25)   is  meant. 


Here  is  another  illustration  of  the 
vagueness  of  the  outlines  of  Mes- 
sianic prophecy  (comp.  /.  C.  A., 
p.  79).  In  the  rest  of  this  group  of 
prophecies  (xxix.  5,  xxx.  19,  xxxi. 
4),  Isaiah  apparently  anticipates 
that  Jerusalem  will  be  delivered 
from  the  Assyrians,  but  here  that 
it  will  be  destroyed,  and  lie  for 
some  time  in  ruins.  The  conse- 
quence is  that  the  Messianic  bless- 
edness which  is  elsewhere  drawn 
closely  together  with  the  present, 
is  here  thrown  into  an  indefinitely 
distant  future.  There  are  points  of 
contact,  however,  with  earlier  pro- 
phecies, which  show  that  anticipa- 
tions of  this  gloomier  kind  were 
frequent  visitors  to  Isaiah  (v.  9, 
10,  vi.  11-13),  and  connecting  as 
he  did  the  political  future  with  the 
moral  state  of  his  country,  it  was 
natural  that  the  variations  in  his 
view  of  the  latter  should  reflect 
themselves  in  his  view  of  the 
former.  Parallel  for  the  prediction 
of   the  destruction    of  Jerusalem, 

Mic.   iii.    12,  comp.   iv.    i.  The 

mound]  Hebr.  '■  op  he  I ^  which,  was 
the  name  of    the    steep   southern 

side    of    the    temple-hill. The 

watch-tower]  i.e.,  perhaps  the 
'  tower  of  the  flock,'  mentioned 
in    Mic.  iv.  8,  in  connection  with 

'  the  hill '  (/.  C.  A.,  p.  79). Wild 

asses]  which   haunted  the   desert 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  XXXII. 


the  city  shall  be  deserted  ;  the  mound  and  the  watch-tower 
shall  be  instead  of  caves  for  ever,  the  joy  of  wild  asses,  the 
pasture  of  flocks,  ^^  until  the  spirit  be  poured  out  upon  us 
from  on  high  ;  and  the  pasture  country  shall  become  a  garden- 
land,  and  the  garden-land  shall  be  counted  for  a  forest,  '^  and 
justice  shall  inhabit  the  pasture-country,  and  righteousness 
shall  dwell  in  the  garden- land,  '^  and  the  fruit  of  righteousness 
shall  be  peace,  and  the  effect  of  righteousness  quietness  and 
confidence  for  ever,  '^  and  my  people  shall  inhabit  a  home 
of  peace,  and  dwellings  of  confidence,  and  easeful  resting- 
places  ;  ^^  but  it  shall  hail,  when  the  forest  cometh  down,  and 
the  city  shall  sink  in  abasement.     ^^  Happy  are  ye  who  sow 


(Job  xxiv.   5) ;  they  have  now  dis- 
appeared from  Palestine. 

15  Until  the   spirit  .   .  .  ]  '  The 

spirit  giveth  hfe,'  is  the  key  to  this 
passage.  The  saying  about  Le- 
banon's becoming  a  garden-land 
was  probably  a  favourite  one  with 
Isaiah  (see  on  xxi.\.  17).  It  may 
of  course  be  taken  either  literally 
or  symbolically,  but  is  best  ex- 
plained (as  remarked  already)  of  a 
transformation  of  nature  which 
goes  hand  in  hand  with  that  of  man. 
The  implication  is  that  the  life- 
giving  Spirit  had  been  (i.e.,  would 
be)  withdrawn  not  only  from  the 
Jews,  but  from  their  land  Both 
people  and  country  were  (i.e., 
would  be)  reduced  by  oppression 
to  a  mere  shadow  of  what  they  had 
been,  far  as  even  this  was  from 
what  they  were  destined  to  be. 

^°  The  inward  blessings  shall  cor- 
respond to  the  outward.  Wherever 
there  are  human  dwellings,  be  they 
inthcuncultivated  pasture-land  orin 
the  fruitful  garden-land,  justice  and 
righteousness  shall  be  liousemates. 
"i"  Allusion  in  James  iii.  18. 
Peace]  In  the  objective  sense  = 
welfare. 

18  Of  confidence  .  .  .  easeful] 
Comp.  vv.  9-11,  xxxiii.  20. 

''■*  But  last  of  all  the  prophet 
must  remind  his  readers  that  the 
way  to  this  ideal  state  lies  through 
bitter  suffering.  The  'hail'  of 
God's  judgments  shall  descend  on 
the  forest,  and  '  the  city '  shall  be 


utterly  abased.     Expositors   seem 
to  be  agreed  that  the  '  forest '  means 
the  stately  army  of  Assyria  (comp. 
X.  18,  19,  ;^3,  34),  and  only  to  difter 
as  to  the   reference  of  '  the  city,' 
which  most  critics  suppose  to  be 
Jerusalem,    but    Lowth    and  Ges. 
take  to  be  Nineveh,  Drechsler  and 
Naeg.  the  city  in  which  the  hos- 
tility of  the  world  to  Jehovah  will 
in  the  latter  days  be  centralised  ; 
comp.  XXV.  2,   xxvi.   5,  6,  xxvii.  10, 
1 1.     The  latter  view,  however,  in 
both  its  forms,  is  very  improbable, 
because  the  fate  of  Nineveh,  or  of 
the  future  metropolis  of  antitheism, 
is  nowhere  else  referred  to  in   this 
group    of    prophecies.       Still    the 
transition    from     the    'forest'     of 
Assyria  to  the  'city'  of  Jerusalem 
would  be  peculiarly  abrupt,  and  is 
not  to  be   assumed    except  under 
compulsion.     It  is  usual,  indeed,  to 
compare  (see  above)   certain   pas- 
sages in  which  Assyria  is  likened 
to  a  forest,  but  is  there  any  reason 
why    the   same   figure    should  not 
be  applied  to  Judah  ?   A  very  simi- 
lar one  is  so  applied^  in  ii.    13  (at 
once  literal  and  symbolical),  vi.  13, 
xi.   I.     I  therefore  take  the   forest 
to  be  a  symbol  of  the  proud  and 
scornful  rulers  of  Judah,  to  whose 
imminent  judgment  Isaiah  actually 
refers  under  the  figure  of  hail  in 
xxviii.  17. 

'^'^  '  Happy  days  will  those  be  for 
the  tillers  of  the  soil  ! '  A  weak 
conclusion,  it   may   seem   at   first 


CHAP.  XXXIII.]  ISAIAH.  189 

beside  all  waters,  who  let  loose  the  foot  of  the  ox  and  the 
ass  ! 

sight,  but  we  must  consider  the  doing  the  work  committed  to  them 
sufiferings  caused  by  the  all  but  by  God,  alike  in  storm  and  in  sun- 
total  extinction  of  agriculture  during  shine,  confiding  in  the  righteous- 
the  Assyrian  invasion.  Besides,  ness  of  God.'  He  compares  the 
agricultural  prosperity  is  one  of  the  close  of  chap,  xxviii.,  and  Eccles. 

most  constant  and  prominent  fea-  xi.   i,    6. Beside    all    waters] 

tures    in    Messianic    descriptions.  For  there  will  be  irrigation  every- 

Dr. Weir  explains  rather  differently.  where    (xxx.    25),    and    unchecked 

*  Happy  they  who  go  steadily  on,  freedom  in  tilling  the  soil. 


CHAPTER   XXXIII. 


Retribution  to  Assyria  ;  Israel's  extremity,  Jehovah's  opportunity  ;  the 
hope  of  a  glorious  future — but  not  for  unbelievers.  (See  detailed  analysis 
/.  C.  A.,  p.  97.) — Date,  the  25th  (or  27th)  year  of  Hezekiah,  B.C.  701 
(comp.  top  of  p.  207),  in  which  year  the  inscriptions  place  the  invasion  of 
Sennacherib.  The  prophecy  is  highly  figurative  in  style,  and  often  ob- 
scure. Ewald  has  a  strong  impression  that  it  is  not  the  work  of  Isaiah, 
but  of  one  of  Isaiah's  disciples.  There  are,  no  doubt,  a  few  peculiarities 
of  phraseology  (see  Ewald's  Prophets,  ii.  254)  ;  but,  as  Ewald  himself 
admits,  there  are  other  phrases  specially  characteristic  of  Isaiah,  and  the 
entire  spirit  reminds  us  of  that  prophet.  Few,  however,  will  deny  that  the 
style  is  less  uniformly  sustained  than  usual,  and  it  seems  to  me  a  reason- 
able conjecture  that  Isaiah  has  left  this  prophecy  imperfectly  prepared 
for  publication.     Perhaps  this  does  but  make  it  the  more  interesting. 

^  Woe  unto  thee  who  spoilest,  and  hast  not  been  spoiled, 
and  who  dealest  barbarously,  and  they  have  not  dealt  bar- 
barously with  thee  !  When  thou  shalt  have  ceased  to  spoil, 
thou  shalt  be  spoiled  ;  when  thou  shalt  have  finished  dealing 
barbarously,  they  shall  deal  barbarously  with  thee.  ^  O 
Jehovah  !  be  favourable  unto  us  ;  for  thee  have  we  waited : 
be  thou  ^  our  arm  every  morning,  our  salvation  also  in  the 
time  of  trouble.     ^  At  a  tumultuous  sound  the  peoples  have 

a  So  Lowtli  ;  TEXT,  their. 

^  "Woe  unto  thee  .  •  .  ]  Assyria,  enabled  to  realize  the  certainty  of 

who   has    dealt   destruction   to    so  what  seemed  so  unlikely,  the  fall  of 

many,  shall  at  length  suffer  violence  Assyria.     He  speaks  in  the  name 

herself.     Taking  the  two  halves  of  of  the  '  fifty  righteous  '  (Gen.  xviii.), 

the  verse,  this  seems  more  probable  for  whose  sake  God  will  spare  a 

than  Hitzig's  view  that  it  is  a  com-  city,   many  of  them    his  own  dis- 

plaint  of  unprovoked  aggression.  ciples. 

^  The  prophet  concentrates  his  ^  At  a  tumultuous  sound]  The 

moral  energy  on  prayer,  and  is  thus  word  used  suggests  the  image,  not 


I90 


ISAIAH. 


[chap,  xxxiii. 


fled  ;  at  the  lifting  up  of  thj-self  the  nations  are  scattered  ; 
^and  your  spoil  is  gathered  as  when  caterpillars  gather ;  as 
when  locusts  run  to  and  fro,  he  runneth  upon  it  *  Jeho\-ah 
is  secure,  for  he  dwelleth  in  the  hdght ;  he  hath  filled  Zion 
with  justice  and  righteousness ;  *  and  the  steadfastness  of  thy 
times  shall  be  a  stCMie  of  salvations,  (and)  wisdom  and  know- 
ledge :  the  fear  of  Jehovah  is  his  treasure. 

"  Behold,  the  Ariels  cry-  without ;  the  messengers  of 
peace  weep  bitterly.  *  The  highways  are  desolate  ;  the 
wayfaring  man  hath  ceased ;  he  hath  broken  the  covenant. 


so  modi  of  tfannd^  (Em^  KdoIx, 
DeL),  as  of  the  soimd  of  many 
watexs  (compL  Jer.  x.  13,  Taek.  L  24, 

Rer.  xix.  6^ Vbe  peylem]   As 

r^vesented  in  the  Assyrian  army. 

At  the  Uftiag^  vp  .   .  .  ]    So 

Num.  X.  35.  Ps.  IxviiL  i. 

*  Tmmr  ^p«a]  Addressed  to  the 

foe.  CcMnp.  V.  23. Be  ■■■■ith] 

Tiz.,  die  band  of  spmlezs,  ot,  dis- 
tiibotivdly,  each  of  its  membeis. 

3  Tvo  gieat  spiritnal  fads :  (i) 
Tdiorah  hf  his  t^rroance  of 
Zioo  (regarded  here  as  past",  has 
shown  that  he  is  s«rare,  i.e..  inac- 
cessible to  his  enemies ;  and  (2)  he 
hath  ^TT*^  Xiea  vith  spuilual  tiea- 
smes.  the  Mesaanic  pramiseaf  the 
^Mrit  EcxiL  15,  i6)  boi^  drawn 
together  into  ooe  with  the  over- 
throw of  the  Assyrians. 

*  Thy  ttaas]  Le,,  the  *  diai^es 
and  chances' of  thy  life  (Ps.  xxxL 
i;>.     The  pranoan  n§Exs  to  the 


peof^  (rf  Jodah shall  he]  Le., 

^baH  consist  in. A,  steee  ef  aal- 

■  ■iliiwii]  ready  for. eray  need. 


of  Jadah, — the  mooming  in  the 
ca{Mtal  and  the  desoJafion  in  the 

country-districts^ ^She    Axiels] 

Lc  *  God's  lions,'  |M<^ed  warricNrs 
each  as  fierce  as  a  lion,  and  as 
invincible  as  his  God  comp.  sdx. 
i}.*  How  tmly  Homeric  is  the 
scoie !  In  feet,  a  childlike  emo- 
ti<«al  sotsibitity  is  characteristic 
of  the  heroic  age  everywhere. 
CcMnpL  Judg.  sx.  23.   I    Sam.  siii. 

16   Sept. The  nessesg^rs  ef 

peeee]  The  ambassadors  sent  by 
Hez^sah  to  Sennacherib :  they 
•  weep  bittoly '  at  the  hard  con- 
ditiiRis  of  peace.  It  is  uncertain 
whether  2  Kings  xviiL  14  can  be 
compared ;  see  Introd.  to  chap. 
\\\\i.-\\\\f. 

*  The  returning  ambassadors  are 
the  last  citizens  who  have  voitured 
outside  the  walls.  CompL  the  pa- 
rallel in  Judg.  T.  6.  Thai  three 
sh«t  passionate  danses  about  the 
stem  Assyrian,  whom  notho*  moral 
oU^atioais,  nor  fear  of  physical 
force,  nor  respect  for  human  life, 
can  check. Be  hath  hrok.en  tbe 


•]  Widi  an  impGed  re- 
buke to  the  treasnre-lovii^  kii^s  of 
Jndah ;  or,  as  others  think,  with  an 
aDosian  to  the  large  fine  demanded 
by  Sennacherib  (?seeoo  chapjcxxri). 
'-**  The  profhrt-  has  now 
sfcetdied  the  main  outlines  of  his 
revdation.  It  remains  to  fill  in  and 
apply  the  details.  He  first  describes 
the  appmendy  bopdess  condition 

■  Snaage  as  k  .mjMi  diat '  God's  fions '  sfaoald  hawe  beea  a  gmuk  tenn  for  '  pi^ed 
waciios;' I  see  BO  srffaieat  icasoa  to  doobt  h.  The  tide  lumii  r  from  a  prinatwe  ^e. 
jIm  ■  God  was  still  gy^'^^r  ^'''— "  as  El,  aadwlMn  the  laost  respected  qnalities  vac 
those  of  ihe  OeibooWr.  Biij^!i»Ji  fGexk.  yEgjftemi,  pL  552)  sajs  that  Arid  has  also 
ifiiic  Beaaiag  ia  Egypuia,  beiag  oae  of  a  large  class  of  von!s  borrowed  from  ftfwilir- 


t]  If  (which  I  still  doubt) 
2  Kii^s  xviiL  14  relates  to  this  in- 
va^on,  this  may  aOnde  to  a  slightly 
later  period,  when  it  became  dear 
that  Sennacherib  would  not  be  sa- 
tisfied with  the  payment  of  a  fine. 

BeapLse*  eities]  Explanatory 

of  the  first  daose.     Comp.  '  They 
deride  every  stronglKrfd,'  Hab.  L  la 


( 


CHAP.    XXXIII.] 


ISAIAH. 


191 


despised  cities,  regardeth  not  men.  ^  The  land  mourneth, 
languisheth  ;  Lebanon  is  ashamed,  dried  up  ;  Sharon  is 
become  like  the  desert,  and  Bashan  and  Carmel  shake  them- 
selves. '"  Now  will  I  rise,  saith  Jehovah  ;  now  will  I  exalt 
myself;  now  will  I  lift  up  myself  '*  Ye  conceive  hay,  ye 
shall  bring  forth  stubble  ;  your  breath  is  fire  which  shall 
devour  you  ;  '^  and  peoples  shall  become  (as  if)  burned  to 
lime,  thorns  cut  off,  which  are  kindled  with  fire. 

'^  Hear,   ye  that   are    far   off,  what    I    have    done  ;    and 
acknowledge,  ye  that  are  near,  my  might.     '^  The  sinners  are 


^  Here  the  strain  becomes  lyri- 
cal ;  in  one  verse  we  have  asson- 
ance, personification,  and  even  the 

'  pathetic  fallacy.' Iiebanon]  i.e. 

the  Lebanon   range  of  mountains 

(120  miles  in  length). Sharon] 

'  The  Sharon,'  i.e.,  the  lowland 
plain  which  extends  from  Carmel 
on  the  north  to  below  Joppa  on  the 

south. Baslian    and     Carmel] 

The  oaks  of  Bashan,  and  the  '  deep 
jungles  of  copse '  in  the  'rocky  dells' 
of  Carmel  are  striking  exceptions 
to  the  usual  barrenness  of  the 
hills  and  vales  of  Palestine.  Hence 
used  as  types  of  beauty  and  sub- 
limity, xx.w.  2,  ii.    13,  Zech.  xi.   2, 

Cant.  vii.  5. Sbake  themselves] 

It  was  now  autumn  ;  comp.  I.C.A., 
p.  98. 

^^  This  is  the  ver}^  moment  for 
which  Jehovah  has  been  waiting. 
Wow  will  I  rise,  viz.  from  my 
heavenly  throne,  comp.  xviii.  4. 

'^  Ve  conceive  hay]  i.e.,  if  ye 
cherish  plans  which  are  as  futile  as 
dried  grass.  Ye  shall  bring-  forth 
stubble,  i.e.,  the  result  shall  be  no 
more  lasting  than  stubble.  A  sug- 
gestive image,  supplemented  in  the 
next  clause.  '  In  the  great  scarcity 
of  wood  for  fuel  throughout  the 
East,  the  taimoor^  or  oven,  is  usu- 
ally heated  with  stubble  or  chaff.' 

Breath]  i.e.,  fury,  as  xxv.  4  ; 

comp.  Ps.  X.  5,  xii.  5.  For  the  figure 
of  fire,  comp.  i.  31,  i.x.  18.  Similarly 
in  XXX.  28,  the  breath  of  a  furious 
man  is  compared  to  a  torrent. 

^-  Peoples]  See  on  v.  3. 

'^  The  prophet  changes  his  point 
of  view.     He   has    been    hitherto 


working  with  the  reproductive 
imagination,  writing  as  he  remem- 
bers that  he  spoke  during  the 
crisis,  though  not,  perhaps,  without 
notes  of  discourses  actually  de- 
livered. In  this  verse  he  places 
himself  in  the  historical  present, 
when  the  '  might '  of  Jehovah  has 
been  victoriously  displayed,  and 
calls  on  all  nations  to  recognise 
the  far-reaching  importance  of  Je- 
hovah's wonderful  work.  For  it 
shows  who  is  the  only  God  worthy 
of  the  name. 

'^  Now  (returning  to  the  past) 
the  once  unbelieving  Jews  begin  to 
'  understand  '  the  '  Tidings '  of  the 
prophet ;  but  it  is  'purely  a  terror' 
(xxviii.  19).  For  it  was  not  merely 
the  Assyrians  on  whom  Isaiah  pro- 
nounced God's  judgment,  but  the 
immoral  and  irreligious  Israelites. 
Isaiah's  policy  of  repetition  (xxviii. 
10)  justifies  itself  by  the  result. 
Even  unbelievers  cannot  forget  his 
constant  reference  to  the  awful  fire 
of  Jehovah's  wrath  (comp.  xxxi.  9), 
of  which  their  sins  have  furnished 

the  fuel  {v.    11). oh,  who  can 

tarry  .  .  .  ]  Lit.,  sojourn,  as  Ps. 
XV.  i).  '  Who  can  dwell  safely  in 
the  neighbourhood  of  the  avenging 
God  .'"  For  only  he  who  willingly 
yields  himself  to  be  God's  organ 
can  abide  those  flames  (comp. 
JMoses  at  the  burning  bush,  Ex.  iii. 
2,  and  see  on  x.  17,  xxx.  27).  '  Per- 
petual burnings,'  not  with  reference 
to  the  eternity  of  the  punishment 
(comp.  on  l.xvi.  24),  but  because 
the  fire  of  Jehovah's  self-manifest- 
ing   love  and  wrath  is,    like  him- 


192 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.    XXXIII. 


horror-stricken  in  Zion,  shuddering  scizeth  the  profane  :  'Oh, 
who  can  tarry  with  devouring  fire  }  oh,  who  can  tarry  with 
perpetual  burnings  ? '  ^^  He  who  walketh  in  perfect  righteous- 
ness, and  spcakcth  uprightness  ;  he  who  rejectcth  the  gain  of 
oppressions,  who  shaketh  his  hands  not  to  hold  bribes,  who 
stoppeth  his  ear  not  to  hear  of  bloodshed,  and  closcth  his  eyes 
not  to  look  on  evil  ;  "^  he  shall  inhabit  heights,  fortresses  of 
rocks  shall  be  his  place  of  security  ;  his  bread  is  continually 
given  him,  his  water  faileth  not.  '^  The  king  in  his  beauty 
shall  thine  eyes  behold  ;  they  shall  see  a  land  of  distances. 
18  Thy  heart  shall  meditate  on  the  terror  :  •  Where  is  he  who 
registered  ?  where,  he  who  weighed  ?  where,  he  who  counted 
the  towers  ? '     ^^  The  barbarous  people  thou  shalt  not  see — 


self,  eternal.  There  is  a  good  ana- 
logy in  the  perpetual  fire  on  the 
aUar  of  burnt-offering  (Lev.  vi.  13, 
Hebr.  6).  That  the  '  fire  '  is  sym- 
bolical, is  evident  from  the  next 
verse,  containing  what  is  practically 
the  prophet's  answer  to  the  question 
of  the  unbelievers. 

'"  Znbabit  heigJits]  Instead  of 
saying  that  the  pious  man  can  joy- 
fully exist  in  the  light  of  this  fire 
(comp.  iv.  5),  he  introduces  a  new 
figure  of  inaccessible  rocky  heights. 
The  picture  of  the  righteous  man 
reminds  us  forcibly  of  Ps.  xv.,  also 

of  Ps.  xxiv.  3,  4- His  bread  .  . .  ] 

The  promise  goes  beyond  that  in 
XXX.  20,  for  it  is  implied  that  the 
bread  and  the  water  should  not  be 
<  in  scant  measure.'  Both  come 
from  an  inexhaustible  store  (comp. 
Jer.  XV.  18).  We  are  already  in 
the  atmosphere  of  the  Messianic 
age.  Still  more  evidently  is  this 
the  case  in  7'.  I7- 

1"  The  king  in  his  beauty]  Not 
Jehovah  (Targ.,  Vitr.,  Mend.),  in 
spite  of  7/.  22,  for  the  word  '  beauty' 
is  never  (except  once  in  a  doubtful 
passage,  Zech.  ix.  17)  applied  to 
God,  but  Hezekiah  (comp.  xxxii. 
i),  not,  however,  as  a  type  of  the 
Messiah  (as  Calv.,  &c.),for  there  is 
not  a  vestige  of  a  pcrsoually  Mes- 
sianic reference  in  the  rest  of  the 
chapter,  but  simply  as  the  reigning 
kingof  Judah.  The  'beauty'  spoken 
of  is  not  that  of  state-robes  (Knob.), 


nor  that  of  recovered  health  after 
Hezekiah's  well-known  illness 
(Hitz.),  but  an  ideal  beauty,  the 
evidence   of    God's    extraordinary 

favour    (as    Ps.    xlv.    2). They 

shall  see  aland  of  distances]  i.e., 
perhaps,  the  boundaries  of  the  king- 
dom of  Israel  shall  be  extended  as 
far  as  the  eyes  can  reach.  A  simi- 
lar hope  is  held  out  in  xi.  i4(Hende- 
werk),  and  in  xxvi.  15  (note  the 
verb)  ;  but  the  closest  parallel  is 
Gen.  xiii.  14,  15,  which  has  been 
almost  overlooked.  Comp.  also 
Mic.  vii.  II,  'in  that  day  shall  the 
bound  be  afar  oflf.' 

"*  Et  hcec  oil  til  incininissc  juva- 
bit ;  they  shall  look  back  on  the  past 
(' the  terror ')  as  on  a  bad  dream. 
Obs.,  the  deep  impression  made 
by  the  elaborate  subdivision  of  the 

Assyrian    offices. He  who    re- 

grlstered]  viz.  the  amounts  of  tri- 
bute to  be  paid.  It  is  the  Assyrian 
dupsarru    Hebraized   into  tifsar  in 

Jer.  li.  27. "Weighed]  i.e.,  tested 

the  weight  of  the  gold  and  silver 
paid.  Comp.  Rawlinson,  Anc.  Mon. 

i.  476. Counted    the    towers] 

i.e.,  made  a  recognizance  of  the 
city  to  be  besieged.  A  contem- 
porary psalmist  bids  the  Jews 
'count  the  towers'  with  a  different 
object,  viz.,  to  convince  themselves 
that  the  city  is  uninjured  (Ps. 
xlviii.  13). 

'-'  The  barbarous  people] 
(ii'tftfiapoi.  See  on  xxviii.  11. Wot 


CHAP.  XXXIII.] 


ISAIAH. 


19: 


the  people  obscure  of  .speech,  not  to  be  heard — of  a  stam- 
mering tongue,  not  to  be  understood.  ^°  Behold  Zion,  the 
city  of  our  festal  assembly  !  thine  eyes  shall  see  Jerusalem 
flike)  an  easeful  home,  a  tent  that  removeth  not,  whose  pegs 
are  never  drawn  out,  and  none  of  whose  cords  become  rent. 
^'  But  ^  there  Jehovah  shall  be  for  us  in  majesty,  "  (like)  a 
place  of  "^  rivers  and  canals,  broad  on  both  hands,  into  which 
oared  galley  shall  never  go,  neither  shall  majestic  ship  pass 
thereon.  ^^  For  Jehovah  our  judge,  Jehovah  our  governor, 
Jehovah  our  king^he  will  save  us.     ^^  Thy  ropes  have  bc- 

^  The  name  of,  Sept.,  Pesh.,  Lowth  (a  different  vowel). 
"  Instead  of,  Ges.,  Hitz.,  Ew. 


to  be  heard]  '  to  hear '  =  to  un- 
derstand (xxxvi.  II).  Comp.  Slav 
=  '  speaking'  (i.e.,  intelligible  to  his 
own  people),  in  opposition  to  '  the 
dumb,'  i.e.,  the  Germans  (Pott,  Die 
Ungleichheit  menschlicher  Rassen, 
p.  70). 

'^°  Behold  Zion]  The  imperative 
here  conveys  an  earnest  assurance, 
as  xxxi.  6  (.''),  xxxvii.  30,  and  after 

an    optative,     Ps.    cxxviii.    5. 

Easeful]     As    xxxii.    18. That 

removeth  (lit.,  migrateth)  not] 
The  men  of  Jerusalem  having  been 
threatened  with  deportation  (xxxvi. 
17).  Comp.  2  Sam.  vii.  10,  Am. 
ix.  15. 

"^  In  majesty]  Jehovah's  'ma- 
jesty' is  no  idle  quality  ;  it  is  pro- 
tection to  his  friends,  and  destruc- 
tion  to  his   enemies.     See   x.   31, 

I   Sam.    iv.    8,    Ex.  xv.  6,  11. 

(like)  a  place  .  .  .  ]  i.e.,  Jehovah's 
presence  shall  compensate  for  the 
want  of  those  broad  streams  which 
protected  Mesopotamian  and  Egyp- 
tian cities  (comp.  Nah.  iii.  8,  Jer. 
li.  13).  Strikingly  parallel  is  '  Ps. 
xlvi.  4  (written,  possibly,  by  Isaiah 
himself  after  the  overthrow  of  Sen- 
nacherib), "  The  streams  of  a  river 
make  glad  the  city  of  God,"  that  is, 
not  the  fountain  of  Shiloah,  but  the 
gracious  influences  of  the  Divine 

presence'    {I.C.A.,    p.     loi). 

Canals]  Yiebr.  ydrlin.  The  plural 
of  the  word  used  in  Genesis  and 
elsewhere  for  the  Nile,  and  almost 
certainly  connected  by  one  of  the 
Pentateuch  writers  with  the  Egyp- 
VOL.  I. 


tian  aur  'river'  (especially  the 
Nile).  Since,  however,  it  is  used 
for  the  Tigris  in  Dan.  xii.  5-7,  for 
canals  in  general  here,  and  for 
subterraneous  passages  in  mines  in 
Job  x.xviii.  10,  it  may  well  be  a 
good  Hebrew  worb,  if  Friedr. 
Del.'s  reference  to  Ass.  yaUir. 
'  stream,'  should  be  confirmed  {Pa- 

radies^  p.  312). Majestic  ship] 

(Same  epithet  as  above  of  Jeho- 
vah.) In  Ps.  xlviii.,  written  at  the 
same  time  as  Ps.  xlvi.  (see  above), 
we  meet  with  the  '  breaking  of  the 
ships  of  Tarshish  '  (7/.  7),  of  course 
metaphorically,  of  the  Assyrians. 

^^  Tchovah  our  king-]  Among 
the  Israelites,  as  among  the  other 
Semitic  nations,  the  earthly  king 
(v.  17)  is  but  the  representative  of 
the  divine.  Comp.  Ps.  xlviii.  2. 
See  Riehm,  Messianic  Prophecy^ 
pp.  66,  67. 

"  Thy  ropes  have  become 
loose]  The  Assyrian  galleys  were 
of  two  kinds.  The  smaller  had  no 
mast ;  the  larger  had  one  mast,  to 
the  top  of  which  was  attached  a 
long  yard,  held  in  its  place  by 
ropes  (Layard,  Nineveh).  Zion  is 
addressed.  In  v.  20  she  was  re- 
presented as  a  tent  ;  here  as  a 
ship,  which  is  a  more  far-fetched 
image,  but  was  suggested  by  7/.  21. 
Assyria  is  like  the  stateliest  of  her 
galleys ;  Zion's  ship  can  barely 
creep  along,  but  in  spite  of  this 
will  gain  the  victory.  The  ordi- 
nary view  which  explains  the  pas- 
sage of  Assyria  is  excluded  by  the 

O 


194  ISAIAH.  [CHAP.  XXXIV. 

come  loose  ;  they  cannot  hold  ''  upright  their  mast,  nor  keep 
the  ensign  spread  out — then  shall  the  spoil  of  plundering  be 
divided  in  abundance  ;  (even)  the  lame  shall  seize  upon  a 
prey.  ^"^  And  no  inhabitant  shall  say,  I  am  sick  :  the  people 
which  dwelleth  therein  hath  its  iniquity  forgiven. 

^  The  stand  of,  Vitr.,  Ges.,  E\v.,  Hitz.,  Del.  (see  crit.  note.) 

feminine  pronominal  sufifix,  which  get  their  sufiferings  out  of  sympathy 

belongs  to  a  land  or  city,  not  to  a  with  the  joy  of  the  nation.     It  is 

people.     (The  Assyrians  are   only  rather   a    Messianic  feature.      Sin 

referred  to  as  a  people.) The  and  its  punishment    are  to  cease 

spoil    of  plundering]      Two    sy-  together.     See  xx.w.    5,   6,  Ixv.  20, 

nonyms  to  express  variety. The  and  comp.   Mark  ii.    10,   11,  'But 

lame  .  .  .]  Judah    the   Maccabee  that  ye  may  know  that  the  Son  of 

shared  the  spoil  with  the  maimed,  man  hath  power  on  earth  to  forgive 

the  orphans,  &c.,  2  Mace.  viii.  30.  sins,   (he  saith    to  the  sick  of  the 

But  here  the  lame  themselves  se-  palsy,)  I  say  unto  thee.  Arise,  and 

cure  their  portion.  take  up  thy  bed,  and  go  thy  way 

'^^  No  inhabitant  shall  say,  1  into   thine  house.'       It    is    a   t/^';^ 

am  sick  .  .  .]     This   is  not  to  be  far-fetched    reference   which  Hitz. 

combined  with  the  preceding  verse,  and   Knob,    find    to   the   Assyrian 

as  if  it  meant  that  the  sick  will  for-  plague. 


CHAPTER    XXXIV. 


This  prophecy  is  highly  rhythmical,  though  the  corruptions  which  dis- 
figure some  verses  greatly  hinder  its  appreciation.  The  subject  is  the 
Divine  judgment  upon  the  world,  out  of  which  (as  in  Ixiii.  16)  one 
specially  important  scene  is  singled,  the  judgment  upon  Israel's  inveterate 
foes,  the  Edomites.  For  the  bitter  feelings  here  expressed  towards  the 
latter,  comp.  Ps.  cxxxvii.  7,  Ezek.  xxv.  12,  xxxv.,  Ob.  10-16,  Mai.  i.  2-5. 

There  are  striking  parallels  between  chaps,  xxxiv.,  xxxv.  and  Zepha- 
niah,  and  between  chap,  xxxiv.  and  parts  of  Jeremiah  (Jer.  xlvi.  3-12, 
xxv.,  and  1.,  li.),  which  are  of  great  critical  importance.  On  these,  and 
on  the  relation  between  chaps,  xxxiv.  and  xiii.,  see  the  dissertation  of 
Caspari,  Zeitschr.  f.  liitherische  Thcologie,  1843,  Heft  2,  a  singular 
specimen  of  the  uselessness  of  facts  without  a  sound  judgment.  Surely, 
'  if  the  occurrence  of  parallels  between  Jeremiah  and  Isa.  xl.-lxvi.  is 
not  a  decisive  argument  in  favour  of  the  priority  of  the  latter,  it  is  not 
worth  while  to  reopen  the  subject  on  behalf  of  Isa.  xxxiv.'  (/.  C.  A.,  p. 
112.)  There  is  far  more  sense  in  the  remarks  devoted  to  this  chapter  in 
the  essay  olV,\xMc,Jahrbiichcr/.  dctitschc  1 /wologie,  1878,  Heft  4. 

Inciuiries  into  the  historical  fulfilment  of  the  prophecies  are,  gene- 
rally speaking,  foreign  to  the  purpose  of  a  commentary.  It  is  worth 
noticini^^  however,  that  the  desolation  which  the  prophet  here  speaks  of 
as  future  is  referred  to  by  Malachi  (i.  3,  note  the  mention  of  the  '  wolves  ' 
or  'jackals,'  and  comp.  Isa.  xiii.  22)  as  already  past.  Was  Malachi 
jcferrin*^  to  the  desolation  recently  wrought  by  the  Nabataeans,  when 


CHAP.  XXXIV.]  ISAIAH.  lO^ 

they  occupied  Edom,  dropping  their  nomad  habits,   and  founded  the 
kingdom  of  Arabia  Petraea  ?     (Seethe  writer's  comm.  on  Jer.  xlix.  7-22.) 

'  Come  near,  ye  nations,  to  hear,  and  ye  peoples,  attend  • 
let  the  earth  hear,  and  the  fulness  thereof,  the  world  and  all 
things  that  spring  out  of  it.  «  f^j.  Jehovah  hath  indignation 
against  all  the  nations,  and  wrath  against  all  their  host  •  he 
hath  laid  them  under  the  ban,  he  hath  given  them  over  to 
slaughter.  ^And  their  slain  shall  be  cast  forth,  and  their 
carcases-the  stink  of  them  shall  go  up,  and  mountains  shall 
melt  with  their  blood,  and  all  the  ^  hills  shall  rot.  "  And  the 
heavens  shall  roll  up  as  a  scroll,  and  all  their  host  shall  fade 
as  foliage  fadeth  from  the  vine,  and  as  fading  leaves  from  the 
fig-tree.  '  For  my  sword  hath  been  bathed  in  heaven  •  be- 
hold, upon  Edom  shall  it  come  down,  and  upon  the  people  of 
my  ban  to  judgment.  «  The  sword  of  Jehovah  is  become  full 
of  blood,  and  moistened  with  fat;  with  the  blood  of  lambs 
and  he-goats,  with  the  kidney-fat  of  rams  ;  for  Jehovah  hath 
a  sacrifice  in  Bozrah,  and   a  great  slaughter  in  the  land  of 

"  So  Bi.     Text,  host  of  heaven  (gloss  on  •  their  host '  in  v.  4). 

*  Universal  nature  is  summoned  ^  p^^-i   j  ^      j^    ^ 

as  a  witness  of  the  divine  judgment,  cause:-    '' Jehovah's    'sword''  has' 

as   .  2,  Ps.  1.  4,  &c.,  though,  as  v.  2  sated  itself  in  heaven,  therefore   it 

states  It  is  only  humanity  which  is  will  now  descend  to  earth  '~_»i-^ 

directly  concerned.  sword]  A  symbolic  phrase  for^e 

indigrnation  .      .    wrath]     It  divme  vengeance,  for  the  ori-in  of 

IS  noteworthy  that  these  words  only  which  see  on  xx^ii    i      Comn  e. 

occur  in  the  parts  of  Isaiah  which  pecially  Deut.  xxxii.  41-4,   ^hich 

are  of  disputed  authorship.     See,  Drechsler  thinks  that  our  prophet 

for  the  former,  liv.  8,  Ix.  10  ;  for  the      had  in  his  mind. Been  bathPrtI 

latter  xxvn.  4  (text  doubtful),  xlii.  Lit.,  soaked, i.e.,  stricdy,  "rh  bboj 

25,  h.  17,  hx.  18, 1x111.  3  Ixvi.  1 5.  In  (as  in  Deut.  /...'  and  Jer.  xlvi    jo) 

the  acknowledged  works  of  Isaiah,  but  here,  by  a  bold  metaDhor  wi?i' 

'the   anger    of    Jehovah,'    is    the  fury.  Th^  same  verb^nf al)  ^  ^sS 

phrase    employed. ah    their  of  love  in   Prov.  vii    iFremarks 

host]     Somewhat  vaguely  used,  as  Dr.  Weir.     The  first  objectsTf  this 

in  Gen    n.  i.     There  is  a  special  fury  are  thehost  of  heaven  (^4) 

reason  for  the  choice  of  the  phrase  «  ^he  perfects  are  those  of  pro 

here  (see  on  v.  4). laid  under  phetic  certitude.     For  the  fic^u^res 

theban]asxi.  I5,xxxvii.  II.  comp.    Zeph.     i.     7,   Jer     xlvi     10' 

fountains  .  .  .  ]     Reversely  Ezek.  xxxix.  i7-ia_iambs       ' 

parallel  to  Am.  ix.  13  (end).  he-goats  ....   ramsl      Anknak 

^  AS  a  scroll]     A  unique  simile,  '  clean  '  accordingTo  the  LevS 

reminding  us   of    the   later    Stoic  law   and   therefore  admissihIpW 

conception  of  the  sky  as  a  m-  sacrifice.      C^rnpare    t^  piralS 

Oeo.,  of  which  heavenly  bodies  are  in  Jer.  li.  40.-— K  Lly-fS  See 

the  aroixfia  or  characters.  Lev.  iii.  4,             -"-laney-iatj  .'^ee 


196 


ISAIAH, 


[chap.  XXXIV. 


Edom  ;  '^  and  wild  oxen  shall  be  struck  down  with  them,  and 
bullocks  together  with  oxen.  And  their  land  shall  become 
drunken  with  blood,  and  their  dust  moistened  with  fat.  ^  For 
unto  Jehovah  belongeth  a  day  of  vengeance,  and  a  year  of 
recompense  for  the  quarrel  of  Zion. 

"  And  the  torrents  thereof  shall  turn  into  pitch,  and  its 
dust  into  brimstone,  and  the  land  thereof  shall  become  pitch 
that  burneth  night  and  day.  '"  It  shall  remain  unquenched 
for  ever,  its  smoke  shall  go  up  from  generation  to  generation, 

just  where  it  ought  to  be  from  the 
point  of  view  of  the  Old  Testament, 
we  may  accept  his  decision  (en- 
dorsed at  length,  1883,  by  Friedr. 
Delitzsch)  as  to  the  rendering  of 
the  Hebrew  word  as  final.  Auroch 
or  wild  bull  then  is  the  meaning.— 
We  are  of  course  bound  to  account 
for  the  divergent  Arabic  use  of  the 
term,  but  that  is  easily  done.  This 
kind  of  wild  bull  is  now  extinct, 
and  the  oryx,  from  its  size  and 
general  aspect,  is  the  natural  legatee 

of  its  name. Be  struck  down] 

Lit.,  go  down.  Comp.  Jer.  1.  27, 
li.  40,  alsoxlviii.  15.  Naeg.  denies 
that  the  word  has  quite  the  same 
shade  of. meaning  as  there,  but 
why.''  The  Wehr. ydrad laftdb/iakh 
surely  means  '  to  be  felled  unto  (so 
as  to  fall  into)  the  slaughtering- 
trough.' "WT'ild  oxen  .  .  .  bul- 
locks .  .  .  oxen]  i.e.,  the  chiefs  of 
the  Edomites,  as  opposed  to  the 
small  cattle  or  the  people  (?'.  6). 

*  See  Ixiii.  4,  and  comp.  Ixi.  2, 
significant  parallels  for  students 
of  the  critical  controversy. 

^'  '"  The  figures  are  suggested 
partly  by  the  volcanic  phenomena 
of  IdumiTja,  and  partly  by  its  prox- 
imity to  the  site  of  Sodom  and 
Gomorrah  (see  Jer.  xlix.  18)  ;  imi- 
tated in  Rev.  xiv.  10,  i  r,  xix.  3. — 
The  eternity  of  the  desolation  is 
four  times  asserted.  This  may 
fairly  be  adduced  as  a  subsidiary 


^  "Wild    oxen]    Hebr.    r'emiin. 
An  interesting  word.     Auth.  Vers, 
renders  '  unicorns,'  which,  however, 
is  clearly  wrong,  for  in  Deut.  xxxiii. 
17    the    7^ an  (singular)    is  said  to 
have  horns  (A.  V.  evades  this  by 
misrendering     'unicorns').       The 
characteristics  of   the  rh'm  in  the 
Old   Testament    are    its    splendid 
horns  ;  its    great  size  and  height  ; 
its  untameableness  ;  and  its  moun- 
tainous haunts. — These  may   sug- 
gest that  it  is  the  buffalo  ;  but  this 
cannot  be,  for  i.  the  wild  buffalo 
inhabits  swamps,  2.  it  can  be  tamed, 
and  3.  it  penetrated  westward  from 
India  in  comparatively  recent  times. 
— Most  modern  German  commen- 
tators   (e.g.,    Ew.,    Del.,   Kalisch), 
have  thought  of  the  or>'x,  or  more 
precisely,  the  Antilope  leiicory.\\  for 
which  they  claim  the  authority  of 
passages  in  the  Talmud  (see  Del. 
on  Job  xxxix.  9),  and  the  analogy 
of  the  Arabic  r/w,  which  is  now 
used  in  Syria  for  the  white  and  yel- 
low gazelle.     The  objection  is  that 
the   oryx  was  confined  to   Arabia 
and   N.  E.  Africa,   and    was   very 
easily  tamed.' — Mr.    Houghton,   a 
zoologist  as  well    as  an    Assyrian 
scholar,  has  shown  from  the  As- 
syrian bas-reliefs  and  inscriptions, 
that  the  Assyrian  7-i'mu   belonged 
to  the  genus  lios,  not  to  that  of 
Bison,  and  as  the  locality  specified 
for  the  rimu  by  the  Assyrians'-  is 


'  See  Wilkinson's  Egyptians,  i.  227. 

2  On  the  broken  obelisk  attributed  to  .'\ssur-na9ir-pal,  r/miare  said  to  exist  'oppo- 
site the  land  of  the  Khatti,  and  at  the  foot  of  Lebanon  ;  '  see  Houghton,  T.S.B.A. 
V.  3^6-340.  (Mr.  Houghton's  priority  has  esc.nped  the  notice  of  German  schoLars.  His 
paper  in  T.S.R.A.  is  dated  June  1877,  and  the  substance  of  it  was  partly  printed  in 
the  Bible  Educator  previously.  But  why  compete  about  such  trifles?  Comp.  Hommel, 
hie  semit.  V'olker  v.  Sfracheii.  p.  4q7.) 


CHAP.  XXXIV. 


ISAIAH. 


197 


it  shall  lie  wa  e  unto  all  eternity,  there  shall  be  none  pass- 
ing through  it.  "  And  the  pelican  and  the  hedgehog  shall 
take  possession  thereof;  the  eagle-owl  and  the  raven  shall 
dwell  therein  ;  and  he  shall  stretch  out  upon  it  the  line  of 
chaos,  and  the  plummet  of  desolation.  '^  *  Its  nobles  [shall 
come  to  nothing],  and  none  shall  be  there  whom  they  might 
call  to  the  kingdom,^  and  all  Edom's  princes  shall  be  no 
more.  ^^  And  its  castles  shall  spring  up  in  thorns:  nettles 
and  thistles  shall  be  in  its  fortresses  ;  and  it  shall  become  a 
settlement  of  jackals,  and  an  enclosure  for  ostriches.  '"*  And 
wild  cats  shall  meet  hyaenas,  and  one  satyr  shall  call  to  the 
other  ;  surely  there  shall  the  night-hag  repose,  and  find  for 

»  So  Sept.,  Bi. — Hebr.  text,  As  for  its  nobles,  none  shall  be  there  to  proclaim  the 
kingdom  (Ges.,  Ew.,  Naeg.)  ;  or,  .  .  whom  they  might  call  to  the  kingdom  (Vitr., 
Hitz.)  ;  or,  As  for  its  nobles,  no  kingdom  shall  be  there  which  they  might  proclaim 
(Del.). — They  shall  call  the  nobles  of  the  kingdom,  but  there  shall  be  none  there,  Weir 
(by  a  transposition). 


argument  for  the  eschatological 
reference  of  the  chapter  : — by  itself 
it  would  be  insufficient  to  prove  it. 
The  fall  of  Edom  coincides  with  the 
fall  of  the  whole  antitheistic  world. 

11-17  A  fresh  series  of  images,  in- 
consistent, strictly  speaking,  with 
the  foregoing.  Comp.  xiii.  20-22, 
xiv.  23,  Zeph.  ii.  14. 

"  The  eagrle-owl]  '  A  mag- 
nificent species  inhabiting  ruins 
and  caves  in  every  part  of  Pales- 
tine' (Houghton).  —  Ke  shall 
stretch  out  .  .  .  ]  The  same 
image  in  Am.  vii.  7-9.  The  work 
of  destruction  is  to  be  carried  out 
with  the  same  thoroughness  as  that 
of  building.     The   subject   of  the 

verb  is  Jehovah. Chaos  .... 

desolation]  Hebr.  tohii  .... 
bohil^  the  two  words  which  together 
express  the  idea  of  chaos,  Gen.  i. 
2,  comp.  Jer.  iv.  23. 

^^  Its  nobles  .  .  .  kingdom] 
It  is  inferred  from  this  passage  and 
from  Gen.  xxxvi.  31-43,  that  Edom 
was  under  an  elective  monarchy, 
the  electors  being  the  chiefs  of  the 
tribes.  The  text-reading  is  harsh, 
but  gives  the  same  sense  ;  '  the 
kingdom'  in  this  case  means  the 
newly  elected  king. 


^'  An  enclosure]  The  rendering 
'  grass '  will  not  suit  the  mention  of 
'  ostriches,'  which  do  not  eat  grass. 

^*  "Wild  cats  .  .  .  hyaenas  .  .   . 

satyr]  See  on  xiii.  21,  22. The 

nigrht-hagr]  So  Milton,  Par.  Lost, 
ii.  262  ;  Hebr.  lilith.  Another 
popular  superstition,  analogous  to 
that  of  the  '■alilkah  or  vampire  (.?)  of 
Prov.  XXX.  1 5  (comp.  Targ.  of  Ps.  xii. 
9),  and  still  more  exactly  corre- 
sponding to  that  of  the  lilla  and 
lilit  of  the  Babylonians  and  As- 
syrians, these  being  names  of  male 
and  female  demons  who  were 
thought  to  persecute  men  and 
women  in  their  sleep.^  Mixed  with 
Persian  elements  it  existed  among 
the  Jews  of  Mesopotamia  as  late 
as  the  seventh  century  a.d.  (Levy, 
Z.  D.  M.  G.,  ix.  46 1 --49 1.)  The 
Rabbinical  stories  about  Lilith 
may  be  found  in  Buxtorf  {Lex 
Talm.,  s.  v.).  She  was  said  to 
have  been  Adam's  first  wife,  who 
flew  away  from  him  (comp.  the 
Greek  myth  of  Lamia),  and  became 
a  demon.  Her  passion  was,  like 
that  of  Lamia  and  the  Strigae,  to 
murder  young  children. — Goethe's 
version  of  the  story,  in  the  Wal- 
purgis   night-scene     of    Faust,    is 


,r.l  Lenormant,   La   magie  chez  les  C/iald^eus.  p.   36  ;    Homniel,   Die  seinitisc/ien 
I  olker  mid  Spraclicit,  i.  367  (wlien  nn  Arcndian  list  of  demons  is  quoted). 


198 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  XXXV. 


herself  a  resting-place.  '*  There  shall  the  arrow-snake  make 
its  nest,  and  hatch,  and  lay,  and  gather  within  her  shadow  ; 
surely  there  shall  the  vultures  assemble,  ^  none  shall  lack  his 
fellow.^  "^  °  Seek  ye  out  from  the  scroll  of  Jehovah  and 
read  °  ;  not  one  of  these  is  missing,  for  ^  the  mouth  of 
[Jehovah]  ^  it  hath  commanded,  and  his  breath  hath  brought 
them  together.  '^  And  /le  hath  cast  the  lot  for  them,  and  his 
hand  hath  divided  it  unto  them  with  the  line  :  for  ever  shall 
they  possess  it,  generation  after  generation  shall  they  dwell 
therein. 

•»  So  Bi, ,  restoring  the  verb  from  v.  16,  where  the  whole  phrase  is  found,  but  where 
it  is  not  wanted. 

<=  According  to  their  number  Jehovah  calleth  them,  Knob,  Kuenen.  (These  critics 
read  '  they  seek  '  for  'seek  ye  out,'  and  attach  it  to  the  preceding  verse.  So,  too,  Sept., 
continuing  in  j'.  16  :   '  By  number  they  passed  by.') 

"^  So  Bi.  ;  Text  might  mean  'my  mouth.' — Sept.  has  simply,  the  Lord  ;  a  few 
Heb.  MSS.,  Pesh.,  Ew.,  his  mouth. 


therefore  not  strictly  accurate.  The 
Targum  of  Job  i.  15  gives  a  new 
and  enigmatical  turn  to  the  story  ; 
'  Sheba'  (A.  V.  Sabeans)  it  ren- 
ders by  'Lilith,  Queen  of  Zemar- 
gad  '  ( =  smaragd),  identifying  the 
wise  Queen  of  Sheba  with  the 
Queen  of  the  demons  !  See  Gratz's 
Momitsschrift,  1870,  pp.  187-9.) 

^^  Seek  ye  out  from  the  book 
of  Jehovah  .  .  .  ]  i.e.,  when  the 
time  of  fulfilment  has  come,  refer 
to  the  prophecy,  and  see  how 
exactly  all  its  details  have  been 
realised.  The  advice  and  the 
phraseology  are  equally  remark- 
able. The  advice,  because  it  re- 
minds us  so  much  of  the  Scripture- 
searching  of  the  post-exile  Jews, 
(comp.Dan.  ix.  2) ;  the  phraseology, 
because  '  the  scroll  of  Jehovah ' 
may  plausibly  be  taken  to  imply 
the  existence  of  a  prophetic  canon. 
A  single  prophecy  might,  no 
doubt,  be  called  '  a  scroll '  (xxx.  8, 
Jer.  li.  60),  but  the  form  of  the 
phrase,  'scroll  of  Jehovah^  points 


to  something  more — either  to  a 
collection  of  Isaianic  prophecies, 
in  which  this  was  included,  or  a 
collection  of  various  prophetic 
writings — in  fact,  a  prophetic  canon 
— in  which  a  book  of  Isaiah  was 
contained.  The  former  view  is, 
perhaps,  easier  than  the  latter. — 
The  Sept.  has  a  very  singular 
rendering  of  this  verse,  which  has 
given  Knobel  a  basis  for  recon- 
structing the  text.  That  a  verb  has 
fallen  out  at  the  end  oi  v.  15  is 
not  improbable,  but  his  objection  to 
V.  16  seems  ultimately  to  depend 
on  his  opinion  as  to  the  date  of  the 
prophecy.  To  me  the  text  oiv.  15 
wears  all  the  appearance  of  genuine- 
ness. Kuenen,  a  high  authority, 
thinks  otherwise  ;  but  is  he  not 
unconsciously  prejudiced  by  his 
views  as  to  the  formation  of  the 
canon  ?  See  his  Historisch-kritisch 
Onderzoek,  iii.  399  (in  section  on 
the  collection  of  the  Old  Test, 
books).  The  Sept.  at  any  rate  gives 
a  very  meagre  first  clause  in  t^.  16. 


CHAPTER   XXXV. 

This  is  a  description,  not  of  the  joyous  return  of  the  Jewish  exiles  from 
Babylonia  (an  inveterate  error  which  I  fear  will  not  soon  be  eradicated), 
but   of  the  glorious   condition    of    Israel    after   the  Return,  which  the 


i 


CHAP.  XXXV.] 


ISAIAH. 


199 


prophet  involuntarily  identifies  with  the  Messianic  age.  The  details  of 
the  description  are  partly  to  be  taken  literally,  partly  symbolically  (see 
on  xl.  II,  xli.  1 8,  Iv.  12,  13).  A  transformation  of  the  natural  world  is 
to  accompany  that  of  the  spiritual  (see  on  xxxii.  15,  16).  The  return 
spoken  of  in  the  last  verse  is  that  of  the  Jews  who  remained  in  dispersion 
even  after  the  Return  from  Babylonia. 

This  is,  I  think,  the  only  explanation  which  does  justice  to  the  group 
of  prophecies  of  which  chap.  xxxv.  forms  a  part  (see  on  xl.  11,  xli.  18,  Iv. 

12,  13). 

Is  this  prophecy  to  be  connected  with  the  foregoing  one .''  The  pro- 
noun-suffix of  the  verb  in  v.  i  is  purely  imaginary  (see  Del.'s  note),  and 
the  chapter  is  perfectly  intelligible  by  itself.  On  the  other  hand,  xxxv.  7 
evidently  alludes  to  xxxiv.  13,  and  parallels  to  Zephaniah  occur  in  both 
chapters.  There  is  also  a  suitableness  in  the  juxtaposition  of  the  pro- 
phecies ;  it  produces  a  fine  contrast,  though  the  transition  is  abrupt.  In 
short,  there  is  a  connection,  though  not  quite  so  close  a  one  as  some  have 
supposed.     The  case  is  rather  like  that  of  xvii.  12-14  ^^^d  xviii. 

'  The  wilderness  and  the  parched  land  shall  rejoice,  and 
the  desert  shall  exult  and  burst  forth  like  the  ''  narcissus,  ^  burst 
forth  and   exult,  yea,  exult  and  ring  out  a  cry.     Lebanon's 

=*  Meadow-saffron,  Pesh.    (the  word  is  the  same  as  in  Hebrew).     See  crit.  note. 

perus papyrus,  whose  tall  stem  and 
bushy  crown  of  threadlike  flower- 
ing branchlets  visitors  to  Sicily 
never  fail  to  admire.  To  render 
here  '  like  the  papyrus  '  would  com- 
mend itself  to  those  who  have  seen 
this  plant,  and  the  comparison 
would  not  inappropriately  precede 
the  more  glowing  phraseology  of 
V.  2.  Before  '  the  glory  of  Lebanon 
and  .Sharon '  can  appear,  the  dry 
desert-soil  must  be  moistened.  The 
objections  which  strike  me  as  most 
important  are,  i.  that  reeds  are 
generally  emblems  of  instability 
and  weakness,  and  2.  that  the 
flowers  of  Canticles  are  spring- 
flowers,  whereas  the  Cyperus  pa 
pyrus  and  its  allies  do  not  flower 
till  towards  the  end  of  autumn. 

■^  The  fairest  parts  of  the  Holy 
Land  shall,  as  it  were,  share  their 
beauty  with  less  favoured  districts. 
'  The  Carmel '  and  '  the  Sharon ' 
are  mentioned  together,  not  merely 
because  both  are  beautiful  districts, 
but  because  they  adjoin  each  other 

(see  on  xxxiii.  9). The  glory  of 

Jehovah]  i.e.,  the  manifestation  of 
his  creative  power. 


'  The  desert]    See  on  xxxii.  1 5. 

Rutgers  {De  echtheid  vati  het 
tweede  gedeelfe  vajijesaia,^.  171) 
has  well  pointed  out  the  inconsis- 
tency of  taking  the  '  blind  '  and  the 
'deaf  symbolically  {v.  5),  and  the 
*  parched   land '    and  '  the    desert ' 

literally. Iiike  the  narcissus] 

Like  the  beautiful  white  narcissus, 
so  common  in  spring  in  the  plain 
of  Sharon  (Conder,  Pal.  Fund 
Statement,  1878,  p.  46).  In  Cant. 
ii.  I  we  find  this  flower  coupled 
with  the  (white  or  dark  violet)  lily. 
Both  plants  indicate  a  natural  fer- 
tility of  soil  and  abundant  moisture. 
The  claims  of  the  rendering  'nar- 
cissus' were  exhaustively  set  forth 
by  Mr.  Houghton  in  the  Diet,  of  the 
Bible.  Since  then  Friedr.  Del.  has 
proved  that  the  original  meaning  of 
khabhaqqeleth  is  a  certain  marsh- 
plant,  probably  (as  Prof.  Sayce  and 
Mr.  Houghton  have  pointed  out  to 
me)  the  Cyperus  syriacus,  which 
ornaments  several  marshy  districts 
in  Palestine,  and  especially  the 
jungly  Nahr  el-Aujeh  in  the  Plain 
of  Sharon.  This  plant  is  allied  to 
and   equally  graceful  with  the  Cy- 


200  ISAIAH.  [CHAP.  XXXV. 

glory  shall  be  given  unto  it,  the  splendour  of  Carmel  and 
Sharon  ;  these  shall  see  the  glory  of  Jehovah,  the  splendour 
of  our  God. — ^  Strengthen  ye  the  slack  hands,  and  make  firm 
the  tottering  knees  :  ^  say  unto  those  that  are  of  a  ^  fearful 
heart,  '  Be  strong,  fear  not.'  Behold,  "^your  God  [cometh], 
vengeance  [for  his  people  shall  he  take]  ;  a  divine  retribution 
cometh,  he  himself  cometh  to  save  you. — ^  Then  shall  the 
eyes  of  the  blind  be  opened,  and  the  ears  of  the  deaf  un- 
stopped :  ^  then  shall  the  lame  man  leap  as  the  hart,  and  the 
tongue  of  the  dumb  ring  out  a  cry.  For  waters  shall  break 
out  in  the  wilderness,  and  torrents  in  the  desert,  ^  and  the 
mirage  shall  become  a  lake,  and  the  thirsty  land  springs  of 
water. — In  the  settlement  of  the  jackals  *  *  *  shall  be 
its  place  to  lie  down  ;  the  enclosure  [of  the  ostriches  shall  be] 
for  reeds  and  rushes.  ^  And  a  raised  way  shall  be  there,  and 
it  shall  be  called.  The  holy  way  ;  that  which  is  unclean  shall 
not  pass  over  it,  ^  [and  *  *  walking  in  the  way,]  and  '^ 
fools  shall  not  go  astray. — ^  No  lion  shall  be  there,  neither 
shall    the    most   violent   of  beasts   go  up  thereon  ;  but   the 

*>  l,it.,  hasty  (comp.  xxxii.  4). 

<=  So  Bi. — Text,  your  God  (even)  vengeance  cometh,  a  retribution  of  God. 
(Rhythm  and  syntax  require  the  restoration.) 

*  Lit.,  and  he  for  them  walking  (sing.)  in  the  way,  and.— And  since  he  goeth  on 
the  way  for  them,  Ew.— Since  it  is  destined  for  them  (for  his  people.  Weir,  comp.  Ps. 
xxviii.  8,  Sept.)  ;  whosoever  walketh  in  the  way,  Del.,  Naeg.  (Omitted  by  Bi.  ;  see 
crit.  note.) 

='  The  slack  hands  and  tottering  it  appears  frequently ;  comp.  Koran, 

knees  are  evidently  figurative  (see      xxiv.  39. In  the  settlement  of 

next  verse).        The  prophet  gene-  the  jackals]  The  driest  places  shall 

rally,  if  not  always,  gives  us  a  hint  be  covered  with  vegetation. 

when    we    are  noi  to  interpret  his  ^  A  raised  way]  How  it  is  to  he 

descriptions  literally.  produced,  we  need  not  ask  :— the 

^•^  Comp.  xxxiii.  23,  24,  and  the  whole  atmosphere  of  the  prophecy 

symbolical  language  of  xxxii.  3,  4.  is  supernatural.     See  xlix.   11,  and 

It  is  singular  that  the  removal  of  note  on  xl.  3.     The  purpose  of  the 

human  infirmities  should  occupy  so  highway  is  more  liable  to  dispute, 

small  a  portion  of  the   Messianic  Most  think  it  is  for  the  returning 

descriptions  in  comparison  with  the  exiles.       Rather   it    is   a   road   for 

'  restitution '  of  external  nature.     It  pilgrims  to  the  house  of  Jehovah 

could   not,  of   course,    be  omitted  (comp.  xix.  23).     Hence  as  Naeg. 

altogether. For  waters  .    .    .  ]  well  observes,  the  emphasis  laid  on 

Comp.  xliii.  20,  Ps.  cvii.  35.  the  sacred  character  of  the  persons 

'   The  mirage  •  •   •  ]  The  phan-       or  objects  passing  over  it. That 

tom-lake   which    so   often    deludes  which  is  unclean  is  surely  not  to 

the  caravans  shall  give  place  to  the  be  limited  (Knob.)  to  the  heathen. 

reality, a  noble  image  (comp.  Iv.  Not  all  Jews  are  admitted  to  the 

2)  1     The  sdrdd  or  mirage  is  only  Messianic    blessings,    and   not    all 

once  again  referred  to  (xlix.  10).     In  heathen    are  excluded   from  them, 

Arabic  literature,  naturally  enough,  is   the    doctrine   of  this   group   of 


CHAP.   XXXVI. 1 


ISAIAH. 


201 


released  shall  walk  there,  '"and  the  freed  ones  of  Jehovah 
shall  return.  And  they  shall  come  to  Zion  with  a  ringing 
sound,  and  everlasting  joy  shall  be  upon  their  head  ;  they 
shall  overtake  gladness  and  joy,  trouble  and  sighing  shall  flee 
away. 


prophecies.  Comp.  xliv.  5,  Ixvi.  3. 
Still  there  is  probably  an  allusion 
to  the  forced  entrances  of  heathen 
invaders  of  Judah,  as  in  Joel  iii.  17. 
After  this  comes  a  clause  of  which 
I  cannot  give  a  satisfactory  expla- 
nation. Neither  Ew.  nor  Del.  can 
make  the  words  '  for  them  '  seem 
natural.  Dr.  Weir's  correction  is 
easy,  but  the  errors  of  the  text 
probably  go  further.  There  is  a 
family  likeness  in  corrupt  passages. 

The     released      shall     walk 

there]  Released  from  all  trouble, 
and  fear  of  trouble,  the  cleansed 
Israelites  (not  perhaps  excluding 
Gentiles)  shall  walk  unmolested  to 
and  from  the  house  of  Jehovah. 
Comp.  on  Iv.  12.    'Released,'  Hebr. 

g'nlhn,   occurs    again    only   li.    10, 

Ixii.   12  (comp.  Ixiii.  4),  Ps.  cvii.  2  ; 

'freed'  {v.  \o),pdfiyim,  only  li.  11. 
'°  Parallel  phrases  in  Ixi.  7,  li.  3 

(see  also  on  li.  1 1 ).    The  freed  ones 


of  Jehovah    shall    return  .  .  .  ] 

Drechsler  thinks  that  these  are  not 
the  same  persons  as  those  men- 
tioned in  the  last  verse.  According 
to  him,  '  the  released '  in  7/.  9  are 
the  remnant  of  the  population  of 
Judah  which  has  not  perished  in 
the  Judgments;  the  'freed'  in 
V.  10  are  those  brought  back  from 
exile.  He  is  partly  right,  for  the 
'return'  spoken  of  in  v.  10  has 
nothing  to  do  with  the  highway  of 
V.  8.  But  whether  it  points  back- 
ward to  the  great  Return  from 
Babylon,  or  forward  to  the  restora- 
tion of  the  many  Jews  who  were 
still  dispersed  among  the  Gentiles 
(comp.    Neh.  v.    8),  seems   to    me 

uncertain. Joy  .  .  .  upon  their 

head]  So,  '  Thou  hast  crowned  him 
with  glory  and  honour'  (Ps.  viii.  5). 

-^ They    shall    overtake      •   .  ] 

viz.,  that  which  they  have  so  long 
pursued  in  vain. 


CHAPTERS  XXXVI.-XXXIX. 

GENERAL    HISTORICAL    INTRODUCTION. 

The  decipherment  of  the  Assyrian  inscriptions,  which  has  thrown  so 
much  light  on  the  undisputed  works  of  the  prophet  Isaiah,  has  but 
revealed  fresh  difficulties  in  the  mixture  of  prophecy  and  historic  tradition 
before  us.  The  principal  of  these  arises  from  the  newly-discovered  fact 
that  whereas,  according  to  the  Assyrian  eponym  Canon,  Sennacherib 
only  came  to  the  throne  in  705  B.C.,  the  Old  Testament  (2  Kings  and 
Isaiah')  places  his  campaign  against  Judah  as  far  back  as  711  In 
this  latter  year,  according  to  the  Assyrian  Canon,  Sargon  was  still 
reigning  ;  and  though  the  same  high  authority  admits  an  invasion  of 
Judah  by  Sennacherib,  it  is  as  Sennacherib's  third  campaign,  in  the  year 
701,  that  the  Canon  and  the  royal  inscriptions  represent  it.  Hence  a 
growing  conviction  on  the  part  of  Old  Testament  scholars  that  there  must 
have  been  some  misunderstanding  on  the  part  of  the  latest  editor  of  the 
Hebrew  traditions.     'The  least  change '-these  are  the    words    of  Sir 


202  ISAIAH.  [chap.  XXXVI. 

Henry  Rawlinson  in  1858 — 'is  to  substitute  in  tiie  13th  verse  of  2  Kings 
xviii.  [=Isa.  xxxvi.  i]  Xh^  tiuenty-seventh  for  the  "fourteenth"  year  of 
Hezekiah.  We  may  suppose  the  error  to  have  arisen  from  a  correction 
made  by  a  transcriber  who  regarded  the  invasion  of  Sennacherib  and  the 
illness  of  Hezekiah  (which  last  was  certainly  in  his  fourteenth  year)  as 
synchronous,  whereas  the  words  "  in  those  days  "  were  in  fact  used  with  a 
good  deal  of  latitude  by  the  sacred  writers.  ...  If  this  view  be  taken, 
the  second  expedition  [of  Sennacherib  against  Judah]  must  have  followed 
the  first  within  one  or  at  most  two  years,  for  Hezekiah  reigned  in  all  only 
29  years.' ' 

This,  however,  is  a  hypothesis  of  exceptional  boldness,  and  is  not  only 
contradicted  by  the  absolute  silence  of  Sennacherib's  inscriptions  as  to  a 
second  Syrian  campaign,  but,  as  Prof.  Birks  remarks,  '  seems  disproved 
by  almost  every  verse  of  the  Biblical  narrative."'  It  is  to  the  sagacious 
genius  of  the  lamented  Irish  scholar,  Dr.  Edward  Hincks,  that  the  solu- 
tion of  the  chronological  problem  is  in  all  likelihood  due.  In  a  learned 
paper  on  this  and  similar  difficulties  he  states  that  it  seems  to  him  'as  it 
a  displacement  of  a  portion  of  the  text  had  taken  place,  and  as  if  the 
verses  preceding  and  following  the  passage  displaced  had  been  thrown 
into  one.  The  text,  as  it  originally  stood,  was  probably  to  this  effect : 
"  Now  in  the  fourteenth  year  of  king  Hezekiah,  the  king  of  Assyria 
came  up  (2  Kings  xviii.  13).  In  those  days  was  king  Hezekiah  sick  unto 
death,  &c.  (xx.  1-19).  And  Sennacherib,  king  of  Assyria,  came  up  against 
all  the  fenced  cities  of  Judah,  and  took  them  (xviii.  i3(^-xix.  37)."  In  the 
fourteenth  year  of  Hezekiah,  Sargon  actually  went  to  Palestine,  as  his 
annals  of  the  tenth  year  show ;  but  they  mention  no  conquests  made  from 
Hezekiah.  His  only  act  of  hostility  seems  to  have  been  the  conquest  of 
Asdud,  and  he  seems  to  have  been  chiefly  occupied  with  visiting  mines, 
among  which  is  specified  the  great  copper  mine  of  Baalzephon,  probably 
Sarabut-el-Kadim,  in  the  Sinaitic  peninsula.  In  the  following  year, 
IMerodach  Baladan  was  still  in  possession  of  Babylon  ;  but  being  appre- 
hensive of  an  attack  from  Sargon,  he  would  be  likely  to  look  about  for 
assistance.     Hence  his  embassy  to  Hezekiah. 

'  If,  then,  the  Hebrew  text  originally  stood  as  is  above  supposed,  it 
would  be  in  perfect  harmony  with  the  contemporary  records  of  Assyria  ; 
whereas,  if  the  fourteenth  year  of  Hezekiah  be  equalled  to  the  third  year 
of  Sennacherib,  in  which  that  monarch  places  his  expedition  against 
Hezekiah,  it  is  utterly  impossible  to  reconcile  with  Scripture  the  capture 
of  Samaria,  which  was  in  the  sixth  year  of  Hezekiah,  and  nineteen  years 
previous  to  the  expedition.'  ^ 

1  Prof.  Rawlinson,  Herodotus,  first  ed.  (Lond.  1858)  i.  479.  Either  tfiis  or  the 
next  mentioned  hypothesis  is  more  probable  than  that  of  Nacg.  and  Del. ,  who  suppose 
that  the  opening  words  of  chap,  xxxvi.  belong  properly  to  the  narratives  forming 
chaps,  .xxxviii.,  xxxix.  This  involves  cutting  out  the  existing  introductory  forniukc  of 
those  chapters,  and  leaves  the  story  of  the  invasion  without  a  date.  See  also  at  the 
end  of  introd.  to  chap,  xxxviii. 

2  Birks,  Commentary  oil  the  book  of  haUh  {\.ox\A.  1878),  p.  377.  Mr.  Birks  gives 
a  list  of  not  less  than  twenty  reasons  against  .Sir  H.  Rawlinson's  hypothesis. 

5  Hincks,  'On  the  Rectifications  of  Sacred  and  Profane  Chronology,  &c.,'  in  the 
Journal  of  Sacred  Literature,  Oct.  1858,  p.  136. 


CHAP.  XXXVI.]  ISAIAH.  203 

There  is  only  one  inaccuracy  in  this  lucidly-stated  hypothesis.  Dr. 
Hincks  supposes  that  the  cuneiform  inscriptions  are  silent  as  to  the 
achievements  of  Sargon  in  Judah  ;  but,  as  we  have  already  found  (see  on 
X.  5-xii.  6),  this  is  not  the  case.  His  principal  point,  however,  is  (so  far 
as  I  can  see)  unassailable,  viz.  that  the  latest  editor  of  the  Hebrew  tra- 
ditions confounded  two  invasions  which  were  really  separated  by  an 
interval  of  ten  years  ^ — that  of  Sargon  in  711,  and  that  of  Sennacherib  in 
701.  The  hypothesis  of  Dr.  Hincks  (which  appears  to  have  attracted 
very  little  attention  at  the  time)  has  since  been  proposed  anew  by  other 
scholars,  especially  Mr.  Sayce  and  H.  Brandes.  The  former,  in  January 
1873,  contributed  to  the  Theological  Review  a  '  Critical  Examination  of 
Isaiah  xxxvi.-xxxix.  on  the  Basis  of  recent  Assyrian  Discoveries,'  to  which 
I  have  already  acknowledged  my  obligations  for  the  discovery  of  the  sub- 
jugation of  the  kingdom  of  Judah  by  Sargon.  No  Old  Testament  scholar 
will  fail  to  admire  the  acuteness  and  ingenuity  which  this  essay  displays. 
The  discovery  which  gives  it  its  chief  value  (divined,  but  not  proved,  by 
Dr.  Hincks)  pours  a  flood  of  light  on  a  whole  group  of  Isaianic  pro- 
phecies. One  cannot,  however,  help  regretting  the  adventurous  character 
of  a  part  both  of  the  exegesis  and  of  the  literary  analysis.  Even  Dr. 
Kuenen,  in  speaking  of  the  latter  with  that  reserve  which  characterises 
all  his  literary  judgments,  makes  no  secret  of  his  opinion  that  this  well- 
meant  attempt  '  does  not  seem  to  have  been  successful.'  ^ 

The  hypothesis  of  H.  Brandes^  does  not  require  such  a  great  disturb- 
ance of  the  Hebrew  text  as  that  proposed  by  Mr.  Sayce.  The  fact  that 
in  2  Kings  xviii.  14-16  the  form  of  the  name  Hezekiah  is  not  Khizkiyyahu 
as  in  7/.  17  and  the  following  narrative,  but  Khiskiyyah,  of  itself  shows 
that  these  verses  at  any  rate  proceed  from  a  different  source,**  and  a  dim 
consciousness  of  the  fact  seems  to  have  led  to  the  space  in  our  Hebrew 
Bibles  between  v.  \6  and  v.  17.  Internal  evidence  is  no  less  strongly  in 
favour  of  disintegration.  Both  the  form  and  the  contents  oi  v.  17  separate 
it  from  that  which  precedes.  After  Hezekiah  had  sent  tribute,^  what 
could  justify  the  Assyrian  king  in  sending  an  army  to  Jerusalem  ?     Again, 

1  He  has  also,  as  we  shall  see,  shortened  history  by  twenty  years  in  xxxvii.  7. 

2  Kuenen,  The  Prophets  and  Prophecy  in  Israel,  p.  289.  Dr.  Kuenen  continues 
with  the  remark  that  Mr.  Sayce' s  essay  '  has  shown  still  more  clearly  than  before  that 
the  [Hebrew]  narrative  contains  data  mutually  conflicting,  and  leaves  more  than  one 
question  unsolved.'  For  my  own  part,  I  agree  to  some  extent  with  Mr.  Sayce,  viz. 
that  points  of  contact  with  the  invasion  of  Sargon  can  be  traced  even  after  2  Kings 
xviii.  17  ;  certainly  there  is  one  in  v.  34  of  the  same  chapter.  But  a  redistribution  of 
the  historical  material  into  a  Sargon-document  and  a  '  primary  '  and  a  '  secondary  ' 
Sennacherib-document  seems  to  me  impossible. 

3  Brandes,  Abhandlungen  zur  Geschichte  des  Orients  (Halle,  1874),  p.  81,  &c.  ; 
conip.  Kleinert,  Tlicol.  Studien  and  Kritiken,  .xlvi.  (1877),  174,  &c. 

■*  YM.QViQT\{Onderzoek,  i.  269,  270),  Wellhausen  (Bleek's  Einlcitung  in  das  A.T., 
ed.  4,  p.  255),  and  Nowack  ('  Remarks  on  the  14th  year  of  Hezekiah'  in  Theol.  Stud, 
u.  Krit.  1881,  p.  300,  &c.)  fully  admit  this.  The  former  thinks  that  the  narratives 
relate  to  two  different  stages  of  the  same  campaign  (against  which  see  Schrader, 
K.A.T.,  ed.  2,  p.  306)  ;  the  latter  that  they  give  two  independent  reports  of  the  same 
events.  Floigl  agrees  with  Nowack,  but  thinks  that  the  elaborate  cycle  of  narratives 
in  2  Kings  xviii.  17-xx.  19  is  thoroughly  legendary,  like  the  cycles  relative  to  Elijah 
and  Elisha  {Die  Chronologic  der  Bibel,  18B0,  pp.  39,  30). 

^  It  is  noteworthy  that  in  2  Chron.  xxxii.  nothing  is  said  of  Hezekiah's  tribute,  but 
much  of  his  preparations  for  defence.  Here,  too,  the  fourteenth  year  is  not  specified  as 
the  date  of  the  invasion.     It  is  a  remark  of  Dr.  Brandes, 


204  ISAIAH,  [chap.   XXXVl. 

if  the  mission  of  the  Tartan  and  the  Rab-shakeh  had  taken  place  in  the 
fourteenth  year  of  Hezekiah,  the  latter  would  certainly  have  accused 
Hezekiah  of  complicity  with  Babylon  (comp.  chap,  xxxix.),  and  not  with 
Eg)'pt.  But  all  becomes  clear  if  we  assign  the  events  of  the  section  be- 
ginning at  2  Kings  xviii.  17  to  702  B.C.,  in  the  spring  of  which  year  the 
third  year  of  Sennacherib  ofificially  opened.  Babylon  had  fallen  in  710, 
and  Egypt  alone  remained  to  be  crushed  by  Assyria.  The  accusation 
Drought  against  Hezekiah  of  having  a  secret  understanding  with  Egypt 
is  now  perfectly  intelligible. 

My  view,  then,  is  briefly  this,  reserving  an  answer  to  objections  for 
Essay  II.  in  the  second  volume.  The  events  related  in  2  Kings  xviii.  14-16 
belong  to  an  account  of  Sargon's  invasion  of  Judah,  and  the  opening 
words  of  V.  13  seem  to  me  (following  Hincks)  to  presuppose  a  fragmentary 
introduction  of  this  account,  which  was  worked  up  by  the  compiler  of 
Kings  during  the  Exile,  together  with  the  opening  words  of  the  more 
elaborate  account  of  Sennacherib's.  Such  a  '  working-up  '  is  in  agreement 
with  what  we  know  of  the  procedure  of  the  writer  of  Kings  elsewhere  : — 
he  is  not  an  original  writer,  but  a  compiler,  and  not  always  what  we  should 
call  a  critical  compiler.  He  knew  even  less  of  Sargon  than  the  compiler 
of  Ezra  iv.  (see  v.  10,  '  Asnapper ')  knew  of  Assurbanipal,  and  had  not  the 
critical  caution  to  put  aside  a  fragmentary  document  which  he  did  not 
understand. 

Before  passing  on  to  Dr.  Hincks's  second  point,  an  answer  seems  due 
to  the  objection  that  to  put  Sennacherib's  invasion  in  the  twenty-seventh 
(twenty-fourth  ?)  year  of  Hezekiah  makes  the  persecution  of  the  prophets 
under  Manasseh  extremely  difficult  to  realise.  Would  not  so  great  an 
interposition  of  Jehovah,  so  striking  a  fulfilment  of  Isaiah's  assurances  in 
His  name,  give  an  impulse  to  the  worship  of  the  true  God  with  which  the 
polytheistic  party  would  find  it  hopeless  to  contend  ?  And  does  it  not 
seem  to  destroy  the  distinctive  character  of  the  event  as  a  turning-point 
in  Israel's  history  hardly  second  to  the  Exodus,  if  we  admit  that  it  was 
followed  so  closely  by  the  accession  of  the  renegade  Manasseh  ? — The 
objections  well  deserve  consideration,  but  do  not  appear  to  me  insuperable. 
First  I  reply,  that  the  members  of  the  polytheistic  party  would  be  sure 
to  ascribe  the  glory  of  the  removal  of  the  invaders  to  the  gods  they  them- 
selves worshipped,  just  as  the  Egyptians  ascribed  it  to  the  Creator,  Ptah. 
The  writings  of  Isaiah  give  us  no  reason  to  suppose  that  he  exerted 
any  deep  spiritual  influence ;  he  seems  to  have  been  one  of  those  who 
'  toil  all  the  night,  but  take  nothing.'  Contempt  and  ridicule  were  the  lot 
of  the  prophets  of  Jehovah  (xxviii.  9,  10,  22),  and  there  were  times  in 
Isaiah's  experience  (so  1  think  we  may  infer  from  xxx.  20)  when  they  even 
had  to  '  conceal  themselves '  or  '  withdraw  into  a  corner.'  Next,  it  is 
surely  too  much  to  say  that  the  deliverance  from  Sennacherib  is  deprived 
of  its  religious  importance  by  the  close  neighbourhood  of  Manasseh's 
persecution.  The  divine  'election'  of  Israel  was  not  dependent  on  the 
character  of  its  kings,  and  it  was  as  important  for  the  church-nation  of 
Jehovah  to  be  saved  from  destruction  in  Hczekiah's  twenty-seventh  year 
as  in  his  fourteenth. 


CHAP.  XXXVI.]  ISAIAH. 

On  the  second  point-the  transposition  of  the  account  of  Hezekiah's 
illness-a  long  argument  is  clearly  unnecessary.     The  promise  of  fifteen 
years  more  of  hfe  to   Hezekiah  compels  us  to  place  his   illness  in  the 
fourteenth  year  of  h,s  reign  (comp.  2  Kings  xviii.  2),  which  is  the  year  of 
the  mvasion  of  Judah,  not  by  Sennacherib,  but  by  Sargon      Besides  thk 
the  embassy  of  Merodach  Baladan  to  Hezekiah^elatedin  ch";  xx.i    ' 
can  only  be  adequately  accounted  for  on  the  supposition  that  it  h^  a 
prmapal  reference  to  th:s  impending  invasion.     For  twelve  years  says 
the  Canon  of  Ptolemy,  m  harmony  with  the  Assyrian  inscriptions   Mero 
dach  Baladan,  the   successful  rebel  against  Assyria,  reigned  ove    Babv' 
-  .T?'  Tu'  ^^'"  ^^^^"^  ^'■°-  731  to  710,  i:e.,  to  the    ix teemhi 
year  of  Hezekiah.     During  this  period  Merodach  Babdan  mi^M  at  any 
moment  expect  hostilities  from  Assyria,  and  he  therefore  set  himself  "o 
form  as  strong  a  coalition  as  possible  of  those  w^ho  like  himsTlf  ve  e 
threatened  by  that  ambitious  power.    '  Against  the  will  of  the  Zd   '  Zl 
Sargon  in  his  Annals,  '  .  .  he  had  sent  during  twelve  years  ambLsldors- 
We  may  reasonably  place  the  embassy  to  Hezekiah  in  713  or  712      At.;v 
rate  chaps,  xxxviii.,  xxxix.  ought  chronologically  to  precede  chap  xxxti 

The  Assyrian  account  of  this  great  period  (great  to  believL  in  IL 
'election'  of  Israel,  not  to  the  Assyrian  annalists)  is  accessible  to  ^ll 
English,  French,  and  German  translations.     It  is  extamin  th' 1,       " 
strictly,  in  four)  forms,  only  differing  in  their  greater  or  L^  ^1^^^ 
which  are  found  respectively  in  the  inscriptions  on  the  Tayrcylirde; 
and  on  the   Kouyun  ik  bulls,  and  in  the  text  of  another  cv  in// 
similar  to  the  Taylor),  translated  by  Mr.  George  Smth^^  ^'b  fot  ^7 
ever,  drawing  the  reader's  attention  to  the  peculiar  features  of  th^A!' 
account,  it  will  be  well  to  give  a  short  historical  sumraryo^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 
connected  with  the  invasion  of  Judah  by  Sennacherib 

In  705,  according  to  the  Assyrian  Canon,  Sargon  was  murdered  in  IV 
new  and  richly  adorned  palace  of  Dur-Sarrikin  (now  KhorTabadf  Ibo  ^ 
ten  miles  from  Nineveh.     He  was  succeeded  by  a  younger  son  th  A 
Sennacherib,  who,  though  inferior  in  political  talent  tfhisTa'th/ 
to  have  made  a  deeper  impression  on  the  Je.'sh  /ind       H.    '  '"T 
taken,  according  to  Mr.  George  Smith,  '  as  the  tynicaTF  t.         ""'"^  ^ 
all  the  vices  of  pride  and  arrogance,  cruelty  and  Lto^' J"  " 
spicuous  in  Oriental  sovereign?  wer;  developed  tex^sfrhim  ""' 
His  military  expeditions  were  on  a  grand  scale    hutZT  i  i  '  ' 

show  than  real  conquest.     His  greates^effortf  s'ometimes'bo"^^^^^^^^ 
or  only  ended  in  disaster.     He  had  no  -enius  for  cnnHl//         \  ™'^' 

he  conquered,  and  his  process  for  putting^  ^dZ"!::::;^  ^t;^^ 

to  .S^  kIS  xlSK'bSnS  %hS  ^S  i::S^^^  ''^  -^-^  or  Chronology 
to  the  Hebrew  narratives.  ^"""^'"^  *=""f  ^&ree,  is  a  later  addition 

^  For  the  Taylor  cylinder,  see  i?.  P.,  i.  „&c   ■  for  thP  PniiT      "  —  4'- 
&c.     Readers  of  German  will  do  better  to  consult  Sohra!?    ■     inscriptions,  zdid.  vii.  57 
^,A.  T..  pp.  288-294,  and  301-304      For  sSs^evt  /7r=f  TV.'  ^""^  translations! 
BrscoveHes   pp.   .96-308.     The  fourth  Assvri  n  documlnHf  f  ^^V'!?  ^'-^  ''''-'''''^^ 
which  may  be  called  Mitunus,  as  it  isdated'in  theVearTf  h;  cyI"^der-inscription, 

This  has.  however,  not  appeared  in  a  transladon   '  Pro?  Ichri!? "°"'^  °'  archonship. 
'contains  nothing  particularly  now.'    Rut  it  has  nn  irnrfi".  r^^  informs  me  that  it 

the  following  page)  ^  ^^  ''"  "mportance  of  its  own  (see  note  on 


2o6  ISAIAH.  [CHAP.  XXXVI. 

the  ruin  he  inflicted  on  Babylon.' '  It  was,  however,  a  most  difficult  task 
which  fell  to  him,— that  of  the  pacification  of  the  Assyrian  empire,  stirred 
to  its  furthest  e.xtremities  by  the  news  of  the  murder  of  Sargon.  The 
foremost  of  the  rebel-chiefs  was  the  sworn  foe  of  Assyria,  Merodach 
Baladan,  who  emerged  from  his  place  of  concealment,  and  once  more 
assumed  the  Babylonian  crown.  It  was  a  fruitless  effort  ;  Babylon 
was  again  captured  by  the  Assyrians,  though  her  champion,  with 
characteristic  good  fortune,  made  good  his  escape.  On  his  return 
from  Babylon,  Sennacherib  laid  his  iron  hand  on  the  Aramean  tribes  of 
the  middle  Euphrates  district.  He  says  himself,  on  the  Bellino  cylinder, 
'  208,000  men  and  women,  7,200  horses,  wild  asses,  asses,  5,330  camels, 
70,200  o.xen,  800,600  small  cattle,  a  large  booty,  I  carried  away  to  Assyria.' - 
Meantime,  the  kings  and  chiefs  of  Phoenicia  and  Palestine  had  not 
been  idle.  The  people  of  Ekron,  for  instance,  had  deposed  their  king 
Padi,  a  nominee  of  Assyria,  and  sent  him  in  chains  to  Jerusalem.  So 
Sennacherib  himself  informs  us,^  and  the  fact  is  significant,  as  the  im- 
prisonment of  a  vassal  of  Assyria  was  an  overt  act  of  rebellion  on  the 
part  of  Hezekiah.  Egypt  too  had  been  stirred  by  the  news  of  the  opposi- 
tion encountered  by  Sennacherib  in  various  quarters.  It  seemed  a  time 
for  clearing  off  old  scores.  The  active  support  of  Shabataka,  the  energetic 
king  of  Ethiopia,  was  acquired.  '  The  people,  terrible  ever  since  it  arose, 
the  strong,  strong  nation  and  all-subduing,'  is  addressed  in  imaginative, 
dramatic  style  by  the  poet-prophet  Isaiah,  who  evidently  appreciates  the 
noble  qualities  of  the  subjects  of  Shabataka.  How  the  Ethiopian  empire 
prepared  to  meet  the  foe,  and  how  the  spokesman  of  Jehovah  courteously 
but  decisively  repels  their  assistance,  we  have  already  seen  in  commenting 
upon  chap,  xviii. 

It  was  in  the  spring  of  701  '  ('  my  third  campaign ')  that  Sennacherib, 
with  the  deliberateness  of  conscious  strength,  condescended  to  measure 
himself  with  the  enemies  on  the  west  of  his  empire.  Of  this  period  we 
have,  as  the  reader  is  aware,  a  contemporary  Assyrian  as  well  as  a  late 
Hebrew  account,  and  it  is  a  disputed  question  how  far  these  two  narra- 
tives fairly  admit  of  being  harmonised.  The  following  combination  of 
facts  seems  to  the  writer  to  supply  at  least  a  probable  setting  for  Isaiah's 

prophecies. After  reducing  Sidon  and  the  rest  of  the  Phoenician  cities, 

Sennacherib  marched  along  the  coast-road  in  the  direction  of  Egypt.  On 
his  arrival  at  Lachish  he  detached  a  corps  from  his  main  army  to  bring 
backjudahto  its  allegiance,  and  especially  to  reduce  the  dangerously 
strong  fortress  of  Jerusalem.  The  Tartan*  or  some  inferior  general 
invaded  the  land  of  Judah,  captured  forty-six  of  the  fortified  towns  (this 

"  Sm'ilh,  History  of  Assyria,  p.  126. 

2  Schrader,  K.A.T..  pp.  346-7  ;  comp.  R.P.,  1.  26. 

3  Bull  Inscription,  line  23,  R.P.,  vu.  61  (foot). 

*  The  Mitunu  cylinder  (note  '  p.  205)  has  settled  this,  for  the  eponomy  of  Mitunu 
was  in  the  year  700,'  consequcntly'(as  Prof.  Schrader,  in  a  private  letter,  remarks)  '  the 
Syro-Phoenician  campaign  had  already  taken  place  in  this  year.  And  since  the  Bellino 
cylinder,  dated  in  the  eponomy  of  Nabulih,  i.e.  in  the  year  702,  is  silent  as  to  this 
campaign,  it  is  clear  that  the  campaign  against  Palestine  and  Egypt  must  have  t.-xken 
place  between  702  and  700,  presumably  therefore  in  701.' 

*  See  note  on  xx.  i. 


CHAP.  XXXVI.]  ISAIAH.  207 

fact  we  owe  to  the  Assyrian  account '),  and  proceeded  to  summon  Jeru- 
salem to  surrender  (here  we  follow  the  Biblical  narrative).  It  was  pro- 
bably (see  pp.  109,  189)  during  the  victorious  march  of  the  Assyrian 
detachment  that  Isaiah  wrote  the  prophecies  in  chap.  xvii.  12-14  and 
chap,  xxxiii.,  of  which  the  former  was  apparently  composed  a  little  the 
earlier,  though  the  latter,  from  the  varied  nature  of  its  contents,  is  the 
more  interesting.  The  prophecy  in  x.xxvii.  21-35,'^  self-evidently  genuine, 
in  spite  of — or  rather,  because  of — its  unusually  inartistic  form,  may  be 
taken  as  a  pendant  to  the  more  elaborate  oracle  in  chap,  xxxiii.  The 
chief  difference  between  these  two  prophetic  'words'  is  that  chap,  xxxiii. 
regards  the  invasion  from  a  human  point  of  view — that  of  the  sufferers, 
chap,  xxxvii.  21-35,  from  the  serene  height  of  the  prophetic  watch-tower, 
nay,  of  Jehovah  himself. 

Let  us  now  turn  to  the  Assyrian  account.  This  has  been  so  often 
quoted,  that  I  may  assume  a  general  acquaintance  with  it  on  the  part  of 
the  reader.  There  are  two  passages  ^  which  apparently  conflict  with 
portions  of  the  Hebrew  record  ;  let  us  briefly  consider  these. 

(i)  In  the  inscription  on  the  Taylor  cylinder  (col.  ii.,  lines  20-23), 
Sennacherib,  who,  like  his  royal  predecessors,  often  ascribes  to  himself  the 
achievements  of  his  officers,  gives  this  account  of  the  siege  of  Jerusalem  : — 

'  .  .  Him  (Khazakiau)  like  a  caged  bird  within  Ursalimmu  his  royal 
city  I  enclosed  ;  towers  against  him  I  raised  ;  the  exits  of  the  great 
gate  of  his  city  I  blockaded.' 

This  is  surely  inconsistent  with  Isa.  xxxvii.  33  ( =  2  Kings  xix.  32), 
where  Isaiah  is  represented  as  prophesying  that  the  king  of  Assyria  should 
not  'come  before  [Jerusalem]  with  shields,  nor  cast  up  a  bank  against 
it.' — It  may  be  observed,  however,  (i)  that  it  is  not  quite  certain  that 
Isaiah  really  delivered  such  a  prophecy,  for  his  great  and  undoubtedly 
genuine  oracle  has  a  well-marked  conclusion  at  xxxvii.  29  ;  (2)  that,  if 
these  words  be  genuine,  they  afford  a  signal  proof  that,  in  the  reproduc- 
tion of  Divine  revelations,  the  prophetic  writers  were  not  secured  from 
small  errors  of  detail.  The  wonderfulness  of  the  removal  of  the  invaders 
does  not  in  the  least  depend  on  the  erection  or  non-erection  of  siege- 
towers.  Granting  that  Sennacherib's  general  did  '  cast  up  a  bank  against ' 
Jerusalem  ;  granting  that  he  even  broke  through  the  great  gate  of  the 
city ;  this  does  not  necessarily  involve  an  inconsistency  with  the  main 
point  of  Isaiah's  revelation,  viz.,  that  the  Jews  should  in  a  wonderful 
manner  be  relieved  from  their  invaders,  at  the  very  moment  when  human 
aid  was  hopeless.  Sennacherib  himself  does  not  go  so  far  as  to  say  that 
he  actually  captured  Jerusalem. 

(2)  The  second  apparent  inconsistency  between  the  Assyrian  and  the 

1  Taylor  cylinder,  col,  iii.  13,  Schrader,  K.A.  T.,  p.  293  ;  R.P.,  i.  39. 

2  I  will  not  here  enter  on  the  question  whether  the  last  three  verses  (33-35)  were 
written  at  the  same  time  as  vv.  21-32. 

3  M.  Lenormant  sees  an  inconsistency  in  the  place  given  to  Hezekiah's  payment  ot 
tribute  in  the  Assyrian  and  the  Biblical  accounts  respectively  (see  Zf^^/r^-w/^rw  civili 
satioiis,  ii.  288),  but  on  the  hypothesis  of  H.  Brandes,  adopted  above,  the  tribute 
referred  to  in  2  Kings  xviii.  14  was  paid  to  Sargon,  not  Sennacherib.  Another  incon- 
sistency might  be  supposed  in  the  reference  to  Tirhakah  (2  Kings  xix.  9)  ;  see,  how- 
ever, p.  iro. 


2o8  ISAIAH.  [CHAP.  XXXVI. 

Biblical  accounts  has  reference  to  Tirhakah,  whose  approach,  in  conjunction 
with  the  'kings  of  Egypt,'  and  its  consequences,  are  described  briefly  but 
with  great  distinctness  in  the  Assyrian  inscriptions.  The  te.xt  on  the 
Taylor  cylinder  (col.  ii.,  lines  73-82)  contains  the  following  statement  : — 

'  .  .  .  the  kings '  of  Egypt  had  gathered  together  the  archers,  the 
chariots,  the  horses  of  the  king  of  Meroe- — a  force  without  number,  and 
they  came  to  their  help  (i.e.,  to  the  help  of  the  Ekronites,  see  p.  206) :  the 
line  of  battle  was  placed  before  me  over  against  Altaku.^  They  called 
upon  their  troops.  In  the  service  of  Asshur  my  lord,  I  fought  with  them 
and  wrought  their  overthrow.  The  charioteers  and  the  sons  of  the  king 
of  Egypt,  together  with  the  charioteers  of  the  king  of  Meroe,  my  hands 
took  in  the  midst  of  the  battle.' 

It  is  at  any  rate  a  plausible  conjecture  that  there  is  a  reference  to  this 
in  the  prediction  in  Isa.  xxxvii.  7  (comp.  v.  9).  If  so,  it  would  seem  to 
follow  (i)  that  the  prophet  ascribes  the  retreat  of  Sennacherib  to  the 
operations  of  Tirhakah  rather  than  to  a  '  destroying  angel,'  and  (2)  that 
he  did  not  look  forward  to  such  a  complete  (?)  success  at  Jerusalem  for 
Sennacherib,  as  the  Taylor  cylinder  describes. 

These  two  implications  may  appear  to  some  to  be  unfavourable  to  the 
accuracy  of  the  prophet  (if  at  least  he  really  uttered  the  words  ascribed 
to  him).  But,  in  the  first  place,  it  may  fairly  be  asked  whether  the  Assy- 
rian account  is  not  guilty,  to  some  extent  at  least,  of  a  vainglorious 
exao'geration  ?  Dr.  Schrader  has  well  pointed  out  *  that  Sennacherib 
omits  the  number  of  the  prisoners  and  of  the  captured  chariots,  which  is 
rarely  neglected  in  the  bulletin-like  Assyrian  inscriptions  ;  also  that  in 
Sennacherib's  later  inscriptions  he  mentions  payment  of  tribute  by 
Hezekiah,  but  not  the  victory  of  Altaku.  We  may  also  reasonably  ask 
why  Sennacherib  did  not  utilise  the  triumphant  success  ascribed  to  him, 
and  press  on  to  the  conquest  of  Egypt.  Dr.  Schrader  concludes  that 
Sennacherib,  though  not  actually  beaten,  obtained  the  victory  with  so 
much  difficulty  that  he  was  compelled  to  withdraw  from  the  struggle 
with  Egypt  ;  and  he  willingly  admits  that  Sennacherib's  departure  may 
have  been  accelerated  by  the  breaking  out  of  a  pestilence  such  as  that 
described  in  2  Kings  xix.  35  (  =  Isa.  xxxvii.  36),  and  apparently  in 
Herod,  ii.  141.'^ 

1  '  Kings."  because  of  the  dismemberment  of  Egypt  already  referred  to.  Or  (of.  the 
Hebrew  idiom  in  Jer.  xvii.  20,  xxv.  18)  the  'sons  of  the  king  of  Egypt '  mentioned 
afterwards  ;  but  this  is  less  probable,  as  the  royal  family  did  not  exercise  that  semi-regal 
power  in  Egypt  which  it  seems  to  have  acquired  in  Judah.  '  The  king  of  Egypt '  will 
be  the  principal  of  these  kings,  i.e.,  Shabataka. 

2  The  Assyrian  has  Milukhkhi.     The  king  in  question  is  Shabataka  ;  seep.  no. 
^  The  same  as  the  Eltekeh  of  Josh.  xix.  44. 

'  Schenkel's  Bihcl-Lexlkon,  art.  Sanherib,  v.  176. 

•■*  Dr.  Schrader's  words  are  :  Nicht  ausgeschlossen  istbei  dieser  Lage  der  Dinge, 
iibrigens,  dass  fiir  seinen  Entschluss,  definiiiv  den  Riickzug  anzutreten,  schliesslich  ein 
Ereigniss  entscheidend  wurde,  wie  wir  es  in  der  Bibel  (2  Kon.  19,  35  fg.)  angedeutet 
fmden,  namlich  eine  Pest,  welche  vielleicht  infolge  der  gelieferten  Schlacht  oder  iiber- 
liaupt  infolge  des  Kriegesim  Heer  ausgebrochen  war  und  dasselbe  decimirt  hatte  (vgl. 
H'^rodot.  ii.  141).'  Bincl-l.exikoti,  v.  176.  This  leaves  it  undecided  whether  the  plague 
among  the  Assyrians  broke  out  at  Pelusinm  (comp.  Herod.,  I.e.),  or  before  Jerusalem 
(as  the  Hebrew  narrative  has  been  thought  by  some  to  imply).  1  he  reference  10 
Herodotus,  however,  suggests  that  Dr.  Schrader  agrees  with  Theni'is  nn<i  Vn^p-^.^nr 
Rawlinson  in  placing  the  calamity  at  Pelnsium. 


CHAP.  XXXVI.]  ISAIAH.  209 

On  the  one  hand,  then,  Sennacherib  (if  we  accept  Dr.  Schrader's  very 
plausible  conjecture)  exaggerates  the  importance  of  his  '  Pyrrhus-victory' 
at  Altaku  ;  on  the  other,  he  makes  no  reference  to  the  calamity  which 
befell  a  portion  of  his  army  before  Jerusalem.  This  is  in  accordance  with 
the  well-known  style  of  imperial  bulletins.  Perhaps,  however,  the  Assyrian 
annalist  has,  in  spite  of  himself,  given  a  hint  of  the  missing  facts. 
M.  Lenormant  has  already  drawn  attention '  to  the  evident  embarrassment 
of  the  Assyrian  annalist  after  he  has  related  the  first  events  of  the  invasion 
of  the  kingdom  of  Judah.  He  transports  us  abruptly  to  Nineveh,  with- 
out telling  us  why  or  how  ;  and  soon  after  we  read  of  a  fresh  outbreak 
of  rebellion  in  Babylonia,  of  which  the  indomitable  Merodach  Baladan  is 
the  soul. 

Such  are  the  main  points  in  this  remarkable  group  of  chapters  (xxxvi.- 
xxxix.)  which  are  susceptible  of  illustration  from  Assyriology.  There 
remain  two  other  classes  of  questions  which  it  seems  unwise  to  discuss 
here,  as  they  would  lead  us  too  far  away  from  the  exegesis  of  the  Book  of 
Isaiah.  If,  however,  the  student  wishes  to  know  some  of  the  leading 
data,  and  some  of  the  possible  solutions,  he  may  still  be  referred  to  The 
Book  of  Isaiah  Chronologically  Arranged  {^^.  101-103).  I  mean,  in  the 
first  place,  the  question  as  to  the  origin  of  these  chapters,  and  as  to  their 
relation  to  the  parallel  section  of  the  Second  Book  of  Kings  ;  and,  in  the 
second,  as  to  the  degree  in  which  historical  accuracy  can  be  claimed  for 
them.  Did  the  range  of  Isaiah's  historical  narratives  (such  is  one  of  the 
questions  which  may  be  asked)  extend  to  the  reign  of  Hezekiah,  or  did  he 
confine  himself  to  describing  the  '  acts  of  Uzziah '  ?  ^  Even  granting  that 
he  wrote  some  account  of  the  Assyrian  invasions  in  the  reign  of  Hezekiah, 
is  it  probable  that  this  account  was  at  all  more  elaborate  than  the  narra- 
tives in  chaps,  vii.  and  xx.,  which  are  merely  explanatory  introductions  to 
the  following  prophecies  ?  With  regard  to  the  strict  historical  accuracy 
of  this  part  of  our  book,  I  have  drawn  attention  in  /.  C.  A.  to  at  least  a 
verbal  inconsistency  between  Isa.  xxxvii.  30-32  and  v.  36  of  the  same 
chapter,  to  the  juxtaposition  of  two  events  in  xxxvii.  ■})(>  and  y],  which 
the  Assyrian  inscriptions  prove  to  have  been  separated  by  a  considerable 
interval,  and  to  the  want  of  analogy  in  the  preceding  prophecies  of  Isaiah 
for  such  an  extraordinary  sign  as  that  in  xxxviii.  8,  and  for  so  circum- 
stantial a  prediction  as  that  in  xxxviii.  5.  If  these  chapters  are  not  by  a 
contemporary  writer,  we  need  not  be  surprised  should  the  representation 
of  facts  turn  out  to  be  imperfect. 

'  And  it  came  to  pass  in  the  fourteenth  year  of  the  kino- 
Hezekiah,  that  Sennacherib  king  of  Assyria  went  up  against 

'  There  is  probably  a  mistake  in   the  name  of  the  Assyrian  kino-  jn 

*  Lenormant,  Les  pre7?iieres  civilisations,  ii.  288,  289.  Let  me  warmly  recommend 
the  graphic  and  fact-full  essay  {'  Un  patriote  babylonien  du  huitifeme  siecle  avant  notre 
ere  ')  of  which  this  passage  forms  part.  It  originally  appeared  in  a  separate  form  in 
the  Correspondant. 

-  See  2  Chron.  xxvi.  22.  The  phraseology  of  2  Chron.  xxxii.  32  is  obscure,  and 
susceptible  of  more  than  one  interpretation  (see  I.C.A.,  p.  xv.  of  the  Introduction). 

VOL,    I.  P 


210 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  XXXVl 


all  the  fortified  cities  of  Judah,  and  took  them.''  ^  And  the 
king  of  Assyria  sent  ^  the  Rab-shakeh  from  Lachish  to  Jeru- 
salem to  the  king  Hezekiah  with  a  great  army.  And  he 
stationed  himself  by  the  conduit  of  the  upper  pool  on  the 
highway  of  the  fuller's  field.  ^  "^  And  there  went  out  to  him  ° 
Eliakim,  son  of  Hilkiah,  who  was  over  the  house,  and  Shebna 
the  secretary,  and  Joah,  son  of  Asaph,  the  annalist.     *  And 

^  2  Kings  xviii.  inserts  (vv.  14-16),  '  And  Hezekiah  king  of  Judah  sent  to  the  king 
of  Assyria  to  Lachish,  saying,  I  have  offended  :  turn  back  from  me  :  that  which  thou 
puttest  upon  me,  I  will  bear.  And  the  king  of  Assyria  laid  upon  Hezekiah  three 
hundred  talents  of  silver,  and  thirty  talents  of  gold.  And  Hezekiah  gave  up  all  the 
silver  that  was  found  in  the  house  of  Jehovah,  and  in  the  treasiues  of  the  king's  house. 
At  that  time  did  Hezekiah  cut  away  (the  gold  from)  the  doors  of  the  temple  of  Jehovah, 
and  (from)  the  pillars  which  Hezekiah  king  of  Judah  had  overlaid,  and  gave  it  to  the 
king  of  Assyria.' 

•>  2  Kings  xviii.  17  inserts,  '  The  Tartan  and  the  Rab-saris  and.' 

<=  2  Kings  xviii.  18  reads,  '  And  they  called  for  the  king  and  there  came  out  to  them.' 


this  verse.  It  is  Sargon's  invasion 
which  seems  to  be  referred  to  (see 
above,  p.  203). 

Sennacherib]  The  native  Assy- 
rian form  of  the  name  is  Sin-akhi- 
irib  = '  Sin  (the  Moongod)  gave 
many  brothers  ; '  the  Hebrew,  San- 

kherlb. And  took  them]    The 

Chronicler  puts  it  differently— 
'  thought  to  conquer  them  '  (2  Chr. 
xxxii.  i). 

^  The  king-  of  Assyria]  Here 
and  subsequently  it  is  correct  to 
understand  Sennacherib,  the  con- 
fused reference  to  Sargon's  cam- 
paign being  confined  to  v.   i. 

Sent  the  Rab-shakeh]  In  2  Kings 
xviii.  17  we  find  mention  of  'the 
Tartan  and  the  Rab-saris,'  as  well 
as  'the  Rab-shakeh,'  and  as  in 
Isa.  xxxvii.  6,  24  the  'servants'  of 
the  king  of  Assyria  are  spoken  of, 
it  seems  probable  that  the  two 
former  titles  have  fallen  out  of  the 
text  of  this  verse.  All  three  are 
designations  of  high  Assyrian  offi- 
cers. For  the  first,  see  on  xx.  i. 
The  second  means  in  Hebrew  chief 
of  the  eunuchs,  and  is  probably  the 
translation  of  an  Assyrian  court- 
title.  The  third,  viz.  'the  Rab- 
shakeh,'  in  its  Hebrew  form  suggests 
the  meaning  'chief  butler'  (comp. 
Gen.  xl.  2  Hebr.)— a  very  singular 
office  to  be  mentioned  here,  but  the 


truth  is  that  the  Jews  simply  repro- 
duced a  native  Assyrian  (or  rather 
half- Assyrian,  half-Accadian) '  title, 
viz.  rab-saqe,  'chief  of  the  officers,' 
a  military  officer,  next  in  rank,  as  it 
seems,  to  the  Tartan  (see  Friedr. 
Delitzsch,  Assyiische  Stiuiien,  i. 
131). Prom  lachish]  The  cap- 
ture of  Lachish  was  thought  impor- 
tant enough  to  be  commemorated 
on  two  large  bas-reliefs  in  Sen- 
nacherib's palace  ;  one  of  these 
has  an  explanatory  inscription  (see 
T.  S.  B.  A.,  1878,  plate  opposite 
p.  85),  The  importance  of  the 
place  doubtless  arose  from  its 
commanding  the  direct  route  from 
Egypt  to  Judah.  Sennacherib  could 
here    await     the     Egyptians    (see 

xxxvii,   8). By  the    conduit  of 

the  upper  pool]  The  very  spot 
where  Ahaz  had  held  his  famous 
colloquy  with  Isaiah  (vii.  3).  Un- 
belief was  represented  then  by  an 
Israelite  ;  now,  more  naturally,  by 
an  Assyrian. 

^  Eliakim]  The  disciple  of 
Isaiah  has  supplanted  Shebna  the 
foreigner  :  see  on  xxii.  15-25. 

'^  The  Rab-shakeh  speaks  ;  per- 
haps the  Tartan  was  too  grand  an 
officer. The  grreat  kingr]  He  re- 
fuses to  recognize  Hezekiah  as  a 
king.  The  right  of  the  strongest 
throws  Judah  prostrate  at  the  feet 


'  Such  a  hybrid  formation  is  more  startling  to  us  than  it  was  to  the  Assyrians,  who 
had  adopted   ?«■</  '  officer,  captain  '  into  their  vocabulary. 


CHAP.  XXXVI.] 


ISAIAH. 


211 


the  Rab-shakeh  said  to  them,  Say  ye,  I  pray,  to  Hezekiah 

Thus  saith  the  great  king,  the  king  of  Assyria,  What  is  this 

trust  with  which  thou  trustest  ?     '  ^  Thinkest  thou  that  a  mere 

word  of  the  lips  is  counsel  and  strength  for  war  ^  !     Now  on 

whom  dost  thou  trust,  that  thou  hast  rebelled  against  me  ? 

« Behold    thou    trustest  on  this  staff  of  a  cracked    reed    on 

Egypt  ;  which,  if  a  man  lean  on  it,  will  go  into  his  hand  and 

pierce  it :  so  is  Pharaoh,  king  of  Egypt,  to  all  who  trust  in 

him.       And  if  thou  sayest  unto  me.  In  Jehovah,  our  God  is 

our  trust,  is  it  not  he,  whose  high  places  and  whose  altars 

Hezekiah  hath  taken  away,  and  hath  said  to  Judah  and  to 

Jerusalem,  Before  this  altar  shall  ye  worship  ?     » And  now 

exchange  pledges,  I  pray,  with  my  lord,  the  king  of  Assyria 

I  will  give  thee  two  thousand  horses,  if  thou  art  able  to  set  for 

thyself  riders  upon  them.     ^  How  then  canst  thou  turn  away 


before  '  counsel. 

of  the  '  great  king.'  Sarru  rabbit, 
'  great  king,'  sarru  c/a;i;tu,  '  strong 
king,'  sarkissaii, '  king  of  hosts,'  are 
the  constant  descriptive  titles  ap- 
plied to  themselves  by  the  Assyrian 
kings. 

^  He  does  not  accuse  Hezekiah 
of  conspiring  with  Merodach  Bala- 
dan  ;  on  this  point  see  above, 
p.  204.  A  cracked  reed]  Not  '  a 
broken  reed,'  as  Auth.  Vers.,  for 
who  could  even  try  to  lean  on  such 
a  staff.?  (Comp.  xlii.  3,  'a  cracked 
reed  he  shall  not  break:)  Whereas 
the  thick  stem  of  the  Artindo  donax, 
so  common  both  in  Egypt. and  in 
Palestine,  would  give  a  show  of 
support  even  when  '  cracked.'  The 
speaker  alludes  to  the  weakening 
effects  of  disunion  and  defeat  in 
Egj'pt  (see  on  chap.  xix.  and  xxx. 
3,   Sj   7).     Parallel    passage,   Ezek. 

XXIX.   6,    7. Pharaoh,    king'    of 

Egypt]  Here,  as  in  the  Assyrian 
mscriptions,  the  title  Pharaoh  is 
used  inaccurately  as  a  proper  name. 
The  particular  Pharaoh  intended 
IS  Shabataka  (see  Introd.  to  chap 
xviii.). 

J  ^^^  if  thou  sayest  unto  me] 

The  Assyrians  had  a  veil-organised 


intelligence-department.        Senna- 
cherib had  heard  of  the  reforma- 
tion   of    worship    undertaken     by 
Hezekiah  (2  Kings  xviii.  4,  comp. 
2  Chron.  xxxi.  i).     This,  from  his 
heathen  point  of  view,  was  an  act 
of  gross  impiety  towards  Jehovah  ; 
lor   had   not    Jehovah    been   wor- 
shipped from  time  immemorial  at 
most  if  not  all  of  the  'high  places'? 
The  local  sanctuaries  designated  by 
the  latter  phrase  appear  from  the 
inscriptions  to  have  been  known  in 
Assyria  and  Babylonia  as  well  as 
Palestme  ;  indeed,  they  go  back  to 
Accadiaiv-i.e.,  pre-Semitic-times 
(Sayce,  T.  S.  B.  A.  iv.  30). 

*>  ^  These  two  verses  are  spoken 
by  the  Rab-shakeh  in  his  own 
name,  though  in  the  spirit  of  his 
master.  In  v.  10  he  returns  to 
the  royal  message,  precisely  as  the 
Hebrew  prophets  speak,  sometimes 
more  directly,  sometimes  less,  in 
the  name  of  Jehovah.  There  is 
therefore  no  occasion  on  this  ground 
to  disintegrate  the  narrative  with 
Mr.  Sayce  {Theological  Review 
1S73,  P-  22).— We  have  first  a  dis- 
paraging comparison  between  the 
weakness  of  the  Jews  (which  sug- 
p  2 


212 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  XXXVI. 


the  face  of  a  single  prefect  from  among  the  meanest  servants 
of  my  lord  ?  This  is  why  thou  trustest  in  Egypt  for  chariots 
and  for  horsemen.  '"  And  now,  is  it  apart  from  Jehovah  that 
I  hav^e  come  up  against  this  land  to  destroy  it  ?  Jehovah  said 
unto  me,  Go  up  against  yonder  land  and  destroy  it.  ^^  And 
Eliakim  and  Shebna  and  Joah  said  to  the  Rab-shakeh,  Pray 
speak  unto  thy  servants  in  Aramean,  for  we  understand  it, 
and  do  not  speak  to  us  in  Jewish  in  the  ears  of  the  people 
who  are  upon  the  wall.  '^And  the  Rab-shakeh  said,  Is  it  to 
thy  lord  and  to  thee  that  my  lord  hath  sent  me  to  speak  these 

gests  that  there  is  some  degree  of 
oratorical  exaggeration  in  ii.  7)  and 
the  strength  of  the  Assyrians  in 
cavalry  (comp.  v.  28) ;  this  of  course 
implies  tacitly  that  a  small  detach- 
ment of  the  Assyrian  army  would 
be  equal  to  overpowering  the  Jews. 

The  face]  i.e.,  the  attack. 

Prefect]  The  Hebr.  pakhath  ('  con- 
struct '  form  oipekhah)  has  nothing 
to  do  with  the  mod.  Persian  'pasha,' 
but  comes  direct  from  the  Assyrian 

pakhat  '  provisional  governor.' 

This  is  why  .  .  •  ]  i.e.,  because 
Judah  itself  is  so  deficient  in 
cavalry. 

'0  Sennacherib  professes  to  have 
received  an  oracle  from  Jehovah, 
who  is  irritated  at  the  overthrow  of 
his  high  places.  One  cannot  help 
conjecturing  that  here,  as  in  v._  15, 
the  writer  has  given  an  Israelitish 
colouring  to  the  ideas  of  the  Assy- 
rian (like  Isaiah  x.  10),  in  spite  of 
the  inconsistent  statement  in  v.  20. 
Still  it  is  only  the  word  Jehovah 
which  is  out  of  place.  '  Go,  take 
Nebo  (in  war)  against  Israel,' 
says  the  god  Chemosh  to  king 
Mesha  on  the  Moabite  Inscription  ; 
a  prophet  or  a  dream-voice  (see 
R.P.^  ix.  52)  may  have  seemed  to 
give  a  similar  bidding  to  Senna- 
cherib. 

"  Well  did  Nahum  prophesy 
(ii.  13),  'The voice  of  thy  messen- 
gers shall  no  more  be  heard.'  The 
Rab-shakeh's  speech  was  so  well 
calculated  to  impress  the  multitude 
that  Eliakim  and  his  companions 
beg  him  to  employ  the  .\ramaic 
instead    of  the    'Jewish'     tongue. 


The  statement  implies  that  Assy- 
rian as  well  as  Jewish  officials  were 
acquainted  with  Aramaic,  as  being 
the  great  commercial  language  of 
Syria,  Palestine,  and  West  Asia. 
Nor  are  we  confined  to  mere  in- 
ference. Private  contract-tablets 
in  Aramaic  and  Assyrian  have  been 
found  in  the  remains  of  ancient 
Nineveh.  But  the  Rab-shakeh 
had  a  still  wider  range  of  linguistic 
knowledge.  He  belonged  to  a 
nation  which  had  a  genuine  interest 
in  the  study  of  languages,  and  his 
official  duties  doubtless  prompted 
him  to  extend  his  knowledge  to 
the  utmost.  No  wonder,  then,  if 
he  could  speak  Hebrew.  There  is 
much  difficulty,  however,  in  the 
application  of  the  term  Jewish. 
In  xix.  18  Isaiah  speaks  of  Hebrew 
as  '  the  tongue  of  Canaan,'  which 
shows  (in  harmony  with  the  in- 
scription on  the  Moabite  Stone) 
that  the  language  of  Judah  cannot 
have  differed  materially  from  that 
of  the  rest  of  Palestine  (Phoenicia 
of  course  being  excluded).  'Jewish,' 
therefore,  means  Hebrew,  and  not 
merely  the  dialect  of  the  tribe  of 
Judah  (as  Naeg.).  But  the  only 
other  example  (except  in  the  pa- 
rallel passages  in  Kings  and  Chro- 
nicles) of  this  use  of  the  word  is  in  a 
passage  of  post-Exile  date(Neh.  xiii. 
24).  It  is  only  reasonable  to  infer 
that  this  account  of  the  proceed- 
ings of  the  Rab-shakeh  has  been, 
at  any  rate,  considerably  modified 
by  a  jxist-Exile  writer. 

'-'  VT'ho  sit  upon  the  wall]    Who 
are  stationed  there  for  defence. 


CHAP.  XXXVI.]  ISAIAH.  213 

words  ?  is  it  not  to  the  men  who  sit  upon  the  wall,  to  eat 
their  dung  and  to  drink  their  urine  with  you  ?  ^^  And  the 
Rab-shakeh  stood  forth,  and  cried  with  a  loud  voice  in 
Jewish,  and  said,  Hear  ye  the  words  of  the  great  king,  the 
king  of  Assyria.  '^  Thus  saith  the  king,  Let  not  Hezekiah 
deceive  you,  for  he  will  not  be  able  to  deliver  you.  '^  And 
let  not  Hezekiah  make  you  trust  in  Jehovah,  saying,  Jehovah 
will  surely  deliver  us  ;  this  city  shall  not  be  surrendered  into 
the  hand  of  the  king  of  Assyria.  ^^  Hearken  not  to  Heze- 
kiah ;  for  thus  saith  the  king  of  Assyria,  Make  a  treaty  with 
me,  and  come  out  to  me,  and  eat  ye  every  one  of  his  vine, 
and  every  one  of  his  fig-tree,  and  drink  ye  every  one  the  water 
of  his  cistern  ;  '^  until  I  come  and  take  you  away  to  a  land 
like  your  own  land,  a  land  of  corn  and  grapes,  a  land  of 
breadcorn  and  orchards.®  ^^^  Beware  lest  Hezekiah  entice 
you,^  saying,  Jehovah  will  deliver  us.  Have  the  gods  of  the 
nations  delivered,  every  one  his  land,  from  the  hand  of  the 
king  of  Assyria  ?  '^  Where  are  the  gods  of  Hamath  and 
Arpad  .''  where  are  the  gods  of  Sepharvaim  ^  .•*  and  how  much 
less  have  [its  gods]   delivered   Samaria    out    of    my    hand ! 

"  2  Kings  xviii.  32  adds,  A  land  of  generous  olive-trees  and  of  honey,  that  ye  may 
live,  and  not  die  ;  and  hearken  not  to  Hezekiah. 
f  2  Kings  xviii.  32  reads,  For  he  enticeth  you, 
e  2  Kings  .xviii.  34  adds,  Hena  and  Ivvah  (see  note  ^  on  chap,  xxxvii.). 

To  eat   .    .   .]  i.e.,  with    no    other      Jer.    .xxxviii.   17. Eat  ye  .    .    .] 

result  than  their  bemg  reduced  to  i.e.,  in  that  case  ye  shall  enjoy  your 

the  utmost  conceivable  distress.  land  undisturbed,  until    Sennache- 

"  Eliakim    has  given  the  Rab-  rib    has    brought     his     campaign 

shakeh  an  advantage  of  which  the  against  Egj'pt  to  a  close  ;  then,  no 

clever  courtier  at  once  avails  him-  doubt,  ye  will    be    removed   from 

self.     He   now   comes  forward    in  your  home,  but  a  new  home  will 

the   character   of  a   friend  of   the  be  given  you  equal  to  the  old. 

deluded  Jewish  people.  ^**  Beware  lest  Hezekiah  .  .  .] 

*^  And  let  not  Hezekiah.  .  .]  The  Assyrian  is  inconsistent.  In  his 

Here,  as  in  7'.  10,  a  Jewish  colour-  first  speech  he  had  stated  himself 

ing  is  distinctly  visible.      An   As-  to  be  the  obedient    instrument  of 

Syrian,  as  Mr.  Sayce  has  remarked  Jehovah  (7/.  10) ;  here,  in    accord- 

{Theological  Review^    1873,  P-  23),  ance  with  x.    10,  11,  he  represents 

'would  hardly  have  been  able  to  re-  the   wars    of  the  Assyrians  as  in- 

produce  so  exactly  the  encourage-  spired  by  a  religious  hostility  to  all 

ment  heldout  by  Isaiah'(xxxvii.  35).  the  'gods  of  the  nations.' 

1^  IKTake  a  treaty]  Lit., 'a  bless-  '^  "Where  are  the  g-ods  of  Ha- 

ing,'  treaties    being     accompanied  math  ...]  The  answer  would  have 

with    mutual   benedictions.        The  been,     In  Assyrian    shrines  :     see 

phrase  is  unique,  but  is  analogous  Rawlinson,  Ancient  Monarchies^  i. 

to  the  use  of 'blessing' in  the  sense      475.      Parallel    passage,    x.  9. 

of '  a  present'  (frequently). Come       Sepharvaim]  See  on  x.xxvii.  1 3. 

out]  i.e.,  surrender,  as  i  Sam.  xi.  3,  Have  [its  gods]  .  .  .]    Supply  the 


214 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  XXXVII. 


^°  Which  are  they  among  all  the  gods  of  these  lands  which 
have  delivered  their  land  out  of  my  hand  ?  how  much  less 
can  Jehovah  deliver  Jerusalem  out  of  my  hand  !  ^i  And  ''  they 
kept  silence,  and  answered  him  not  a  word,  for  the  king's 
commandment  ran  thus.  Ye  shall  not  answer  him.  ^^  And 
there  came  Eliakim,  son  of  Hilkiah,  who  was  over  the  house, 
and  Shebna  the  secretary,  and  Joah,  son  of  Asaph,  the  anna- 
list, to  Hezekiah  with  rent  clothes,  and  they  told  him  the 
words  of  the  Rab-shakeh. 

^  2  Kings  xviii.  36  reads,  The  people. 


bracketted  words  from  the  context ; 
comp.  '  the  gods  of  the  nations,'  v. 
18. 

"°  Out  of  my  hand]  Either  the 
speaker  claims  a  royal  license 
in  dealing  with  facts  ;  or  the  com- 


piler confounds   Sargon  with  Sen 
nacherib. 

'^'  Ve   shall    not    answer    him] 

For  the  Jews  had,  in  fact,  nothing 
that  would  seem,  from  an  Assyrian 
point  of  view,  a  satisfactory  answer. 


CHAPTER   XXXVII. 

'  And  it  came  to  pass,  when  the  king  Hezekiah  heard  it, 
that  he  rent  his  clothes,  and  covered  himself  with  .sackcloth, 
and  came  into  the  house  of  Jehovah.  ^  And  he  sent  Eliakim, 
who  was  over  the  house,  and  Shebna  the  secretary,  and  the 
elders  of  the  priests,  covered  with  sackcloth,  to  Isaiah  the 
prophet,  son  of  Amoz.  ^  And  they  said  unto  him,  Thus  saith 
Hezekiah,  This  day  is  a  day  of  trouble  and  punishment  and 
contumely,  for  the  children  have  come  to  the  birth,  and  there 
is  not  strength  to  bring  forth.     *  Perhaps  Jehovah  thy  God 


'  This  distinguished  embassy 
shows  the  political  importance  at- 
taching to  Isaiah  and  indeed  to  the 
prophetic  office  in  itself.  Similar 
applications  for  prophetic  interven- 
tion are  recorded  toHuldah(2  Kings 
xxii.  14)  and  to  Jeremiah  (J er.xxxvii. 
3).  On  the  other  hand,  Ahab 
evinces  his  hostile  spirit  by  send- 
ing an  ordinaiy  courtier  to  fetch 
Micaiah  (i  Kings  xxii.  9). 

^  Punishment]  The  sense  *  re- 
buke '  (Auth.  Vers.)  is  clearly  un- 
suitable. Judicial  decision  is  the 
root-meaning ;  the  context  must 
determine  the  more  precise  refer- 
ence. See  Hos.  v.  9,  Ps.  cxlix.  7. 
Contumely]    i.e.,   blasphemy. 


This  rend,  suits  the  context  (see  v. 
4),  and  is  required  in  the  other  pas- 
sages where  the  word  occurs  (with 
one  vowel-point  different),  viz.  Neh. 

ix.  18,  26,  Ezek.  xxxv.    13. The 

children  have  come  .  .  .  ]  A 
proverbial  expression  rises  natu- 
rally to  the  lips  to  express  the  utter 
collapse  of  all  human  resources. 
One  hope,  indeed,  as  the  ne.\t  verse 
shows,  still  remains — a  hope  in  the 
Biblical  sense,  i.e.,  a  sure  confi- 
dence— the  faithfulness  of  Jehovah. 
Comp.  the  similar  transition,  fol- 
lowing upon  the  same  figure,  in 
Hos.  xiii.  14. 

■'  vrill  hear]  The  word  includes 
the   idea  of  corresponding  action. 


CHAP.  XXXVII.] 


ISAIAH. 


21 


will  hear  the  words  of  the  Rab-shakeh,  with  which  the  king 
of  Assyria,  his  lord,  hath  sent  him  to  reproach  the  living 
God,  and  will  deal  punishment  for  the  words  which  Jehovah 
thy  God  hath  heard,  and  thou  wilt  utter  a  prayer  for  the  rem- 
nant which  exists.  ^And  the  servants  of  the  king  Hezekiah 
came  to  Isaiah.  *^  And  Isaiah  said  unto  them,  Thus  shall  ye 
say  unto  your  lord.  Thus  saith  Jehovah,  Be  not  afraid  because 
of  the  words  which  thou  hast  heard,  with  which  the  minions 
of  the  king  of  Assyria  have  reviled  me.  ^  Behold,  I  will  place 
a  spirit  in  him,  so  that  he  shall  hear  tidings,  and  return  to  his 
own  land  ;  and  I  will  cause  him  to  fall  by  the  sword  in  his 
own  land. 

^  And  the   Rab-shakeh   returned   and  found   the  king  of 
Assyria   warring  against   Libnah,  for  he   had   heard  that  he 


— — tJlter  a  prayer]  The  inter- 
cessory prayers  of  a  prophet 
'availed  much';  see  Ex.  xxxii.  lo, 

II,    Jer.    XV.    I. Tlse    remnant 

wliicli  existo]  Forty-six  fortified 
towns  had  been  already  taken  (it 
appears  from  the  Assyrian  account), 
when  the  Assyrian  general  (accord- 
ing to  the  Hebrew  account)  sum- 
moned Jerusalem  to  surrender. 

^  And.  .  .  .  came  to  Isaiab] 
An  inartistic  resumption  of  the 
narrative,  such  as  often  occurs  in 
the  narrative  books,  designed  per- 
haps to  comment  on  Isaiah's  phrase 
'  your  lord.' 

"  The  minions]  It  is  a  dispa- 
raging expression  (not  '■abhde^  as  v. 
5,  but  ?ia''dre).  Del.  renders  knap- 
pcn  ( =  squires). 

'  X  will  place  a  spirit  in  him] 
'  A  spirit '  is  probably  not  to  be 
understood  personally  (comp.  i 
Sam.  xviii.  lo,  i  Kings  xxii.  21), 
but  in  the  weaker  sense  of  impulse, 
inclination;  comp.  xix.  14,  xxix.  10, 
Num.  V.  14,  Hos.  iv.  12,  Zech.  xiii.  2. 
The  two  senses  are,  however,  very 
closely  connected.  The  Eg)'ptians 
believed  in  the  existence,  in  the 
supersensible  world,  of  a  genius,  a 
spirit,  or  an  eiScoXo?',  even  of  ab- 
stract qualities  or  official  dignities 
— the  name  for  such  a  genius  was 
ka  (Le  Page  Renouf,  T.  S.  B.  A., 
1878,  p.  494,  &c. ;  Hibbert  Lectures^ 


1S79,  p.  147,  &c.)  The  rendering  of 
Auth.  Vers,  is  against  the  Hebrew 

idiom. Shall    hear    tldlng-s] 

We  are  not  told  whether  these 
'  tidings '  referred  to  the  hostile 
movement  of  Tirhakah  (see  v.  9), 
or  to  the  pestilence  mentioned  (ap- 
parently) in  V.  36,  or,  what  seems 
a  more  probable  reason  for  Sen- 
nacherib's '  return  to  his  own  land,' 
to  some  insurrection  in  another 
part  of  the  Assyrian  empire.  Del. 
combines  the  two  former  refer- 
ences ;  Kuenen  ( The  Pr'Pphets  and 
Prophecy  in  Israel^  p.  296),  pro- 
nounces for  the  latter.  The  absence 
of  any  explanation  confirms  the 
view  that  the  narrative  in  its  pre- 
sent form  belongs  to  a  time  when 
the  traditional  knowledge  of  the 
events  was  confined  to  Uie  broad 

outlines  of  histoiy. Cause  him 

to  fall  .  .  .  ]  The  last  twenty  years 
of  Sennacherib's  reign  seem  to  have 
left  no  traces  in  Jewish  tradition. 
See  on  v.  38. 

^  "Warring- a g-ainstlfibnah]  No 
doubt  this  movement  was  dictated 
by  the  approach  of  the  Egyptians. 
Libnah  is  generally  placed  near 
Lachish  ;  a  place  of  this  name  be- 
longed to  the  tribe  of  Judah  (Josh. 
XV.  42).  It  is  bold  in  M.  Oppert  to 
identify  this  Libnah  with  Pelusium 
(comp.  Herod,  ii.  141). 


2l6 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  XXXVII. 


had  broken  up  from  Lachish.  ^  And  he  heard  say  concern- 
ing Tirhakah,  king  of  Ethiopia,  He  is  gone  forth  to  fight 
against  thee.  And  ""  he  again  sent  "^  messengers  to  Hezekiah, 
saying,  •*^  Thus  shall  ye  say  unto  Hezekiah,  king  of  Judah, 
Let  not  thy  God,  in  whom  thou  trustest,  deceive  thee,  saying, 
Jerusalem  shall  not  be  surrendered  into  the  hand  of  the  king 
of  Assyria.  ''  Behold,  thou  thyself  hast  heard  what  the 
kings  of  Assyria  have  done  unto  all  lands,  destroying  them 
utterly  ;  and  canst  thou  be  delivered  ?  ^'^  Did  the  gods  of 
the  nations  which  my  fathers  destroyed  deliver  them,  (such 
as)  Gozan,  and  Haran,  and  Rezeph,  and  the  Sons  of  Eden 
who  were  in  Telassar  ?     ^^  Where  is  the  king  of  Hamath,  and 

a  So  2  Kings  xix.  9  and  Sept.  (virtually,  both  here  and  in  2  Kings)  ; — Text,  he 
heard  it  and  sent. 


°  Tirhakah]  Famous  both  in 
the  Assyrian  and  in  the  Egyptian 
inscriptions  (comp.  on  xviii.  2), 
though  a  long  historical  inscrip- 
tion of  his  own  has  not  yet  been 
found.  The  former  call  him  Tarku, 
the  latter  Tah^raqa ;  comp.  the 
Hebr.  accentuation  Tirhakah.  As- 
surbanipal,  like  the  Hebrew  writer, 
calls  him  'king  {sar) o{ Cush,'  some- 
times also  'king  of  Muqur  and 
Cush.' — As  to  the  accuracy  of  the 
reference  to  Tirhakah,  see  introd. 
to  chap,  xviii. 

^'^  The  message  is  an  amplifica- 
tion of  the  argument  in  xxxvi.  18- 
21. 

'^  IWy  fathers]  This  must  mean 
'  my     predecessors,'     for      Sargon 

founded  a  new  dynasty. Cozan, 

&c.]  All  Mesopotamian  towns  and 
districts  (see  Schrader,  A'.   G.   F., 

p.    199). Telassar]    Hebraised 

from  Tul-Asur,  'hill  of  Asur' 
(Asshur).  Shalmaneser  II.  relates 
how  he  went  out  against  a  strong- 
hold belonging  to  Akhuni  the  Son 
of  Adini  ;  put  him  to  flight,  and 
conquered  several  cities  on  both 
sides  of  the  Euphrates.  Of  four  ^ 
of  these  he  says  he  changed  the 
names,  and  the  type  of  two  of  the 
names  ('  Law,  Command  of  Asur ') 
is  exactly  like  Tul-Asur.  It  may 
be  inferred  that  either  Shalmaneser 


or  Sargon  gave  the  latter  name  to 
another  of  the  cities  of  Bit-Adini. 
This  was  a  petty  kingdom  extend- 
ing some  little  way  both  east  and 
west  of  the  Euphrates  (Schrader, 
/.  c).  Whether  it  is  the  Beth-Eden 
of  Am.  i.  5  may  be  questioned  ; 
its  identity  with  the  Eden  of  our 
passage   and    of    Ezek.    xxvii.    23 

seems  evident. Sons  of  Eden] 

A  tribal  appellation,  comp.  '  Son 
of  Adini '  above,  and  note  on 
xxxix.  I. 

'^  "Where  is  the  king:  of  Hamath 
.  .  .  ]  (For  the  first  two  names 
comp.  on  X.  9.)  The  connection 
between  w.  12,  13,  escapes  those 
who  take  'king'  in  the  phrase 
'king  of  Hamath'  in  its  limited 
modern  application,  whereas  'king' 
here,  as  so  often  in  the  Semitic 
languages  (comp.  viii.  21),  means 
tutelary  god.     As  Clericus  saw,  this 

follows  from  xxxvi.  19. Sephar- 

valm]  The  Babylonian  Sippar, 
the  city  of  the  sun-god  (see  inscr. 
in  next  note),  discovered  by  Mr. 
Rassam  in  the  mounds  of  Abu 
Habba,  about  16  miles  S.W.  of 
Bagdad.  Anciently  the  Euphrates 
flowed  past  it.  There,  according 
to  Berosus,  the  sacred  (mythologi- 
cal) tablets  were  deposited,  probably 
because  Sippar  was  safe  from  the 
inundations  of  the  canals.     As  to 


1  So  Sayce,  7?.  P.,  iii.  92 :  Schrader,  however,  says  three. 


CHAP.  XXXVII.] 


ISAIAH. 


217 


the  king  of  Arpad,  and  the  king  of  the  city  of  Sepharvaim, 
^of  Hana,  and  of  Avvah  ?^ 

'^  And  Hezekiah  took  the  letter  from  the  hand  of  the  mes- 
sengers, and  read  it :  and  Hezekiah  went  up  unto  the  house 

"  The  Hebr.  punctuation  gives  ke/za  v'ivva,  which  most  understand  to  be  names  of 
places,  Hena  and  Ivvah,  but  which  rather  mean  'he  hath  made  to  wander,  and  over- 
turned (so  apparently  the  Targum  and  Svmmachus).  This  is  obviouslv  a  wroncr  view 
ot  the  ongmal  Sept.,  2  Kings  xviii.  34,  has  'A^i  koX  'A(3a.  Avvah  is  'also  supported 
by  the  Avva  of  2  Kmgs  xvii.  24  (Hebr. ). 


the  termination,  see  on  Migraim 
xix.  6.  Others  have  thought  of 
Sibraim  (Ezek.  xlvii.  16),  which  suits 
geographically,  but  is  too  obscure 
a  place.  In  any  case,  the  naine  is 
not  connected  with  sepher,  a  book.' 
— I — Hana  and  Avvah]  Avvah  is 
still  a  puzzle  to  me,  but  inay  we 
not  venture  to  identify  Hana  with 
the  //ana  (near  Carchemish)  men- 
tioned in  an  inscription  found  on 
the  site  of  Sepharvaim,  '  To  Samas, 
king  of  heaven  and  earth,  [his]  king, 
Tugulti-Mer  king  of  iYana,  son  of 
Ilu-Saba,  for  the  [safety]  of  his 
land,  and  his  (own)  protection,  he 
has  given  (this  instrument).'— />(?- 
ceedings  of  S.  B.  A.,  1883,  P-  14- 

"  The  letter]   The  word    is  in 
the  plural  (we  might  render  'the 

leaves');    comp.    Uteres. "Went 

up  into  the  house  of  Jehovah] 
George  Smith  suggests  a  striking 
parallel  from  the  annals  of  Assur- 
banipal's  warfare  against  Teumman 
the  Elamite,— Teumman's  vow, 
Assurbanipal's  tears  before  I  star, 
the  oracle  heard  by  a  seer  in  a 
dream,  and  repeated  to  the  king 
{Assyria,  p.  156,  Records  of  the 
Fast,  ix.  50-52).  The  contrast  lies 
in  the  absence  of  self-commendation 
in  Hezekiah's  prayer,  and  in  Jeho- 
vah's promise  to  overthrow  Sen- 
nacherib without  human  agency. 
More  remarkable  still  is  the  counter- 
part of  Hezekiah's  prayer  and  of  its 
answer  in  Herodotus'  version  (may 
we  say  >)  of  the  Egyptian  account 
of  Sennacherib's  overthrow.  '  On 
this  the  monarch  (Sethos),  greatly 
distressed,  entered  into  the  inner 
sanctuary,  and  before  the  image  of 
the  god  (Ptah)  bewailed  the  fate 
which  impended  over  him.  As  he 
wept  he  fell  asleep,  and  dreamed 


that  the  god  came  and  stood  by  his 
side,  bidding  him  be  of  good  cheer, 
and   go   boldly  forth  to   meet  the 
Arabian    (Assyrian)     host,    which 
would  do  him  no  hurt,  as  he  himself 
would  send  those  who  should  help 
him'  (Herod,  ii.  141  Rawl.).    There 
is  here  still  the  same  contrast  with 
the  immediateness  of  Jehovah's  in- 
tervention   according    to     Isaiah's 
prophecy.     The  last  words,  written 
with  full  conviction,  lead  me  to  ask 
how  far  the  prayer  of  Hezekiah  can 
be  regarded  as  authentic.     Kuenen 
has  already  remarked  that  no  such 
strong    statement   of    monotheisin 
occurs  in  the  works  of  Hezekiah's 
contemporaries,  Isaiah  and  Micah, 
and  it  seems  a  natural  supposition 
that  the  more  developed  faith  of  the 
later  writer  has  here  given  a  colour- 
ing to  his  language.     Yet  I  think  we 
may  assert  that  Hezekiah  (as  one 
probably    of    the    outer    circle    of 
Isaiah's  adherents)  felt  as  a  mono- 
theist,  though  his  conscious  belief 
was  probably  even  less  distinct  than 
Isaiah's.      With   this    reserve,    we 
may  admit  the  prayer  of  Hezekiah 
as  being  at  any  rate  as  accurate  an 
expression  of  his  sentiments  as  that 
in  the  Annals  of  Assurbanipal  is  of 

that  Assyrian  king's. Spread  it 

before  Jehovah]  Not  '  in  order 
that  the  Lord  himself  might  read 
it '  (Thenius) — a  survival  "of  gross 
anthropomorphism,  which  Gese- 
nius  even  compares  to  the  prayer- 
machines  of  the  Buddhists.  The 
action  of  '  spreading  out '  the  letter 
is  symbolical  ;  hence  the  combina- 
tion of  phrases  in  v.  17,  '  hear'  and 
'  see,'  both  meaning  simply  '  regard.' 
It  was  the  arrogance  of  which  the 
letter  was  the  symbol  which  Jeho- 
vah was  besought  to  take  notice  of, 


2l8  ISAIAH.  [CHAP.  XXXVll. 

of  Jehovah,  and  spread  it  before  Jehovah.  '•'^And  Hezekiah 
prayed  to  Jehovah,  saying,  "^  Jehovah  Sabdoth,  God  of  Israel, 
who  "  inhabitest  the  cherubim,  thou  art  alone  the  (true)  God 
for  all  the  kingdoms  of  the  earth  ;  thou  hast  made  the  heavens 
and  the  earth.  '^  Incline,  Jehovah,  thine  ear  and  hear  ;  open 
thine  eyes,  Jehovah,  and  see  ;  and  hear  all  the  words  of  Sen- 
nacherib, which  he  hath  sent  to  reproach  the  living  God. 
•^  Of  a  truth,  Jehovah,  the  kings  of  Assyria  have  laid  waste 
all  the  '^  nations  and  their  land,  ^^  and  have  put  their  gods 
into  the  fire  ;  for  no  gods  were  they,  but  the  work  of  men's 
hands,  wood  and  stone  ;  and  have  destroyed  them.  ^^  And 
now,  Jehovah  our  God,  save  us  out  of  his  hand,  that  all  the 
kingdoms  of  the  earth  may  know  that  thou  art  Jehovah,  thou 
alone. 

<:  SoEw.,  Riehm.— Art  enthroned  upon.  Hitz.,  Del.,  Hengst.,  Keil,  Oehlcr,  Kay. 
(See  crit.  note.) 

d  So  2  Kings  .\ix.  17.— Text,  lands  (obviously  a  clerical  error). 

and  it  was  the  believing  dependence  Num.  vii.  89,  '  He  heard  the  voice 

on  Jehovah — not  the  mechanical  act  speaking  unto  him  from  off  the  lid 

here   mentioned — which   produced  upon  the  ark  of  the  witness,  from 

the  desired  result.     The  spread  out  between  the  two  cherubim,'  see  also 

letter  was  a  '  prayer  without  words '  Ex.  xxv.  22. Thou  hast  made 

(L)el.).  •  •  •  ]    The  creative  power  of  Je- 

'"  "WTio  inhabitest  the  cheru-  hovah,  as  contrasted  with  the  im- 

bim]    There  is  perhaps  a  double  potence   of  the  idols,   becomes    a 

reference  in  this  phrase,  i.  to  the  favourite  subject  of  contemplation 

cherub    of    the    storm-cloud     (see  in  II.  Isaiah  (xl.  18-26,  xlii.  5-8)  and 

Encycl.  Brif.,  art.  'Cherubim'))  2.  in  the  post-Exile  psalms  (Ps.  xcvi.  5, 

to  the  figures  of  the  cherubim  on  cxv.  3,  4,   1 5,  cxxxv.  5,  6)  ;  comp. 

the   ark.     For   the   former,    comp.  also  the  Chaldce  insertion  in  Jer. 

Ps.  xviii.   10,  '  And  he  rode  upon  a  x.  1 1  {Q.  P.  B.) 
cherub,  and  did  fly ; '  for  the  latter, 

Vv.  21-35.  A  prophecy  'of  striking  interest,  and  both  in  form  and 
matter  stamped  with  the  mark  of  Isaiah'  (/.  C.  A.,  p.  loi).  This  latter 
point  is  of  importance,  as  the  Isaianic  origin  of  the  rest  of  the  historical 
section  is  so  uncertain.  Uelitzsch  divides  the  prophecy  into  eight  almost 
equal  stanzas;  but  this  seems  arbitrary.  We  have  before  us— what  is 
unfortunately  so  rare— a  discourse  nearly,  if  not  quite,  in  the  form  in  which 
it  was  delivered.  All  Isaiah's  other  works  evidently  owe  much  to  reflec- 
tion and  to  art ;  here  however  his  genius  appears  in  its  native  simplicity. 
He  seems  to  recognise  (I  am  here  speaking  of  his  prophecy  only  as  a 
literary  work)  that  he  has  a  foeman  worthy  of  his  steel,  and,  in  contrasting 
the  opposite  religious  spirits  of  Assyria  and  Israel,  has  done  even-handed 
justice  to  each.  How  vividly,  too,  and  how  poetically  he  has  represented 
the  military  prowess  of  his  country's  enemies  ! — how  truthfully,  we  may 
now  add,  since  the  Assyrian  monuments  have  placed  us  in  a  position  to 
judge  !  The  eloquent  lines  devoted  by  M.  Lenormant '  to  Assyrian 
'  I.cs  prcmiifcs  civilisatiom,  ii.  259,  260. 


CHAP.  XXXVII.] 


ISAI.\II. 


219 


strategy  rectify  the  unconscious  injustice  of  historians,  and  attest  the 
accuracy  of  the  Hebrew  prophet. 

2^  And  Isaiah,  son  of  Amoz,  sent  unto  Hezekiah,  saying-, 
Thus  saith  Jehovah,  the  God  of  Israel,  That  which  thou  hast 
prayed  unto  me  concerning  Sennacherib  king  of  Assyria  ["  1 
have  heard  «=].  22  Thjg  jg  ^^^  ^^^^  ^^-^^^  Jehovah  hath  spoken 
against  him,  Despiseth  and  mocketh  at  thee  the  virgin- 
daughter  of  Zion  ;  behind  thee  shaketh  her  head  the  daughter 
of  Jerusalem.  23  Whom  hast  thou  reproached  and  reviled  ? 
and  against  whom  hast  thou  raised  the  voice  ?  thou  hast  lifted 
up  thine  eyes  on  high  against  the  Holy  One  of  Israel !  24  gy 
thy  f  servants  thou  hast  reproached  the  Lord,  and  hast  said, 

"  These  words  are  supplied  in  2  Kings  .xix.  20. 
^  Messengers,  2  Kings  xix.  23. 


*'  And  Xsaiah  .  .  .  sent]  Are 
we  to  understand  that  Isaiah  was 
supernaturally  warned  of  Hezekiah's 
prayer  (comp.  Acts  ix.  11),  or  have 
we  simply  a  curtailed  summary  of 
what  took  place  ? 

■^^  Behind  thee]  Pursuing  the 
retreating  foe. 

**  Have  /ascended]  /,  the  great, 
the  all-powerful  king,  have  per- 
formed this  seemingly  impossible 
feat.  The  Assyrian  inscriptions 
present  several  parallels  to  this 
boastful  language.  Thus  Shalma- 
neser  says,  'Trackless  paths  and 
difficult  mountains,  which,  like  the 
point  of  an  iron  sword,  stood 
pointed  to  the  sky,  on  wheels  of 
iron  and  bronze  I  penetrated,'  lit., 
'I  dug  up'  (/?.  P.,  iii.  85);  and 
Assurnagirpal,  'Rugged  paths,  diffi- 
cult mountains,  which  for  the  pas- 
sage of  chariots  and  armies  was 
(were)  not  suited,  I  passed;'  'The 
rugged  hill-country  .  .  .  with  in- 
struments of  iron  I  cut  through ' 
(/e.  P.,  iii.  43,  58,  comp.  60). 
Similarly  Tiglath-Pileser  I.  (P.  P., 
iii.  9,  10,  16).  Elsewhere,  how- 
ever, Shalmaneser  at  least  is  more 
modest  :  '  (My)  warrior-host  tra- 
versed the  mountain  ;  bravely  (in) 
its  heart  opposition  it  brought,  and 
ascettded  on  its  feet'  (P.  P.,  iii.  97). 


Clearly  these  boasts  of  Sennacherib 
are  not  to  be  taken  literally.  He 
was  indeed  no  stranger  to  mountain- 
passes,  but  it  would  seem  that  the 
route  of  the  Assyrian  armies  as  far 
as  Aradus  (the  most  northern  Phoe- 
nician town)  was  by  the  shore— the 
route  of  the  present  day.^  The 
boasts  are  to  be  explained  (with 
Knobel)  on  the  analogy  of  the 
phrase  '  to  ride  upon  the  high  places 
of  the  land'  (see  on  Iviii.  14)  = 'to 
conquer  and  rule  over  it.'  Lebanon, 
as  the  northern  bulwark  of  the  land 
of  Israel,  is  used  as  a  representative 
or  symbol  for  the  whole  country 
(comp.  Zech.  xi.  i).  This  applica- 
tion of  the  word  accounts  for  the 
following  futures,  '  I  will  cut  down 
...  I  will  enter,'  which  mean  that 
the  conquest  of  Palestine  had  still 
to  be  completed.  (There  is  no 
occasion  to  take  the  perfects  as 
perfects  of  prophetic  certitude  =  '  I 

will   ascend,'   &c.). 1  win  cut 

down  .  .  .  ]  This  feature  in  the 
description  must  be  taken  symboli- 
cally, if  the  view  adopted  at  the  end 
of  the  last  note  be  correct.  Tall 
cedars  and  choice  fir-trees  will  be 
'kings,  princes,  nobles,  all  that  is 
highest  and  most  stately'  (Birks), 
comp.  ii.  13,  X.  34,  Ix.  13.  But, 
though  symbolical,  the  description 


iuJ  ^°f''T^'  I-   \  ^-   '"*•'  ^''-  3S2-     This  would  bring  him  into   the   region   of 
fertu^es     '  ""   ''"^  '''*'   tablet-sculptures   presents   his   unmistakable 


220 


ISAIAH. 


[CHAP.  XXXVII. 


With  the  multitude  of  my  chariots  have  /  ascended  to  the 
height  of  the  mountains,  to  the  recesses  of  Lebanon  ;  and  I 
will  cut  down  its  tallest  cedars  and  its  choicest  pine-trees  ; 
and  I  will  come  into  its  farthest  ^  height,  its  garden-like  wood- 
land. ^-^  I  have  digged  and  drunk  ^  foreign  waters,  and  will 
dry  up  with  the  sole  of  my  feet  all  the  canals  of  Egypt. 
■■^^  Hast  thou  not  heard  .''  long  ago  I  made  it,  in  ancient  times 

K  Lodging-place,  2  Kings  xix.  23. 
''  So  2  Kings  xix.  24.     Text  omits. 


is  in  harmony  with  Hteral  fact.  The 
felhng  of  cedars,  &c.,  in  Lebanon 
and  Amanus  is  repeatedly  men- 
tioned in  the  Assyrian  Annals,  and 
'Remenen'  (Lebanon)  appears  in 
Egyptian  sculptures  in  relief,  with 
trees  felled.  The  two  kings  referred 
to  above  are  fond  of  alluding  to 
this  subject.  Thus  Assurnagirpal 
*  caused  the  forests  of  all  (his 
enemies)  to  fall'  (R.  P.,  iii.  40,  yj), 
and  Shalmaneser  calls  himself  'the 
trampler  on  the  heads  of  mountains 
and  all  forests'  (/?.  P., in.  83,  comp. 
p.  90).  Such  great  builders  needed 
the  wood  for  their  palaces,  their 
fleets,  and  their  machines  of  war. 
But  it  was  also  a  religious  act  to  cut 
down  the  trees  ;  at  any  rate  in  a 
country  where  the  cultus  of  moun- 
tains was  so  developed  as  in  Syria. 
Just  so  the  Persians  cut  down  the 
sacred  groves  of  the  Greeks.  Comp. 

xiv.  8,  Hab.  ii.  17. its  fartbest 

heigut]  Jerusalem,  with  its  two 
Lebanon-houses  (temple  and  palace, 

comp.    on   xxii.   8. its   g-arden- 

like  woodland]  The  prophet  com- 
bines two,  strictly  speaking,  incon- 
sistent expressions  to  convey  an 
idea  of  the  strength  and  beauty  of 
Jerusalem.  So  of  the  Assyrians, 
X.  18,  Alt.  rend,  does  not  fit  in  so 
well  into  the  clause. 

'^  I  have  dig-gred  .  .  .  ]  He  implies 
that  he  has  already  exhausted  the 
natural  streams  of  Palestine,  and 
been  obliged  to  dig  wells.  '  Credi- 
mus  altos  |  Defecisse  amnes,  epo- 
taque  flumina  Medo  |  Prandcnte,' 
Juv.  Sa/.,  X.  176. — Or,  if  the  per- 
fect be  prophetic  (see  note  on  7'.  24), 
he  may  refer  to  the  desert  of  the 
Tt'A  (between  Palestine  and  Egypt), 


where  the  digging  of  wells  would 
be  a  necessity,  and  a  hyperbole 
need  not  be  supposed.- — —Will  dry- 
up  ...]  He  reserves  his  greatest 
achievement  for  the  last.  The  con- 
quest of  Egypt  was  the  true  goal 
of  the  Assyrian  kings.  Hitherto 
the  Egyptians  had  trusted,  to  apply 
the  words  used  by  Nahum  (iii.  8)  of 
Thebes,  in  '  her  rampart  the  sea 
(i.e.,  the  Nile),  and  her  wall  of  the 
sea.'  But  the  many-branched  Nile 
should  cease  to  be  a  protection  ; 
so  numerous  were  the  hosts  of 
Assyria.  A  castle  in  the  air,  so  far 
as  Sennacherib  himself  was  con- 
cerned.  The  canals  of  Egypt] 

Or,  of  the  Fortified  Land  (see  on 
xix.  6). 

^'^  Hast  thou  not  heard  .  .  .] 
Sennacherib  had,  in  fact,  not  heard, 
but  is  not  excusable  on  that  ac- 
count, comp.  Mic.  v.  15,  Q.  P.  B., 
and  see  on  x.  7.  We  may  under- 
stand 7/.  26  in  three  different  ways  : 
(i)  as  a  specimen  of  prophetic 
irony  :  '  so  wise  and  so  almighty  in 
your  own  esteem,  are  you,  after  all, a 
poor  ignorant  mortal  ? '  (Birks).  Or 
(2)  we  may  justify  Isaiah's  language 
by  the  not  improbable  supposition 
that  the  Assyrian  oliicials,  who  were 
acquainted  with  the  Hebrew  lan- 
guage (see  xxxvi.  1 1),  might  if  they 
had  liked  have  informed  themselves 
more  accurately  about  the  Jewish 
religion.  Or  (3)  we  may  suppose 
Isaiah  to  be  only  nominally  ad- 
dressing Sennacherib,  and  really 
intending  a  word  of  comfort  for 
Hezekiah.  Griitz  strangely  takes 
V7/.  22-28  to  be  an  extract  from  a 
diplomatic  letter  (not,  however, 
denying    Isaiah's   authorship). 


CHAP.  XXXVII.] 


ISAIAH. 


221 


I  fashioned  it;  now  have  I  brought  it  to  pass,  that  thou 
mightest  be  (able)  to  destroy  fortified  cities  into  desolate 
heaps.  27^,^^  ^.j^gjj.  inhabitants  were  ^of  small  power/  were 
dismayed  and  ashamed  ;  they  became  (as)  grass  of  the  field, 
and  green  herbage,  blades  of  the  housetops,  andJ  a  field  (of 
corn)J  before  it  is  in  stalk.  But  thy  sitting  down  and  thy 
going  out  and  thy  coming  in  do  I  know,  and  thy  deep  rao-e 
against  me.  ^a  Because  of  thy  deep  rage  against  mc,  and 
that  thy  recklessness  hath  come  up  into  mine  ears,  I  will  put 
my  hook  into  thy  nose  and  my  bridle  into  thy  'lips,  and  I 
will  turn  thee  back  by  the  way  by  which  thou  earnest.  ' 

^^  And  this  shall  be  the  sign  unto  thee  :— one  eateth  this 
year  the  after-growth,  and  the  second  year  that  which  oroweth 


'  Lit. ,  short  of  hand. 

j  A  blasting,  2  Kings  xix.   26,   and  so  Ges.,   E\v.,    Hitz.,   Del     Naeo 
note. )  ■ '  = 


(See  crit. 


Iiong-  ago]  in  the  counsels  of  eter- 
nity, see  on  xxii.  1 1. 

*^  Became  grrass]  So  king  As- 
surnagirpal,  '  Kings  ...  he  cut  off 
hke  grass'  {/^.  P.,  iii.  41). 

*^  But  thy  sitting  down  .  .  .] 
The  connexion  is,  '  But  I  will  not 
allow  thee  to  go  a  step  beyond  the 
goal  marked  out  by  me.  I  scru- 
tinize every  movement  of  thine.' — 
The  opening  of  this  verse  is  logi- 
cally unsymmetrical,  probably  be- 
cause to  insert  '  and  thy  standing 
up'  would  have  made  the  clause 
disproportionately  long. 

'^^  My  hook  .  .  .  my  bridle] 
No  mere  symbolical  expression,  as 
the  Assyrian  bas-reliefs  show.  The 
'  hook '  in  the  nose  is  indeed  un- 
usual, though  not  quite  unexampled 
in  Babylonian  sculpture  (comp. 
Ezek.  xxxviii.  4,  2  Chron.  xxxiii. 
II,  2-  Z'.  B.).  The  'bridle'  is  the 
thong  or  rope  by  which  the  more 
distinguished  captives  were  led 
about.  See  Prof.  Rawlinson,  Ait- 
cient  Mfljtarchies,  ii.  304,  iii.  436. 

■■'"  The  sigrn]  '  The  sign  '  not  of 
what  precedes,  but  of  that  which 
follows  (see  on  v.  32).  The  de- 
parture of  Sennacherib  would  be 
the  signal  for  a  new  and  blessed 
life  in  the  church-nation  of  Jeho- 
vah. '  The  hardly-earned  exist- 
ence of  the  Jews  during  the  next 


two  years  [rather  fourteen  or  fifteen 
months]  is  a  pledge  of  the  brighter 
future    m    store  ;    that    is,    of  the 
Messianic  period '  (/.  C.  A.,  p.  105). 
It  IS  necessary  to  lay  stress  upon 
this,  otherwise  it  would  be  difificult 
to  see  in  what  the  '  sign '  consisted, 
or   why   it   was     necessary.      The 
'  sign  '  consisted  in  the  certitude  of 
the  prophet  that  the  danger  from 
Assyria  was  over,  and  the  Messia- 
nic period  at  hand.     This  certitude 
implies   a    claim    to    supernatural 
knowledge.     '  The  sudden  flight  of 
Sennacherib  to  Nineveh  could  not 
of  Itself,  put-  an  end  to  all  fear  of  a 
fresh  invasion,  not  even  when  the 
terrible  extent  of  the  judgment  was 
known.     It  might    seem    unlikely 
that  a  single  check  should  wholly 
turn  back  a  tide  of  conquest  and 
plunder  which  had  set  in  for  thirty 
years  '  (Birks).     Isaiah  ventures,  in 
the   face   of    this    unlikelihood,'  to 
assure  the  Jews  that  there  will  be 
no    repetition    of  an  Assyrian    in- 
vasion.    He  even  goes  further,  and 
speaks  as   if  the  Messianic  period 
were  close  at  hand.  Without  a  vio- 
lation of  psychological  laws,  such 
as  we  have  no  Old  Testament  ana- 
logy for  assuming,  it  would  perhaps 
have  been    impossible   for  him    to 
realize  the    long  interval   between 
his  own  period  and  the  ideal  a^^e  • 


222 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  XXXVM. 


of  itself ;  but  the  third  year  sow  ye  and  reap,  and  plant  vine- 
yards and  eat  the  fruit  thereof.  ^'  And  the  escaped  of  the 
house  of  Judah  who  are  left  shall  again  take  root  downward 
and  bear  fruit  upward  ;  ^"'  for  out  of  Jerusalem  shall  go  forth 


at  any  rate,  it  appears  that,  when 
this  prophecy  was  delivered,  he  did 
not  reaHze  it.  It  is  for  these  bold 
assurances,  of  the  close  of  the  As- 
syrian period,  and  the  advent  of 
the    Messianic    age,     that    Isaiah 

here  offers  a  sign. The  afier- 

errowth]  Lit.,  that  which  is  added, 
i.e.,  the  produce  of  the  grains 
which  had  dropped  out  by  chance 
at  the  last  harvest.  The  word 
{sapJu'akh)  only  occurs  again  in  this 

sense,  Lev.  x.w.  5,  11. But  the 

third  year]  It  may  be  asked  why 
the  '  sign  '  should  be  postponed  to 
the  third  year.  Some  (Hitz.,  Knob., 
and  formerly  Del.)  reply :  {a)  Be- 
cause the  Assyrians  would  pass 
through  Judah  on  their  return  from 
Eg>pt,  and  so  the  harvest  of  the 
second  year  would  be  lost.  Others 
(e.g.  Hofmann)  [b)  suppose  that  the 
first  year  was  sabbatic,  the  second 
a  j  ibilee  year,  and  that  on  this 
account  the  cultivation  of  the  land 
was  to  be  suspended.  But  with 
regard  to  {a).  Consul  Wetzstein  has 
pointed  out  that  it  is  not  necessary 
to  assume  a  second  Assyrian  in- 
vasion. '  If,  for  example,  the  break- 
ing up  of  the  fallow  had  to  be 
omitted  in  the  winter  of  1864-65 
on  account  of  the  enemy,  there 
could  be  no  sowing  in  the  autumn 
of  1865,  nor  any  harvest  in  the 
summer  of  1866.  .  If  seed  were 
to  be  sown  in  the  newly-broken 
fallo  V,  there  would  be  no  har- 
vest, and  the  seed  would  be  lost ' 
(l)elitzsch,  Jesaia,  ist  ed.,p.  655). 
And  as  to  (/>),  the  supposition  is 
really  baseless.  There  is  no  evi- 
dence that  either  the  sabbatical 
year  or  that  of  Jubilee  was  ob- 
served before  the  Exile  (comp. 
2  Chron.  xxxvi.  2i\  and  the  utmost 
that  can  be  maintained  is  a  possible 
reference  (assuming  its  pre-Exile 
composition)  to  the  phraseology  of 
Lev.  XXV.  5,  II.  'S'our  condition 
this    year    will    be    like   that    in    a 


sabbatical  year,  and  next  year  like 
that  in  a  Jubilee  year. — N.B.  The 
fact  is,  that  the  postponement  of 
tillage  is  not  so  great  as  might  be 
supposed.  The  prophecy  was  pro- 
bably delivered  in  autumn  (see  on 
xxxiii.  9\  somewhat  before  the 
close  of  the  civil  year.  The  second 
year  would  thus  be  from  one  Tisri 
(or  October)  to  another,  and  this 
would  be  the  only  year  completely 
lost  to  agriculture.  In  ordinary 
language,  then,  the  prophet  assures 
the  Jews  that  within  fourteen  or 
fifteen  months  the  tillage  of  the 
ground  might  be  resumed.  It  is  a 
bright  fancy  of  Del.  to  connect  the 
composition  of  Ps.  Ixv.  with  the 
spring  of  the  third  year,  when  the 
fields  which  had  once  been  laid 
waste  by  the  Assyrian  soldiery 
were  once  more  covered  with  ripen- 
ing corn. 

31,3-;  -pi^g  scanty  population  con- 
centrated at  Jerusalem  shall  again 
spread  over  the  land  and  repair  its 

losses. The  escaped    .  .  ■]     A 

characteristic  reference  to  the  great 
doctrine  of  the  '  remnant.'     Comp. 

iv.  2,  3,  x.  20,  21. "Who  are  left] 

The  same  pleonasm  as  in  xi.  i,  16. 

Take  root  do\7n\irard    .    .   .] 

Thus   reversing    the   judgment    in 

V.  24;     comp.    xxvii.    6. The 

jealousy  .  .  .]  'Jealousy,'  being 
the  afifectional  manifestation  of  the 
Divine  holiness,  is  a  'two-edged 
word,'  implying  the  destruction  of 
all  that  opposes  the  Divine  cove- 
nant, and  the  furtherance  of  all 
that  promotes  it. — These  words 
form  the  close  of  the  first  great 
Messianic  prophecy  (ix.  7).  It  is 
a  plausible  conjecture  of  Hitzig's 
that  vv^.  33,  34,  were  added  by  a 
later  editor,  the  original  prophecy 
ending  at  7>.  32.  They  certainly 
appear  to  have  been  added  later, 
but  why  not  by  Isaiah  himself? 
They  at  any  rate  fit  on  to  t'.  29  better 
than?'?'.  30  32.   Hitzig's  real  reason 


CHAP.   XXXVII.] 


ISAIAH. 


22 


a  remnant,  and  those  who  escape  out  of  mount  Zion.  The 
jealousy  of  Jehovah  Sabaoth  shall  perform  this.  ^^  Therefore 
thus  saith  Jehovah  concerning  the  king  of  Assyria,  He  shall 
not  come  into  this  city,  nor  shoot  an  arrow  there,  nor  come 
before  it  with  shields,  nor  cast  up  a  bank  against  it.  ^  By 
the  way  that  he  came,  by  the  same  shall  he  return,  and  into 
this  city  he  shall  not  come  ;  it  is  the  oracle  of  Jehovah. 
'^  And  I  will  shield  this  city  to  deliver  it,  for  mine  own  sake, 
and  for  my  servant  David's  sake. 

^^  And  ^  the  angel  of  Jehovah  went  out,  and  smote  in  the 

^  2  Kings  -xix.  35  inserts,  It  came  to  pass  that  night,  that. 


is  the  unusual  definiteness  of  the 
prediction  in  v.  34,  which,  he  thinks, 
is  a  z'aticinittmpost  eventum.  True, 
it  agrees  in  its  e.xpressions  with  the 
prediction  in  v.  7,  but  it  contains 
nothing  to  remind  us  of  the  state- 
ment in  V.  36. 

3^  Comp.   xxxi.  8,  Hos.  i.  7. 

"Witli  shields]  '  Shields '  were 
needed  against  the  darts  and 
stones,  or  the  burning  torches, 
throwTi  out  on  the  besiegers  by  the 
besieged.  See  illustration  from 
Botta  in  Bonomi's  Nineveh  and  its 

Palaces^  p.  161. Wor  cast  up   a 

bank]  Habakkuk  (i.  10)  says  of  the 
Chaldeans,  '  He  laugheth  at  every 
stronghold,  and  heapeth  up  earth, 
and  taketh  it.' 

^^  I  will  shield  this  city]  Sept. 
finely  (also  in  xxxviii.  6)  vTrepaaTrio}, 
Or,  shelter  as  a  mother  -  bird 
(xxxi.  5). 

""  And  the  an^el  of  Jehovah 
went  out  .  .  .  ]  (Comp.  2  Sam. 
xxiv.  16,  Acts  xii.  23.)  Commen- 
tators of  all  schools  seem  to  be 
agreed  in  treating  this  Hebrew  tra- 
dition of  the  destruction  of  the 
Assyrians  with  some  freedom  ;  nor 
can  they  be  blamed,  considering 
the  long  interval  between  the  events 
and  the  Exile-period  when  the  tra- 
ditions were  finally  edited.     Thus 


Delitzsch  feels  justified  by  the  con- 
ciseness of  the  report  in  supposing 
an  epidemic  of  long  duration  in 
the  Assyrian  host,  comparing  the 
phrase  of  the  Psalmist,  '  the  pesti- 
lence that  walketh  in  darkness' 
(Ps.  xci.  6).  Prof.  Rawlinson, 
following  Thenius  and  apparently 
Ewald,  transfers  (and  rightly — see 
below)  the  scene  of  the  pestilence 
to  the  marshes  of  Pelusium,  on  the 
ground  of  the  well-known  Herodo- 
tean  narrative  (Herod,  ii.  141 ).  Hit- 
zig  inclines  to  reject  the  words  of 
2  Kings  xix.  ^S,  'that  night,'  as  a 
later  addition  to  the  original  narra- 
tive ;  Delitzsch  (ed.  i)  thinks  that 
the  terms  of  the  promise  in  7'.  30 
forbid  us  to  interpret  the  words 
quoted  in  their  most  obvious  sense,^ 
and  explains  them  with  reference 
to  7'7'.  23,  34>  as  =  '  in  the  night  in 
which  the  Assyrians  encamped  be- 
fore Jerusalem.'  Finally,  Hitzigand 
Knobel  refer  the  large  number  of 
the  dead  to  a  legendary  exaggera- 
tion. The  instances  quoted  of  the 
large  ravages  effected  by  plagues 
will,  however,  not  convince  those 
whose  difficulty  is  not  so  much  in 
the  great  loss  of  life  as  in  the  large 
number  of  what  (supposing  the 
event  to  have  happened  before  Je- 
rusalem) can  have  been  but  a  mere 


1  Thenius,  too,  thinks,  with  much  reason,  that  the  words  in  question  refer  to  some 
notice  which  existed  in  the  original  source  from  which  the  editor  of  2  Kings  xix.  drew, 
but  \\hich  he  unfortunately  omitted.  He  also  conjectures  that  the  statement  of  the 
destruction  of  the  Assyrians  in  a  single  night  is  a  legend  suggested  by  the  words  of 
Isaiah  in  xvii.  14.  If  so,  however,  we  should  have  expected  that  the  instrument  of 
destruction  would  be  a  storm.  This,  in  fact,  has  been  suggested  by  the  orthodox 
Viiringa,  though  there  seems  to  be  no  analogy  for  the  use  of  '  angel  of  Jehovah ' 
synonymo-.isly  with  'storm.' 


224 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  XXXVII. 


camp  of  Assyria  a  hundred  and  eighty-five  thousand  ;  and 
when  men  arose  early  in  the  morning,  behold,  they  were  all 
dead  corpses.  ^^  And  Sennacherib,  king  of  Assyria,  broke 
up,  and  went,  and  returned,  and  abode  in  Nineveh.  ^^  And  it 
came  to  pass,  as  he  was  worshipping  in  the  house  of  '  Nisroch 

Mesarach,    Sept.   of  2  Kings  xix.  37. — Asshur, 


'  Nasarach  (v.  1.  Asarach),  Sept. 
Wellh.,  Schrader. 


corps  of  the  entire  Assyrian  army. 
The  Chronicler,  too,  simply  states 
that  '  Jehovah  sent  an  angel,  who 
cut  off  every  mighty  man  of  valour 
and  leader  and  captain  in  the  camp 
of  the  king  of  Assyria'  (2  Chron. 
xxxii.  21).  On  the  whole,  although 
we  may  admit  that  the  compiler 
may  have  believed  the  event  to 
have  taken  place  before  Jerusalem, 
it  is  clearly  the  more  probable  view 
(as  it  enables  us  to  leave  the  num- 
bers untouched)  that  the  scene  of 
the  pestilence  was  in  the  marshes 
of  Pelusium.  The  legend  in  Hero- 
dotus presupposes  a  narrative  much 
nearer  to  the  Hebrew,  for  the '  mice ' 
are  simply  misunderstood  symbols 
of  pestilence.'  It  was  pardonable 
in  the  Egyptians  to  ascribe  their 
deliverance  to  the  piety  of  their  own 

king. The  camp    of  Assyria] 

There  was  a  place  '  within  the  city ' 
called  '  the  camp  of  the  Assyrians ' 
in  the  time  of  Josephus  {de  Bcllo 
Jud.,  v.  7.  2)  ;  but  '  Assyrians  '  here 
may  possibly  =  '  Syrians,'  as  in 
Jos.,  Ant.  xiii.  6.  7. 

^^  And  Sennacberlb  .  .  . 
broke  up]  This  again  must  not 
be  taken  too  literally.  The  in- 
scriptions show  that  Sennacherib 
lived  twenty  years  after  the  Egyp- 
tian and  Jewish  expedition,  and  un- 
dertook five  more  campaigns.  All 
these,  however,  were  in  the  east, 
north,  or  south  of  the  empire,  and 
were  therefore  as  good  as  non- 
existent for   nations    in    the   west, 


like  the  Jews.  Among  them  were 
several  against  Babylonia — not 
against  Merodach  Baladan,  who 
had  been  dethroned,  but  against 
his  son,  Nabu-sum-iskun,  whom 
Sennacherib  captured  alive  (Schra- 
der,  K.  A.  T.,  p.  329). 

2**  Murder  of  Sennacherib.  Un- 
fortunately we  have  no  Assyrian 
account  of  this  ;  an  inscription  of 
Esarhaddon  which  may  have  re- 
ferred to  it  is  fractured  in  the  im- 
portant part.  The  following  passage, 
however,  is  very  suggestive  :  '  From 
my  heart  I  made  a  vow.  My  liver 
was  inflamed  with  rage.  Imme- 
diately I  wrote  letters  (saying)  that 
I  assumed  the  sovereignty  of  my 
father's  house  '  {R.  P.,  iii.  103,  Tal- 
bot). In  the  next  lines  Esarhad- 
don apparently  describes  his  con- 
test for  the  empire  with  his  brothers, 
and  places  the  scene  of  it  in  the 
land  immediately  south  of  Arme- 
nia.  Nisrocli    his    grod]     This 

name  cannot  be  identified  in  the 
Assyrian  pantheon,  though  M.  Op- 
pert  formerly  read  Hea  (the  Air- 
god)  as  Nisroch,-  an  error  which 
has  been  copied  by  Mr.  Budge  in 
R.  P.,  xi.  46.  Attempts  have  been 
made  to  explain  the  word  Nisroch 
(see  Del.  ad  loc..,  and  Schrader, 
K.  A.  T.,  ed.  I,  pp.  205,  206),  but, 
it  seems  to  me,  without  success. 
Beyond  question  Nisroch  is  a  cor- 
ruption, as  perhaps  Hana  and  Av- 
vah  in  xxxvii.  13.  Wellhausen 
thinks    the    original    source    had 


1  Wellhausen,  Der  Text  dcr  B.  Sam.  (1871),  on  i  Sam.  vi.  4. 

-  I  observe  tl.at  Prof.  Schratler  also  in  1872  read  Nisroch  (Nisruk)  in  an  inscrip- 
tion of  Assurbanipal,  where  Mr.  G.  Smith,  History  of  Assurbatiipal,  p.  4,  rightly 
reads  Hea,  on  the  ground  that  the  sign  commonly  read  A  is  now  and  then  used  (but 
idoographically  !)  for  ru'k  (rather  ru'kti=  '  distant ')  see  K.  A.  T.,  ed.  1,  pp.  205-208. 
M.  Oppert,  however,  now  reads  A'in,  with  as  little  reason  as  Nisroch,  as  Mr.  Sayce 
kindly  informs  me.  It  is  much  to  be  wished  that  Assyriologists  would  contract  their 
Hebraizing  of  the  proper  names  in  the  .Assyrian  inscriptions  within  as  narrow  limits 
as  possible. 


CHAP,  xxxviir.] 


ISAIAH. 


225 


his  god,  that  Adrammclech  and  Sarczer  his  sons  smote  him 
with  the  sword  ;  and  they  escaped  into  the  land  of  Ararat. 
And  Esarhaddon  his  son  became  king  in  his  stead. 


Asshur  (comp.  Sept.  above)  ;  Sayce 
longagothoughtofNusku,' a  planet- 
ary god  =  Nebo.  The  r  might  be 
instead  of  an  original  duplication, 
so  that  Nisroch  would  imply  a 
form  Nussuku.  Wellhausen's  con- 
jecture leaves  the  ch  unaccounted 

for. Adranuaelech]    i.e.,    the 

Assyrian  Adarmalik  '  (the  god) 
Adar  (is)  prince.'  In  2  Kings  xvii. 
31  this  is  the  name  of  a  god  of 
Sepharvaim  (see  on  xxxvii.  13)  ; 
in  this  case  translate  '  Adar — prince.' 

Sarezer]     i.e.,      Sar(ra)  -  uqur 

(  =  protect  the  king),  a  shortened 
form  of  an  Assyrian  name,  the  first 
part  of  which  probably  consisted 
of  the  name  of  some  god.  It  oc- 
curs again,  as  the  name  of  a  man 
of  Bethel,  Zech.  vii.  2.  The  lack- 
ing name  is  most  probably  Nergal'- 
(the  lion-god),  for  Abydenus  states 
that  the  successor  of  Sinecheribos 
was  Nergilos,  who  was  murdered 


by  his  brother  Adramelos  (Adram- 
melech),  the  latter  being  in  his 
turn  put  to  death  by  Axerdis  (Esar- 
haddon). Nergalsarezer  occurs  as 
a  proper  name,  Jer.  xxxix.  3,  13. 
It     means    '  Nergal,    protect    (or, 

created)  the  king.' .a.rarat]  i.e., 

Armenia,  in  Assyrian  6'>'ar///',  which 
lay  just  beyond  the  limits  of  the 

Assyrian  empire  or  influence. 

Esarhaddon]  The  Hebraized  form 
of  Asur-akh-iddin,  '  Assur  gave  a 
brother.'  Notice  the  later  mode  of 
transcribing  the  name  Asur  in 
Hebrew. 

As  the  Assyrian  eponym  Canon 
requires  us  to  date  this  king's  ac- 
cession in  681  B.C.,  a  presumption 
arises  that  the  compiler  of  this 
chapter  was  not  Isaiah,  who  in  681 
would  be  almost  100  years  old. 
Uel.  admits  this  with  regard  to 
■^■^'^  yii  38,  but  why  should  he  stop 
there  ? 


CHAPTER    XXXVIII. 

The  dangerous  illness  of  Hezekiah,  the  sign  of  his  days  being  prolonged, 
his  recovery,  his  thanksgiving-psalm — such  are  the  contents  of  this 
chapter.  There  is  a  parallel  narrative  in  2  Kings  xx.  i-ii,  which  is  evi- 
dently much  nearer  to  the  original  on  which  both  it  and  Isa.  xxxviii.  are 
based  ;  together  with  Delitzsch  I  regard  the  latter  as  having  been  once 
as  full  of  details  as  the  former,  or  with  most  critics  as  the  work  of  a  hasty^ 
copyist.  In  fact,  Isa.  xxxviii.  in  its  present  form  may  be  considered  as 
virtually  an  abridgment  of  2  Kings  xx.  r-ii  (see  notes).  The  date  of  the 
events  described  is  settled  by  v.  6.  Since,  according  to  2  Kings  xviii.  2, 
Hezekiah  reigned  twenty-nine  years,  his  illness  must  have  occurred  in  his 

^  Essay  on  Isa.  xxxvi. -xxxix.,  in  Theological  Review,  1873,  p.  27. 

2  I  see  that  this  acute  conjecture  is  sometimes  ascribed  to  Schrader,  who,  however, 
can  well  afford  to  give  the  credit  of  priority  to  a  learned  American,  Dr.  Joseph 
Addison  Alexander,  the  commentator  on  Isaiah  (1846).  Schrader  well  compares  Bil- 
sar-u5ur  =  Belshazzar,  and  quotes  nine  other  names  shortened  like  Sarezer,  e.g.,  Nabu- 
habal-U9ur  =  Nabopolassar.  [Die  ass.-bab.  Keilinschriftcn,  1872,  pp.  154-6.)  There 
are  equally  good  parallels  in  the  Old  Testament,  e.g.,  Ahaz  for  Jehoahaz. 

^  The  haste  with  which  he  worked  is  shown  by  the  misplacement  of  w.  21,  22, 
which  were  omitted  by  accident  between  vv.  6  and  7,  and  then  restored  at  the  end  of 
the  chapter.  We  have  noticed,  it  is  true,  a  tendency  to  abridgment  throughout  this 
group  of  narrative  chapters,  but  in  chap,  xxxviii.  the  tendency  is  carried  to  an  ex- 
treme, and  combined,  in  the  case  just  referred  to,  with  carelessness. 

VOL.    I.  O 


2  26  ISAIAH.  [CHAP.  XXXVIII. 

fourteenth  year,  and  have  synchronised,  or  nearly  so,  with  the  invasion 
of  Sargon.  Whether  it  preceded  or  followed  the  invasion,  cannot,  of 
course,  be  determined  with  certainty.  The  mention  of  fifteen  years  in 
V.  5  suggests,  however  (as  Biihr  has  remarked),  that  Hezekiah  had  finished 
his  fourteenth  year  and  begun  his  fifteenth  ;  otherwise  there  is  an  appear- 
ance of  arbitrariness  in  the  prophetic  number.^  In  this  case,  the  illness 
of  the  king  will  fall  after  the  invasion,  and  v.  6  must  be  a  late  and  in- 
harmonious insertion.  That  v.  6  was  added  by  the  editor  is  confirmed  by 
the  interruption  which  it  causes  to  the  context,  an  interruption  which  does 
not  occur  in  the  parallel,  and  probably  original,  passage,  xxxvii.  35.  The 
probability  is  that  the  latest  editor,  in  whose  time  the  invasion  of  Sargon 
was  forgotten,  made  Hezekiah's  illness  coincide  more  or  less  exactly  with 
the  invasion  of  Sennacherib.  On  this  assumption,  his  insertion  of  v.  6 
becomes  intelligible. 

^  In  those  days  Hezekiah  became  sick  unto  death.  And 
Isaiah  the  prophet,  son  of  Amoz,  came  unto  him  and  said 
unto  him,  Thus  saith  Jehovah,  Set  thine  house  in  order,  for 
thou  shalt  die  and  not  live.  ^And  Hezekiah  turned  his  face 
unto  the  wall  and  prayed  unto  Jehovah,  ^and  said,  Ah,  Jehovah, 
remember,  I  pray,  how  I  have  walked  before  thee  in  faithful- 
ness and  with  a  whole  heart,  and  have  done  that  which  is  good 
in  thine  eyes.  And  Hezekiah  wept  aloud.  ^  And  "^  the  word 
of  Jehovah  came  to  Isaiah,  saying,  •'  Go  and  say  to  Hezekiah, 
Thus  saith  Jehovah,  the  God-  of  David   thy  father,  I  have 

»  2  Kings  XX.  4  inserts,  Before  Isaiah  was  gone  out  into  the  middle  court. 

*  Wnto  the  wall]  So,  in   a  dif-  xxxiii.  7. 

ferent  spirit,  Ahab,  i  Kings  xxi.  4.  ^  According   to   2   Kings    Heze- 

Compare  Lowth's  note  ;  he  points  kiah's  death-warrant  was  suddenly 

out  that  Hezekiah's  couch  was  pro-  cancelled  (if  we  may  use  the  phrase), 

bably  placed  in  a  corner,  which  is  before  the  prophet  had  reached  the 

the  place  of  honour  in  the  East.  outer  court  of  the  palace.  A  striking 

^  How    I    have  walked  .  .  .  ]  instance  of  the  conditionalness  of 

Contrast  Hezekiah's  former  prayer  prophecy.      As    Jerome    says    (on 

(xxxvii.  16  &c.).     This  is  a  reason  Ezek.  xxxiii.),  '  Nee  statim  sequitur, 

for   his    seeming   egotism   on    this  ut,  quia  propheta  pniedicit,  veniat 

occasion.     An  early  death  was  the  quod  pra^dixit.     Non  enim  pra^dixit 

penalty  of  ungodliness  (Ps.  Iv.  23,  ut  veniat,  sed  ne  veniat.'-  Generally 

Prov.  X.  27),  and   Hezekiah  knew  it  is  repentance  which   leads  to  a 

that  he   had   been    faithful  to  his  revocation    of  Jehovah's  threaten- 

God.     Hence  he  can  appeal,  like  ings  ;    here  it   is  the  prayer  of  a 

Abraham,   to   the    Divine    justice.  righteous    man,   who    was    to    be 

A  whole  heart]  i.e.,  one  not  taught  that  such  prayer  '  availeth 

shared  between  rival  deities,  i  Kings  much.' 

xi.   4. "Wept  aloud]  Comp.  on  *  Fifteen  years]  See  Introd. 

1  I  admit  that  this  view  makes  the  fifteen  years  added  to  Hezekiah's  life  incom- 
plete, the  first  year  being  fragmentary.  But  it  is  the  Hebrew  way  to  count  fragments 
of  ])eriods. 

^  Quoted  by  Oehler,  Theology  of  the  Old  Testament  {^wg.  Transl,),  ii.  361. 


CHAP.  XXXVIII.]  ISAIAH.  2  2/ 

heard  thy  prayer,  I  have  seen  thy  tears :  behold,^  I  will  add 
to  thy  days  fifteen  years.  ^  And  I  will  deliver  thee  and  this 
city  out  of  the  '^  hand  of  the  king  of  Assyria,  and  I  will  shield 
this  city."^  "And  this  shall  be  the  sign  unto  thee  from 
Jehovah,  that  Jehovah  will  do  this  thing  which  he  hath  spoken: 
^  °  Behold,  I  will  turn  the  shadow  of  the  steps  over  which  ^  the 
sun  hath  gone  down  ^  on  the  step-clock  of  Ahaz,  ten  steps 
backward.  So  the  sun  returned  ten  steps  on  the  step-clock, 
over  which  (steps)  it  had  gone  down.^ 

*>  2  Kinfjs  XX.  5  inserts,  I  will  heal  thee  ;  on  the  third  day  thou  shalt  go  up  into 
the  house  of  Jehovah  ;  and. 

<^  Lit.,  palm  of  the  hand. 

<*  2  Kings  XX.  6  adds,  For  mine  own  sake  and  for  David  my  servant's  sake. 

^  2  Kings  XX.  9,  lo  reads,  Shall  the  shadow  go  forward  (?)  ten  steps,  or  shall  it  go 
back  ten  steps?  And  Hezekiah  said,  It  is  a  light  thing  for  the  shadow  to  decline  ten 
steps  ;  nay,  but  the  shadow  shall  go  back  ten  steps.  And  Isaiah  the  prophet  called 
unto  Jehovah,  and  turned  back  the  shadow  over  the  steps  which  it  (?)  had  gone  down 
on  the  step-clock  of  Ahaz  ten  steps  backward. 

<■  So  Olshausen,  after  Sept.,  Pesh.,  Targ.,  Vtilg. — Text  has,  It  (?)  hath  gone  down 
by  reason  of  the  sun. 

^  See  Introd.,  and  note  on  xxxvii.  (like  the  dial,  an  invention  of  the 

35.  Babylonians),  but  rather  for  parts 

^  The  step-clock]  Lit.  the  steps.  of  hoiu-s,  for  otherwise  there  would 

There  is  no  doubt  that  this  phrase  not  have  been  space  for  the  shadow 

means  some  kind  of  clock,  but  what  to  rise  or  to  fall  ten  steps  or  degrees 

kind,  is  uncertain.     Herodotus  (ii.  equally  well.     Probably  Isaiah  is  to 

109)  states  that  the  sun-dial  was  be  understood   as  speaking  about 

the  invention  of  the  Babylonians,  mid-day.     It  is  possible,  too,  that 

and  this  may  perhaps  be  intended  the   motion   of  the   shadow  could 

here  : — in  this  case,  render  above  be  observed  from  the  chamber  in 

'  the  shadow  of  the  degrees.'     But  which    Hezekiah  was  lying.     This 

it  is  rather  simpler  to  suppose  the  would  make  the  choice  of  the  sign 

clock  to   have  consisted   really  of  particularly  appropriate.     Its  ideal 

'steps'  leading  up  to  a  pillar,  the  significance  is,  of  course,  that  Je- 

shadow  of  which  was  employed  as  hovah  would  put  back  the  life-clock 

a  measure  of  the  progress  of  the  of  Hezekiah  and  of  the  nation,  ar- 

sun.     In  either  case,  we  must  sup-  resting  the  downward  course,  of  the 

pose    the  clock  to   have  been  ar-  one  towards  death,  and  of  the  other 

ranged,  not    for  the  twelve  hours  towards  political  ruin. 

w.  7,  8.  The  sign  of  the  sun's  shadow.  In  2  Kings  this  is  given  with 
a  fuller  introduction,  and  Hezekiah  is  represented  as  deliberately  choosing 
that  the  sun's  shadow  should  '  go  back '  on  the  ground  that  its  '  going 
forward  '  would  by  comparison  be  '  easy.'  '  Easy '  must  here  mean 
'  easy  to  conceive,'  for,  of  course,  both  occurrences-  would  be  equally 
extraordinary ;  but  the  '  going  forward '  of  the  shadow  ten  degrees  would 
in  fact  only  differ  from  everyday  experience  in  its  rapidity.  The  hypo- 
thesis that  the  phenomenon  was  due  to  a  solar  eclipse  formed  one  of  the 
assumptions  of  the  chronological  theories  of  the  late  Mr.  Bosanquet 
{T.  S.  B.  A.,  iii.  36).  But,  however  plausible,  it  has  to  be  rejected,  as  the 
description  clearly  presupposes  a  local  phenomenon  (comp.  2  Chr.  xxxii. 
31).     Ewald  suggests  that  the  entire  narrative  is  built  upon  a  misunder- 

Q  2 


2  28  ISAIAH.  [chap.  XXXVIII, 

stood  poetical  expression,  comparing  Josh.  x.  13.  The  parallel  is  not 
complete,  for  in  Josh.x.  12  the  poetical  fragment  which  was  misunderstood 
is  actually  preserved,  whereas  even  the  word  '  shadow '  does  not  occur  in 
the  Song  of  Hezekiah.  But  another  poetical  passage  on  Hezekiah's 
sickness  may  easily  have  perished  in  the  literary  catastrophe  of  the  Exile, 
and  the  Song  of  Hezekiah  is  very  possibly  (see  below)  a  late  composition. 

^  Writing  of  Hezekiah,  king  of  Judah,  when  he  had  been 
sick,  and  was  revived  from  his  sickness. 

vv.  9-20.  The  Song  of  Hezekiah,  which  is  not  found  in  the  parallel 
narrative  in  2  Kings,  is  a  sweet  and  plaintive  specimen  of  Hebrew 
psalmody,  though  from  its  conciseness  of  expression  by  no  means  free 
from  difficulty.'  Zwingli  the  Reformer,  who  had  occasion  in  his  life  to 
apply  it  to  his  own  case,  hardly  does  it  justice  by  the  epithets  '  cum  primis 
doctum  et  elegans.'  It  is  certainly  deficient  in  originality,  but  it  is  at  any 
rate  a  sympathetic  reproduction  of  thoughts  and  expressions  which  can 
never  become  commonplace.  In  the  melancholy  tone  of  its  contempla- 
tion of  death,  it  reminds  us  partly  of  the  Psalms  (see  Ps.  vi.  5,  xxx.  9, 
Ixxxviii.  10-12,  xciv.  17,  cxv.  17),  partly  of  the  Book  of  Job  (e.g.,  chap. 
xiv.)  : — the  latter  book,  indeed,  seems  to  have  influenced,  not  only  the 
tone,  but  even  the  selection  of  images  and  of  phraseology  in  the  Song. 
The  proof  of  this  has  been  given  by  Uelitzsch,  who  infers  from  this 
relation  of  the  two  works  that  to  ascribe  a  later  date  to  the  Book  of  Job 
than  the  age  of  Solomon  is  henceforth  an  impossibility.*  As  specimens 
of  the  close  stylistic  affinity  between  our  Song  and  the  Book  of  Job,  take 
•  the  gates  of  Sheol,'  v,  10,  comparing  '  the  gates  of  Death,'  Job  xxxviii. 
17  ;  the  image  of  the  body  as  the  house  of  the  soul,  7/.  12,  comp.  Job 
iv.  19,  21  (in  the  latter  passage  the  soul  is  compared  to  a  tent-rope); 
that  of  death  as  the  cutting  off  of  the  thread  of  life,  v.  12,  comp.  Job 
vi.  9,  xxvii.  8  {Q.  P.  B.) ;  and  of  God,  when  He  afflicts  man,  as  a  lion, 
V.  13,  comp.  Job  X.  16.  Compare,  too,  the  image  of  the  weaver's  shuttle 
in  Job  vii.  6.  For  the  scattered  phraseological  parallels,  see  notes  on 
vv.  12,  14,  15,  16. 

The  Song  is  called  a  Miktabh  of  Hezekiah  (ta  9).  Some  would  include 
it  among  the  Psalms  'with  artful  terms  inscribed'  (Milton).  So  e.g. 
Gesenius,  who  supposes  bh  and  m  to  be  interchanged,  so  that  Miktabh 
=  Miktain.  But  the  roots  kdthabh  and  kdthani  do  not  appear  to  be  inter- 
changed, so  that  it  would  be  better  to  suppose  bh  in  Miktabh  to  be  a 
corruption  of  the  m  in  Miktdm.  But  even  this  is  hardly  more  than 
plausible,  since  the  context  leads  us  to  expect  an  emphatic  statement  of 
the  authorship  of  Hezekiah.  The  literary  character  here  attributed  to  that 
king  is  in  harmony  with  the  fact  that  a  collection  of  Solomonic  proverbs 

1  Klostermann's  attempt  to  explain  difficult  words  by  peculiarities  of  pronuncia- 
tion seems  to  me  generally  mistaken.     {Studien  unci  Kritikcn,  1884,  pp.  157-167.) 

2  Drechsler,  Der  Prophet  Jesaia,  ii.  2,  pp.  220,  221  (Anha/ij^  or  Appendix,  by 
Delitz-sch).  We  must  first  of  all,  however,  settle  the  question  of  date.  Besides  ihe 
argument  from  the  unoriginality  of  the  Song  in  phraseology,  an  inference  unfavourable 
to  an  early  date  may  plausibly  be  drawn  from  the  apparent  allusion  in  v.  20  to  a  fact 
only  supported  by  the  Chronicler. 


CHAP.  XXXVIII.]  ISAIAH,  229 

is  ascribed  to  the  zeal  of  Hezekiah  (Prov.  xxv.  i),  as  well  as  the  revival 
of  the  liturgical  use  of  the  Psalms  of  David  and  Asaph  (only  indeed  in 
2  Chr.  xxix.  30). 

Of  course,  however,  we  must  receive  the  statement  of  the  heading  with 
some  degree  of  hesitation,  knowing  the  inaccuracies  which  abound  in  the 
headings  of  the  Psalms.  The  Song  is  so  full  of  reminiscences,  that  it 
may  perhaps,  like  the  Psalm  of  Jonah,  be  not  earlier  than  the  Exile  or 
even  post-Exile  period,  when  the  study  of  the  written  Word  weakened 
the  impulse  to  original  composition. 

Four  stanzas  or  strophes  are  pointed  out  by  Ewald  (I.  w.  10-12,  II. 
vv.  13,  14,  III.  vv.  15-17,  IV.  vv.  18-20).'  In  the  two  first  the  poet 
recalls  his  despairing  condition  immediately  before  the  Divine  promise  of 
recovery  reached  him  ;  in  the  two  last,  he  revels  in  the  joy  and  gratitude 
called  forth  by  the  re-creating  word  of  Jehovah's  prophet.  There  is  no 
reference  to  the  '  sign '  of  the  '  step-clock,'  a  remarkable  omission,  as  to 
which  see  note  on  v.  16. 

'°I  said,  '^In  the  noontide  s  of  my  days  must  I  depart 
into  the  gates  of  Sheol  ;  I  have  been  mulcted  of  the  residue 
of  my  years.'     •'  I  said,  '  I  shall  not  see  ^  Jah  in  the  land  of 

K  Lit.,  in  the  stillness,  or  pause. — In  diinidio,  Vulg.  (similarly  Pesh.). — In  the 
height  (i.e.,  zenith),  Sept. 

h  So  one  MS.  (de  Rossi).  One  MS.  of  Kennicott  and  one  of  de  Rossi  read, 
once,  Jehovah,  and  |erome  states  that  this  was  the  reading  in  his  Hebrew  MS. 
Pcsh.,  The  Lord;  Sept.,  The  salvation  of  God  (comp.  xl.  5,  Sept.). — Text,  Jah  ; 
Jah. 

'"  In  the  noontide  of  my  days]  sides  being  highly  poetical  and  in 

Midway  in  life  to  Hezekiah,  as  to  perfect  accordance  with  chronology, 

Dante,    came   his   peril   of  death.  is  favoured  by  the  expression  '  the 

*  Noontide '  he  expresses  poetically  residue  of  my  days '  at  the  end  of 

by  'pause';  it  is  the  time  when  the  the  verse. The  gates  of  Sheol] 

sun  appears  to  stand  still  in  the  The  Assyrians,  too,  like  the  He- 
zenith.  He  has  now  outpassed  by  brews,  represented  their  Hades  as 
four  years  the  middle  of  the  period  an  underground  city  or  fortress, 
assigned  by  the  Psalmist  (Ps.  xc.  '  Seven  walls  encircle  it,  each  with 
10)  to  human  life,  but  it  is  still  its  gate  and  porter,  its  outer  wall 
noontide  in  his  consciousness,  when  being  a  watery  moat '  (comp. 
the  sudden  blow  falls. — To  some  Acheron) ;  Boscawen,  T.  S.  B.  A., 
this  appears  a  farfetched  explana-  iv.  290.  Comp.  '  the  gates  of 
tion,  but  in  Josh.  x.  12  we  have  the  Hades,'  Matt.  xvi.  18,  and  'the  gates 
famous  command,  'Sun,  in  Gibeon  of  Death,'  Ps.  ix.  13,  cvii.  18,  Job 
be  still,'  for  'stand  still.'  The  al-  xxxviii.  17;  and  see  note  on  v.  14, 
ternative  is  to  take  '  in  the  stillness  xiv.  9. 

of  my  days  '  = '  when  my  days  were  "  I    shall    not    see    Jah  .  .   .  ] 

gliding  quietlyalong,' with  reference  Comp.  i.  12.     There  'to  see  Jeho- 

either  to  the  withdrawal  of  the  As-  vah's  face '  was  a  purely  imaginary 

Syrians,  as  Ges.  (which  is  probably  seeing,  identifiable  with  formal  at- 

against  chronology),  or  to  the  '  even  tendance  in  the  sanctuary.     Here 

tenor'    of  a  healthy   life,    as   Del.  it  is  the  seeing  of  experience,  as 

The  meaning  adopted  above,  be-  in  that  vigorous  aposiopesis  of  the 

'  See  Ewald,  Die  dichter  des  alien  bundes,  i.  i,  pp.  161-165.  The  reader  willlook 
in  vain  for  the  Song  in  the  great  critic's  rearrangement  of  the  Rook  of  Isaiah  in  his 
work  on  the  Prophets. 


230 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  XXXVIII. 


the  living  ;  I  shall  behold  men  no  more  with  dwellers  in  the 
*  world.'  ^^  ^  My  habitation  ''  is  plucked  up  and  carried  off 
from  me  like  a  shepherd's  tent  ;  '  thou  hast  cut  off/  like  a 
weaver,  my  life  ;  from  the  warp  did  he  sever  me  :  from  day 
to  night  thou  wilt  make  an  end  of  me. 

13  m  J  cried  out  for  help  ™  until  the  morning — as  a  lion  did 
he  break  all  my  bones :  '  from  day  to  night  wilt  thou  make 

»  So  several  MSS.  (including  Cod.  Bab.),  Saad.,  Olsh.,  Ew.,  Hupfeld  (on  Ps.  xvii. 
i4\  Del.  (seconded.),  Bi. — Hebr.  text  has,  Cessation,  i.e.,  the  land  of  Cessation  (of 
activity).     Two  letters  are  transposed. 

k  So  Ges,  Del.,  Naeg. — My  time  (i.e.,  life-period),  Ew.,  Kay. 

1  So  Fiirst.-  Text,  1  have  cut  off,  Vitr.,  Ge.  (coram.).  Hi.  ;  I  have  rolled  up,  Ew., 
Del.,  Naeg.     (Vulg. ,  prsecisa  est).     For  change  of  person,  comp.  xxxvi.  5. 

m  So  Targ.,  Lowth,  Hupfeld  (on  Ps.  cxxxi.  2),  Knob,  Gr. — Hebr.  text,  I  smoothed 
down  (my  soul??),  Ges.,  Del.,  Naeg.  ;  or,  I  thought  (?),  Ew.,  Kay.  Vulg.  '  sperabam 
usque  ad  mane.' 


psalmist  (Ps.  xxvii.  13),  '  If  I  did 
not  believe  to  see  the  goodness  of 
Jehovah  in  the  land  of  the  living  !' 
The  Sept.  translator  sought,  charac- 
teristically, to  conceal  the  anthro- 
pomorphism (comp.  crit.  note  on  i. 

12). In  the  land  of  tbe  living] 

Implying  that  'the  goodness  of 
Jehovah  '  is  not  to  be  '  seen '  or  ex- 
perienced in  the  Underworld  (comp. 
vv.  18,  19). 

•  12  »Iy  habitation]  The  word  is 
not  common  in  this  sense  (see  crit. 
note),  but  the  poet  is  also  a  master 
of  language,  and  prefers  uncommon 
to  familiar  expressions.  The  rend. 
'  age '  cannot  be  legitimated  philo- 
logically  ;  also  it  hardly  accords 
with  the  verbs  which  follow,  though 
we  do  find  the  idea  of  time  ma- 
terialised as  it  were  in  Ps.  xxxix. 

5   (6),   Matt.  vi.  27  {Q.  P.  B.) 

Is  plucked  up]  i.e.,  is  as  good  as 
plucked  up.  The  figure  is  taken  from 
the  nomadic  life,  comp.  xxxiii.  20. 
Besides  Job  iv.  21,  comp.  Ps.  lii.  5 
{Q.P.B.\  2  Cor.  V.  I,  4,  2  Pet.  i.  13, 

14. Carried  off]  As  if  into  exile. 

Thou  hast   cut  off]   i.e.  wilt 

certainly  cut  off.  The  pointing  of 
the  received  text  makes  this  clause 
inconsistent  with  the  next,  in  which 
Jehovah  is  the  weaver.  Another 
Chaldaism  is  nothing  surprising  : 
'rolled  up,'  too,  is  merely  an  in- 
ferred sense.  If  however  we  retain 
the  text-reading,  this  is  the  best 
meaning  to  give  to  it.     In  this  case, 


Hezekiah  says,  '  I  regard  my  life  as 
already  "  rolled  up  "  and  done  with, 
so  near  is  the  prospect  of  death.' 

Did  he  sever  me]  The  speaker 

shrinks  from  naming  God  as  the 
author  of  his  calamity,  comp.  Job 
iii.  20  (Ew.).  The  same  word  is 
used  in  Job  vi.  9,  and,  in  a  different 

conjugation.  Job  xxvii.  8. From 

day  to  nig-ht]  He  expects  this 
severe  illness  to  run  its  course  in  a 
single  day.     Comp.  Job  iv.  20. 

'^  I  cried  out  for  help]  So,  in 
accordance  with  usage  (see  Ps.  xxx. 
2,  Ixxxviii.  13),  and  not  merely  '  I 
cried  out '  (comparing  Ps.  xx.xviii.  9, 
Job  iii.  24,  where  the  phrase  is  dif- 
ferent), we  must  render  shiwa'-ti. 
The  sick  man  appeals  against  the 
fate  which  threatens  him,  appeals 
—  to  whom?  To  God  (comp.  v.  3) 
— to  God  against  Himself;  to  the 
essential  mercy,  against  the  appar- 
ent cruelty,  of  Jehovah.  So  again 
in  V.  14.  It  is  the  characteristic 
irony  of  faith.  In  Dr.  Mozley's 
words  {Essays,  i.  217),  'The  appar- 
ent doubt  only  expresses  more 
strongly  the  real  faith  ;  the  protest 
against  injustice  and  harshness,  the 
sense  of  absolute  goodness  and  in- 
effable mercy.' — The  rend,  of  Del., 
Naeg.,  &c.,  based  upon  the  text- 
reading,  requires  us  to  suppose  an 
unnatural  ellipsis.  Ps.  cxxxi.  2, 
which  is  cjuoted  in  its  favour,  is  not 
really  favourable,  for  there  we  read, 
'  I  have  smoothed  ;//y  .$•<?///,' without 


% 


CHAP.  XXXVIII.] 


ISAIAH. 


231 


an  end  of  me  ? '  '■*  Like  a  swift,  (like)  a  crane,  did  I  scream  ; 
I  did  moan  like  a  dove  ;  mine  eyes  "  looked  languishingly  to- 
wards the  height "  ;  Jehovah,  "  be  careful  for  me,°  become  my 
surety. 

"  Or,  Longed  heavenwards. 

•^  So  Klostermaiin  (see  crit.  note). — Text,  I  am  oppressed. 


any  ellipsis.  It  is,  moreover,  quite 
opposed  to  the  context,  which  by 
no  means  indicates  patience  as  a 
quality  of  the  speaker.  The  ana- 
logy, too,  of  '  I  said'  in  %>%>.  10,  11, 
suggests  some  similar  introduction 
to  the  vehement  exclamation  which 

follows. TTntil    the    morning:] 

His  illness  did  not  run  its  course 
so  quickly  as  he  had  expected.  He 
is  still  alive  the  next  morning,  but 
cannot  expect,  as  the  second  half 
of  the  verse  declares,  to  outlive  this 

second   day. iis   a  lion]     The 

accents  connect  this  with  the  pre- 
ceding words,  but  here,  as  in  other 
instances,  the  necessities  of  rhythm 
have  led  to  a  violation  of  logical 
sequence.     Comp.  Job  x.  16. 

'^  Xiike  a  sivift  (like)  a  crane 
.  .  .  ]  The  conjunction  of  these 
two  kinds  of  birds  is  remarkable, 
as  their  notes  are  in  most  respects 
very  different,  though  not  more 
different  than  those  of  the  bear 
and  the  dove,  which  are  conjoined 
as  similes  for  groaning  in  lix.  11. 
The  note  of  the  swift  (a  bird  of  the 
swallow-tribe)  is  shrill,  that  of  the 
crane  is  resonant  but  deep.  One 
single  verb  is  used  zeugmatically 
for  both ;  the  Hebr.  (gifyef)  pro- 
perly signifies  a  shrill  but  pene- 
trating sound,  and  is  therefore  more 
applicable  to  the  stridulous  cry  of 
the  swift  than  to  the  deep,  trumpet- 
like blast  of  the  crane.  Both  notes, 
however,  agree  in  their  penetrating 
quality,  and  the  zeugma  in  '  did  I 
scream '  is  not  more  striking  than 
others.  The  swift  and  the  crane 
are  both  mentioned  again  together 
with  the  turtle-dove  by  Jeremiah 
(viii.  7)  with  reference  to  their  mi- 
gratory habits  ;  this  suggests  that 
the  sacred  poet  is  here  alluding  to 
the  cries  which  the  two  former 
birds  emit  in  setting  forth  on  their 


migrations. — The  word  for  'did  I 
scream'  is  in  viii.  19,  ix.  4  used  of 
the  thin  feeble  voice  natural  to 
ghosts  and  assumed  by  necroman- 
cers, and  in  x.  14  at  any  rate  con- 
notes feebleness  of  sound.  On  this 
some  critics  have  based  an  objection 
to  rendering  ^dgilr  by  '  crane,'  but 
wrongly  ;  for  the  note  of  the  swift 
as  well  as  of  the  crane  is  described 
as  loud.  It  must  therefore  be  the 
quality  and  not  the  strength  of  the 
notes  of  these  birds  which  is  re- 
ferred to  ;  in  fact,  the  penetrating 
quality  mentioned  above.  (On  the 
note  of  the  swift,  see  Wood's  Illus- 
trated Natural  History :  Birds,  p. 
131  ;  on  that  of  the  crane,  see  the 
same  work,  p.  67 1 ,  and  EncyclopcEdia 
Britannica,  ninth  ed.,  vol.  vi.  p.  546. 
The  peculiar  note  of  the  crane  is 
ascribed  to  the  unusual  formation 

of    its    trachea.) mine     eyes 

looked  lang^uisliingrly  .  .  .  ]  A 
half-despairing  look  is  for  some 
time  all  that  he  is  equal  to. — This 
is  not  to  be  taken  as  the  turning- 
point  in  the  speaker's  sufferings 
(Naeg.),  as  if  he  only  now  ventured 
to  appeal  to  Jehovah  ;  the  three 
first  clauses  in  v.  14  are  co-ordi- 
nated. Hezekiah  has  all  along  fixed 
his  hope  on  Jehovah  (comp.  on  be- 
ginning of  V.  13),  though  it  only 
now  forces  for  itself  an  utterance. 

The  beig-ht]    Where  Jehovah 

dwells,  xxxiii.  5,  Ivii.  15. Be- 
come my  surety]  The  sick  man 
thinks  of  his  prototype  Job,  who, 
after  very  similar  complaints,  makes 
the  very  same  petition  (Job  xvii.  3, 
comp.  Ps.  cxix.  122).  The  image 
is  that  of  a  debtor  who  is  being 
carried  to  prison  (Matt,  xviii.  30). 
But  what  a  deep  thought  is  involved 
here  in  the  application  !  For  He 
who  is  asked  to  interpose  as  a  surety 
is,  in  Hezekiah's  case,  at  the  same 


232 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  XXXVIII. 


'HVhat  can  I  say?  He  both  promised  unto  me  and 
himself  hath  performed  it !  I  shall  walk  at  ease  all  my  years 
P  in  spite  of  i"  the  bitterness  of  my  soul.  ^^  O  Lord,  by  such 
things  (?)  men  live,  and  '^  altogether  in  them  (?)  is  the  life  of 
my  spirit  '^ ;  and  so  thou  wilt  recover  me,  and  ""  make  me  to 
live.'"     '^  Behold,  ^  for  (my)  welfare  was  it  (so)  bitter   to  me, 

p  So  Ew. — Because  of,  Naeg. ;  (which  shall  follow)  upon,  Del. 

q  Therein  hath  everyone  the  life  of  his  spirit,  Ew.  (reading  'his  '  for  '  my').     See 
below. 

■•  This  translation  is  reached  either  by  reading  a  Tdv  instead  of  a  He,  or  by  taking 
the  imperative  of  Hebr.  text  as  that  of  assurance,  with  Hitzig. 


time  the  creditor.  It  is  the  irony 
of  the  believer  which  we  met  with 
above  (t.  13). 

'^"'  Ivleantime  an  answer  of  peace 

has  been    quickly   sent. -What 

can  Z  say  t]  '  I  am  at  a  loss  how 
to  express  my  wonder  and  my 
gratitude.'  Comp.  Gen.  xliv.  16, 
2  Sam.  vii.  20. Promised]  Al- 
luding to  the  promise  of  Isaiah  in 

w.  5-8. Z  shall  walk  at  ease] 

With  leisurely  pace,  undisturbed, 
as  if  in  a  festal  procession  ;  comp. 
•And  I  will  walk  at  liberty'  (i.e. 
freely),  Ps.  cxix.  45.  It  is  not 
necessary  to  suppose  a  special 
reference  to  the  processions  of 
worshippers  to  the  temple  (as  Ew., 
Naeg.),  in  spite  of  Ps.  xlii.  5,  where 
the  same  word  occurs.  It  is  the 
'  walk  of  our  life '  which  is  meant. 
The  same  figure,  which  must  re- 
mind us  of  stately  Italian  pictures, 
recurs  in  xxxv.  9  l>,  Iv.  12  a,  with 
reference  to  Jehovah's  '  freed  ones.' 
The  root-idea  of  the  very  uncom- 
mon Hebr.  word  l^eddaddeh)  is  'to 
impel ' ;  this  is  qualified  by  the 
reflexive  conjugation.  See  Del.  on 
Ps.   xlii.    5,  and  comp.   Notes  and 

Criticisms^  p.  18. All  my  years] 

All  my  remaining  years. 

16  By  such  things  .  .  .  ]  '  Not 
by  bread  alone  doth  man  live,  but 
by  everything  which  procecdeth  out 
of  the  m(julh  of  Jehovah'  (Deut. 
viii.  3,  quoted  by  Ew.).  Hezekiah 
710W  has  full  confidence  in  Jeho- 
vah's power  ;  '  He  speaketh  and  it 
is  done.'  The  sign  asked  for  in  v%). 
7,  8  is  forgotten  ;  it  was,  in  fact,  a 
symptom  of  spiritucil  weakness  (vii. 
1 1,  comp.  V.  9).     '  By  such  things,' 


i.e.,  such  words  as  those  of  Jeho- 
vah's prophet,  which  carry  with 
them  their  own  fulfilment  (see  on 
ix.  8),  men  both  come  into  existence 
and  are  preserved  alive. — This  ex- 
planation suits  the  context,  but  is 
not  free  from  objection,  as  the 
Hebr.  of  the  two  first  clauses  of  the 
verse  does  not  read  naturally,  and 
is  probably  corrupt.  Ew.'s  con- 
jecture (see  above)  is  simple  and 
plausible,  but  the  difficulty  to  me 
lies    in    the   two    words    which   he 

leaves  untouched. And  so  thou 

wilt  .  .  .  ]  The  application  of  the 
general  truth  that  God  is  the  source 
of  all  life  to  the  particular  case  of 
the  speaker. 

"  For  (my)  welfare  .  .  .  ]  My 
welfare,  my  true  peace  (peace  and 
welfare  being  equivalent  ideas  in 
Hebrew),  was  the  end  for  which 
my  trouble  was  sent.  Comp.  Job  v. 

17,    18. VTas    it  (so)  hitter   to 

me,  (so)  hitter]  A  repetition  of 
the  same  word,  as  in  w.  11,  18. 
Perhaps  the  writer  may  intend  to 
suggest  a  second  meaning — '  mu- 
tata  est  mihi  amaritudo'  (see 
note*). Hast  kept]  The  pro- 
nunciation of  the  two  rival  read- 
ings is  very  nearly  the  same  {khd- 
saktii  —kkdshaqtd),  but  that  adopted 
above  is  at  once  the  more  natural 
in  itself,  and  is  supported  by  Ps. 
Ixxviii.  50,  and  still  more  strongly 
by  Job  xxxiii.  18.  According  to 
the  text-reading  (an  error  of  the 
ear  as  I  venture  to  think,  and  due 
perhaps  to  dictation)  we  have  a 
pregnant  construction ;  '  hast  loved  ' 
=  'hast  lovingly  drawn,'  'as  if  the 
love  of  God,  shining  on  the  soul, 


CHAP.  XXXVIII.] 


ISAIAH. 


233 


(so)    bitter '  ;    and  thou    hast  *  kept    my   soul   from   the    pit 
of  destruction  ;  for  thou   hast  cast  behind  thy  back  all  my 

sins. 

'^  For  Sheol  cannot  give  thanks  to  thee,  Death  cannot 
praise  thee  ;  those  who  have  gone  down  to  the  grave  cannot 
hope  for  thy  faithfulness :  ^^  the  living,  the  living,  he  can 
give  thanks  to  thee,  as  I  do  this  day  :  the  father  to  the  chil- 
dren shall  make  known  thy  faithfulness,  ^o  Jehovah  is  ready 
to  deliver  me  :  and  my  stringed  instruments  will  we  strike  all 
the  days  of  our  life  in  the  house  of  Jehovah. 

21  And  Isaiah  said,  "  Let  them  bring  a  cake  of  figs,  and 

8  My  anguish  is  changed  into  ease,  Lo.,  Gr. 

'  So  Sept.,  Vulg.,  Lo.,  Ew.,  Kr. — Hebr.  text  has,  Loved. 


had  made  it  ascend  out  of  the 
power  of  death '  (Kay).  A  similar 
phrase  in  2   Sam.  xviii.  9  (Hebr.). 

Hast  cast  all  my  sins  .   .   ■   ] 

Such  is  the  Divine  magnanimity  : 
He  forgives  and  forgets.  A  similar 
figure  for  the  pardon  of  sin  in  Mic. 
vii.  19.  The  connection  of  the  clause 
C/dV-thou  hast  cast')  is  remarkable  ; 
Hezekiah  evidently  regards  his  peril 
of  death  as  the  punishment  of  his 
sins,  see  on  ?'.  10. 

1*  Jehovah  delighteth  in  praises  ; 
therefore  he  held  back  so  praiseful 
a    servant    from    descending   into 

Sheol. Sheol       cannot       give 

thanks  to  tliee  .  .  •  ]  The  form 
of  expression  is  mythological,  as 
Del.  truly  remarks  ;  the  same  con- 
junction of  Sheol  and  Death,  per- 
sonified on  a  mythic  basis,  meets 
us  in  xxviii.  15,  Ps.  vi.  5  ('hell'  and 
'  the  grave '  of  A.  V.  should  be 
Sheol  or  the  Underworld)  ;  comp. 
Job  xxviii.  22,  '  Abaddon  (or  Perdi- 
tion) and  Death,'  Prov.  ii.  18, 
'Death  .  .  .  the  shades.'  Pleze- 
kiah  is  not,  however,  an  uncon- 
scious Nihilist  ;  death  is  not  to  him 
the  extinction  of  being.  He  believes 
in  a  future  state,  but  in  one  without 
consciousness  of  God's  presence, 
and  consequently  without  moral 
or  intellectual  energy.  The  dismay 
with  which  he  contemplates  de- 
parture from  this  world  is  a  mea- 
sure of  the  value  he  sets  on  per- 
sonal communion  with  God: — such 


dismay  is  (from  a  Christian  point 
of  view)  one  element  in  God's  edu- 
cation of  the  Jews  for  a  final  '  illu- 
mination '  of  '  life  and  immortality ' 
(2  Tim.  i.  10,  in  the  Greek). 

'"  The  living'  .  .  .  can  give 
thanks]  Life,  according  to  Heze- 
kiah, is  a  constant   succession    of 

benefits  and  thanksgivings. The 

father  to  the  children]  We  need 
not  ask  (for  we  cannot  possibly  de- 
termine the  point)  whether  Heze- 
kiah had  any  children  at  this  time. 
It  is  one  of  the  familiar  sentiments 
of  the  psalmists  which  is  here  re- 
iterated ;  see  Ps.  xxii.  3 1 ,  Ixxviii.  3,  4. 

'*°  Is  ready  to  deliver  me]  Or, 
was  ready  ;  but,  as  the  context  re- 
lates to  the  future,  it  is  better  to 
suppose  the  poet  to  be  taking  a 
hopeful  prospect.     Comp.  xxxiii.  6, 

'  a  store  of  salvations.' "Will  we 

strike  .  .  .  in  the  house  of  Jeho- 
vah] '  The  house  of  Jehovah  '  may 
be  here  a  symbolical  expression  for 
that  communion  with  God  which 
the  psalmists  sometimes  describe 
in  similar  language  (Ps.  v.  7,  xv.  i, 
xxiii.  6,  xxvii.  4).  In  this  case  '  we ' 
will  mean  the  royal  poet  and  his 
family.  But,  more  probably,  Heze- 
kiah identifies  himself  with  the 
Levitical  musicians,  in  whom,  for 
the  sake  of  the  temple-service,  he 
took  so  deep  an  interest,  2  Chr. 
xxix.  30. 

'^'  -^  And  Isaiah  said  .  .  .  ] 
These   facts   are   evidently  out   of 


234 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  XXXIX. 


let  them  bind  (and  apply  it)  to  the  boil,  that  he  may  recover." 
22  And  Hezekiah  said,  What  is  the  sign  ^  that  I  shall  go  up  to 
the  house  of  Jehovah  ^  .'' 

"  2  Kings  XX.  7  reads,  Fetch  ye  a  cake  of  figs  ;  and  they  fetched  and  applied  it  to 
the  boil,  and  he  recovered.  (In  2  Kings  the  equivalent  of  vv.  21,  22  stands  imme- 
diately after  the  prophetic  promise  of  Isaiah.) 

">  2  Kings  XX.  8  reads,  That  Jehovah  will  heal  me,  and  that  I  go  up  to  the  house 
of  Jehovah  the  third  day. 

V.  2 1  make  the  original  mistake  of 
its  position  somewhat  less  percep- 
tible.  A  cake  of  fi&s]     Many 

commentators  suppose  the  figs  to 
be  mentioned  as  a  remedy  current 
at  the  time.  But  surely  so  simple 
and  unscientific  a  medicine  would 
have  been  thought  of,  without  ap- 
plying to  the  prophet,  by  those 
about  Hezekiah.  The  plaster  of 
figs  is  rather  a  sign  or  symbol  of 
the  cure,  like  the  water  of  the  Jor- 
dan   in   the   narrative  of  Naaman 

(2  Kings  V.  10). Tbaboil]  '  Non 

patet  e.\  historia,  cujus  generis  ha^c 
fuerit  inflammatio  pestifera  et  le- 
thifera,  et  difficile  est  id  assequi 
per  conjecturam '  (Vitringa).  Hitzig 
and  Knobel  too  hastily  assume  this 
to  be  the  plague-boil,  and  that  the 
plague  is  the  same  which  probably 
carried  off  the  army  of  Senna- 
cherib. But  not  only  is  this  theory 
against  chronolog)'  (we  are  not  yet 
in  the  period  of  Sennacherib,  see 
Introd.),  but  the  Hebrew  word  for 
'boil'  {sklchhi)  is  used  of  various 
kinds  of  eruptions  (see  e.g.,  Ex.  ix. 
9,  Job  ii.  7),  but  not  of  the  plague- 
boil. That    lie    may    recover] 

The  reading  in  2  Kings  is  an  an- 
ticipatory notice,  vii.  i,  xx.  i. 


their  place,  a  difficulty  evaded  in 
A.  V.  by  the  inaccurate  rendering, 
'  For  Isaiah  had  said.'  The  true 
explanation  was  long  ago  seen  by 
Kimchi,  and  is  well  given  by 
Bishop  Lowth  on  xxxviii.  4,  5.  '  The 
narration  of  this  chapter  seems 
to  be  in  some  parts  an  abridgment 
of  that  of  2  Kings  xx.  The  abridger, 
having  finished  his  extract  here 
with  the  nth  verse,  seems  to  have 
observed  that  the  7th  and  8th 
verses  of  2  Kings  xx.  were  wanted 
to  complete  the  narration  ;  he 
therefore  added  them  at  the  end  of 
the  chapter,  after  he  had  inserted 
the  song  of  Hezekiah,  probably 
with  marks  for  their  insertion  in 
their  proper  places  ;  which  marks 
were  afterwards  neglected  by  tran- 
scribers. Or  a  transcriber  might 
omit  them  by  mistake,  and  add 
them  at  the  end  of  the  chapter  with 
such  marks.  Many  transpositions  ^ 
are,  with  great  probability,  to  be 
accounted  for  in  the  same  way.' 
The  '  abridger '  did  not,  however, 
in  these  verses,  simply  transcribe 
the  text  of  2  Kings  (or  the  still 
earlier  narrative  on  which  2  Kings 
and  'Isaiah'  may  both  be  based). 
The    characteristic    differences   of 


CHAPTER  XXXIX. 

As  we  have  already  seen  (p.  205),  the  embassy  of  Merodach  Baladan 
to  Hezekiah  is  most  naturally  explained  by  referring  it  to  the  period 
of  the  invasion  of  Sargon.  That  the  illness  of  Hezekiah  synchronises 
with  this  event  seems  to   be  proved   by  the  terms  of  the  promise  in 

1  Gesenius  (on  vv.  7,  8)  gives  an  excellent  example 'of  this  transposition  in  Job 
xxxi.  38-40,  which  evidently  ouglit  to  stand  a  few  verses  back.  (Merx  places  them 
between  vv.  32  and  33.)  Other  instances  of  the  same  kind  are  viii.  21,  22,  Ps.  xii.  7, 
8,  xxxiv.  16,  17,  Prov.  iv.  18,  19. 


CHAP.  XXXIX.]  ISAIAH.  235 

xxxviii  5,  and  the  first  verse  of  chap,  xxxix.  distinctly  connects  the 
Babylonian  embassy  with  Hezekiah's  illness.  Sargon  himself  too,  as  al- 
ready stated,  lays  great  stress  on  the  nmiierous  embassies  sent  by 
Merodach  Baladan  to  the  various  kings  opposed  to  Assyria.  It  is,  how- 
ever, a  singular  fact  that  Sennacherib,  as  well  as  Sargon,  mentions  the 
trouble  which  he  had  with  a  king  of  Babylon  called  Merodach  Baladan. 
In  the  Nebbi  Yunus  inscription,  for  instance,  after  returning  thanks  to 
Asshur,  he  at  once  passes  to  '  Marduk-bal-iddina,  king  of  the  land  of 
Gan-du'nias '  (i.e.,  lower  Chaldsa),  of  whom  he  says,  '  The  Chalda^ans 
and  Aramaeans,  with  the  army  of  Elam  his  help,  like  corn  I  swept  ; 
he,  to  the  land  of  the  sea,  alone  fled,  &c.'  i  Hence  Prof.  Schrader,  in 
the  first  edition  of  his  K.  A.  T.  (1872),  proposed  to  distinguish  the 
Merodach  Baladan  of  Sennacherib's  annals  from  the  king  of  that 
name  mentioned  by  Sargon,  and  to  identify  the  former  with  the 
Merodach  Baladan  of  Isa.  xxxix.  There  was  some  plausibility  m 
this  suggestion.  The  repeated  escapes  and  reassumptions  of  the 
crown,  which  the  theory  of  there  being  only  one  Merodach  Baladan 
during  the  reigns  of  both  Sargon  and  Sennacherib  compels  us  to 
admit,  were  almost  too  romantic  for  a  sober  and  sceptical  historian  ; 
and,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  Merodach  Baladan  was  not  an  uncommon 
name  of  Babylonian  kings.^  But  even  Prof.  Schrader  has  been  con- 
verted to  this  view  in  his  second  edition,  while  M.  Lenormant  has  all 
along  maintained  the  identity  of  the  Merodach  Baladans  of  Sargon 
and  Sennacherib.  To  the  latter's  skilfully  written  etude  I  have  already 
(p.  209)  referred  the  reader;  one  or  two  facts  have  since  been  added 
by  Mr.  St.  Chad  Boscawen,  from  whom  I  borrow  the  following 
supplement  to  my  sketch  of  the  historical  circumstances  of  this  group 

of  chapters. 

'  P^rom  an  inscription  of  the  Assyrian  monarch  Tiglath  Pileser  II. 
(  W.  A.  /.,  ii.  67,  line  26,  obv.),  it  appears  that  the  family  of  Merodach 
Baladan  ruled  in  southern  Babylonia,  on  the  shores  of  the  Persian  Gulf. 
In  the  inscription  referred  to,  the  Assyrian  king  stated  that  he  received 
tribute  of  Merodach  Baladan,  '  son  of  Yakin,  king  of  the  land  of  the  sea,' 
that  is,  of  the  shores  of  the  Persian  Gulf.  This  district  of  the  marsh- 
land of  the  delta  formed,  for  a  period  of  many  centuries,  the  place  of 
refuge  for  fugitive  rebels  against  the  Assyrians,  and  it  was  here  that  was 
situated  the  province  of  Bit  Yakin,  the  home  of  the  tribe  of  Yakin  ;  and 
in  B.C.  731,  Tiglath  Pileser  exacted  tribute  from  the  then  ruling  prince, 
Merodach  Baladan. 

'On  the  overthrow  of  Shalmaneser  III.  by  Sargon,  or  during  the 
years  of  weak  rule,  B.C.  725-722,  when  the  Assyrian  armies  were  chiefly 
engaged  in  the  siege  of  the  important  Syrian  town  of  Samaria,  and 
consequently  Babylonia  was  neglected,  Merodach  Baladan  seized  the 
Babylonian  throne  .  .  .  Sargon,  having  captured  Samaria,  made  an  ex- 
pedition against  the  new  occupant  of  the  Babylonian  throne,  but  does 

1  Translated  by  Budge,  R.  P.,  xi.  50.  ,     ,_   t,  1  j       tit    ■   ^  .  j 

«  Mr   Rodwell  has  translated  an  inscription  of  'Merodach  Baladan  111.,    dated 

about  B.C.  1340  [R.  P.,  ix.  29-36).     See  also  the  list  of  Babylonian  kings  prefi.xed  to 

G.  Smith's  History  of  Babylonia. 


236  ISAIAH.  [CHAP.  XXXIX. 

not  appear  to  have  met  with  any  great  success  ...  In  his  twelfth 
campaign,  which  took  place  in  B.C.  710,  the  Assyrian  monarch  states 
that  he  defeated  Merodach  Baladan,  and  forced  him  to  flee  to  Cyprus  ; 
and  after  a  long  and  victorious  war  in  Babylonia,  he  states  that,  in  the 
thirteenth  year  of  his  reign  as  king  of  Assyria,  he  captured  the  city  of 
Su-an-na  (an  ancient  name  of  Babylon),  and  proclaimed  himself  king  of 
Babylon,  as  well  as  of  the  Assyrian  empire.  This  dualism  of  rule  is 
shown  by  a  tablet,  K  5280,  which  bears  date  as  follows  : — "  Registered  at 
Kalah  (Nimroud),  eponym  of  Bele,  13th  year  of  Sargon,  king  of  Assyria, 
1st  year  king  of  Babylon."  Thus  the  reign  of  Merodach  Baladan  ended 
in  his  twelfth  year,  B.C.  710,  and  thus  the  monuments  confirm  the  Canon 
of  Ptolemy.'  This  is  [further]  confirmed  by  the  dates  found  on  some 
small  terra-colta  olives,  now  in  the  Louvre,  which  relate  to  the  sale  of  some 
women  at  Babylon.  .  .  . 

'Though  Ptolemy  is  no  doubt  correct  in  making  the  reign  of  Mero- 
dach Baladan  end  in  B.C.  710,  it  does  not  appear  that  he  was  killed  until 
some  years  after.  Sargon  assumed  the  government  in  Babylon  in  B.C. 
709,  and  reigned  five  years,  until  B.C.  705,  when  he  died,  and  his  son  Sen- 
nacherib succeeded  him  as  King  of  Assyria.  On  the  death  of  Sargon, 
the  fugitive  Babylonian  monarch  Merodach  Baladan  returned,  and 
attempted  to  seize  the  throne  of  Babylon.  In  this  he  was  for  a  time 
successful,  but  Sennacherib,  in  B.C.  704,  drove  him  out  of  Babylon,  and 
forced  him  to  fly  to  his  old  home  among  the  marshes  in  the  delta,  to  the 
seat  of  his  old  kingdom  of  the  sea-coast.  Here,  among  his  own  people, 
he  was  so  well  protected  that  he  was  not  found  by  the  Assyrian  monarch. 
Sennacherib  then  placed  on  the  Babylonian  throne  a  person  called  Bel- 
ibni,  who  was  the  Belibus  of  the  Canon  of  Ptolemy.  This  person  reigned 
two  years,  B.C.  703-702,  having  ascended  the  throne  in  the  latter  part  of 
B.C.  703.  Now  it  is  possible  that,  though  defeated  and  dethroned, 
Merodach  Baladan  never  relinquished  his  claim  to  the  Babylonian 
throne,  but  counted  his  regnal  years  all  the  same  from  his  accession  in 
B.C.  722.  .  .  . 

'  On  the  death  of  Sargon  and  accession  of  Sennacherib,  Merodach 
Baladan  raised  a  revolt  in  Babylonia,  the  expedition  to  suppress  which 
formed  the  first  campaign  of  Sennacherib  in  B.C.  704-3-  •  •  ■  This  had 
the  desired  effect,  in  that  the  Assyrian  king  marched  against  Hezekiah 
in  his  third  campaign,  and,  having  subdued  him  in  his  fourth  campaign, 
he  defeats  his  southern  rebels  in  the  revolts  of  Suzdub  and  Merodach 
Baladan.'  ^     This  was  in  B.C.  701-700. 

Accuracy  of  narrative  m  chap,  xxxix.  Two  points  at  any  rate 
must  be  admitted  — i.  that  there  is  a  basis  of  tradition  to  the  narrative 
(Merodach  Baladan  could  not  have  left  Hezekiah  out  of  his  negotia- 
tions) ;  and  2.  that  the  ideas  which  it  enforces  are  those  of  the  main 

'  The  Canon  of  Ptolemy  is  a  chronologic.il  work,  with  astronomical  notes,  begin- 
ning with  the  foundation  of  the  midille  Babylonian  empire  by  N'abonassar  in  B.C.  747. 
In  spite  of  certain  artificial  arrangements,  it  is  a  valuable  historical  document,  and 
stands  the  test  of  comparison  with  the  Assyrian  Canon.  Sec  chap.  v.  of  the  late  Mr. 
George  Smith's  work.   The  Aasyrian  Eponym  Canon  (Lond.,  Bagsters,  1876). 

'*  'Babylonian  Dated  Tablets  and  the  Canon  of  Ptolemy,'  by  W.  St.  Chad  Bos- 
cawen  {T.  S.  B.  A.,  vol.  vi.  1878,  pp.  15-18). 


CHAP.  XXXIX.] 


ISAIAH. 


^11 


current  of  the  prophetic  revelation.  But  there  are  also  two  points  in 
which  a  later  colouring,  due  to  the  editor,  may  be  suspected,  however 
unable  we  may  be  to  arrive  at  a  complete  settlement  of  the  question. 
I.  The  leading  political  figure  on  the  side  of  Judah  is  here  the  king, 
whereas  elsewhere  the  direction  of  the  state  is  in  the  hands  of  'the 
house  of  David,' '  the  princes,'  '  the  men  of  scorn  who  rule  this  people ' 
(see  notes  on  vii.  13,  xxviii.  14-22,  xxxii.  i).  2.  The  prediction  of  the 
subjugation  of  Judah  by  the  king  of  Babylon  is,  for  several  reasons, 
unconnected  with  theology,  not  easily  credible  as  an  utterance  of  Isai;  h 
(see  below  on  vv.  5-7).^ 

'  At  that  time  ^  Merodach  Baladan,  son  of  Baladan,  king 
of  Babylon,  sent  a  letter''  and  a  present  to  Hezekiah  ;  for  he 
had  heard  that  he  had  been  sick,  and  had  recovered.  ^  And 
Hezekiah  rejoiced  because  of  them,  and  showed  them  his 
storehouse,  the  silver,  and  the  gold,  and  the  spices,  and   the 

»  2  Kings  XX.  12  reads  Berodach.     (An  error  of  the  ear.) 
•>  Sept.  inserts,  And  ambassadors.     So  Lowth. 


'  IVIerodacli  Baladan]  The  He- 
braized form  of  the  Babylonian 
Marduk-bal-iddina,  i.e.,  '  Marduk^ 
gave  a  son  ; '  comp.  Nabu-bal-id- 
dina  '  Nabu  (Nebo)  gave  a  son  ' — 
another  Babylonian  name.  In  the 
Canon  of  Ptolemy  the  former  name 
appears  as  Mardokempados,  or,  as 
Ewald  {Hlsiory,  iv.  187)  corrects 
the     reading,     Mardokempalados. 

Son  of  Baladan]  Baladan  is 

evidently  a  shortened  form  of  Me- 
rodach-Baladan,  Nebo-Baladan,  or 
the  like  (comp.  on  Sarezer,  xxxvii. 
38).  It  is  not,  however,  likely  that 
the  father  of  this  king  bore  the 
same  (or  nearly  the  same)  name  : 
the  compiler  appears  to  have  fallen 
into  an  error.  What,  then,  was 
his  real  name  .''  Sargon  calls  his 
Babylonian  enemy  '  son  of  Yakin,' 
from  which  most  have  concluded 
that  the  father  of  Merodach  Bala- 
dan was  named  Yakin.  Considering, 
however,  that  Merodach  Baladan 
was  the  hereditary  king  of  Bit 
Yakin,  it  is  more  natural  to  sup- 
pose that  '  Son  of  Yakin  '  merely 


specifies  the  tribe  to  which  the  king 
belonged,  just  as,  in  the  narrative 
referred  to  on    xxxvii.    12,  '  Son  of 

Adini '  is  a  tribal  appellation.- 

For  he  liad  heard]  Lit.  '  and  he 
heard  '  ;  appending  the  cause  to 
the  effect,  as  2  Sam.  xiv.  5  (Del.). 
In  2  Kings  xx.  12,  the  simpler  form 
of  expression,  'for  he  had  heard,' 
is  used. — Another  ostensiblemotive 
for  the  embassy  is  mentioned  in  2 
Chron.  xxxii.  31,  viz., '  to  enquire  of 
the  portent  that  had  taken  place  in 
the  land,'  i.e.,  of  the  phenomenon 
on  the  step-clock.  The  real  motive 
was  neither  benevolence  nor  scien- 
tific curiosity,  but  political  foresight 
(see  p.  205).  Hence  the  '  present,' 
V.  I,  comp.  XXX.  6,  So  Josephus, 
Ant.  X.  2,  2. 

'^  Because  of  them]  i.e.,  because 
of  the  ambassadors ;  see  note  ^ 
Shoived  them  his  store- 
house] The  fact  that  Hezekiah's 
treasury  is  still  full  proves  that  the 
Babylonian  embassy  must  have 
preceded  the  tribute  to  Sargon. 
His   armoury]    See  xxii.  8. — 


1  Marduk  (Merodach)  was  originally  a  solar  deity,  but  afterwards  regarded  as  the 
god  of  the  planet  Jupiter. 

^  The  famous  'Jehu,  Son  of  Omri '  (Yahua,  Son  of  Khumri)  must  be  explained 
on  these  analogies  ;  Khtimri  (Omri)  means  the  people  of  Pit  Khumri,  i.e.  of.Samaria. 
There  is,  therefore,  no  discrepancy  between  i  Kings  ix.,  which  represents  Jehu  as  the 
founder  of  a  new  dynasty,  and  the  Assyrian  inscriptions.  See  Schrader,  A'.  C  F., 
p.  207  ;  Boscawen,  7'.  5.  B.  A.,  vi.  16. 


2 -.8 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  XXXIX. 


fine  oil,  and  the  whole  of  hi.s  armoury,  and  all  that  was  found 
among  his  treasures  :  there  was  nothing-  in  his  house,  or  in 
the  whole  of  his  dominion,  that  Hezekiah  showed  them  not. 
^  Then  came  Isaiah  the  prophet  unto  king  Hezekiah,  and  said 
unto  him,  What  have  these  men  said,  and  whence  come 
they  unto  thee  ?  And  Hezekiah  said.  From  a  far  country 
have  they  come  unto  me,  even  from  Babylon.  ■*  And  he  said, 
What  have  they  seen  in  thy  house  ?  And  Hezekiah  said, 
All  that  is  in  my  house  they  have  seen  :  there  is  nothing 
among  my  treasures  which  I  have  not  showed  them.     ^  And 


Xn  the  \7lioIe  of   bis  dominion] 

The  whole  kingdom  having  been 
ta.xed  to  keep  up  the  stores  of  the 
capital. 

^  "Wbat  have  tboso  men   said 

.  .  .  ]  Isaiah,  with  that  fearless 
assumption  of  a  superior  position 
which  we  have  noticed  in  chap,  vii., 
at  once  challenges  the  king  to  ex- 
plain his  conduct.  Jehovah's  will 
is  opposed  to  all  coquetting  with 
foreign  powers  (comp.  xxx.  i).  That 
the  ambassadors  are  still  in  Jerusa- 
lem appears  from  '  //wse  men.' 

From  a  far  country]  '  As  though 
he  would  make  his  hospitality  seem 
a  duty'  (Strachey)  :  he  could  not 
show  the  door  to  strangers  from  such 
'afar  land!'  Hezekiah  docs  not 
directly  meet  the  suspicion  implied 
in  Isaiah's  first  question.  He  knows 
denial  would  be  useless,  and  would 
bring  upon  him  the  woe  denounced 
on  those  who  '  deeply  hide  their 
purpose  from  Jehovah'  (xxix.  15). 

''  j&nd  Isaiab  said  ■  •  ■  ]  The 
prophet  is  evidently  displeased  with 
Hezekiah  ;  but  why?  The  Chro- 
nicler says  it  is  because  the  king's 
'  heart  was  lifted  up  '  (2  Chron. 
xxxii.  25),  i.e.,  on  account  of  the 
vanity  implied  in  the  king's  exhi- 
bition of  his  treasures.  This  is  no 
doubt  an  important  element  of  the 
truth  (comp.  ii.  12-17).  But  was  it 
merely  vanity  which  prompted  the 
king  thus  to  throw  open  his  treasu- 
ries ?  Surely  not.  It  was  to  satisfy 
the  emissaries  of  Merodach  15ala- 
dan  that  Hezekiah  had  considerable 
resources,  and  was  worthy  of  be- 


coming his  ally  on  equal  terms. 
Isaiah,  who  saw  so  deeply  into  the 
heart  of  his  contemporaries,  no 
doubt  read  this  in  Hezekiah's  con- 
duct. To  him,  as  a  prophet  of 
Jehovah,  the  king's  fault  was  prin- 
cipally in  allowing  himself  to  be 
courted  by  a  foreign  potentate,  as 
if  it  were  not  true  that  'Jehovah 
had  founded  Zion,'  and  that  '  the 
afflicted  of  his  people  could  find 
refuge  therein'  (xiv.  32).  His 
punishment  should  be  correspond- 
ing to  his  sin.  He  thought  to  sub- 
scribe his  quota  to  a  profane  coali- 
tion, and  his  treasures  should  be 
violently  laid  hold  upon  by  'wolves 
in  sheeps'  clothing.'  Babylon  had 
solicited  friendship  ;  she  would  end 
by  enforcing  slavery.  Calm  and 
dispassionate  is  the  tone  in  which 
the  prophet  speaks.  Charles  the 
(jreat  could  not  help  weeping  at 
the  sight  of  the  Northmen's  vessels, 
prognosticatingthe  calamities  which 
those  fell  pirates  would  bring  on 
the  flourishing  coasts  of  the  Franks.' 
Jeremiah,  himself  a  prophet,  weeps 
at  the  thought  of  the  cruelty  of  the 
Babylonians.  But  in  Isaiah,  con- 
tentment with  the  perfect  will  of 
God  overpowers  his  emotional  sus- 
ceptibility ;  and  whether  he  wrote 
chaps,  xl.-lxvi.  or  not,  it  must  at 
any  rate  be  granted  that  he  had 
a  profound  conviction  of  the  irre- 
vocable election  of  Jehovah's  people 
(see  vi.  13).  That  conviction  was 
his  stay  in  the  prospect  of  tempo- 
rary ruin  for  the  kingdom  of  Judah. 
(This  is  written  on  the  assumption 


'  Dr.  kowl.iml  Williams,  Hebrew  Prophcfi,  i.  .^29. 


CHAP.  XXXIX.] 


ISAIAH. 


239 


Isaiah  said  unto  Hezekiah,  Hear  the  word  of  Jehovah  Sabaoth: 
^  Behold,  the  days  are  coming  when  all  that  is  in  thy  house, 
and  that  which  thy  fathers  have  treasured  up,  shall  be  carried 


that  the  report  of  Isaiah's  words  in 
this  chapter  is  in  the  main  accurate. 
Granting  that  he  foresaw  the  Baby- 
lonian captivity,  I  see  nothing  to  be 
surprised  at  in  the  tone  in  which  it 
is  announced.) 

^  Shall  Ije  carried  a\iray  to 
Babylon]  A  very  striking  circum- 
stantial prediction.  If  we  could  be 
quite  sure  that  it  really  proceeded 
from  Isaiah,  it  would  represent  the 
highest  point  which  that  prophet's 
insight  into  the  future  attained, 
since  it  distinctly  asserts  that,  not 
the  Assyrians,  then  at  the  height  of 
their  power,  but  the  Babylonians, 
shall  be  the  instruments  of  the  Di- 
vine vengeance.  There  is  no  reason- 
able doubt  that  this  is  what  the  pro- 
phecy means.  A  few  faint  attempts 
have,  it  is  true,  been  made  to  show 
that  it  points,  not  to  the  great 
Babylonian  exile,  but  to  the  cap- 
tivity of  Manasseh  (2  Chron.  xxxiii. 
1 1 ),  which,  though  not  referred  to 
in  any  known  Assyrian  inscription, 
is  now  generally  admitted  to  be 
historically  probable.  The  objec- 
tion is  twofold  :  i.  To  make  '  king 
of  Babylon,'  in  v.  7,  equivalent  to 
'king  of  Assyria'  (as  one  might 
speak  of  the  Prince  of  Wales  under 
his  second  title  of  Duke  of  Corn- 
wall), weakens  the  force  of  the  pre- 
diction, for  Sargon's  second  title  of 
king  of  Babylon  dates  (see  above, 
p.  236)  from  the  dethronement,  in 
B.C.  710,  of  Merodach  Baladan, 
whose  embassy  supplies  the  start- 
ing-point of  the  narrative  ;  and  2. 
even  if  Isaiah  foresaw  the  assump- 


tion of  the  crown  of  Babylon  by 
Sargon  and  Esar-haddon,  still  he 
could  not  refer  to  this  fact  without 
hopelessly  mystifying  Hezekiah. 
'  The  king  of  Babylon,'  in  the  pre- 
diction here  ascribed  to  Isaiah, 
means  the  lord  of  that  great  world- 
empire  (to  adopt  a  convenient  hy- 
perbole) which  succeeded  Assyria  ; 
and  the  use  of  this  expression  im- 
plies that  Isaiah  foresaw  the  trans- 
ference of  power  from  Nineveh  to 
Babylon.  To  Ewald,  such  a  degree 
of  foresight  appears  only  natural, 
'inasmuch  as  that  state  [Baby- 
lon], though  often  in  dispute  with 
Nineveh,  was  yet  by  its  peculiar 
position  .  .  .  too  closely  entwined 
with  Assyria,  and  it  was  really  only 
a  question  whether  Nineveh  or 
Babylon  should  be  the  seat  of  uni- 
versal dominion.'  ^  Looking  back 
from  the  vantage-ground  of  history, 
such  an  inference  from  the  position 
of  Babylon  may  appear  only  natu- 
ral, but  I  doubt  whether  it  can  be 
called  probable.  The  'question' 
mentioned  by  Ewald  had  not  yet 
'  come  within  the  range  of  practical 
politics.'  Assj'ria  had  shown  no 
signs  of  weakness  ;  Babylonia's 
ablest  monarch,  Merodach  Bala- 
dan, was  on  the  verge  of  that 
calamity  which  was  announced  in 
solemn  tones  by  Isaiah  himself 
(xxi.  I -10).  If  the  writer  of  xxi.  9, 
10  did  foresee  the  transference 
of  the  centre  of  power,  it  can  only 
be  called  an  extra-natural  or  super- 
natural phenomenon.'^ 

If  Isaiah  really  uttered  this  pro- 


1  History  of  Israel,  iv.  188.  Ewald  continues  :  '  It  accordingly  7?aj/i^(/  like  lig/it- 
nin^  across  Isaiah's  mind  that  Babylon,  attracted  by  those  very  treasures,  Szc,  might 
in  the  future  become  dangerous  to  that  same  kingdom  of  Judah  which  it  was  now 
flattering.'  (One  is  compelled  sometimes  to  abridge  the  involved  sentences  of  this 
great  historical  critic,  but  weak  stylist. ) 

^  Sir  Edward  Strachey,  a  thoughtful  as  well  as  reverent  student  of  Isaiah,  actually 
holds  that,  both  here  and  in  xiv.  4,  'king  of  Babylon '  =  ' king  of  Assyria.'  This 
startling  identification  (see  my  remark  above,  p.  81)  he  defends  by  supposing  that 
'  Babylon  '  throughout  Isaiah  is  '  a  monogram  or  ideograph  '  (the  figure  will  be  clear 
to  those  who  know  anything  of  the  cuneiform  method  of  writing)  for  the  capital  of  the 
Assyrian  empire.  '  So,'  he  remarks,  '  the  Euphrates,  not  the  Tigris,  is  the  river  which 
is  to  overflow  the  land  of  Immanuel  (vii.  20,  viii.  7,  8)  ;  .  .  .  I^abylon,  not  Nineveh, 
supplies  the  forces  which  besiege  Tyre  (xxiii.  13)  ;  and,   to  those  who  are  content  to 


240 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  XXXIX. 


away  to  Babylon  :  nothing  shall  be  left,  saith  Jehovah.     ^  And 
of  thy  sons,  who  shall  issue  from  thee,  whom  thou  shalt  beget, 


phecy,  I  am  willing  to  assent  to 
any  reasonable  mference  from  it, 
but  on  several  accounts  it  appears 
to  me  improbable  that  he  did  so. 
For  (i)  I  can  find  no  analogy  for  it 
in  the  great  age  of  prophecy.  The 
famous  prophecy  in  Micah  (iv.  10), 
'  Be  in  pain,  and  labour  to  bring 
forth,  O  daughter  of  Zion  .  .  .  and 
thou  shalt  go  to  Babylon,'  is  not  a 
parallel  passage,  for  the  context 
shows  that  Babylon  is  mentioned 
there  only  as  a  part  of  the  As- 
syrian empire  (see  Mic.  v.  5,  6). 
There  is  no  way  to  avoid  this 
admission,  except  indeed  the  hy- 
pothesis that  the  clause  respect- 
ing '  going  to  Babylon '  is  in- 
terpolated. (See  further,  Last 
Words,  vol.  ii.)  (2)  In  xxi.  1-710 
Isaiah  announces  the  fall  of  Mero- 
dach  Baladan's  kingdom  of  Baby- 
lon. How  can  Hezekiah  have 
harmonised  such  apparently  incon- 
sistent predictions  as  the  fall  of 
Babylon  and  the  subjugation  of 
Judah  by  Babylon  ?  Yet  even  if  pre- 
dictions be  intended  partly  for  fu- 
ture readers,  they  are  still  primarily 
addressed  to  the  prophet's  con- 
temporaries. Would  Isaiah  have 
thrown  his  royal  friend  and  disciple 
into  dire  perplexity  for  the  sake  of 
generations  yet  unborn  ?  (3)  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  Hezekiah  delivered 
up  'all  the  silver  in  the  house  of 
Jehovah  and  in  the  treasuries 
of  the  king's  house'  to  Sargon  (2 
Kings  xviii.  15).  Why  did  not 
Isaiah  rather  foretell  this  nearer 
and  more  personal  chastisement  ? 
By  postponing  Hezekiah's  penalty 
so  long,  did  he  not  run  the  risk  of 


shaking  the  king's  faith  in  his  pro- 
phetic mission  .-*  And  how  could 
he  have  allowed  Hezekiah  to  repose 
on  the  thought  that  '  peace  and 
steadfastness  (or  stability)  should 
be  in  his  days,'  when  so  severe  a 
trial  as  Sennacherib's  invasion  was 
reserved  for  his  old  age? — I  con- 
clude, therefore,  (while  fully  recog- 
nising the  complexity  of  the  pro- 
blem,) that  the  later  editor  has 
given  his  own  colouring  (comp.  on 
xxxvii.  20)  to  the  vague  tradition 
which  he  may  have  received  of 
Isaiah's  prophetic  condemnation  of 
Hezekiah's  intercourse  with  Mero- 
dach  Baladan.  If  any  reader  feels 
disappointed  at  this  result  (which 
implies  that  the  Jews  had  not  yet 
discerned  the  full  severity  of  the  law 
of  truthfulness),  it  may  be  some 
compensation  to  him  that  the  an- 
cient editor  shows  by  this  fictitious 
(or  nearly  fictitious)  prophecy  that 
he  fully  believed  chaps,  xl.-lxvi.  to 
be  the  work  of  the  great  Isaiah. 
For  he  would  never  have  given  this 
'  colouring '  which  I  have  spoken 
of  to  Isaiah's  reproof  of  Hezekiah 
without  some  real  or  supposed 
ground.  This  ground  was  the  ex- 
istence of  a  series  of  prophetic  dis- 
courses from  the  pen,  as  he  believed, 
of  Isaiah,  and  intended  for  the 
Jewish  exiles  in  Babylon.  If  Isaiah 
wrote  those  discourses  which  pre- 
suppose the  Captivity,  he  surely 
must  at  some  time  or  other  have 
predicted  the  captivity  (criticism  of 
this  elementary  order  is,  I  believe, 
by  no  means  so  modern  as  some 
suppose).  What  opportunity  so  fit 
or   natural  as   the   reproof  which 


take  the  text  as  it  is,  I  mav  further  quote  the  denunciations  of  Bab\  Ion  in  chap.  x.\i. 
and  the  latter  half  of  the  book  '  (Jewish  History  and  Politics,  p.  168).  Rut  as  to  the 
first  set  of  passages,  the  Euphrates  is  there  taken  as  a  symbol  of  the  Assyrian  empire 
(which,  under  Tiglath  Pileser.  included  Babylonia),  because  it  would  have  been  un- 
natural to  speak  of  a  more  northerly  river  as  overflowing  into  Judah.  As  to  xxiii.  13 
(see  my  note),  it  Is  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  the  Kastiim  are  pointed  to  as  the  de- 
stroyers of  Tyre  :  as  to  xxi.  i-io,  it  is  probably  the  independent  kingdom  of  Merodach 
Baladan,  the  ruin  of  which  is  announced  (see  pp.  126,  127)  ;  and  as  to  the  latter  half 
of  the  hook.  Sir  E.  Strachey  stands  alone  in  thinking  (if  he  seriously  does  so)  that  the 
real  or  assumed  standing-ground  of  the  prophet  is  any  other  than  the  Babylonian 
captivity. 


CHAP.  XXXIX.] 


ISAIAH. 


241 


shall  they  take  away,  and  they  shall  become  « chambcrlam.s 
in  the  palace  of  the  king  of  Babylon.  «  And  Hezekiah  said 
unto  Isaiah,  Good  is  the  word  of  Jehovah  which  thou  hast 
spoken.  And  he  said,  ^^  For  peace  and  steadfastness 'i  will 
remain  in  my  days. 

''  I-it.,  eunuchs. 
2  Kings  XX.  19  reads,  .Surely  [I  may  be  content],  if  peace  and  steadfaslness. 


according  (perhaps)  to  tradition, 
he  actually  addressed  to  Hezekiah 
for  that  unstable  monarch's  co- 
quetry with  the  Babylonian  power.? 
(So  that  the  tradition  of  the  unity 
of  authorship  can  be  traced  back 
as  early  as  this  editor  of  chap, 
x.x.xix.) 

'  And  of  thy  sons  who  shall 
issue  from  thee]  It  has  been 
questioned  whether  this  means  the 
immediate  offspring  of  Hezekiah, 
or,  more  widely,  his  descendants.' 
Comp.  xxxviii.  5,  'David  thyfather  ;' 
and  Gen.  xvii.  6,  '  kings  shall  issue 
from  thee.'  In  the  latter  case,  the 
phrase  will  refer  to  the  descendants 
of  the  king  who  should  be  alive 
at  the  Babylonish  captivity  (comp. 
Dan.  i.  3,  4).  This  explanation 
seems  to  me  by  far  the  more  pro- 
bable. It  is  favoured  at  once  by 
the  form  of  the  phrase  ('  of  thy 
sons,'  implying  that  there  was  a 
considerable  number),  and  by  Heze- 
kiah's  expression  of  confidence  in 
the  next  verse  that  the  prophecy 
would  not  be  fulfilled  in  his  life- 
time  : — he  could  not  be  sure  of  this, 
if  the  prophecy  referred  to  his  im- 
mediate offspring.' 

*  Good  is  the  word  ...  in  my 
days]  The  .Syriac  version  connects 
the  two  sayings  of  Hezekiah  di- 
rectly, omitting  'and  he  said '  : 
'Good  is  the  word  of  Jehovah 
which  thou  hast  spoken,  that  there 


shall  be,'  &c.  ;  and  this  is  at  any 
rate  the  sense  of  the  second  saying. 
Hezekiah  not  only  acquiesces  in  the 
will  of  Jehovah,  like  Eli  (i   Sam. 
111.   18),  but    congratulates    himself 
on    his   own    personal    safety.       It 
would    no   doubt    have    been    the 
nobler   course    to    cry,    '  Me,    me 
adsum  qui  feci,'-  and  to  beg  that 
he  alone    might    bear   the  punish- 
ment,   as    he    alone    had    sinned. 
But  the  principle  of  the  solidarity 
of  the  forefather  and  his  posterity, 
and  of  the   king   and   his  people, 
prevails  almost  throughout  the  Old 
Testament  :--in    Jer.   xxxi.   29,  30, 
and  Ezek.  xviii.  we  have  apparently 
the  first  revelation  of  a  higher  law 
of  morality.      From    the   point    of 
view    which    the    narrator   rightly 
ascribes   to    Hezekiah,    that    king 
could  not  well  speak  otherwise  than 
he  did  (unless  we  assume  a  sus- 
pension of  the  laws  of  psychology). 
Even  from  a  higher  standing-ground 
we  must    admit  that  he  fails,  not 
by  what  he  says,  but  by  what  he 
omits  to  say.     For  it  7i'as  a  great 
mercy  that  at   least  a  respite  was 
granted  both  to  the  kings  and  to 
the  people  of  Judah.     'Steadfast- 
ness,'  I.e.,  continuance.     There  is 
the    same    combination    of  words, 
with  the  same  sense,  in  Jer.  xiv.  13  • 
comp.  also  Isa.  xxxiii.  6.     'In  my 
days,'  i.e.,  as  long  as  I  live,  comp. 
Ps.  cxvi.  2  (Kay). 


'  So  Hitzig,  with  his  usual  acuteness 

Mt  is  tempting  to  quote  the  fine  saying  of  David.  ■  Lo,  7  have  sinned  and  /  have 
done  perversely  ;  but  these  sheep,  what  have  thev  done?'  (2  Sam  xx w  "7  )  Hm 
;;m""  W.''^'^"^'"'""'  ■^-^'^"-'^-d.    I   pray,  be  agaiL.   m^^r.j^i.t?; 


VOL.   I. 


R 


242  ISAIAH.  [CHAP.  XL. 


CHAPTERS  XL.-LXVI. 

We  have  now  arrived  at  the  most  trying  and  yet  most  fascinating  part 
of  our  subject — the  interpretation  of  the  last  twenty-seven  chapters. 
Sad  it  is  that,  from  the  only  admissible  point  of  view — the  philological, 
the  problem  of  their  date  and  literary  origin  still  remains  unsetded, 
for  until  we  know  under  what  circumstances  a  prophecy  was  written, 
portions  at  least  of  the  exegesis  cannot  but  remain  vague  and  obscure. 
Even  the  arrangement  of  the  book  (if  it  may  accurately  be  called  a 
book)  is  by  no  means  as  clear  as  we  could  wish.  On  both  these 
points  I  will  at  least  indicate  what  I  conceive  to  be  the  present  state 
of  the  questions  later,  reserving  a  more  complete  discussion  for  a 
subsequent  work.  In  the  following  commentary  I  shall  leave  it  an 
open  question  whether  the  book  was  composed  by  Isaiah  or  by  some 
other  author  or  authors,  and  whether  it  falls  into  two,  three,  or  more 
parts,  but  not  whether  it  is  in  the  fullest  sense  of  the  word  prophetic. 
I  hold,  with  Dr.  Franz  Delitzsch,  that  'if  we  only  allow  that  the  i)rophet 
really  was  a  jirophet,  it  is  of  no  essential  consecjuence  to  what  age  he 
belonged'  ' ;  and  that,  however  limited  the  historical  horizon  of  these 
chapters  may  be,  the  significance  of  their  presentiments  is  not  bounded 
by  the  Exile,  but  extends  to  the  advent  of  the  historical  Christ,  and 
even  beyond.  I  wish  I  could  proceed  with  the  same  influential  critic 
to  make  the  further  admission  that  the  standing-ground  of  the  author 
throughout  his  book  is  the  latter  part  of  the  Babylonian  Captivity, 
and  that  '  he  is  entirely  carried  away  from  his  own  times,  and  leads 
a  pneumatic  life  [a  life  in  the  spirit]  among  the  exiles.'  If  this  were 
only  correct,  it  would  greatly  simplify  the  task  of  exegesis.  Adhiu 
S7il)  judice  lis  est.  All  that  we  can  say  is,  that  at  least  for  a  large  part 
of  these  twenty-seven  chapters,  it  is  generally  admitted  that  the 
prophet  writes  as  if  he  were  living  among  the  exiles  at  Babylon,  '  when 
the  victories  gained  by  Cyrus  over  the  Medes  and  Lydians  had 
begun  to  excite  the  expectations  of  the  Jewish  patriots,' ^  and  where 
this  is  not  so  clearly  the  case  the  reader  will  find  it  candidly  stated  in 
the  notes. 

The  Book  of  Isaiah  Chrouoloi^icaUy  Arranged  zo\\\.-xm%  a  tolerably 
full  sketch  of  the  line  of  thought,  so  far  as  it  can  be  traced,  through- 
out the  prophecy.  It  will  be  noticed  that  the  exegesis  in  the  present 
w^ork  differs  considerably  from  that  in  the  former  ;  I  have  had,  how- 
ever, more  to  developc  and  to  supplement  than  to  retract.  With 
regard  to  the  arrangement  of  the  book,  I  cannot  see  my  way  to  adopt 
any  of  the  current  redistributions  of  the  pro])hecies.     Occasionally, 

'  liiblical  Commeiilary  on  the  Prophecies  of  Isaiah,  ii.  138. 
''  I.  C.  A.,  p.  141. 


CHAP.    XL.] 


ISAIAH. 


24: 


no  doubt,  the  chapters  in  our  Bibles  are  evidently  misdivided,  and 
here  I  have  carefully  noted  the  fact.  But  in  the  main  I  have 
accepted  the  existing  arrangement,  without  comment  or  criticism. 
Some  division  of  the  book  was  necessary  ;  and,  in  default  of  scientific 
accuracy,  praciical  convenience  seemed  the  first  consideration. 

Let  us  now  approach  with  sympathetic  minds  this  Gospel  before 
tlie  GospeL  Though  written  primarily  for  the  exiles  at  Babylon,  its 
scope  is  as  wide  as  that  of  any  part  of  the  New  Testament,  and  New 
Testament  qualifications  are  required  alike  in  the  interpreter  and  in 
his  readers. 

CHAPTER  XL. 

Contents. — The  prophet  describes  his  commission  {7>v.  i-ii);  declares 
the  infinite  perfections  of  Jehovah,  and  rebukes  the  stupidity  of  idolaters, 
and  the  weak  faith  of  Jehovah's  worshippers  {yv.  12-31). 

'  Comfort  ye,  comfort  ye  my  people,  saith  your  God.  -  Speak 
ye  to  the  heart  of  Jerusalem,  and  call  unto  her,  that  her  war- 
fare is  fulfilled,  that  her  guilt  is  paid  off,  that  she  hath  received 


^  Comfort  ye,  comfort  ye]  The 

theme,  not  only  of  chap.  xL,  but  of 
the  whole  prophecy  which  this 
chapter  introduces  ;  comp.  xxxv.  3, 
4,  xli.  2.  The  persons  addressed 
are  the  prophets  (as  the  Targ. 
already  states  at  v.  i),  not  the 
priests  (as  Sept.  interpolates  in  v. 
2),  for  the  next  verse  continues 
'  Call  ye '  (see  below).  The  prophets 
formed  a  numerous  body,  not  only 
in  Isaiah's  time  (iii.  i,  xxix.  10,  30), 
but  in  the  Babylonian  exile    (Jer. 

xxix.  i). iviy  people]  No  longer 

'  Not-my-people'  (Hos.  i.  9),  no 
longer  '  this  people '  (see  on  vi.  9) 
— both  phrases  implying  Jehovah's 
temporary  rejection  of  Israel  ;  but 
again  '  My  people.' 

*  Speak  ye  to  the  beart  .  ,  . 
and  call]  A  single,  concise  decla- 
ration of  God's  loving  will  was  not 
enough.  The  prophets  are  there- 
fore told  more  distinctly  still  both 
what  they  are  to  speak  and  how. 
Their  message  is  to  be  delivered 
encouragingly  ('  to  the  heart ')  and 
with  a  full  clear  note  ('  call ').  The 
former  phrase  reminds  us  espe- 
cially of  Hos.  ii.  16  (A.  V.  14).  'To 
call '  is  a  synonym  for  '  to  pro- 
phesy ' ;  so  in  the  Hebr.  of  Iviii.  i, 
ixi.    I,    2,   Zech.    i.   14,  Jon.   iii.   2. 


Mohammed,  in  the  Kordn,  con- 
stantly uses  the  corresponding 
Arabic  word  in  a  similar  way  ;  e.g. 
'  Call  thou,  in  the  name  of  thy  Lord 
who  created  '  (Sura  xcvi.  i).  The 
prophetic  announcement  falls  into 

three  parallel  statements. Hep 

warfare]  i.e.,  her  enforced  hard-  " 
ships  (there  is  a  similar  use  of 
giierra  in  Dante  and  Petrarca). 
The  metaphor  is  very  suggestive 
of  the  peculiar  troubles  of  military 
service  in  ancient  times ;  comp.  the 
humorous  Egyptian  description 
given  by   M.   Lenormant,  Ancient 

History   of  the   East,   i.    315. 

Notice  here  the  first  of  a  series 
of  parallels  between  II.  Isaiah  and 
Job;  see  Job  vii.  i,  '  Hath  not  man 
a  warfare  (i.e.  a  hard  service)  upon  ^ 
earth  ' — in  Job  xiv.  14  the  phrase 
has  a  rather  difterent  application. 

Her  guilt]  i.e.,  the  penalty  of 

her  guilt. is   paid   ofl]    Lit.    is 

satisfied.  The  sense  is  determined 
by    Lev.    xxvi.   41,   43,    comp.    34 

{Q.  P.  B.).     See  note  on  li.  21. 

Tbat  she  hath  received]  This  is 
the  historic  perfect,  as  is  clearly 
shown  by  the  parallelism.  The 
view  of  Ges.,  Hitz.,  E\v.,  that  it  is 
a  prophetic  perfect,  and  stands  for 
'  she  shall  receive,'  is  bound  up  with 

R    2 


244 


ISAIAH. 


[CHAI\  XI,. 


of  the  hand  of  Jehovah  double  for  all  her  sins.  ''  Hark  !  one 
that  calleth  :  '  In  the  wilderness  clear  ye  Jehovah's  way,  make 
plain  in  the  desert  a  highway  for  our  God.    *  Let  every  valley 


a  wrong  interpretation  of  the  closing 

words  of  the  verse. Double  for 

all  her  sins]  It  has  been  said  that 
this  is  a  rhetorical  hyperbole,  de- 
signed to  set  the  compassionate  love 
of  God  in  the  clearest  light,  that  God 
condescends  to  accuse  Himself,  as 
if  He  had  been  too  severe.  Others, 
objecting  to  this  '  as  if,'  illustrate  by 
the  prophetic  passages  which  assert 
an  over-severity  on  the  part  of  the 
heathen  rulers  of  Israel  (see  xlvii. 
6,  Jer.  1.7,  n,  i7,  Zech  i.  15).  It  is 
simpler,  however,  to  take  '  double  ' 
in  the  sense  of  '  amply  sufficient  ; ' 
comp.  Jer.  xvii.  18,  '  Ruin  them  with 
double  ruin,'  Rev.  xviii.  6,  '  Double 
unto  her  double  according  to  her 
works.'— Ges.,  Hitz.,  Ew.  would 
render  'double  (compensation)  for 
all  her  penalties,'  referring  for  the 
rendering  'penalties'  to  v.  18  (where, 
however,  such  a  meaning  is  impro- 
bable), and  Zech.  xiv.  19,  and  for 
the  idea  to  Ixi.  7,  Jer.  xvi.  14-18. ^ 
Zech.  ix.  12,  comp.  Job  xlii.  12.  But 
this  is  not  favoured  by  the  plural, 
and  is  opposed  by  the  context  (see 
last  note). 

3  Here  begins  a  triad  of  invita- 
tions, each  containing  three  verses 

(7'7'.     3-5,     6   8,     9-1  0- Hark  I 

one  tbat  calletb]  Tlie  second 
message  relates  to  something  to  be 
done  for  Jehovah  ;  it  is  therefore 
naturally  ascribed  to  a  non-divine 
though  still  supernatural  voice.  The 
poetic  effect  is  much  heightened 
by  the  mystery.  Comp.  li.  9,  lii. 
I,  Ivii.  14,  Ixii.  10.  .Similar  voices 
are  spoken  of  in  the  Book  of 
Revelation  (Rev.  i.  10,  12,  iv.  i,  x. 
4,  8),  and  are  to  be  explained  on 
these  analogies. Xn  the  wil- 
derness] N«)t  to  be  joined  with 
'one  crieth'  (as  Sept.,  Vulg.,  and 
the  Svnoptic  Gospels),  for  this 
would  spoil  the  parallelism  of  the 
next  line.       The  accents,  too,  arc 

against  this  conjunction. Cl«  ar 

yc  .  .  .]  .'\n  allusion  to  the  well- 
known  prariirc-of  eastern  monarchs 


on  their  progresses  (see  Bishop 
Lowth).  In  the  Synoptic  (jospels 
(Matt.  iii.  3,  Mark  i.  3,  Luke  iii.  4) 
the  passage  is  taken  metaphori- 
cally of  the  preparation  of  the 
heart  (cf.  Ps.  Ixxxiv.  5,  'highways 
in  their  heart '),  and  so  it  must  per- 
force be  taken,  if  the  command  is 
addressed,  as  in  7'?/.  i,  2,  to  the 
prophets.  The  parallel  passages 
xlix.  1 1,  Ivii.  14,  Ixii.  10,  cf.  xxxv.  8, 
are,  however,  opposed  to  this  view, 
and  prove  that  we  have  here  a 
grand  poetic  symbol,  introduced 
to  heighten  the  effect,  and  impress 
the  reader  with  the  greatness  of 
the  event.  The  pioneers,  then,  are 
(not  the  tribes  of  the  wilderness,  as 
Knobel  thinks,  but)  supernatural, 
angelic  beings.  In  xxxv.  8  no 
pioneers  are  mentioned  : — the  high- 
way for  the  redeemed  is  one  '  not 

made    with     hands.' Za     the 

desert]  It  is  true,  the  ordinary 
way  from  Babylon  to  Jerusalem,  by 
Damascus,  Palmyra,  Thapsacus, 
for  the  most  part  went  round,  and 
not  through,  the  desert.  It  is  the 
importunity  of  faith  which  insists 
on  going  the  nearest  wa)',  in  de- 
fiance of  all  obstacles.  There 
seems  to  be  also  an  allusion  to  the 
journey  through  the  desert  at  the 
Exodus,  Egypt  being  typical  of 
Babylon  ;  see  xlviii.  21,  lii.  I2,  cf. 
xi.  16.-;— Del.  rightly  sees  an  allusion 
to  this  passage  in   Ps.  Ixviii.  4  (5)  ; 

see  Q.  P.  />'. Jehovah's  way] 

The  return  of  Jehovah  to  Palestine 
is  a  compendious  expression  for  the 
restoration  of  the  exiles,  and  for  the 
renewal  of  all  the  sjiiritual  privileges 
of  which  the  Jews  had  been  de- 
prived. That  this  is  the  case  is 
shown  by  Ixii.  10,  11,  in  which,  side 
by  side,  we  ha\e  the  command  to 
make  a  road  for  'the  people'  (i.e., 
the  Jewish  exiles),  and  a  promise 
word  for  word  the  same  as  xl.  \ob. 
So,  too,  in  lii.  8  we  have  the  return 
of  Jehovah  mentioned  alone,  and 
directly  afterwards  (?'.    12),  tlie  re- 


CHAP.  XL.] 


IS.MAII. 


245 


be  exalted,  and  every  mountain  and  hill  be  brought  low,  and 
let  that  which  is  rugged  become  a  table-land,  and  the  ridges 
a  highland  plain  ;  ''and  then  shall  reveal  itself  the  glory  of 
Jehovah,  and  all  flesh  together  shall  see  it :  for  the  mouth  of 
Jehovah  hath  spoken  it,'  ^  Hark  !  one  that  saith  'Call.'  And 
*one  said,"  'What  shall  I  call  .'' '     *  All  flesh  is  grass,  and  all 

"  I  said,  Sept.,  Vulg.,  Geiger. 


turn  of  the  hosts  of  Israel  under 
the  generalship  of  Jehovah.  There 
is  therefore  no  reason  to  infer  with 
Seinecke  from  passages  like  xl. 
3-10,  that  Isa.  xl.-Ixvi.  was  written 
for  those  Jews  who  were  left  behind 
by  Nebuchadnezzar  in  Palestine. 

'•"  All  flesh  shall  see  It]  Comp. 
Ps.  .xcvii.  6.  The  '  seeing  '  is  two- 
fold, as  appears  from  the  sequel 
(see  chap.  Ix.).  It  is  (i)the  natural 
sight  of  Jehovah's  glorious  deeds 
on  behalf  of  his  people,  and  (2)  the 
spiritual  recognition  of  Jehovah  as 
the  Lord.  It  is  possible  for  Jeho- 
vah's Arm  to  '  reveal  itself  and  yet 
for  the  spiritual  eye  to  be  closed  to 
it  ;  see  liii.  i  (same  word). 

•*  And  one  said]  viz.,  the  prophet, 
rapt  by  a  vision  out  of  his  ordinary 
self  (comp.  xxi.  6-9,  ii,  12,  2  Cor. 
xii.  2-4).  Throughout  his  dis- 
courses, the  self-effacement  of  the 
inspired  author  is  very  remarkable 

(comp.  on  xlviii.  16  d). All  flesh 

Is  g-rass]  It  is  doubtful  whether 
this  and  the  next  verse  (or  even 
the  next  two  verses)  belong  to  the 
questioner,  or  to  the  voice  which 
said,  '  Call.'  In  the  former  case,  the 
preceding  question  is  one  of  de- 
spondency, and  '  All  flesh  is  grass  ' 
gives  the  reason  of  this  despond- 
ency : — '  How  can  "  all  flesh  "  be 
destined  to  see  such  a  glorious 
sight  (v.  5),  when  it  is  subject  to 
the  law  of  decay  and  death  ? '  To 
this  implied  question,  t.  8  may 
be  regarded  as  the  answer.  (So 
Kay,  who  improves  the  sense  by 
taking  '  the  people '  in  7'.  7  to  mean 
Israel.)  This  view  is  surely  un- 
natural. We  cannot  dispense  with 
some  fresh  tidings  for  the  herald, 
and  the  separation  of  7'.  8  from 
7'.    7    is    against    the    stvle    of  the 


Book  of  Isaiah,  in    both  parts  of 
which  repetition  of  a  phrase  with 
a  slight   addition    or   modification 
is  a  favourite  oratorical  turn  (see 
Delitzsch,  Isaiah,  E.  T.,  ii.  134).     I 
therefore   adhere   to    the    ordinary 
view,  which  regards  vv.  6  b-Z  as  the 
answer  of  '  the  Voice,'  who  draws 
an  antithesis  between  the  decay — 
it  may  be,  the  premature  decay  (for 
the   breath  of  Jehovah  '  bloweth ' 
7uhen  '  it  listeth ') — to  which  even 
the  brightest  and  best  of  earthly 
things  are  liable,  and  the  necessary 
permanence    of    Jehovah    and    his 
revelation. — This  is  the  first  time 
that  the  phrase  '  all  flesh  '  occurs  in 
the  Book  of  Isaiah  ;  we  meet  with 
it  again  in  xlix.  26,  Ixvi.  16,  23,  24, 
also  four  times  in  Jeremiah,  thrice 
in   Ezekiel,  once  in  Zechariah  (ii. 
17),  also  repeatedly  in  the   Penta- 
teuch, and  it  would  be  well  worth 
while  to  examine  the  Pentateuch- 
sections    in  which    it    occurs  with 
a  view  to    illustrating    their   date. 
Jeremiah  and  Deuteronomy  (v.  23 
Hebr.)are  the  only  pre-Exile  books 
of  absolutely  certain  date  in  which 
the  phrase  is  found.    It  would,  how- 
ever, naturally  be  employed  in  deal- 
ing with   subjects  of  universal,   as 
opposed  to  merely  Jewish,  interest  ; 
so  that  the  question  for  decision  is, 
Was  the  present  subject  (whether 
it  be  the  Flood,  or  the  fall  of  the 
world-empires)    a    natural    subject 
for  any   particular    inspired  writer 
to  take  up  at  the  time  to  which  he 
is  commonly  referred  ?^Dr.  Weir 
makes  the  suggestive  remark  that 
the  sentence  'All  flesh  is  grass'  is 
'  quite  in  the  spirit  of  ii.  22  '  ('  man 
in    whose    nostrils    is    a    breath '). 
Unfortunately  this  does  not  greatly 
confirm  the  Isaianic  origin  of  the 


246 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  XL. 


the  grace  thereof  like  flowers  of  the  field.  ^  ^  Dry  is  the  grass, 
faded  are  the  flowers,  if  the  breath  of  Jehovah  hath  blown 
thereon  ;  surely  the  people  is  grass.^  ^  Dry  is  the  grass, 
faded  are  the  flowers,  but  the  word  of  our  God  shall  stand 
for  ever.' 

^  Get  thee  up  on  a  high  mountain,  ''  O  Zion,  thou  bringer 
of  good  tidings '=;  lift  up  mightily  thy  voice,  O  Jerusalem, 
thou  bringer  of  good  tidings  ;  lift  it  up,  be  not  afraid  ;  say 
unto  the  cities  of  Judah,  Behold,  your  God  !     '^  Behold,  the 

•>  The  whole  verse  is  omitted  in  Sept. ;  the  last  clause  only,  by  Koppe,  Ges. 
(doubtfully),  Hitz. ,  as  a  gloss.     Conip.  on  ii.  22. 

'  O  company  that  bringest  good  tidings  to  Zion,  Sep'.,  Targ ,  Vulg.  (?),  Rashi, 
Ges.,  Kay. 


passage  before  us,  for  the  author- 
ship of  ii.  22  is  open  to  grave  doubt 
(see  my  note  ad  loc).  —  It  would  be 
impossible  within  reasonable  limits 
to  treat  every  linguistic  phenome- 
non even  briefly,  but  it  seemed  rig^  t 
thus  to  draw  the  reader's  attention 
to  the  important  bearing  which  a 
single  word,  or  group  of  words,  may 
have   on  the  literary  problems  of 

the  Bible. The  grace  thereof] 

The  word  {kJu'scd)  nowhere  else 
has  this  meaning,  but  its  synonym 
{kJiai)  has  the  double  sense  of 
favour  and  grace  or  gracefulness. 

'  Surely  the  people  is  crass] 
The  statement  is  resumptive. 
'  Surely  the  human  folk  (comp.  xlii. 
5,  xliv.  7)  is  as  perishable  as  grass 
(comp.  Ps.  xc.  5,  6).  Israel  and 
Assyria  are  both  politically  e.xtinct, 
and  Babylon  is  hurrying  to  its  end.' 
The  thought  is  suggested,  though 
not  expressed,  that  if  Israel  is  to 
rise  again  from  its  ashes,  it  can 
only  be  by  abstaining  from  all  at- 
tempts at  secular  aggrandisement. 
'I  he  new  Israel  will  be  in  all  the 
circumstances  of  its  growth  super- 
natural. Others  (Kay,  Seinecke, 
Oort,  Naegelsbach)  make  '  the 
people  '  =  Israel,  but  this  limitation 
hardly  suits  the  context,  which  re- 
fers to  'all  flesh.' 

®  The  •word  .  .  .  shall  s^and] 
i.e.,  specially  the  promise  or  pro- 
phecy concerning  Israel,  comp.  xliv. 
26,  xlv.  19,  Hi.  6,  Ixiii.  i,  Jer.  xliv. 
28,  29,  of  which  all  mankind  shall 
experience  the  sa\  ing  fruits. 


^  Here  the  prophet  is  transported 
mentally  to  Palestine  and  to  the 
time  immediately  before  the  fulfil- 
ment of  the  promise.  He  calls 
upon  Jerusalem  to  announce  to  her 
'daughter '-cities  (cf.  Ezek.  xvi.  46- 
48)  the  glad  tidings  of  the  approach 
of  their  God.  By  Jeioisalem  he 
means  not  merely  the  phenomenal 
or  actual  Jerusalem  in  its  state  of 
desolation,  but  the  ideal  Jerusalem, 
which  has  walls  and  watchmen  (Hi. 
8,  9,  cf.  xlix.  16),  for  it  is  in  the 
supersensible  world,  '  graven  on  the 
palms  of  [Jehovah's]  hands'  (xlix. 
16).  The  ideal  Jerusalem,  in  this  )( 
prophecy,  corresponds  to  the  ideal 
Israel,  though  sometimes  (e.g..  Hi.  i, 
2)  the  two  conceptions — the  ideal 
and  the  phenomenal — are  almost 
merged  in  one.  See  further  xlix. 
14-19,  Ixii.  6,  and  comp.  Rev.  xxi. 
10  ('the  city,  the  holy  Jerusalem, 
descending  out  of  heaven  from 
God ').  The  passage  of  the  apo- 
cryphal Book  of  Baruch,  quoted  in 
my  note  on  xlix.  16,  may  also  fitly 
be  compared  in  this  connection. 
(Alt.  rend,  is  less  poetical ;  see  how- 
ever Kay's  note.) 

"^  His  Arm]  This  is  not  merely 
figurative  (as  in  xxx.  30),  but  one  of 
the  many  symbolic  expressions  for 
the  manifestation  of  the  Deity — 
touching  monuments  of  a  childlike 
faith.  Analogous  phrases  are  'the 
Face  of  Jehovah'  (note  on  i.  12), 
his  '  Name'  (note  on  xxx.  27),  his 
'reword'  'xx\ii.  i,  xxxiv.  5),  and  his 
'Hand'  (viii.  ii,li\.    l).     'Arm  of 


CHAP.  XL.] 


ISAIAH. 


247 


Lord  Jehovah,  '^as  a  strong  one"^  will  he  come,  his  Arm  ruling 
for  him  ;  behold,  his  wage  is  with  him,  and  his  recompence 
before  him.  '^  As  a  shepherd  will  he  feed  his  flock  ;  in  his 
arm  will  he  gather  the  lambs,  and  in  his  bosom  carry  them, 
those  which  give  suck  will  he  lead. 

'^  Who  hath  measured  the  waters  in  the  hollow  of  his  hand, 
and  regulated  the  heavens  with  a  span,  and  comprehended  the 

<<  With  strength,  Sept.,  Pesh.,  Targ.,  Vulg. ,  Ges. 


Jehovah '  more  especially  embodies 
the  attribute  of  Almightiness.  In 
this  symbolic  sense  it  occurs  only 
in    II.    Isaiah  (xl.    10,    li.   5,  9,  lii. 

10,  liii.   I,  lix.   16,  Ixiii.  5,  12). 

Ruling  for  him]  i.e.,  in  his  in- 
terest, Israel  being  'formed  for 
Jehovah'  (xliii.  21),  or,  in  the  lan- 
guage of  the  Vulgate  (Ex.  xix.  5), 
his  peculium.  Comp.  lix.  16,  Ps. 
xcviii.  I  (a  psalm  deeplj^  influenced 

by  II.   Isaiah). His  wagre  .  .  . 

his  recompence]  The  reward 
which  he  gives  to  his  faithful  ones 
(see  xlix.  4,  Ixiii.  7,  8),  perhaps  with 
the  collateral  meaning  of  retribu- 
tion to  his  enemies  (so  '  recom- 
pence,' Ixv.  7). 

"  At  first  sight  it  appears  as  if 
there  were  here  a  sudden  transition. 
Were  it  really  so,  the  effect  would 
be  most  thrilling.  But  this  verse  is 
•^  in  fact  closely  connected  with  the 
preceding  one  ;  it  describes  the  re- 
ward of  which  we  have  just  been 

told. VTill  he    feed   his  flock] 

The  Israelites  were  the  flock  of 
Jehovah  (Ps.  Ixxvii.  20,  Ixxx.  i),  but 
during  the  Captivity  a  scattered 
and  miserable  flock.  Jeremiah  says 
that  his  eye  'shall  run  down  with 
tears,  because  the  flock  of  Jehovah 
is  carried  away  captive  '  (Jer.  xiii. 
17).  The  change  in  the  fortunes  of 
the  Jews  is  compared  by  the  pro- 
phets to  a  shepherd's  seeking  his 
lost  sheep,  and  feeding  them  again 
in  green  pastures  (Jer.  x.xxi.  10,  1. 
19,  Ezek.  xxxiv.  11 -16).  The  refe- 
rence is  not  so  much  to  the  home- 
ward journey  of  the  exiles  as  to  the 
state  of  temporal  and  spiritual 
happiness  in  which  they  would 
find  themselves  on  their  return.  The 
same   figures    occur    in    a  psalm, 


where  a  reference  to  the  return  from 
exile  is  excluded  by  the  pre-Exile 
date,  ' .  .  .  feed  them  also,  and  carry 

them  forever'  (Ps.  xxviii.  9). 

"Will  he  lead]  Comp.  Gen.  xxxiii. 
13,  '  If  men  should  overdrive  them 
(i.e.,  those  which  give  suck)  one  day, 
all  the  flock  will  die.' 

^'^  The  homily  which  begins  here 
is  addressed  to  the  phenomenal  or 
actual  Israel,  many  of  whose  mem- 
bers were  in  danger  from  a  subtle 
combination  of  the  forces  of  un- 
belief within  and  polytheism  with- 
out. It  seemed  as  if  Jehovah  had 
forgotten  his  people,  and  as  un- 
sophisticated man  cannot  dispense 
with  a  Divine  patron,  many  Jews 
were  on  the  point  of  (literally)  fall- 
ing into  idolatry.  The  Book  of  Job 
here,  as  so  often,  supplies  us  with 
a  parallel.  Job  indeed  was  not 
tempted  to  polytheism  ;  if  he  had 
broken  away  entirely  from  Jehovah, 
he  would  have  stood  alone,  like 
Dante's  Capaneo  and  Milton's 
Satan.  But  his  spiritual  trials 
were  similar  to  those  of  the  Jews  ; 
his  confidence  in  the  justice  of 
Eloah  (as  a  non-Israelite  he  does 
not  use  the  name  Jehovah)  was 
thoroughly  shaken.  The  true  God 
condescends  to  meet  Job  person- 
ally. He  addresses  him  in  a  speech 
entirely  made  up  of  questions  full 
of  a  'divine  irony,'  the  second  of 
which  reminds  us  strongly  of  the 
speech  of  Jehovah  in  our  prophecy. 
It  runs  thus,  'Who  set  its  (the 
earth's)  measures,  if  thou  knowest  ? 
or  who  stretched  out  a  line  upon  it .-" 
(Job  xxxviii.  5.)  The  answer  in  Job, 
in  a  parallel  passage  in  Proverbs, 
and  in  1 1.  Isaiah,  is  the  same,  'Who 
but  Jehovah.''     (Ges.,  Kay,  Naeg. 


248 


ISAIAH. 


[CHA1>.  XL. 


dust  of  the  earth  in  a  tierce,  and  weighed  the  mountains  in 
scales,  and  the  hills  in  a  balance  ?  '^  Who  '^  hath  regulated  * 
the  Spirit  of  Jehovah,  and  being  his  counsellor  informed  him? 
'^  With  whom  hath  he  taken  counsel,  that  he  might  instruct 
him,  and  teach  him  as  to  the  path  of  right,  and  teach  him 
knowledge,  and  inform  him  of  the  way  of  perfect  discretion  ? 
'"'  Behold,  nations  are  accounted  as  a  drop  on  a  bucket,  and  as 

e  Hath  directed,  Targ.,  Pesh.,  A.  V.,  Vitr.  Hath  known,  Sept.  (Dr.  Weir 
thinks  this  a  different  reading,  comp.  r.  21,  in  the  Hcbr.  and  the  Greek  ;  but  it  may 
be  siniply  a  paraphrase.  The  Hebr.  may  also  mean  '  hath  weighed  '  (as  Frov.  xvi. 
2),  and  hence  'hath  tested,'  or  'obtained  accurate  knowledge  of;'  so  Hitz.,  Naeg., 
K  riigcr). 


suppose  the  answer  in  our  prophecy 
to  be  '  No  vian^  which  seems  to  be 
confirmed  by  vv.  13,  14  ;  see,  how- 
ever, the  next  note.)  Some,  e.g. 
Naeg.,  have  taken  offence  at  the 
implied  ascription  of  a  '  hollow  of 
the  hand,'  a  '  span,'  and  a 'tierce' 
to  Jehovah  ;  but  prophecy  regards 
earthly  things  as  types  and  shadows 
of  the  heavenly.  Jehovah  has  an 
Arm  in  this  \ery  chapter  (v.  10), 
'hands'  in  xli.x.  16,  a  '  seah,' or  a 
'double  seah'  in  x.xvii.  8,  here  and 
in  Ps.  Ixxx.  5  a  '  tierce.' — ^A  tierce 
is  (as  the  Hebr.  word  skalish  im- 
plies) the  third  part  of  some  larger 
measure  (probably  of  an  ephah)  : — 
it  was  a  very  small  ineasure  for 
creation,  observes  Del.  (see  Ps.  loc. 
cit.\  but  a  large  one  for  tears. 
Obs.,  the  conception  of  the  order- 
liness of  creation  took  almost  as 
firm  a  hold  of  the  Hebr.  mind  as 
the  Greek.  Hence  the  Greek 
writer  of  Wisdom  need  not  be 
credited  with  Alexandrinism  when 
he  writes  (xi.  20),  '  Thou  hast  or- 
dered all  things  by  measure  and 
number  and  weight.'  The  same 
idea  of  the  minuteness  of  God's 
creative  arrangements  is  expressed 
by  our  propliet  melapliorically. 

'■'  .'\nothcr  (juestion,  equally  iro- 
nical with  the  former.  The  cor- 
rectness of  the  reading  'regulated' 
is  slightly  doubtful,  but  the  repeti- 
tion of  the  verb  from  v.  12  may 
perhaps  have  a  special  significance. 
The  speaker,  as  I  understand  the 
passage,  professes  to  sympathise 
with  one  of  the  theological  ilifficul- 


ties  of  the  Jews,  and  treats  it  for  a 
moment  as  an  open  question.  It 
is  this  : — Jehovah,  and  he  alone, 
'  regulated  *  or  fixed  the  proportions 
of  heaven  and  earth,  but  wbohath 
regulated  the  Spirit  of  Tehovab  X 
Was  this  almighty  demiurge  him- 
self absolutely  free?  May  not 
even  Omnipotence  be  subject  to 
conditions .''  May  there  not  be 
an  equal  or  superior  power,  whose 
counsel  must  be  deferred  to  even  by 
Jehovah  ?  The  Spirit  of  Jetaovab 
is  the  life-giving  principle  in  the 
Deity,  and  is  especially  mentioned 
in  connection  with  creation  (Gen.  i. 
2,  Ps.  civ.  30,  Job  xxxiii.  4).  In 
II.  Isaiah  there  is  a  marked  ten- 
dency to  h)postatise  the  Spirit  ; 
here,  for  instance,  consciousness 
and  intelligence  are  distinctly  pre- 
dicated of  the  Spirit  (see  further  on 
Ixiii.  10). 

' '  "With  whom  batb  be  taken 
counsel]  Contrast  the  Bab)lonian 
myth  of  a  joint  action  of  Bel  and 
the  gods  in  the  creation  of  man, 
and  the  Iranian  of  a  co-crealorship 
of  Ormuzd  and  the  Amshaspands 
(  VcHiiidad,  xix.  34).  But  there  is  no 
direct  reference  to  either  of  these 
myths.  In  fact,  neither  Babyloni- 
ans nor  Persians  had  fixed  cos- 
mogonies. 

' '  Bebold]  To  prepare  the  reader 
for  a  new  and  pregnant  instance  of 
Jehovah's  might.  From  nature  we 
pass  to  history. -Countries]  Li- 
terally '  habitable  lands.'  The  word 
occius  three  times  in  the  singular 
ill  the  first  p.ut  of  Isaiah,  thirteen 


CHAP.  XL.] 


I.SAIA1I. 


249 


fine  dust  on  a  balance  ;  behold,  he  lifteth  up  '"countries  as  a 
straw.  •''  (And  Lebanon  is  not  sufficient  for  burning,  nor  its 
beasts  sufficient  for  burnt  offerings).  '^  All  the  nations  are  as 
nothing  before  him  ;  as  of  nought  and  (as)  Chaos  they  are 
accounted  of  him.  '®To  what  then  can  ye  liken  God?  and 
what  similitude  can  ye  place  beside  him  ? 

'  So  Hitz.  always  (exxept  xi.    11),  and  gen-erally  Ges. — Islands,  Ancient  Versions, 
Lovvth  (here  only,  see  below),  Del.,  Naeg. — Coasts,  Ew. 


times  in  the  plural  in  the  second 
part  (including  xxiv.  15),  and  once 
in  the  first  (xi.  11).  In  usage  it 
is  generally  applied  to  the  distant 
countries  of  the  West,  though  in 
Ezek.  xxvii.  15  it  may  include 
India.  Bp.  Lowth  goes  so  far  as 
to  render  it  generally  in  II.  Isaiah, 
'  distant  countries,'  and  distance  is 
certainly  implied  in  xli.  5,  xlix.  i, 
Ix.  9,  Ixvi.  19.  This  is  at  any  rate 
better  than  '  islands '  or  'sea-coasts,' 
seeing  that  in  II.  Isaiah  it  is  gene- 
rally parallel  to  '  nations.'  '  The 
frequency  with  which  this  word 
occurs  is  very  remarkable  as  indi- 
cating the  wide  range  of  thought 
which  distinguishes  this  prophecy' 
(Weir).  The  two  Psalm-passages 
in  which  it  is  found  (Ixxii.  10,  xcvii. 
1)  imply  imitation  of  II.  Isaiah. 

'*  An  inference  from  v.  16.  Je- 
hovah being  so  far  greater  than 
man,  how  can  any  sacrificial  rites 
be  worthy  of  him  .''  Judah  no  doubt 
was  poor  in  wood,'  but  even  Leba- 
non, were  it  in  the  hands  of  Jeho- 
vah's worshippers,  would  not  yield 
wood  enough  to  do  Him  honour. 


'"  Of  noug-ht]  The  preposition 
is  partitive.  '  Nought  is  regarded 
as  a  great  concrete  object,  of  which 
the  nations  are  a  part'  (Hitzig). 
They  belong  to  the  category  of 
nothingness.     Same    idiom    in  xli. 

24,  xliv.  II,  Ps.  Ixii.  10. Chaos] 

Hebr.  tohu,  one  of  the  two  words 
{tohu  va-bdhi'i)  used  together  in 
Gen.  i.  2,  to  signify  the  formless 
waste  of  chaos.  It  is  the  strongest 
expression  in  the  language  for  life- 
lessness,  futility,  and  desolation, 
and  occurs  eight  times  in  II.  Isaiah 
(besides  xxiv.  10,  xxxiv.  11),  once 
only  in  I.  Isaiah  (xxix.  21). 

***  What  similitude  •  •  .  ]  The 
prophet  might  at  first  sight  be  sup- 
posed to  deprecate  idolatry.  But 
it  does  not  appear  that  the  Jews 
addressed  in  these  chapters  made 
images  of  Jehovah,  and  the  paral- 
lel passages  7/.  25  and  xlvi.  5  seem 
to  show  that  the  incomparable- 
ness,  the  uniqueness,  of  Jehovah 
is  the  truth  which  absorbs  the  pro- 
phet's mind.  '  Similitude  '  {d'mfith 
must  therefore  not  be  taken  in  the 
sense   of  '  image '    (as  in  2   Kings 


Vv.  19,  20.     The  uniqueness  of  Jehovah  illustrated  by  describing  how 

the  idol-gods,  first  of  the  rich,  and  then  of  the  poor,  are  manufactured. 

The  prophet's  tone  is  sarcastic.     While  monotheism  was  still  struggling 

for  existence,  it  was  impossible  to  seek  a  common  ground  with  polytheists, 

like  St.  Paul  at  the  Areopagus,  or  with  cool  deliberate  hand  to  mete  out 

justice  to  the  original  intention  of  idolatries.    The  preacher  of  monotheism 

to  a  wavering  and  uncertain  people  must  be  instant  '  in  season  and  out  ot 

season.'    A  whole  series  of  ironical  descriptions,  of  which  this  is  the  first, 

remains  to  attest  the  prophet's  earnestness.     See  xli.  7,  xliv.  9-17,  xlvi.  6, 

and  comp.  Hab.   ii.    18,   19,  Jer.  x.  1-9,  Ps.  cxv.  47,  cxxxv.  15    18,  and 

especially  the  apocryphal   Epistle  of  Jeremy  (Baruch  vi.). — We  are  not 

told  whether  the  manufacturers  of  idols  were  themselves  Israelites. 

1  The  smallne>s  of  the  Judasan  territory  obliged  Neheriiiah  to  appoint  special  offi- 
cers for  the  collection  of  wood  for  the  sacrificcb  (Neh.  x.  34). 


250 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  XL. 


'^  The  image — a  craftsman  casteth  it,  and  a  goldsmith 
overlayeth  it  with  gold,  and  forgeth  (for  it)  chains  of  silver. 
^"^  He  that  is  impoverished  in  offerings  ^  chooseth  a  wood  that 
decayeth  not,  sceketh  unto  him  a  skilful  craftsman  to  set  up 
an  image  that  tottereth  not.  '^^  Can  ye  not  perceive  ?  can 
ye  not  hear  ?  hath  it  not  been  announced  unto  you  from  the 
beginning  ?  have  ye  not  understood  •'  from  the  foundations  ^^  of 
the  earth  ?  "^'^  He  who  sitteth  above  the  circle  of  the  earth,  (and 
its  inhabitants  are  as  locusts  ;)  who  stretched  out  the  heavens 

B  So  the  text  literally.  He  that  is  poor  (chooseth)  for  an  offering,  Drechsler. — He 
that  is  experienced  ia  offerings,  Rashi  (substantially),  I  -uzzatto  (altering  the  points). 

*>  So  Hebr.  accents,  Kinichi,  Calv.,  Evv.,  Henderson,  Weir. — The  foundations, 
Sept.,  Pesh.,  Vulg.,  Ges.,  Hitz.,  Del.,  Kay,  Naeg. — Targ.  has,  To  fear  befo.-e  him  who 
created  the  foundations,  &c.     See  crit.  note. 


xvi.  lo),  but  in  that  of  '  comparable 
object.' 

'^  The  imagre]  This  is  put  first 
for  emphasis.  Surely  ye  will  not 
compare  such  an  object  as  this  to 

Jehovah? Chains]     To    fasten 

the  idol  to  the  wall. 

'^°  The  transition  to  ?'.  20  is  so 
abrupt  that  I  cannot  help  conjec- 
turing that  something  has  dropped 
out  of  the  fust  part  of  the  descrip- 
tion.  He  that  is  impoverisbed 

in  offering's]  Most  commentators, 
since  Kimchi,  e.xplain  this,  '  He 
that  is  unable  by  reason  of  his 
poverty  to  dedicate  a  costly  image 
to  his  god.'  But  surely  this  puts 
great  violence  on  the  text ;  some 
error  must  have  crept  in. — The 
word  rendered  '  offerings '  is  frii- 
niah  'a  lifting  up,'  sometimes  ren- 
dered in  A.  V.  of  the  Pentateuch, 
'  a  heave-offering,'  but  which,  in 
Ezekiel  at  any  rate  (see  Ezek.  .\lv. 
I,  xlviii.  8,  12,  20,  xlv.  13),  also  in 
3iK.  XXV.  2  (and  parallel  passages), 
Ezra  viii.  25,  and  here,  must  mean 
simply  an  offering,  i.e.,  as  Sept. 
understands  it,  something  taken 
away  (comp.  use  of  verb  in  Ivii. 
14,  Ezek.  xxi.  31,  Dan.  viii.  ji) 
from  a  larger  mass,  and  set  apart  for 
God. 

'^'  An  indignant  double  question 

(as?/.  28). Can  ye  not  hear?] 

He  means  an  inner  hearing,  the 
'hearing  heart,'  of  which  Solomon 

speaks  (i    Kings   iii.  9). Prom 

the    beginning:    ■    ■    .    from    the 


foundations  of  the  earth]   In  the 

beginning  'He  founded  it  upon 
the  seas,  and  established  it  upon 
the  floods'  (Ps.  xxiv.  2),  and  ever 
since  '  day  unto  day  keeps  pouring 
out  speech,  and  night  unto  night 
declaring  knowledge'  (Ps.  xix.  2). 
'  For  from  the  creation  of  the 
world  His  invisible  (attributes)  are 
perceived,  being  understood  by 
means  of  His  works'  (Roin.  i.  20). 
Alt.  rend,  (see  note  '')  injures 
the  parallelism,  and  is  rather  less 
natural,  as  it  requires  us  to  take 
'  foundations '  = '  origin,'  or  else  me- 
taphorically =  '  the  will  and  word  of 
God.' 

*'-  The  participial  clauses  are  to 
be  taken  as  admiring  exclama- 
tions, out  of  logical  connection.  No 
subject  and  no  verb  are  necessary. 
There  can  be  but  One  of  whom 
these  predicates  are  true,  and  the 
thought  of  Him  who  maketh  and 
preserveth  all  things  fills  the  pro- 
phet's mind. The  circle  of  the 

earth]  i.e.,  overarching  the  earlli, 

Job  xxii.    14,   Prov.  viii.  27. As 

locusts]  '  There  we  saw  the  giants 
.  .  .  and  we  were  in  our  own  eyes 

as    locusts'   (Num.    xiii.     33). 

Stretched  out  the  heavens]  A 
characteristic  phrase  of  11.  Isaiah 
(see  also  xlii.  5,  xliv.  24,  xlv.  12,  li. 
13),  found  in  Job  (ix.  8),  Zechariah 
(xii.  l),  and  one  of  the  later  Psahns 
(Ps.  civ.  2).  A  presumption,  wiiich 
however  derives  its  main  force  from 
other  corroborating  circumstances, 


CHAP.  XL.] 


ISAIAH. 


251 


as  fine  cloth,  and  spread  them  out  as  a  habitable  tent.  ^^  He 
who  bringeth  men  of  weight  to  nothing,  who  maketh  the 
judges  of  the  earth  as  Chaos  :  -'*  ('  yea,  they  were  never  planted; 
yea,  they  were  never  sown  ;  yea,  their  stock  never  took  root 
in  the  earth  :  and  moreover'  he  bloweth  upon  them  and  they 
dry  up,  and  like  stubble  a  tempest  carrieth  them  away.)  "  To 
whom  then  will  ye  liken  me,  that  I  may  be  equal  to  him  ? 
saith  the  Holy  One.  -*'  Lift  up  your  eyes  on  high,  and  see. 
Who  hath  created  these  ?     He  who  brinreth  out  their  host  in 


*  Scarcely  .   .  .  scarcely  .   .   .  scarcely  .   . 
Naeg.  (in  his  note,  but  not  in  his  translation). 

arises  that  these  books,  or  parts  of 
books,  are  not  so  widely  separated 

in  time  as   some    suppose. ii.s 

jfina  clotli  .  .  .  tent]  Natural  com- 
parisons to  the  childhke  Semitic 
nations.  A  Psalmist  uses  the  letter 
(Ps.  xix.  4)  ;  comp.  Hinunelszelt. 
For  the  Babylonian  view,  see  Le- 
normant,  Zcz  J/c^^/>,  p.  142.  Obs., 
doq  ^  '  fine  cloth' ;  daq  =  'fine  dust ' 

*'*•  -^  A  picture  of  the  revolutions 
at  all  times  common  in  the  East, 
with  a  side-reference  to  the  fall  of 
Babylon.  Parallel  passage,  Job  xii. 
17-21. 

*^  Yea,  they  were  never 
planted]  To  a  common  eye  Nine- 
veh and  Babylon  seemed  planted 
for  eternity,  firmly  rooted  in  the 
soil,  but  to  the  prophets,  regarding 
them  from  the  point  of  view  of  the 
future,  they  seemed  as  though  they 
had  never  been.  '  If  He  destroy 
him  from  his  place,'  says  Bildad, 
'  it  will  deny  him,  (saying,)  I  have 
never  seen  thee  '  (Job  viii.  18).  So 
Ibn  Ezra,  Luzzatto,  Kay.  The  dif- 
ficulty, on  this  theory  of  the  mean- 
ing, is  in  connecting  the  first  half 
of  the  verse  with  the  second.  The 
truth  perhaps  is  that  tJier'c  is  no 
logical  connection.  The  prophet 
first  exclaims.  They  never  can 
have  been  really  planted  ;  then — 
another  form  of  expressing  the 
same  thought,  They  were  planted 
indeed,  but  He  blew  upon  them, 
and  all  was  over.  According  to 
the  first  view,  their  story  was  a 
comedy  ;  according  10  the  second, 


when  ;  Vitr.,  Ges.,  Hitz.,   E\v.,  Del., 


a  tragic  reality. — The  common 
rend,  is  rather  a  paraphrase,  and 
obliges  us  to  deviate  unwarrantably 
from  the  letter  of  the  original. 
'  They  were  not  planted '  is  a 
negative  statement  ;  '  they  were 
scarcely  planted '  involves  the  po- 
sitive affirmation  that  they  were 
(though  only  just)  planted. 

-'"  'The  Holy  One]  The  Hebr. 
qddosh  is  like  a  proper  name,  being 
without  the  article,  and  without 
the  defining  words  'of  Israel,' 
which  we  always  find  elsewhere, 
except  Ivii.  15,  Job  vi.  10,  Hab.  iii. 
3,  Ps.  xxii.  3  (4).  Comp.  the  use  of 
q^loshnn.,  without  the  article,  as  an 
equivalent  of  Yahveh,  Prov.  ix.  10, 
XXX.  3,  Hos.  xii.  I. 

^^  A  third  time  the  prophet  takes, 
up  the  theme  of  the  uniqueness  of 

Jehovah. "Who   hath  created] 

Here  we  have  the  first  occurrence 
of  the  verb  bard  '  to  create  '  : — it  is 
found  in  II.  Isaiah  no  less  than 
twenty  times  (once  in  I.  Isaiah,  viz., 
iv.  5,  and  once  in  Amos  iv.  13), 
another  proof  of  the  'wide  range 
of  thought'  in  this   prophecy  (see 

on    V.    15). These]    i.e.,    these 

(  =  yonder)    heavens. He    who 

brirgeth  owt  their  host]  This  is 
not  the  answer  to  the  foregoing 
question,  which  in  fact,  to  the 
prophet,  answers  itself  The  par- 
ticiple is  to  be  explained  like  those 
in  vv.  22,  23.  '  Bringeth  out,'  i.e., 
into  the  field ;  it  is  a  military  term,, 
comp.  2  Sam.  v.  2,  xi.  i  (Hitz.). 
The  'host'  are  the  stars,  which  are 
described  as  called  over,  like  sol- 


252 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  XL. 


[their  full]  number,  (he  calleth  them   all  by   name)  through 

abounding  might   and  being   firm  of  strength  ;    not    one    is 

missing. 

"^"^  Why  sayest  thou,  O  Jacob,  and  speakest,  O  Israel,  My 

way  is  hidden  from  Jehovah,  and  my  right  hath  been  let  slip 

by  my  God  ^     ^*  Hast  thou   not  perceived  .-'    hast   thou  not 

heard  .-*  An  everlasting  God  is  Jehovah,  creator  of  the  ends  of 

the  earth  ;  he  fainteth  not,  neither  is  he  weary  ;  there  is  no 

searching  of  his  understanding  ;  ^  who  giveth  to  the  weary 

Jehovah.  The  idea  of  the  Divine 
everlastingness  is  one  of  the  pri- 
mary notes  of  this  prophecy. — — 
The  ends  of  the  earth]  i.e.,  the 
whole  earth  from  end  to  end. 
Babylonia,  then,  the  seat  of  the 
exile  of  the  Jews,  is  not  beyond 
Jehovah's  empire,  as  if  he  were 
only    '  the    god    of    the    hills '    of 

Palestine.  He    fainteth    not] 

As  some  of  the  Jews  seem  to  have 
imagined  in  their  naive,  unspiritual 
view  of  God.  Sept.  renders  'he 
will  not  hunger,'  and  in  fact  the 
word  sometimes  means  faintness 
from  want  of  food,  e.g.,  Judg.  viii. 
15.  The  Jews  may  have  thought 
that  their  God  missed  the  fat  of 
their  sacrifices  (comp.  xliii.  24). 
The  Biblical  narratives  on  the 
other  hand  are  full  of  suggestive 
hints  that  Jehovah  has  no  human 
infirmities,  but  works  for  His  world 
both  by  day  and  by  night.  Thus 
each  creative  act  occupies  the  whole 
of  the  twenty-four  hours  (Gen.  i.  5, 
&c.),  and  Jehovah  goes  before  His 
people  in  the  wilderness  night  and 
day  (Ex.  xiii.  21).     Comp.  i    Kings 

viii.  29,  Ps.  cxxi.  4. There  is  no 

searching-  .  .  •  ]  Consequently  he 
must  have  had  good  reason  for  de- 
laying the  redemption  of  his  people. 
The  all-wisdom  of  God  is  a  favourite 
idea  of  Job,  though  the  phrase  here 
used  only  occurs  in  Job  v.  9,  ix. 
10,  but  conip.  xxxiv.  24,  xxxvi.  26)  ; 
God's  'understanding'  is  spoken 
of  in  Job  xii.  13,  xxvi.  12.  What 
strange  contrasts  there  are  in  the 
religious  views  of  members  of  the 
same  nation  !  (see  last  note.) 

■-'•'  Comfort  for  the  Jews  in  their 
depressed    condition.      They  have 


diers  at  the  roll-call  ;  comp.  Job 
XXV.  3,  where  the  'bands'  spoken  of 
are  the  stars  (see  v.  5),  and  also  the 
imitation  in  Ps.  cxlvii.  4,  5  : — 

He  counteth  the  number  of  the  stars, 
falleth  them  all  by  (their)  names, 
Great   is   our    Lord,    and   abounding  in 

might, 
Of  his  understanding  there  is  no  number 

(i.e.  calculation). 

According  to  the  Bundehesh  (chap, 
v.),  the  stars  form  a  host  divided 
into  several  parts,  and  ranged 
under     leaders    (Spiegel,    Avesta^ 

vol.  iii.  p.  xxxi.). Byname]  i.e., 

by  their  names.  Dr.  Weir  cjuotes 
John  X.  3,  '  He  calleth  his  own  sheep 
by  name.'  The  prophet  speaks 
from  the  point  of  view  of  the  exiles, 
who  learned  that  the  constellations 
had  names  in  Babylon. 

■-■'  Here  the  piophet  turns  to 
the  despondent  yet  not  unbelieving 
kernel  of  the  nation.  Those  who 
form  it  complain  that  they  are 
utterly  forsaken  by  '  their  God '  (he 
is  still  their  God),  that  their  '  way  ' 
(the  irksome  condition  of  exile) 
is  hidden  from  his  view  (comp. 
Ixv.  16),  and  that  their  'right' 
(i.e.,  their  lost  independence)  passes 
unnoticed  by  him.  vSimilar  com- 
plaints betokening  a  weakness  of 
faith  in  God's  providence  occur 
in  xHx.  14,  Job  xxvii.  2. 

-®  The  prophet's  reply.  Note  the 
accumulation  of  Divine  titles --'so 
many  shields  against  despair ' 
(Hengstenberg). An  everlast- 
ing: Ood]  His  covenant  therefore 
is  irreversible.  The  prophet  had 
said  as  much  in  v.  8,  but  felt  that 
it  needed  to  be  enforced.  Perhaps, 
too,  he  alludes  to  the  meaning  of 


CHAP.  XIJ.] 


ISAIAH. 


25, 


force,  and  unto  the  powerless  maketh  strength  to  abound  : 
^"  and  should  the  youths  faint  and  be  weary,  and  should  the 
young  men  stumble,  ^'  yet  Jehovah's  waiting  ones  shall 
gather  fresh  force,  they  shall  ^  put  forth  ^  pinions  as  the 
eagles  ;  they  shall  run  and  not  be  weary,  they  shall  go  on 
and  not  faint. 

''  Lift  up  (their),  Ges.,  Del. 


only  to  '  wait  for  Jehovah,'  i.e.,  to 
believe  in  him,  to  become  younger 
and  stronger  than  ever. 

3(j,  31  yj^g  form  reminds  us  of  Ps. 

xxxiv.  10(11). They  shall  put 

forth  .  .  .  ]  'Thou  shalt  renew 
thy  youth   as  the  eagle,'  says  '  the 


oldest  commentator  on  this  pas- 
sage,' himself  a  psalmist  (Ps.  ciii. 
5).  It  is  an  allusion  to  the  popular 
belief  of  the  ancients  that  the  eagle 
moults  in  his  old  age,  and  renews 
his  feathers. 


CHAPTER    XIJ. 

Contents. — The  Nations  summoned  to  defend  their  idolatry  by  arf^u- 
ment  {ini.  1-4);  the  moral  effect  of  the  victories  of  Cyrus  upon  them 
described  {vt.  5-7) ;  a  contrast  between  Israel's  apparent  weakness  and 
real  strength  in  Jehovah  {vv.  8-20) ;  the  claim  to  foreknowledge  of  the 
idol-gods  considered  and  dismissed. 

'  Come  silently  unto  me,  O  countries,  and  let  the  peoples 
gather  fresh  force  :  let  them  approach,  then  let  them  speak  ; 
together  let  us  draw  near  to  judgment.  '^  Who  hath  stirred 
up  from  the  sun-rising  (the  man)  whom  Righteousness  ^calleth 
to  follow   him":  (and)  giveth  up  before  him   peoples,  and 

»  Meeteth  at  every  step,  Ges. ,  Ew. ,  Del. 


'^^  Jehovah  is  the  speaker.  The 
tribunal  appealed  to  is  that  of  rea- 
son, comp.  V.  3  ;  the  question  to  be 
decided,  Who  has  the  best  claim  to 
be  God,  Jehovah  or  the  idol-gods  of 

the   Gentiles. Countries]     See 

on  xl.  15.^ Gather  fresh  force] 

Same  expression  in  xl.  31  of  be- 
lievers in  the  true  God.  Here  it 
sounds  rather  strangely.  Perhaps 
it  is  meant  ironically,  the  '  force ' 
of  the  idolaters  being  utter  weak- 
ness, as,  in  V.  21,  they  are  bidden 
to  produce  their  '  bulwarks.' 

-  The  first  argument  for  the  di- 
vinity of  Jehovah  :  the  victorious 
career  of  Cyrus. — :;-'Whoin  Righ- 
teousness calleth  to  follow  him] 


Cyrus  is,  to  the  prophet,  the  min- 
ister of  God's  righteousness,  and 
God's  righteousness  means  gene- 
rally in  the  Old  Testament  His 
fidelity  to  covenant  engagements,  to 
His  promises,  and  to  His  threaten- 
ings  (see  on  .xlii.  6).  This  close  re- 
lation between  Cyrus  and  Jehovah 
is  one  of  the  fundamental  ideas  of 
II.  Isaiah.  Again  and  again  we 
are  told  that  this  Persian  king  was 
called  '  in  righteousness '  (xlii.  6, 
xlv.  13).  It  is  only  a  slight  varia- 
tion to  say  (as  the  prophet  does 
here)  that  righteousness  called  Cy 
rus  to  follow  him.  So  too  in  Iviii 
8  we  read  that  Israel's  righteous 
ness  (i.e.,  the  deliverance  which  i 


254 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  xli. 


maketh  him  trample  upon  kings,  maketh  like  dust  ''their 
sword,  like  driven  stubble  ''their  bow  ?  ^  He  pursueth  them, 
passeth  on  in  safety  ;  the  road  with  his  feet  he  ''doth  not  "^ 
tread.  ■*  Who  hath  produced  and  carried  out  this  ?  He 
that  hath  called  forth  the  generations  from  the  beginning  ; 
I  Jehovah  am  the  first,  and  with  the  last  I  am  •'  He. 

h  So  Sept.,  Ew.— His;  TEXT. 
<=  So  Ew.,  Kay.— Was  not  wont  to,  (ies.,  Del. — (Passeth  on)  bv  a  road  which  one 
entereth  not  with  one's  feet  (or,  in  wh'ch  no  one  can  follow  him).  Weir. 

''  The  sanip,  Ges. 


ilie  fruit  of  God's  righteousness) 
shall  go  before  him  ;  comp.  also  Ps. 
Ixxxv.  13  (14).  If  any  further  jus- 
tification of  the  above  rendering 
be  necessary,  let  it  bexlv.  2,  where 
the  mention  of  Cyrus's  successes 
is  preceded  by  the  words,  '  I  (Je- 
hovah) will  go  before  thee.'  [I  see 
that  this  is  De  Dieu  s  explanation, 
Ani))iadversiones  in  V.  7".,  Lugd. 
Bat.  1648,  pp.  532-3.  No  other 
seems  to  me  reconcileable  with 
usage,  at  any  rate  so  far  as  Prafflo 
is  concerned,  which  always  implies 
following  ;  see,  e.g.,  Gen.  xxx.  30, 
I  Sam.  XXV.  42,  Hab.  iii.  5,  Job 
xviii.  II.  So  too,  I  see,  thinks  Dr. 
Weir,  though  he  prefers  rendering 
'  whom  he  (God)  calleth  in  righ- 
teousness to  follow  him ' ;  so  too 
Kriiger,   p.   41,  n.    I.   Comp.   Sept. 

Vulg.] Xiike    dust  their  swrord 

.  .  .  ]  i.e.,  incapable  of  even  a  pas- 
sive resistance,  comp.  Job  xli.  26- 
29  (A.  v.).  Alt.  read,  applies  the 
figures  to  the  rapidity  of  Cyrus's 
victories,  for  which  com.p.  Lenor- 
mant,  A/icicnt  History,  bk.  v.  ch. 
5.  It  is,  however,  not  a  very  na- 
tural rend,  of  the  traditional  read- 
ing, and  Ew.  rightly  follows  LXX. 
Dr.  Weir  too  inclines  to  this  view. 
Against  the  ancient  reference  (see 
Targ.)  of  this  passage  to  the  call  of 
Abraham  and  the  victoiy  in  Gen. 
xiv.,  Ibn  Ezra,  Vitr.,  and  Dr.  Kay 
have  each  well  argued. 

^  The  road  with  his  feet  .  .  .  ] 
Cyrus  (with  Righteousness  as  his 
guide,  ■z/.  2)  penetrates  safely  through 
districts  impervious  to  ordinary 
wayfarers — he  goes  where  there  is 
no  road  (comp.  xlv.  2  a).  The  As- 
syrian kings,  too.  were  accustomed 


to  boast  of  the  trackless  paths 
which  they  had  traversed  (see  on 
xxxvii.  24).  This  explanation  will 
suit  any  of  the  above  renderings. 
The  version  adopted  will  also  bear 
another  meaning,  viz.  that  Cyrus 
passes  along  the  road  so  quickly 
that  his  footsteps  are  as  it  were  in- 
visible. So  in  xlvi.  1 1  he  is  called 
an  eagle  or  vulture  ;  and  so  in 
Dan.  viii.  5  (referred  to  by  Ew.) 
the  typical  he-goat  '  touched  not 
the  ground.' — Both  the  alt.  rends, 
require  us  to  take  the  last  imperfect 
in  a  different  sense  from  the  pre- 
ceding ones,  and  are  therefore  less 
natural  than  that  in  the  text. — Dr. 
Weir's  alt.  rend,  is  also  given  by 
Hahn. 

^  "Who  hath  produced  .  .  .] 
Which  of  the  supposed  gods  can 
have  raised  up  this  mighty  con- 
cjueror  1  Surely  not  those  gods 
whose  worshippers  he  has  come  to 
overthrow  ?  Who,  but  he  who  sum- 
moned into  being  the  generations 
of  the  vanished  past  and  of  the 
vanishing  present — he  who  pre- 
ceded them  all,  and  who  will  be 
still  the  same  self-existent  One  in 
the  ages  to  come  .''  '  The  first  and 
with  the  last'  ;  repeated  with  but 
slight  difference  in  xlv.  6  (see  note), 
and  xlviii.  12.  It  is  an  unfolding  of 
the  sense  attached  by  the  prophets 
to  the  name  Jehovah  ;  comp.  Mai. 

iii.   6. Z  am  He]  'He'   is  here 

used  with  emphasis  almost  as  a 
title  of  God,  as  it  is  indeed  in  later 
Hebrew  (in  which  '  I  '  is  also  thus 
used), and  in  the  Kor^n.  The  state- 
ment, '  I  am  He,'  predicates  of 
Jehovah  that  he  alone  is  lord  and 
master  (cf  avrcn  in  Avrni  f(f)''\  and 


CHAP.  XLI.]  ISAIAH. 


'55 


^  The  countries  have  seen  it,  and  are  afraid  ;  the  ends  of 
the  earth  shudder  ;  they  draw  near  and  come  ;  *"  every  one 
helpeth  his  neighbour,  and  saith  to  his  fellow,  Be  strong. 
"  And  the  caster  strengtheneth  the  goldsmith  ;  he  that  smooth- 
eth  with  the  hammer  him  that  striketh  the  anvil  :  he  saith  of 
the  soldering,  It  is  good  ;  and  he  strengtheneth  it  with  nails 
that  it  may  not  totter.  *  But  thou,  O  Israel,  my  servant,  O 
Jacob  whom  I  have  chosen,  the  seed   of  Abraham  that  loved 

V7'.  8  13.  How  different  the  condition  of  Israel,  i.e.,  of  the  faithful 
kernel  of  the  nation,  the  spiritual  Israel  !  The  prophet  vainly  endea- 
vours to  express  the  intimacy  between  it  (or  rather  him)  and  Jehovah. 
Note  the  accumulation  of  titles.  First  of  all,  Israel  is  T/Zy  Servant. 
The  full  meaning  of  this  title  will  appear  later,  when  the  functions  of 
the  Servant  have  to  be  explained  (see  on  xlii.  i).  Here  the  emphasis 
is  laid  on  what  God  does  for  Israel,  not  on  what  Israel  does  for  God. 
Jehovah  speaks  in  the  character  of  a  friend  rather  than  of  a  master, 
a  friend  superior  in  power  as  in  dignity,  and  bound  to  his  humble 
associate  not  only  by  the  tie  of  compassion,  but  by  memories  of 
the  past.  For  Israel  is  not  only  a  '  servant,'  but  The  seed  of  Abraham 
that  Icved  me.  The  addition  of  this  title  ('  that  loved  me  ')  to  the 
name  of  Abraham  is  far  from  otiose.  It  conveys  a  reminder  to  the  Jews 
that  they  themselves  had  come  very  far  short  of  their  ideal,  but  at  the 
same  time  inspires  a  well-grounded  hope  that  Abraham's  '  love '  will 
call  forth  the  Divine  mercy  towards  his  seed.  The  choice  of  it  is  cha- 
racteristic of  a  prophetic  writer,  who  throughout  his  work  gives  such 
a  large  scope  to  the  affections.  Not  that  it  is  a  weak,  nerveless  feeling 
which  is  here  intended  ;  it  is  a  love  which   is  also   obedience — for  it  is 

alone  self-existent,  though  his  na-  described  in  7'.  6.     Comp.  also 

ture  be  incapable  of  verbal  defini-  .  The  nameless  He  whose  nod  is  Nature's 

tion.     It   occurs   again  in  xliii.    10,  birth.' 

13,  xlvi.  4,  xlviii.  12,  Deut.  xxxii.  39,  (Young's  A'i^ki  Thoughts,  Bk.  iv.) 

Ps.   cii.  28  (comp.  Rev.  i.  11,  &c.)  5-7  We    should  here  expect  the 

The  last  passage  aeserves  special  ^^5^1^  ^f  Jehovah's  command  in  v 

attention,  as  the  psalm  in  which  it  j.    gut  the  trial-scene  is  postponed 

occurs  IS  evidently  written  by  one  ^^  ^,_  ^^      ^^^^^  ^^j,^^^,^  ^^j^^^^  ^^^ 

who  deeply  loN'edjmd  studied   II.  ^f  ^^e  news  of  Cyrus's  expeditions. 

Isaiah.     It  runs  :  -pj^e  emergency  being  so  great,  the 

But  th-u  art  He,  and  thy  years  will  not  (Western  Asiatic)  nations  '  employ 

come  to  an  end.  their  carpenters  and  goldsmiths  to 

make  a  particularly  good  and  strong 

In  all  the  passages  in  which   this  set  of  gods'  (Sir  E.  Strachey).     A 

expression    occurs,    Sept.    renders  vivid  description  is  given  of  the  life 

tyo)  d\ii  (except  Ps.   I.e.  where  o-y  in  the  idol-manufactories  (comp.  xl. 

«e  o  avTO's  el),  which  at  once  sug-  19,  20).     The  last  feature  is  'to  see 

gests   that   the  eyw    eliA    in    John  that    this    excellent    idol   be    made 

xviii.    5    is   intended    in    the  same  fast,    or  it   might    perchance    fall' 

sense— a   view   confirmed   by    the  (Dr.    Kay) — a   fatal    omen   for    its 

supernatural    effect    of  the  sounds  worshippers. 


256  ISAIAII.  [CHAP.  XLI. 

mc  ;  ''  thou  whom  I  liavc  fetched  from  the  ends  of  the  earth, 
and  from  its  outlying  parts  have  called,  and  I  said  to  thee, 
Thou  art  my  servant,  I  have  chosen  and  not  rejected  thee  ; 
'°  Fear  not,  for  I  am  with  thee  ;  stare  not  (in  thy  dread),  for  I 
am  thy  God  ;  I  "  have  fixed  my  choice  upon  *"  thee,  I  also 
help  thee,  I  also  uphold  thee  with  my  right  hand  of  righteous- 
ness. "  Behold  !  ashamed  and  confounded  shall  be  all  those 
that  were  enraged  against  thee  ;  they  shall  become  as  nought 
and  shall  perish — the  men  of  thy  strife.  '-  Thou  shalt  seek 
them,  but  shalt  not  find  them  -the  men  of  thy  contention  ; 
they  shall  become  as  nought,  and  as  nothingness — the  men 
of  thy  warfare.  '^  For  I,  Jehovah  thy  God,  hold  fast  thy 
ri"-ht  hand  ;   I  who  say  unto  thee.  Fear  not,  /  do  help  thee. 

'the  fulfilling  of  the  law,'  and  gratitude, — 'because  he  first  loved  us.' 
These  qualifications  must  be  remembered  ;  they  doubtless  lay  in 
the  background  of  the  prophet's  thoughts.  Still  the  most  important 
idea  in  this  part  of  the  revelation  is  that  Abraham  was  not  merely 
passively  but  actively  Jehovah's  friend,  not  merely  his  beloved,  but 
(literally)  his  lover.  Vitringa,  who  would  unite  both  meanings,  and  Dr. 
Weir  who  takes  the  former  by  itself  (see  crit.  note),  both  destroy 
the  fine  proportions  of  the  idea. — The  title  here  given  to  Abraham 
seems  to  have  taken  a  firm  hold  of  the  prophet's  readers.  We  find  it 
again  in  2  Chron.  xx.  7,  comp.  James  li.  23,  and  it  is  still  in  use  among 
the  Arabs,  who  call  Abraham  khalil  ullah  '  friend  of  Allah,'  or  simply 

khalil. V/'liom  I  have  cbosen.]     '  For  the  gifts  and  calling  of  God 

are  irretractable '  (Rom.  xi.  29,  Alford).  The  Divine  election  of  Israel  is  a 
prominent  idea  in  II.  Isaiah  ;  see  especially  xliii.  10,  xliv.  i,  xlix.  7. 

<^  So  Del.,  Naeg. — Strengthen,  Ges.,  E\v.,  Kay. 

^  The  ends  of  the  earth  •  .  ■  ]  himself  in  Palestine  in  the  opening 
The  expression  is  vague.  Any  chapter  (xl.  9),  and  there  he  for  the 
rather  remote  country  might  be  so  present  remains, 
called  in  rhetorical  language.  In  '"  The  consequences  of  Israel's 
Thucydides,  the  king  of  the  Per-  election  in  Abraham.  On  his  part, 
sians  is  said  to  have  come  to  Greece  freedom  from  anxiety  ;  on  his  ene- 
'  from  the  ends  of  the  earth  '  (Thu-  mies'  part,  complete  destruction. 
cyd.  i.  69),  and  a  Spartan  speaks  of  — — Have  fixed  my  choice  upon 
Attica  as  a  distant  land  (Thucyd.  thee]  In  xxxv.  3  the  verb  means 
i.  80  refirred  to  by  Seinecke).  'strengthen,'  but  in  xliv.  14  the 
The  prophet  may  possibly  there-  sense  of  '  choose  '  seems  made  out, 
fore  intend  Kgypt — the  starting-  and  this  meaning  is  the  more  suit- 
point  of  the  national  history  of  able  one  here,  as  it  gives  the  ex- 
Israel  (comp.  Hos.  xi.  i).  But  the  hortation  to  fearlessness  a  more 
mention ofAbraham  rather  suggests  positive,  historical  basis. 
Mesopotamia  (see  also  on  xl.  28).  "  Th«  men  of  thy  strife]  i.e.. 
Throughout  II.  Isaiah  the  point  of  they  who  strove  with  thee.  The 
view  shifts  from  liabylon  to  Pales-  indignation  of  the  speaker  shows 
Itine.       The    prophet    had    planted  it:.elf  in  his  quadiuple  reference  to 


CHAP.  XLI.J  ISAIAH.  257 

vv.  14-16.  Not  only  shall  Israel  not  be  overcome  ;  it  shall  itself,  by 
God's  help,  overcome  its  foes.  A  fine  touch  is  lost  in  the  English  here. 
In  the  Hebrew  of  vv.  14,  \$a  Israel  is  addressed  in  the  feminine  gender, 
as  a  weak  and  suffering  woman.  It  was  not  so  in  the  preceding  verses, 
and  in  v.  i5<Jthe  prophet  significantly  reverts  to  the  masculine.  All 
pride  must  first  be  humbled,  and  then  the  prophecies  can  take  effect. 

'^  Fear  not,  thou  worm  Jacob,  ye  *"  petty  folk  ^  of  Israel  ;  / 
do  help  thee  (it  is  the  oracle  of  Jehovah),  and  thy  Goel  is  the 
Holy  One  of  Israel.  ^^  Behold  !  I  make  thee  a  threshing- 
roller,  sharp,  new,  double-edged  :  thou  shalt  thresh  moun- 
tains and  crush  them,  and  shalt  make  hills  as  chaff.  ^^  Thou 
shalt  winnow  them,  and  the  wind  shall  carry  them  away,  and 
the  tempest  shall  scatter  them  ;  but  thou  shalt  exult  in 
Jehovah,  and  in  Israel's  Holy  One  shalt  make  thy  boast. 

f  Few  men,  Sept.,  Vitr.,  Ges.,  Hitz.,  Del.     (See  crit.  note  on  iii.  25.) 

Israel's  enemies,  and  the  position  form  Israel.     In  the   interval    the 

of  the  synonymous  phrases  at  the  prediction  of  the  violently-obtained 

end  of  their  respective  clauses.  successes   of  the    Israelites    might 

1*  Thy  Goel]  i.e.,  charged  with  well  be  fulfilled.     History  tells  us 

the  duty  of  recovering  thy  rights  that  it  was  so,  in  a  slight  degree, 

and  avenging  thy  wrongs.     Comp.  in  the  Maccabean  war  (comp.  Ps! 

xlvii.  3,  4,  Jer.  1.  ■},?),  34-      See  Mr.  cxlix.  7-9)  ;  and  if  only  in  a  slight 

Teuton's  article,  '  The  Goel,'  Theo-  degree,  the  causes  are  too  obvious 

logical  Review,  Oct.  1878.  to  need  mention.     The  essence  of 

'^  This  weakest   of  the   nations  the   prediction,    however,    is    that 

shall  become  a  power  against  which  Israel  (i.e.,  the  people  of  the  Jews) 

nothing  can  stand.     The  figure  in  in   the   strength  of  Jehovah    shall 

which   this    is   expressed   belongs,  overcome  all  the  obstacles  to  the 

like   Ixiii.    1-6,    rather   to  the  pre-  fulfilment    of    his    destiny. a. 

evangelical  period  (taking  our  pro-  tliresblngr-roller  .  .  .  double- 
phecy  as  on  the  whole  the  earliest  edgred]  For  the  application  of  the 
Evangelium),  and  contrasts  at  first  figure  to  success  in  war,  see  Mic. 
sight  with  xlii.  2,  3.  But  the  truth  iv.  13.  In  the  plains  of  Hamath 
is,  that  while  both  the  contrasting  the  grain  is  still  threshed  by  re- 
passages  relate  to  the  Servant,  the  volving  sledges,  to  which  circular 
one  refers  to  him  as  Israel,  the  saws  are  attached  ;  ^  see  also  on 
other  as  the  branch  which  is  one  xxviii.  27. 
day  to  spring  out  of  and  to  trans- 

vv.  17-20.  A  picture  of  the  past  misery  of  the  Jews  and  their  blissful 
future  (see  on  xl.  11).  The  dreary  interval  of  the  Exile  seemed  to  pious 
Israelites  like  'dwelling  in  the  tents  of  Kedar.'  The  principle  of  life  viz 
God's  presence  consciously  experienced,  was  absent,  and  each  felt  with 
the  Psalmist  (who  speaks  not  in  his  own  name,  but  in  that  of  the  Jewish 
Church),  '  My  soul  thirsteth  for  thee,  my  flesh  longeth  for  thee,  in  a  dry 
and  weary  land,  without  water'  (Ps.  Ixiii.  i).^ 

1  Thomson,  The  Land  and  ike  Book,  p.  539. 

^  A  golden  psalm  !  That  David  is  not  its  author  seems  to  be  clear  from  v.  11,  not 
to  mention  other  reasons  depending  on  exegesis.  It  is  probably  contemporary  with 
Ps.  Ixi.,  which,  if  we  may  press  the  phrase    'from  the  end  of  the  earth  (I  cry  unto 

VOL.   I.  c 


258 


ISAIAir. 


[chap.  xli. 


'^  The  afflicted  and  the  poor,  seeking  water  and  there  is 
none,  and  their  tongue  is  dried  up  with  thirst !  I  Jehovah 
will  answer  them  ;  I  the  God  of  Israel  will  not  forsake  them, 
'^  I  will  open  rivers  on  bare  hills,  and  fountains  in  the  midst  of 
highland  plains  ;  I  will  make  the  wilderness  a  lake  of  water, 
and  dry  land  springs  of  water.  '^  I  will  give  in  the  wilderness 
the  cedar,  the  acacia,  and  the  myrtle,  and  the  oleaster  ;  I  will 
set  in  the  desert  the  pine,  the  plane,  and  the  sherbin-tree 
together :  ^^  that  they  may  at  once  see  and  acknowledge,  and 


'^  Tbe  afflicted    and    tbe  poor 

.  .  .  ]  It  is  an  exclamation  :  the 
prophet  presents  his  general  im- 
pression of  the  Exile  in  a  pictorial 
form.  With  all  the  compensations 
of  life  in  a  flourishing  commercial 
empire,  sojourn  in  a  heathen  land 
appeared  to  pious  Israelites  like 
a  wandering  in  the  desert.  The 
'afflicted  and  the  poor'  are  the 
whole  nation,  all  of  which,  whether 
consciously  or  unconsciously,  had 
suffered  both  from  its  spiritual  and 
political  privations.  Comp.  the  use 
of  TTTWX"'  in  Matt.  xi.  5. 

'8  Hill  and  dale  shall  be  full  of 
streams  :  a  figure  for  the  highest 
happiness  ;  comp.  xxxv.  7,  and  the 
imitation  of  our  passage  in  Ps.  cvii. 

35. Bare  hills]     Such  as  were 

found  in  the  desert  (Jer.  iv.  11,  xii. 
12),  but  rarely  in  Palestine  (see  on 

xiii.  2). Hlgrliland plains]  Such, 

for  instance,  as  Coelesyria,  or  the 
valley  (or,  highland  plain)  of  dry 
bones,  Ezek.  xxxvii.  Ccelesyria  is 
still  called  the  Beka'a  {^bitahy 
the  word  employed  here).     Comp. 

xl.  4- 

1^  The  eyes  of  the  Jews  shall 
be  gladdened  with  a  '  paradise  '  or 
park  of  stately  and  shady  trees. 
The  list  of  trees  is  eclectic  ;  they 
were  probably  not  quite  all  natives 

of  Palestine. The  myrtle]  The 

mention  of  this  tree  is  important 
with  regard  to  the  question  of  the 


authorship  of  these  chapters  ;  for, 
putting  aside  this  prophecy,  the 
myrtle  is  only  referred  to  in  books 
certainly  written  after  the  Captivity 
(Neh.  viii.  i5,Zech.  i.8, 10,  1 1,  comp. 
the  proper  name  Hadassah,  Esth.  ii. 
7).  According  to  Gesenius,  hadas  = 
the  myrtle,  in  the  Arabic  dialect 
of  Yemen.  '  Was  it  imported  into 
Palestine  from  Arabia,  and  when .'' ' ' 

Plane-tree]     '  The  renown  of 

the  plane-tree  fills  the  whole  of 
antiquity.  .  .  What  can  be  more 
acceptaljle  in  the  arid,  rocky  laby- 
rinths of  southern  sun-lands,  or 
tune  the  mind  better  to  devotion 
and  admiration, than  the  tree  which, 
with  its  glorious,  bright  foliage  on  a 
green-grey  stem,  overshadows  mur- 
muring springs  and  brooks,'  &c. 
&c.'^  But  the  plane  is  not  indige- 
nous in  the  countries  of  Semitic 
races.  Its  home  is  the  mountainous 
region  of  the  farther  Asiatic  steppes.' 
Sherbin]  So  in  the  Arabic  ver- 
sion of  Saadia  (Farq.  s/iurviin  ; 
Pesh.  shuruiti).  The  tree  is  a 
small  kind  of  cypress  resembling 
the  cedar  {oxycedrus),  and  was 
known  to  the  Assyrians  as  ///;'- 
fnan*  which  is  mentioned  with  the 
irif!  (cedar)  as  a  common  tree  on 
Lebanon. 

^°  The  object  of  all  these  won- 
ders. Delivered  out  of  such  fearful 
misery,  and  introduced  into  such 
paradisal  bliss,  the  Jews  cannot  but 


thee) '  in  v.  2,  mHSt  have  been  written  in  a  distant  land,  such  as  Babylonia  (comp. 
notes  on  xl.  28,  xli.  9). 

I  See  Dr.  Perowne,  art.  '  Zcchariah,'  Smith's  Bible  Dictionary. 

=*  Hc'hn,  Kulturpflanzen  utid  llattsthiere,  p.  248. 

3  Ibid.  p.  252. 

♦  Esar-haddon  used  wood  of  a-bi-me,  irhii,  and  sur-jiian  from  Sirion  and  Lebanon 
in  building  his  palace  (see  the  text  in  Budge's  Esar-haddon,  pp.  78-9). 


CHAP.  XLI.] 


ISAIAH. 


259 


consider  and  understand,  that  Jehovah's  hand  hath  performed 
this,  and  Israel's  Holy  One  hath  created  it. 

^'  Bring  forward  your  cause,  saith  Jehovah  ;  produce  your 
bulwarks,  saith  the  King  of  Jacob.  ^^  Let  them  produce  (them), 
and  announce  unto  us  what  shall  happen  :  the  former  things, 


repose  a  lasting  and  exclusive  faith 
in  Jehovah. 

*'  The  prophet  returns  to  the 
judgment-scene  so  suggestively 
sketched  in  vv.  1-4.  Jehovah  is 
the  speaker  ;  he  addresses,  not 
this  time  the  idolaters,  who  are  too 
frightened  to  speak,  but  the  idol- 
gods  themselves.  The  scene  re- 
minds us  of  Elijah's  challenge  to 
the  priests  of  Baal  (i   Kings  xviii. 

21,    Naeg.). Your     bulwarks] 

i.e.,  your  arguments.  The  verbal 
stem  is  used  in  the  Mishna  of  legal 
disputes  ;  Job,  too,  uses  a  similar 
phrase  of  the  special  pleading  of 
his  friends.  '  Your  intrenchments 
are  intrenchments  of  clay,'  Job  xiii. 

12. The  King-  of  Jacob]      In 

opposition  to  the  '  Kings '  or  patron- 
gods  of  the  heathen. 

*'-  The  subject  on  which  the  idol- 
gods  are  to  be  heard  is  their  posses- 
sion of  supernatural  knowledge  of 
the  future.  Si  sit  dijnnatio,  dii 
stifit  (Cicero).  Jehovah  openly 
identifies  himself  with  his  wor- 
shippers— the  King  with  his  people ; 
hence,  Ziet  them  .  .  .  announce 
unto  us  (so  xliii.  9)  what  shall 
happen.  This  expression,  '  an- 
nounce '  (i.e.,  predict),  seems  to  me 
to  determine  the  sense  of  the  next 
phrase,  which  has  been  much  dis- 
puted. The  former  tbingrs  .  .  . 
do  ye  announce,  can  only  mean, 
Predict,  if  ye  can,  the  things  which 
are  to  take  place  before  certain 
other  events  ('the  things  that  are 
to  come  hereafter,'  v.  23),  in  other 
words,  the  near  as  opposed  to  the 
distant  future  (so  Vitr.,  Stier,  Hahn, 
Del.).  The  idol-gods  are  summoned 
to  do  this  accurately  and  precisely  ; 
they  are  to  state  what  they  (the 
fon-ner  things)  are  ;  in  order  that, 
when  the  time  comes,  those  who 
are  interested  in  them  may  observe 
whether  they  have  turned  out  false 
or   true    (take     notice    of    their 


Issue). — The  difficulties  of  exposi- 
tors have  been  mainly  caused  by 
the  different  senses  in  which  the 
phrase  '  former  things '  is  used  in 
this  prophecy.  In  xliii.  9  it  means 
events  which  have  been  predicted  w 
in  former  times.  In  xlii.  9  (with 
the  article),  xliii.  18,  xlviii.  3,  it 
means  former  events,  with  an  ex-  ■ 
pressed  contrast,  in  the  first  two 
passages,  to  a  new  series  of  events, 
just  coming  into  the  foreground. 
Ewald  adopts  the  first  of  these 
senses.  *  The  heathen,  together 
with  their  gods,  are  called  upon,' 
he  says,  ' .  .  .  to  declare  that 
which  they  had  in  former  times 
prophesied  .  .  .  and  which  is  now 
being  fulfilled.'  (So  Hengstenberg, 
Hitzig,  Henderson, Alexander.)  But 
the  article,  which  is  expressed  in  the 
Hebrew,  i  b  against  this  view,  and 
so,  it  seems  to  me,  is  the  context. 
Besides,  how  easy  was  it  to  answer 
such  a  call  plausibly  by  reference  to 
the  Babylonian  divination  !  Calvin 
prefers  the  second  sense.  '  Sic 
ergo  argumentatur  :  Si  qus  colitis 
idola,  sunt  dii,  oportet  ipsos  scire 
et  posse  omnia.  Atqui  nihil  pos- 
sunt,  neque  in  prosperis,  neque  in 
adversis  :  neque  prcsferita^  neque 
fiitura  tenetit :  ergo  non  sunt  dii.' 
So  too  Naeg.  '  The  prophet  pre- 
supposes that  the  future  can  be 
predicted  directly  and  indirectly; 
as,  for  instance,  it  is  all  one  whether 
I  say.  The  fruits  of  this  tree  will  be 
apples,  or,  These  roots  are  those 
of  an  apple-tree.'  On  this  theory, 
Jehovah  gives  a  choice  to  the  idol- 
gods,  either  to  declare  the  roots  of 
the  future  in  the  past,  or  to  give  a 
direct  prediction  of  the  future.  God 
alone  can  reveal  the  secrets  of  the 
past.  If  the  idols  can  do  this,  they 
are  Jehovah's  equals,  and  may  be 
trusted  for  their  ability  to  predict 
the  future.  This  is  very  subtle,  but 
hardly  consistent  with  the  context. 

S  2 


26o 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  xli. 


what  they  are,  do  ye  announce,  that  we  may  reflect  on  them 
and  take  notice  of  their  issue  ;  or  else  the  future  things  do 
ye  declare  unto  us.  ^^  Announce  ye  the  things  that  are  to 
come  hereafter,  that  we  may  take  notice  that  ye  are  gods  ; 
yea,  do  good  and  do  evil,  that  we  may  at  once  stare  (in 
amazement)  and  behold  it.  ^*  Behold  !  ye  are  of  nought,  and 
your  doing  is  of  nothingness  :  an  abomination  is  he  who 
chooseth  you. 

2^  I  have  stirred  up  one  from  the  north,  and  he  is  come  ; 

^^  Yea,  do    gpood   and   do   evil] 

(The  Hebrew  writer  puts  the  two 
alternatives  in  juxtaposition — '  do 
good,  and  (if  ye  will)  do  evil' — 
where  we  should  rather  disjoin 
them.)  The  Divine  speaker  waives 
the  question  of  foreknowledge,  and 
makes  the  least  requirement  pos- 
sible, '  Prove  that  you  are  alive, 
by  performing  some  act  whether 
good  (for  your  friends)  or  bad  (for 
your  foes).' — Or,  we  may  empty 
the  terms  'good'  and  'evil'  of  their 
moral  meaning,  and  suppose  them 
to  be  used  proverbially,  '  to  express 
the  one  simple  notion  of  anytlmig^ 
exactly  as  the  two  words  "right 
and  left "  merely  conveyed  the  idea 
of  anywhere  (Num.  xx.  17,  xxii.  26, 
Deut.  ii.  27,  Jon.  iv.  11).'^  In  favour 
of  this  view,  see  Gen.  xxxi.  24, 
Num.  xxiv.  13  (in  which  passages, 
however,  the  form  of  expression  is 
not  the  same  ^  as  here),  and  espe- 
cially Lev.  V.  4. — Ewald's  explana- 
tion, '  Prophesy  something,  good  or 
bad,'  i.e.  (as  Dr.  Weir,  who  holds 
the  same  view,  puts  it)  '  the  good 
or  evil  that  is  to  be  evolved  in 
providence,'  does  not  seem  to  me 
to  suit  the  context,  which  requires 
a  more  distinct  abatement  in  the 
Divine  demands. 

*■*  But  judgment  goes  against  the 

idol-gods  by  default.  They  can  show 

no  prophecies,  cannot  so  much  as 

speak;  they  are  'dumb  not-gods' 

-  (Hab.  ii.  18). 

25-29  ^  summary  of  the  evidence 


in  favour  of  Jehovah's  claims.  It 
was  he  who  raised  up  Cyrus  ;  none 
of  the  idols  predicted  Cyrus's 
coming  ;  it  is  he  too  who  gives  to 
Zion  the  first  tidings  of  the  deliver- 
ance   of    her    sons. From    the 

north  .  .  .  ]  Alluding  to  the  union 
under  Cyrus  of  Media  and  Persia, 
the  former  of  which  was  north- 
ward, the  latter  eastward  of  Baby- 
lonia.  One  -nrho  sball  pro- 
claim my  name]  Whichever  rend, 
we  adopt  of  this  passage,  it  is  evi- 
dently a  prediction  of  a  spiritual 
change  to  be  wrought  in  Cyrus  in 
consequence  of  his  wonderful  ca- 
reer. Light  is  thrown  upon  it  by 
a  later  prophecy,  xlv.  'i)-li  ^"d  by 
the  historical  statement  in  2  Chron. 
xxxvi.  23  (  =  Ezra  i.  2),  which  the 
most  sceptical  critic  will  at  least 
admit  as  an  early  interpretation  of 
the  prophecy  before  us.  It  hence 
appears  that  the  change  in  Cyrus, 
anticipated  with  such  profound  con- 
viction, was  his  conversion  to  the 
belief  that  Jehovah  was  the  author 
of  his  success,  the  only  true  God. 
Such  a  change  was  a  necessary 
link  in  the  chain  of  providential 
events  working  out  Jehovah's  pur- 
poses ;  for,  until  Cyrus  was  in  some 
sense  a  brother  of  the  Jews  in  faith, 
he  could  not  heartily  adopt  their 
national  interests.  What  the  pro- 
phet foretells  is,  not  a  sudden  and 
violent  conversion,  but  simply  that 
Cyrus  shall  become  conscious  of 
his  original  religious  affinity  to  the 


1  Kalisch,  Commentary  on  Leviticus,  note  on  Lev.  v.  4. 

*  Not,  that  is,  any  part  of  Hifil.  Del.  quotes  Zeph.  i.  12,  Jer.  x.  5,  where  the  verbs 
are  in  Hifil.  But,  as  Dr.  Weir  remarks,  '  Even  in  these  passages  there  is  no  reason  for 
departing  from  the  more  strict  meaning  of  the  words,  They  can  neither  bestow  bless- 
ings, nor  inflict  injuries." 


CHAP.  XLI.] 


ISAIAH. 


261 


from  the  rising  of  the  sun  one  who  ^  shall  proclaim «  my  name, 
and  he  shall  *'  trample  upon  high  officers  as  upon  mortar,  and 
as  the  potter  that  treadeth  clay.  ^''  Who  announced  it  from 
the  beginning,  that  we  might  know  it,  and  from  aforetime, 
that  we  might  say,  (He  is)  in  the  right  ?  Yea,  there  was  none 
that  announced  ;  yea,  there  was  none  that  declared  ;  yea, 
there  is  none  that  heard  your  words.     ^^  •  A  forerunner  unto 

e  SoGes. ,  Kay. — Calleth  upon,  Hitz.,  Del.,  Naeg. 

h  So  Targ.  (alternative),  Clericus,  Seeker,  Lo.,  Luz. ,  Kr. — Text.    Come. 

'  See  below,  and  also  crit.  note. 

Jews,  and  shall  act  upon  that  con- 
sciousness. We  need  only  assume 
in  the  author  a  very  elementary 
knowledge  of  the  religion  and 
policy  of  the  Persians,  such  as 
(i)  that  they  were  monotheists  (see 
on  xlv.  7),  and  (2)  that  they  went 
upon  their  conquering  march  (like 
the  Assyrians  in  ancient  and  the 
Mohammedans  in  modern  times) 
partly  as  religious  missionaries. 
It  was  quite  in  the  spirit  of  the 
evangelical  religion  of  both  Testa- 
ments to  maintain  that  this  mono- 
theistic worship  was  genuine,  how- 
ever unconscious,  worship  of  the 
True  God.  '  For,'  in  the  language 
of  a  later  prophet,  '  from  the  rising 
of  the  sun  even  unto  the  going 
down  thereof,  my  name  is  great 
among  the  nations,  and  z«  every 
place  incense  is  offered  iinio  my 
flame,  and  a  pure  oblation  :  for 
my  name  is  great  among  the 
nations,  saith  Jehovah  Sabioth  ; '  ^ 
and,  in  words  attributed  to  St.  Peter, 
'  In  every  natioti  he  that  feareth 
God  and  worketh  righteousness  is 
accepted  of  him.'-  (I  have  adopted 
the  rend.  '  proclaim,'  because  it  im- 
plies a  somewhat  less  complete 
recognition  of  the  True  God  than 
the  other  version — a  recognition,  in 
fact,  like  that  of  Nebuchadnezzar 
and  Darius  (according  to  Dan  iv. 
34-37,  vi.  25-27),  rather  than  of  a 
Jewish  proselyte,  though   this,  no 


doubt,  would  be  only  a  degree 
less  wonderful  than  the  actual  ad- 
mission of  a  Persian  king  into  the 
Jewish  Church. 

*^  Kig-h  officers]  The  rend, 
'viceroys'  (ist  ed.)  is  too  definite, 
and  does  not  suit  all  the  passages 
in  which  the  word  occurs  (see  Ezra 
i.x.  2,  Neh.  ii.  16  &c.).  The  word 
s'agatt  is  of  great  interest,  as  it  can 
only  have  come  into  Hebrew  from 
Babylonia.  It  is  the  Hebraised 
form  of  a  Babylonian  title  for  a 
high  officer  (see  crit.  note  on  xxii. 
15).  Its  long  history  closes  in 
Dryden's  'Absalom  and  Achito- 
phel '  :— 

With  him  the  Sagan  of  Jerusalem, 
Of  hospitable  soul  and  noble  stem. 

-6  v/'ho  announced  it  .  .  .  ]  '  An- 
nounced '  =  predicted  (as  constantly 
in  II.  Isaiah).  The  speakers  are 
Jehovah  and  his  worshippers;  they 
place  theinselves  in  imagination  at 
the  time  of  the  fulfilment  of  the 
prediction,  when  this  question  will 

naturally    be    asked    (Naeg.). 

From  the  be^innin^]  i.e.,  with  re- 
ference to  the  period  culminating  in 
the  career  of  Cyrus. 

-^  A.  forerunner  unto  Zion  .  .  .] 
The  speaker  is  evidently  Jehov-ah. 
The  order  of  the  words  is  curiously 
irregular  ;  like  St.  Paul,  the  writer 
is  overwhelmed  by  the  grandeur  of 
his  message.^     Following  Luzzatto, 


1  Mai.  i.  II,  comp.  last  clause  oiv.  14. 

^  Acts  X.  35  ;  comp.  xvii.  23,  '  What  therefore  ye  ignorantly  worship,  that  declare 
I  unto  you.' 

3  Vitringa's  remark  is  worth  quoting  :  '  Languidior  et  minus  concitata  oratio  vide- 
retur,  si  illud,  Ecce,  ecce  ilia  !  integrse  sententice  esset  subjectuni.  Oratio  est  hominum 
qui  longum  tempus  exspectarunt  lucem  ct  ad  earn  anlielant,  ubi  prinium  aurorae  cre- 
pusculum  obiervant :  ecce,  aiunt,  ecce,  adcil  !' 


262 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  xli. 


V 


Zion,  (saying,)  Behold,  behold  them,  and  unto  Jerusalem  a 
bearer  of  good  tidings  I  give.'  ^^  But  though  I  look,  there  is 
no  one,  and  (though  I  seek)  among  these,  there  is  no  counsellor, 
that  I  may  ask  them,  and  they  may  give  an  answer.  '^^  Behold  ! 
they  are  all  vanity  ;  nothingness  are  their  works  ;  wind  and 
Chaos  are  their  molten  images. 


I  take  the  word  rendered  'fore- 
runner' (literally,  'first  one')  as 
parallel  to  and  synonymous  with 
'  a  bearer  of  good  tidings '  in  the 
second  clause  and  the  words,  '  Be- 
hold, behold  them,'  as  referring  to 
the  return  of  the  Jewish  exiles.  Per- 
haps the  best  commentary  on  the 
passage  is  lii.  7-12,  where  the  same 
'bearer  of  good  tidings'  is  intro- 
duced in  close  connection  with  the 
return  of  Jehovah  to  Zion  at  the 
head  of  his  people.  In  plain  prose 
the  prophet  would  have  written 
thus, '  I  give  unto  Zion  a  forerunner 
and  a  bearer  of  good  tidings,  saying 
Behold,  behold  thy  sons '  (comp. 
Ix.  4).  We  have  thus  both  a  trans- 
position and  an  omission  ;  and  a 
precisely  parallel  passage,  as  far  as 
idiom  goes,  occurs  in  Ps.  xci.  9, 
where  the  first  member  of  the  verse 
runs  thus,  '  Because  thou,  Jehovah 
is  my  refuge,'  and  the  second, 
'Hast  made  the  Most  High  thy 
habitation  ;'  so  that  we  have  to  trans- 
pose, in  thought,  the  verb  and  its 
object  from  the  second  clause  into 
the  first,  and  before 'Jehovah  is  my 
refuge,'  to  supply  '  saying.' '  For 
the  omission  of  the  latter  word, 
comp.  alsoxiv.  8,  i  Kings  i.  17,  &c. ; 
and  for  the  breaking  up  of  one 
clause  into  two  rhythmical  lines, 
see  crit.  note  on  iii.  12. — A  few  words 
as  to  the  other  commentators.  Ges. 
and  Del.  render  '(I)  first  (said) 
unto  Zion,  Behold,  behold  them 
(i.e.,  behold  the  promised  blessings), 
and  gave  unto  Jerusalem  a  Viearer 
(or,  bearers)  of  good  tidings.'  De 
Dieu,  preferably,  as  it  seems  to  me, 


supposes  a  transposition,  and  ren- 
ders, '  Primus  ego  dabo  Sioni  et 
Hierosolymis  hete  annunciantem, 
Ecce,  ecce  ilia  ; '  so  Vitringa  and 
(substantially)  Ewald.  Naeg.,  whose 
work  appeared  after  the  above  was 
written,  approaches  the  interpre- 
tation here  adopted,  grammatically 
at  least.  He  makes  'the  first' 
(ris/ion),  i.e.,  as  he  explains  it,  '  the 
beginner '.(of  Israel's  redemption), 
the  object  to  the  verb  in  the  second 
line,  but  refers  it  and  the  parallel 
phrase  '  bearer  of  good  tidings,'  to 
Cyrus.  '  Behold,  behold  them  ! ' 
becomes  the  exclamation  of  the 
prophet,  foreseeing  the  happy  con- 
sequences of  Cyrus's  mission.  He 
rightly  objects  to  Del.'s  view,  that 
Jehovah  was  not  merely  the  first 
but  the  only  source  of  prophecy, 
and  that  we  have  no  right  to  ex- 
plain 'first'  as  if  it  meant  alone. 
But  his  own  proposal  is  hardly  an 
improvement  as  regards  the  sense. 
The  context  is  entirely  taken  up 
with  the  subject  of  prophecy,  and 
how  can  Cyrus,  himself  Jehovah's 
'  Anointed  One,'  be  his  own  herald 
(m'd/tasse?-)  ? 

^*  Jehovah  once  more  looks 
round  to  see  if  any  of  the  idols 
profess  an  ability  to  prophesy,  but 
in  vain. Counsellor]  i.e.,  pro- 
phet, comp.  xiv.  26,  Num.  xxiv. 
14. 

■-'  With  a  final  word  of  scorn 
the  idolaters  are  dismissed  ;  their 
boasted  Palladia  are  but  wind  and 

Chaos'  (see  on  xl.  17). "Works] 

i.e.,  idols,  as  Ivii.  12  (comp.  i.  31). 
Ezek.  vi.  6. 


'  I  am  indebted  for  the  reference  to  a  supplementary  remark  on  Hupleld's  note  on 
Ps.  i.e.,  by  Dr.  Riehm,  Hupfelds  editor. 


CHAP.  XLII.] 


ISAIAH. 


26' 


CHAPTER  XLII. 

Contents. — The  prophet  first  describes  the  functions  of  the  Servant  of 
Jehovah  {vv.  1-7);  then,  after  two  verses  of  transition  {vv.  8,  9),  he  be- 
comes jubilant  at  the  liberation  of  the  Jews,  realized  by  faith  as  actual 
{vv.  10-17) ;  at  last,  he  returns  to  the  present,  and  details  the  obstacles 
to  the  Divine  manifestation  of  mercy  {vv.  18-25). 

'  Behold  !  my  servant,  whom  I  uphold,  mine  elect,  in  whom 
my  soul  is  well  pleased ;  I  have  put  my  spirit  upon  him,  he 


*  Behold!  my  servant]  '  Behold' 
invites  the  attention  of  the  world — 
both  of  the  Jews  and  of  the  Na- 
tions— to  a  new  revelation.  The 
Servant  of  Jehovah  was  first  men- 
tioned in  xli.  8-10,  but  so  cursorily 
as  only  to  heighten  our  curiosity. 
All  that  we  learn  from  that  passage 
is  that  the  people  of  Israel  is,  in 
virtue  of  the  call  of  Abraham,  Je- 
hovah's Servant,  and  (see  xli.  16) 
that  his  destiny  is  to  subdue  mighty 
nations,  and  to  make  his  boast  in 
Jehovah.  This  implies  that  Israel 
has  not  yet  gloried  in  his  God  as  he 
ought  to  have  done, — an  inference 
which  may  also  be  drawn  from  the 
statement  (xli.  9)  that  Jehovah  has 
not  (as  might  have  been  expected) 
rejected  Israel.  But  our  knowledge 
is  as  yet  very  vague  and  incom- 
plete. In  the  present  magnificently 
sketched  prophecy,  the  functions 
of  the  Servant  are  more  fully  de- 
scribed, though  the  seer  does  but 
propound  fresh  riddles  to  the  in- 
terpreter. How,  in  short,  can  the 
description  here  given  of  the  Ser- 
vant be  reconciled  with  the  address 
to  the  Servant  as  Israel  in  xli.  8.'' — 
Some  critics  cut  the  knot  by  sup- 
posing that  the  prophetic  writer 
hesitates  between  different  con- 
ceptions of  the  Servant.  Others, 
making  the  less  sublime  passages 
govern  the  more,  take  the  Servant 
to  be  throughout  a  collective.     But 


though  it  must  be  admitted  that 
'  Servant  of  Jehovah  '  in  Jeremiah 
(xxx.  10,  xlvi.  27,  28)  and  Ezekiel 
(xxxvii.  25)  is  merely  a  title  for  the 
Chosen  People,'  this  is  no  reason 
why  another  prophet  should  not 
have  given  the  phrase  a  deeper 
meaning.  In  the  sublimest  descrip- 
tions of  the  Servant  I  am  unable  to 
resist  the  impression  that  we  have 
a  presentiment  of  an  individual, 
and  venture  to  think  that  our  gene- 
ral view  of  '  the  Servant '  ought  to 
be  ruled  by  those  passages  in  which 
the  enthusiasm  of  the  author  is  at 
its  height.  'Servant  of  Jehovah'! 
in  these  passages  seems  about  equi- 
valent to  '  Son  of  Jehovah  '  in  Ps. 
ii.  7  ('  son  '  and  '  servant '  being  in 
fact  nearly  equivalent  in  the  Old 
Testament  -),  viz.  the  personal  in- 
strument of  Israel's  regeneration, 
or,  as  we  may  say  in  the  broader 
sense  of  the  word,  the  Messiah. 
This  theory  seems  to  be  confirmed 
by  certain  remarkable  phenomena 
of  the  Book  of  Psalms.  There,  as 
in  II.  Isaiah,  there  are  some  pas- 
sages which  emphasize  the  royal 
aspect  of  this  human  and  yet  (if  we 
do  justice  to  their  language)  super- 
human Person,  and  others  which 
exhibit  Him  more  particularly,  as 
it  is  at  any  rate  allowable  to  read 
them,  in  His  prophetic  (see  Ps. 
xxii.),  and  (see  Ps.  xc.)  in  His 
priestly   aspect.       A    comparative 


1  One  of  the  later  psalmists  adopts  the  phrase— 'a  heritage  unto  Israel  his  servant' 
(Ps.  cxxxvi.  22). 

2  Comp.  2  Kings  xvi.  7  ('  I  am  thy  servant  and  thy  son  '),  Mai.  iii.  17  ('  his  own 
son  that  serveth  him'),  Gal.  iv.  i  ('differeth  nothing  from  a  bond-servant ').  Ewald 
compares  the  relation  of  patron  and  chent. 


264 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  xlii. 


shall  cause  the  law  to  go  forth  to  the  nations.     ^  He  shall  not 
cry  nor  clamour,  nor  cause  his  voice  to  be  heard  in  the  street ; 


study  of  these  two  books  has  led 
me  to  substantially  the  same  view 
as  Oehler  and  Delitzsch,  and  which 
has  been  thus  metaphorically  de- 
scribed by  the  latter  :  '  The  concep- 
tion of  the  Servant  of  Jehovah  is,  as 
it  were,  a  pyramid,  of  which  the  base 
is  the  people  of  Israel  as  a  whole, 
the  central  part  Israel  "according 
to  the  Spirit,"  and  the  summit  the 
person  of  the  mediator  of  salva- 
tion who  arises  out  of  Israel.'  ^  To 
theological  system,  indeed,  the 
prophet  was  entirely  a  stranger, 
but  he  had  formed  a  conception  of 
a  future  '  Israelite  indeed,'  so  in- 
creasingly real  and  vivid  as  to  have 
suggested  that  some  features  of  the 
description  (chap,  liii.)  were  bor- 
rowed from  the  life  of  an  eminent 
prophet.^  But  we  cannot  consist- 
ently stop  short  there.  If  there  are 
individualising  features  in  chap, 
liii.,  which  cannot  be  explained 
from  the  personification  of  the 
Jewish  people,  this  is  hardly  less 
true  of  the  passage  in  chap,  xlii., 
on  which  we  are  now  entering. — 
There  are  two  phraseological  points 
of  contact  between  this  description 
and  the  passage  in  chap.  xli. : '  mine 
elect  (or,  chosen),'  comp.  '  I  have 
chosen  thee '  (xli.  8) ;  '  whom  I  up- 
hold,' comp.  '  yea,  I  uphold  thee  ' 
(xli.    10).     (See  Essay  IV.,  vol.  ii.) 

IVXlne  elect]  A  favourite  word 

in  II.  Isaiah  (occurring  six  times)  ; 
found  also  in  Ps.  Ixxxix.  3  and 
(including  plurals)  in  Ps.  cv.  6, 
43,  cvi.  5,  23.  Ps.  Ixxxix.  a  semi- 
Messianic  psalm,  may  have  been 
written  before  the  Exile  ;  Ps.  cv., 
cvi.  are  generally  admitted  to  be 
post-Exile   works. X  have  put 


my  spirit .  .  .  ]  In  a  special  sense, 
for  a  high  and  arduous  office  (comp. 
onlxi.  l). Cause  .  . .  to  g^o  fortb] 

i.e.  (i)  from  its  Divine  source  (li.4) ; 
or  (2)  from  Jerusalem  (ii.  3) ;  or  (3) 
from  its  obscurity  (Ps.  xxxvii.  6). 
(i)  and  (3)  may  be  combined  ;  (2) 
belongs  most  naturally  to  the  theory 
that  '  the  Servant '  =  the  people  of 

Israel. Tbe^tew]  i.e.,  'the  law 

of  God,  the  rel^on  of  Jehovah' 
(Ges.)  ;  '  the  true  religion  regarded 
from  its  practical  side,  .  .  .  religion^ 
as  an  ordering  of  life,  vofMos'  (Del.). 
All  religions  claim  to  be  '  laws ' ; 
the  distinction  of  Biblical  religion 
is  that  it  dwells  with  increasing 
earnestness  on  the  moral  as  opposed 
to  the  merely  ritual  law.  The  same/ 
word  i^mishpdt)  is  used  of  mere  re- 
ligious observances,  like  Oprja-Kela, 
in  2  Kings  xvii.  26-28  ;  contrast  its 
spiritual  .use  here  and  in  Jer.  v.  4, 
viii.  7.  The  corresponding  word  in 
Arabic  (din)  means  :  i.  obedience, 
2.  a  religion,  3.  a  statute  or  ordi- 
nance, 4.  a  system  of  usages,  rites, 
and  ceremonies  (Lane,  s.  v.  din). 
In  the  Kordn  (Sur.  ii.  126)  and 
elsewhere  dtn  Ibrahim  means  the 
pre -Mohammedan  monotheism. 
To  the  nations]  The  promi- 
nence given  to  the  Servant's  activity 
among  the  heathen  is  explained  by 
the  context.  Israel's  turn  comes 
later  (but  see  v.  7). 

^  He  shall  not  cry]  His  methods 
shall  be  purely  inward  and  spiritual, 
contrasting:  i,  with  the  ostentatious 
ritual  of  heathen  prophets  ( I  Kings 
xviii.  28)  ;  2,  with  the  imperious 
disciplinary  manner  even  of  pro- 
phets like  Elijah  (comp.  the  use  of 
'to  call'  for  'to  prophesy,'  xl.  2)  ; 


1  Delitzsch,  Isaiah  (introduction  to  xlii.  i-xliii.  13) ;  comp.  G.  F.  Oehler,  Old 
Testa7?te?it  Theology,  ii.  399,  400.  Similarly  the  Rabbinist,  Dr.  Schiller,  in  his 
Exposition  (1882),  p.  19. 

*  Yet  Sept.  boldly  translates,  if  the  word  may  be  used  here,  'Jacob,  my  servant,  .  .  . 
Israel,  mine  elect'  {v.  1).  Rashi  interprets  vv.  1-5  of  Israel,  vv.  6,  7  of  the  prophet 
Isaiah.  Ibn  Ezra  goes  further,  and  explains  the  whole  section  of  'the  prophet." 
Saadva  (according  to  Ibn  Ezra)  still  more  boldly  interprets  it  of  Cyrus. 

3  Thus  Del.  as  well  as  the  writer  falls  under  the  perfectly  gratuitous  censure 
of  a  favourite  English  critic  (M.  Arnold,  The  Great  Prophecy  of  Israel's  Restoration, 
p.  xxvii). 


CHAP.  XLII.] 


ISAIAH. 


265 


^  a  *  crushed  reed  he  shall  not  break,  and  a  dimly  burning 
wick  he  shall  not  quench  ;  ^  truthfully  shall  he  cause  the  law 
to  go  forth.  '* "  He  shall  not  burn  dimly,  neither  shall  his 
spirit  be  crushed,*^  till  he  shall  have  set  th-e  law  in  the  earth, 
and  for  his  teaching  the  countries  wait. 

^  Thus  saith  the  God,  even  Jehovah,  he  that  created  the 


"  Lit.  cracked. 


b  Unto  steadfastness,  Kriiger  (unto  truth,  Sept.). 
Lit.  he  shall  not  be  dim  nor  be  cracked. 


3,  with  the  destructive  agency  (not 
without  a  Divine  sanction)  of  con- 
querors like  Cyrus.  It  is  implied 
that  he  might,  if  he  would,  enforce 
obedience  ;  but  that,  in  his  Divine 
humility  {'■andvah,  Ps.  xviii.  36), 
he  waives  his  right,  and  limits 
himself  to  persuasion. — Dr.  Weir 
wrongly  regards  v.  2  as  an  anticipa- 
tion of  chap.  liii.  'The  verse  seems 
to  express  patient  submission :  ^a^ak 
necessarily  implies  distress.  The 
Servant  makes  no  public  demon- 
strations of  anguish  :  in  silence  he 
waits  upon  God.'  This  is  against 
the  context,  which  implies  that 
there  is  no  serious  impediment  to 
his  mission  ;  moreover,  the  use 
of  gd^ak  in  some  of  the  verbal 
fonns  is  wider  than  Dr.  Weir  ad- 
mits.^ 

^  His  gentle  regard  for  the  germs 
of  spiritual  life  ;  Ivii.    1 5  ■  is  partly 

parallel. A  crusbed  reed]  This 

is  elsewhere  a  figure  for  outward 
weakness  (xxxvi.  6,  comp.  Iviii.  6 
Heb.) ;  here,  however,  the  context 
seems  to  show  that  spiritual  in- 
firmity is  intended,  distresses  in  the 
physical  sphere  being  reserved  for 
V.  7. — Obs.  I.  The  prophetic  Spirit 
intimates  a  difference  in  the  spiritual 
capacities  of  races.  Some  (e.g.  the 
Persians)  only  need  to  be  '  in- 
structed in  the  way  of  God  more 
perfectly  ; '  others,  though  not  be- 
yond hope  (every  creature  being 
rooted  in  the  Creator),  are  morally 
as  powerless  as  a  '  cracked  reed.' 
2.  It  is  to  the  latter  class,  whether 
within  or  without  Israel,  that  the 
Servant  of  Jehovah  is  chiefly  sent 


(comp.  Matt.  ix.  13).  He  will  care- 
fully tend  them  ('  not  break  '  is  a 
litotes)  with  the  pure  and  whole- 
some medicine  of  God's  '  law.' 

Truthfully]  More  literally,  'accord- 
ing to  the  standard  of  truth  '  (same 
idiom  as  xxxii.  i).  There  shall  be 
no  abatement,  no  compromise,  in 
his  exhibition  of  the  objective  truth. 
A  contrast  may  be  implied  to  '  the 
splendid  falsehoods  of  heathenism  ' 
(Hitz.).  For  alt.  rend.,  comp.  xxxiii. 
6,  xxxix.  8. 

*  He  shall  not  burn  dimly,  &c.]. 
So,  excellently.  Dr.  Kay.  The  phra- 
seology suggests  that  the  Divine 
envoy  is  himself  a  lamp  and  a  reed  ; 
in  fact,  both  emblems  are  suitable. 
He  is  a  reed,  not  such  as  Pascal, 
in  his  definition  of  man,  but  such 
as  Dante  describes,  humble  but 
not  to  be  broken,  and  able  to 
cleanse  all  stains  {Ptcrgatotio,  i.  94- 
136) ;    and  he  is  also  a  light  of  the 

nations   {v.  6). Till    he    shall 

have  set  .  .  .]  He  shall  have  one 
absorbing  interest — the  final  esta- 
blishment (li.  4)  of  the  true  religion. 
The  same  concentration,  it  cannot 
but  be  remarked,  stands  in  place 
of  what  we  call  '  character '  to  the 
Messiah  who  fulfils  this  prophecy. 

Teaching:]  See  on  i.  10. ■ 

The  countries]  Synonymous  with 
'  the  nations.' ivait]  i.e.,  long- 
ingly. Frequently  used  with  Jeho- 
vah (e.g.  Ps.  xxxi.  24  A.  V. '  hope '), 
or  some  gift  of  Jehovah  (Ps.  cxix. 
43,  74,  xxxiii.  18  Weir)  for  the 
object. 

*"^  A  new  revelation  (followed  by 
a  solemn  pledge)  defining  the  mis- 


1  This  view  has  been  expressed  before  Dr.  Weir  bv  Kleinert  {Thcolog.  Studien  iiird 
Kritiken,  1862  (pp.  709,  71c),  and  refuted  by  V.  F.'  Oehler,  Der  Kncdit  Jehova's, 
P-  34- 


266 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  xlii. 


heavens,  and  stretched  them  forth,  that  spread  forth  the  earth 
with  the  things  that  spring  out  of  it,  that  giveth  breath  unto 
the  people  upon  it,  and  spirit  to  them  that  walk  through  it  : 
**  I  Jehovah  have  called   thee  in   righteousness,  ^  and  taken  '^ 

•i  That  I  may  take.     Hebr.  points  (see  crit.  note). 


sion  of  the  Servant  with  greater 
precision.  Notice  the  solemnity  of 
the  expressions  with  which  it  is  in- 
troduced and  closed.  The  plan  of 
that  mission  (such  is  the  under- 
lying thought  of  V.  5)  requires  an 
exhibition  of  the  Divine  power  and 
wisdom  on  as  large  a  scale  as  in 
creation  and  preservation.  Comp. 
Zech.    xii.    i,   which  seems  to  me 

a  retniniscence  of  our  passage. 

The  Cod]  i.e.,  the  true  God,  in  op- 
position to  the  idol-gods  {v.  8). 
The  phrase    'the    God,    Jehovah,' 

only  occurs  again  Ps.  Ixxxv.  9. 

Have  called  thee  in  rigrhteous- 
ness]  '  In  accordance  with  my  re- 
vealed purpose  that  Israel  should 
be  my  people,  and  that  all  nations 
should  acknowledge  me  for  their 
God.'  '  Righteousness,'  from  the 
propheticpoint  of  view,  is  measured 
with  regard  to  the  Divine  covenant 
with  Israel.  Yet  where  the  limita- 
tion to  Israel  is  so  plainly  broken 
through,  the  meaning  approaches 
that  which  I  find  thus  expressed 
in  Stier,  '  the  righteousness  of  the 
Creator  towards  his  fallen  creature, 
which  prepares  salvation,  and  calls 
the  mediator  of  salvation.'  Only 
we  must  not  continue  in  the  'ka- 
leidoscopic '  manner  of  Stier,  '  and 
appoints  him  to  set  up  and  impart 
a  new  righteousness,'  for  shortly 
after  Cyrus  is  addressed  in  the  very 

same  terms  (xlv.  13). "Will  keep 

thee]  Not  '  will  form  thee,'  for  the 
Servant  has  been  '  formed  '  or  pre- 
destinated from  eternity  (obs.  the 
perfect  in  xliv.  21).  Por  a  cove- 
nant of  the  people]  '  The  people  ' 
might  be  taken  for  '  the  human 
race,'  as  in  v.  5  ;  but  xlix.  8,  where 
the  whole  phrase  occurs  again, 
limits  the  reference  to  Israel.  'A 
covenant  of  the  people  '  means  '  the 
medium  or  mediator  of  a  covenant 
between  Jehovah  and   Jbracl.'     As 


the  Servant  is  called  '  a  light '  in 
person,  so  he  can  be  called  '  a 
covenant'  in  person.  Analogies 
elsewhere  are  not  wanting.  Thus 
in  xlix.  6  the  same  Divine  represen- 
tative is  called  '  my  Salvation  ' ;  in 
Mic.  v.  5  (4)  the  Messiah  of  pro- 
phecy is  designated  emphatically 
'Peace';  and  in  John  xi.  25  the 
Messiah  of  history  claims  the 
speaking  title,  '  the  Resurrection 
and  the  Life.  So,  too,  in  Mai.  iii. 
I ,  the  '  angel  of  the  covenant '  is 
mentioned,  i.e.,  the  angel  who  is  to 
actualise,  as  it  were,  the  covenant- 
relation  of  Jehovah  to  Israel.  In 
all  these  cases  persons  are  men- 
tioned as  embodying  or  repi'esent- 
ing,  and  not  merely  symbolising, 
certain  spiritual  gifts  or  relations  ; 
and  such  clear  parallels  dispense 
us  from  the  obligation  of  discussing 
the  meaning  of  disputed  passages 
such  as  Gen.  xvii.  10,  '  This  is  my 
covenant,'  or  Luke  xxii.  20,  '  This 
cup  is  the  new  covenant.' — To 
critics  who  deny  the  personal  re- 
ference of  '  the  Servant,'  the  phrase 
presents  no  slight  difficulty.  Ewald 
and  Hitzig  regard  the  second  noun 
as  qualifying  the  first,  so  that  '  a 
covenant  of  a  people '  =  a  covenant- 
people  ;  comp.  '  a  wonder  of  a 
counsellor'  =  a  wonderful  coun- 
sellor, ix.  5,  '  a  wild  ass  of  a  man  ' 
—  a  wild  man,  Gen.  xvi.  12.  The 
idea  expressed  in  this  rendering 
is  unexceptionable  (see  Ixi.  6,  and 
comp.  Rom.  xi.  15),  but  the  view  of 
the  construction  is  directly  opposed 
to  the  parallelism.  Knobel  explains 
the  phrase  by  Volksbinid^x.^.^  'popu- 
lar league.'  The  believers  in  Jeho- 
vah, he  thinks,  formed  a  kind  of 
association,  recognised  as  such  by 
the  unbelieving  or  indifferent  ma- 
jority, and  as  evidence  for  this  he 
boldly  offers  liii.  2  !  Unfortunately 
the  Hebr.  b'rith  (rendered   above 


CHAP.  XLII.] 


ISAIAH. 


267 


hold  of  thy  hand,  and  will  ®  keep  thee,  and  will  appoint  thee 
for  a  covenant  of  the  people,  for  a  light  of  the  nations  ;  '^  to 
open  blind  eyes,  to  bring  out  captives  from  the  prison,  and 
those  who  sit  in  darkness  from  the  house  of  restraint, — ^  I, 
Jehovah,  that  is  my  name,  and  my  glory  will  I  not  give  to 
another,  nor  my  praise  unto  images.     ^  The  former  things — 

«  Form,  Ew. 


*  covenant ')  nowhere  has  the  sense 
of  '  league,'  not  even  in  Dan.  xi. 
28,  referred  to  by  Knobel,  for  the 
true  meaning  of  the  phrase  '  the 
holy  covenant '  is  the  divinely  or- 
dained constitution  of  the  Jewish 
people.^ 

Accepting  the  above  rendering, 
the  question  remains,  '  Which 
covenant  is  referred  to  .''  The  old 
covenant  of  Sinai,  or  the  new  and 
spiritual  one  described  by  Jeremiah  ? 
(xxxi.  31-34).  Surely  the  latter; 
otherwise  why  should  the  Servant 
be  said  to  be  'called'?  Obs.,  too, 
that  in  liv.  10  Jehovah  expressly 
contrasts  his  present  '  covenant  of 
peace,'  not  indeed  with  the  Sinaitic 
covenant  of  Moses,  but  with  that  of 
Noah  ;  and  that  in  Iv.  3  an  'ever- 
lasting covenant '  is  spoken  of, 
which    is    at    once     new   and  old 

(see  note). ror  a  ligrbt  .  .  •  ] 

The  words  recur  in  xlix.  6,  comp. 
li.4. 

'  To  open  blind  eyes]  i.e.,  that 
thou  mayest  open,  &c. — The  heal- 
ing of  the  blind,  both  in  a  physical 
and  in  a  spiritual  sense,  is  one  of 
the  chief  features  of  the  Messianic 
age  in  prophecy ;  which  kind  of 
blindness  is  meant,  the  context 
alone  can  decide.  Here,  as  in  xxix. 
18  (but  not  XXXV.  5),  it  is  spiritual 
blindness  to  which  the  prophecy 
refers — this  is  clear  from  vv.  18-20. 


That  the  promise  belongs  first  to 
the  Jews  is  also  clear  from  those 
verses,    but    the    Gentiles    are    of 

course  included  (comp.  v.  6). ■ 

The  bouse  of  restraint]  The  pro- 
saic Knobel  understands  this  lite- 
rally, in  the  face  of  z'.  22  !  It  is 
the  prison-house  of  physical  and 
spiritual  trouble  which  is  meant 
(comp.  Ps.  cvii.  10,  Job  xxxvi.  8). 
The  Jews  are  doubtless  foremost 
in  the  prophet's  mind  {v.  22,  comp. 
xlix.  9,  Ixi.  i). 

^  Tbat  is  my  name]  Alluding 
to  the  meaning  of  the  name  Jeho- 
vah, which  was  at  any  rate  felt  to 
include  the  unique  reality,  and 
power    to    confer    reality,    of    the 

Divine  Being. IWy  g-lory  .  .  .  ] 

Were  such  a  God's  predictions  to 
fail.  He  would  sink  to  a  lower 
level  than  the  imaginary  deities 
who  have,  at  any  rate,  not  deluded 
their  worshippers.  (So  perhaps 
we  may  connect  the  two  halves  of 
the  verse.) 

^  Tbe  former  tbing-s  .  .  .  new 
tbings]  Here  are  two  cycles  of 
events,  the  one  complete,  the  other 
on  the  point  of  beginning.  Both 
have  been  foreknown  by  Jehovah  ; 
and  the  fulfilment  of  the  earlier 
predictions  is  appealed  to  as  a 
pledge  of  that  of  the  later.  Kimchi 
understands  by  the  former  the  pro- 
phecies of  Isaiah   against  Senna- 


1  So  Ewald,  retaining  the  usual  rendering  '  covenant.'  But  '  constitution  '  is  pro- 
bably the  true  rendering,  and  not  merely  an  interpretation  of  a  rendering.  As 
Hofmann,  the  celebrated  author  of  the  Schriftbeweis,  was  the  first  to  point  out  [SB. 
\.  414-5),  '  contract'  or  'covenant'  is  only  a  secondary  meaning  of  the  Hebr.  b'lith,  the 
original  sense  being  rather  '  appointment '  (from  bardh  '  to  cut,'  hence  'to  appoint,"  like 
Ass.  baru),  comp.  i  Sam.  .xvii.  8  : — see  m  favour  of  this  view  Miihlau  and  Volck's  edition 
of  Gesenius's  Handwdrterbuch,  s.  v.  b'rith,  and  Cremer's  Biblico-theological  Lexicon  of 
New  Testament  Greek,  s.  v.  StafiiJKrj.  Passages  like  Hos.  vi.  7,  viii.  i,  2  Kings  xi.  4, 
Job  xxxi.  I,  Jer.  xi.  6,  xxxiv.  13  (in  v.  18,  however,  b'rith  has  the  later  sense 
'  covenant '),  Ps.  cv.  10,  together  with  the  meaning  of  the  Chaldee  and  Greek  equiva- 
lents, seem  to  me  decisive  ;  also  the  expression  '  the  ark  of  the  covenant '  (i.e.,  of  the 
Law),  comp.  i  Kingb  viii.  21.     See  also  cnt.  note. 


268 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  xlh. 


behold !  they  have  come,  and  new  things  do  I  announce  ; 
before  they  shoot  forth,  I  tell  you  of  them. 

^"  Sing  unto  Jehovah  a  new  song,  and  his  praise  from  the 
end  of  the  earth;  *'ye  that  have  gone  down  upon  the  sea,*^ 
and  the  fulness  thereof;  the  countries,  and  the  inhabitants 
thereof.  '^  Let  the  wilderness  and  the  cities  thereof  lift  up 
their  voice,  the  villages  which  Kedar  inhabiteth  ;  let  the  in- 
habitants of  Sela  shout  ;  from  the  top  of  the  mountains  let 
them  cry  aloud  ;  '^  let  them  render  glory  to  Jehovah,  and 
declare  his  praise  in  the  countries  ! 

*■  Let  the  sea  roar,  Lowth  (emending  from  Ps.  xcvi.  ii,  xcviii.  7). 


cherib,  but  the  Babylonian  period 
seems  more  likely  than  the  As- 
syrian to  be  referred  to.  We  must 
remember  that  the  real  or  ecstatic- 
ally adopted  point  of  view  of  our 
prophet  is  at  the  Babylonian  Exile, 
when  such  predictions  as  xx.xix.  6, 
7,  had  long  been  fulfilled.  The 
'  new  things '  are  the  same  which 
call  forth  a  burst  of  song  in  z'v. 
10-12 — the  wonderful  deliverance 
of  the  Jews,  and  the  glories  which 
shall  follow  ;  '  new,'  not  merely  as 
being  later,  but  as  dimming  the 
splendour  of  all  previous  achieve- 
ments (xliii.  18,  comp.  Ixv.  17). 

Before  tbey  shoot  forth  .  .  .  ] 
An  evidence  of  Jehovah's  sole 
divinity  (comp.  xlviii,  5).  The 
phrase  '  shoot  forth '  occurs  again 
in  a  similar  connection  in  xliii.  19  ; 
what  does  it  signify  1  Not  that  one 
event  '  develops '  out  of  another, 
but  that  the  'word'  of  Jehovah  is  a 
seed,  which,  in  virtue  of  its  origin, 
has  a  self-realising  character  (Iv. 
10,  11).  Some  'words'  are  un- 
heard, save  in  the  heavenly  council 
(Job  XV.  8,  <2-  ^^-  ■^^•)y  as  for  instance 
those  spoken  before  man  was 
formed  ;  others  '  he  rcvealeth  to 
his  servants  the  prophets '  (Am.  iii. 
7),  and  these  latter  words  have 
an  equally  self-fulfilling  power  (ix. 
8). 

'°  Here  the  prophet's  language 
becomes  impassioned,  lyrical.  '  The 
Spirit  taketh  him  up'  into  a  future 
age.  Me  calls  upon  the  wliole 
world  (vitally  interested  in  Israel's 


welfare)  to  Sing-  unto  Jehovah  a 

new  song]  (Contrast  the  intro- 
ductory form  in  xxvi.  I.)  'A  new 
song '  is  familiar  to  us  in  the 
Psalter,  where  it  occurs  six  times ; 
two  of  the  Psalm-passages  (Ps. 
xcvi.  I,  xcviii.  i)  evidently  involve 
reminiscences  of  our  prophecy.  It 
means  generally  a  song  inspired  by 
gratitude  for  new  mercies,  but  here 
perhaps  it  has  a  fuller  content,  cor- 
responding to  the  deeper  sense  of 
'  new  things '  in  v.  9  (comp.  Rev. 
xiv.  3). — For  a  general  parallel,  see 

xxiv.  14-16. Ye  that  have  grone 

down  .  .  .  ]  Ye  '  that  do  business 
on  the  great  waters '  (the  corre- 
sponding phrase  in  the  parallel  line, 
Ps.  cvii.  23).  But  Bishop  Lowth's 
conjecture,  well  supported  in  his 
note  on  this  passage,  is  highly 
plausible.  A  verb  as  well  as  a 
noun  seems  required  for  symme- 
try's sake,  and  the  noun  we  expect 

is  'the  sea,'  i.e.,  the  west. The 

fulness  thereof]  i.e.,  the  fishes 
(comp.  on  xxxiv.  i). 

"  Cities  .  .  .  villages]  Both 
terms  are  to  be  distinguished  from 
the  encampments  of  the  nomad 
Arabs.     '  Kedar  '  is  therefore  used 

more  widely  than  in    xxi.   16. 

Sela]  Consul.  Wetzstein  (Delitzsch, 
Jcsaia,  3rd  ed.,  p.  700)  takes  sela 
collectively  (as  in  xvi.  i).  'Inhabi- 
tants of  rocks'  are,  he  thinks,  op- 
posed to  the  tribes  of  the  open 
desert.  A  similar  Arabic  pair  of 
phrases  is  in  use  in  the  Hauran. 

' '  Iict  them  render  .   .   .  ]  '  Let 


CHAP.  XLII.] 


ISAIAH, 


269 


•3  Jehovah  shall  go  forth  as  a  mighty  one,  as  a  man 
of  (many)  wars  he  shall  stir  up  (his)  jealousy ;  he  shall 
cry,  yea,  he  shall  roar;  against  his  foes  he  shall  show 
himself  a  mighty  one.  '*  I  have  been  silent  from  of  old  ;  I 
have  been  still,  and  restrained  myself :  (now)  like  a  woman 
in  travail  will  I  groan,  I  will  pant  and  gasp  at  once,  i^  I  will 
lay  waste  mountains  and  hills,  and  all  their  herbage  will  I 
dry.  up  ;  and  I  will  turn  rivers  into  habitable  lands,  and  lakes 
will  I  dry  up  :  '^and  I  will   lead   the  blind   by  a  way  which 

Jealousy]  See  on  ix.  7  ;  also 

for  the  combination  with  'heroism' 
or  active  'might,'  Ixiii.  15. 

^'  But  why  does  the  Mighty  One 
need  to  'stir  up'  his  slumbering 
'jealousy'.?     He   tells    us   himself. 

1  have  been    silent   from  of 

old]  '  To  be  silent,'  when  said  of 
God  (as  Ivii.  11,  Lxii.  i,  Lxiv.  11), 
is  'to  leave  the  prayers,  spoken 
or  unspoken,  of  the  faithful  un- 
answered; '  comp.  Ps.  xxviii.  i, 
Hab.  i.  13.  Jehovah  has  been  thus 
silent  '  for  an  age '  or  jeon  ('o/dm),  a 
period  stretching  indefinitely  back- 
ward. It  is  the  exaggeration  of 
strong  emotion  (so  Ivii.  11,  comp. 
Ivni.  12,  Ixi.  4).  Still  it  corresponds 
to  the  fact  that  '  we  do  not  find 
miracles  [or  striking  providences] 
sown  broadcast  over  the  whole  Old 
Testament  history,'  but  that  they 
'have  reference  to  certain  great 
epochs  and  crises  of  the  kino-- 
dom   of  God'   (Trench,   Miradts, 

P-     43)- like     a     woman     in 

travail  .  .  .  ]  A  figure  for  unre- 
strainable  impatience,  not  without 
a  secondary  reference  to  the  new 
birth  of  Israel  and  of  the  world. 

(Comp.  xxvi.  17,  18,  Ixvi.  8,  9.) , 

At  once]  i.e.,  these  signs  of  anguish 
shall  be  unintermittent. 

1^  16  Judgment  and  redemption 
side  by  side.  Mountains  and  hills 
are  symbols  of  the  heathen  world 
m  general  (not  merely  Babylonia). 

The    blind]     Not,    I    venture 

to  think,  'the  spiritually  blind' 
(Del.,  Naeg.),  which  hardly  suits 
the  context,  but  '  the  perplexed  and 
desponding'  (Calv.)  ;  there  is  an 
exact  parallel  in  lix.  9,  10. — The 
difficulties    of   the    commentators 


the    distant    nations    of   the   west 
glorify  Jehovah  '  (as  xxiv.  15). 

"  Jehovah  shall  go  forth  .  .  .  ] 

This  verse  gives  the  reason  for  the 
call  for  a  '  new  song,'  not  the  gentle 
ministrations  of  the  Servant,  not  the 
irresistible  march  of  Cyrus,  but  the 
terrible  deeds  of  the  Almighty.     It 
is    in   effect   the    Day   of  Jehovah 
which  is  here  described  ;  the  vic- 
tories of  Cyrus  and  the  fall  of  Baby- 
lon form  but  one  act  in  that  great 
drama  ;  there  is  much  in  the  de- 
scription   that   follows   which    can 
never  have  been  thought  to  be  ex- 
hausted  by  any  possible   achieve- 
ments of  Cyrus.    The  Day  of  Jeho- 
vah has  two  sides,  a  dark  and  a 
bright ;  the  stern  work  of  retribution 
being  over,  Jehovah's  Servant  will 
step  forward,  and  assume   his  de- 
lightful office  of  winning  hearts. — 
Will  this  office  be  again  suspended 
by  the  necessity  for  a  fresh  inter- 
position   of    the    Almighty.?       To 
answer  this  question  would  be  to 
systematise  where  the  prophet  has 
left   but  vague   outlines. — For  the 
representation    of   Jehovah    as    a 
warrior  see  xxviii.  21,  xxxi.  4,  lix. 
16,  17,  Zech.  ix.   13,  14,  xiv.  3.     It 
is  another  instance  of  the  fearless 
security  with  which  the    prophets 
use  popular  phraseology  of  mythical 
origin,  trusting  to  the  general  spirit 
of  their  revelation  to  correct   any 

verbal    inaccuracies. Shall    go 

forth]  Elsewhere  a  technical  phrase 
for  taking  the  field  (see  xxxvii.  9, 
36),  but  probably  here  with  an  allu- 
sion to  Jehovah's  previous  seclu- 
sion (see  next  verse). a  mig-hty 

one]  Or,  'a  hero.'  Comp.  Jeho- 
vah's title  God-Mighty-One,  x.  21. 


270 


ISATAII. 


[chap,  xi.ii. 


they  knew  not ;  through  paths  they  have  not  known  will  I 
make  them  to  go  ;  I  will  turn  darkness  into  light  before  them, 
and  rough  places  into  a  table-land.  These  are  the  things 
which  I  will  surely  do,  and  I  will  not  let  them  slip.  '^  They 
shall  surely  be  thrust  back  ;  they  shall  be  utterly  ashamed, 
that  trust  in  graven  images,  that  say  to  molten  images,  Ye 
are  our  gods. 


arise  from  not  observing  that  vv. 
10-17  are  parenthetical  (see  on  v. 
18),  and  were  probably  introduced 

by    an     afterthought. 1     will 

surely  do]  The  tenses  are  prophetic 
perfects  ;  so  also  the  first  tense  in 
V.  17. 

"  Be  thrust  back]  The  idola- 
ters are  represented  as  marching 
against  the  true  believers.  Sud- 
denly  an    invisible    hand    thrusts 


them  back.  Comp.  for  the  figure 
Ps.  XXXV.  3,  4,  and  for  the  rend. 
Hupfeld  on  Ps.  vi.  11. — Prof.  Birks 
makes  a  break  at  the  end  oft'.  16, 
connecting  7'.  17  with  v.  18.  But 
this  spoils  the  contrast  between  the 
believing  blind  \w  v.  16  and  the 
unbelievers  in  %>.  17  (see  the  same 
contrast  in  1.  10,  11),  and  introduces 
a  premature  reference  to  idolatry 
into  the  new  paragraph. 


vv.  i8~2o.  We  are  confronted  here  with  an  at  first  sight  perplexing 
discrepancy,  viz.,  that  whereas  in  vv.  1-7  '  the  Servant '  is  introduced  as  an 
indefatigable  worker  in  Jehovah's  cause,  and  as  specially  appointed  'to 
open  blind  eyes,'  in  v.  19  we  find  'My  servant'  and  'My  messenger' 
described  as  spiritually  '  blind '  and  '  deaf.'  This,  however,  is  only  one 
of  those  apparent  inconsistencies  in  which  Eastern  poets  and  teachers 
delio^ht,  and  which  are  intended  to  set  us  on  the  search  for  a  higher  and 
reconciling  idea.  The  higher  idea  in  the  case  before  us  is  that  the  place 
of  the  incompetent  messenger  shall  be  taken  by  one  both  able  and  willing 
to  supply  his  deficiencies  and  to  correct  his  faults.  Israel  the  people 
being  as  yet  inadequate  to  his  sublime  destiny,  Jehovah's  own  '  elect ' 
shall  come  to  transform  and  elevate  the  '  unprofitable  servant.' 

^^  Hear,  ye  deaf ;  and  ye  blind,  look,  that  ye  may  see. 
'^  Who  is  blind  but  my  servant  ?  and  deaf  as  my  messenger 


I 


'8  Bear,  ye  deaf  .  .  .  ]  Jeho- 
vah is  the  speaker  ;  he  has  before 
him  a  company  of  spiritually  deaf 
and  blind  (see  on  xliii.  8).  Surely 
(we  may  suppose  him  to  make  this 
reflection)  they  are  not  all  stone- 
deaf ;  some  may  be  able  by  ex- 
erting the  power  yet  graciously 
continued  to  them  to  hear  God 
speaking  in  history  and  in  prophecy 
(comp.  V.  23)  !  —  Thus  it  would 
almost  seem  as  if  Jehovah  himself 
had  assumed  the  function  of  '  open- 
ing blind  eyes  '  previously  ascribed 
to  the  Servant.  But  there  is  no 
real  discrepancy.    The  operations 


of  Jehovah  and  of  his  Servant  are 
all  one  ;  Jehovah  must  nominally 
interpose  here  in  order  that  the 
incompetence  of  his  people-Servant 
may  be  exposed,  and  the  necessity 
for  another  Servant,  springing  out 
of  but  far  worthier  than  Israel,  be 
made  clear. 

19  vTbo  is  blind  butmy  servant t] 
The  blind  and  deaf  Servant  means 
the  people  of  Israel  regarded  as 
a  whole,  in  its  present  state  of 
spiritual  insensibility, — Jehovah  is 
sometimes  described  anthropomor- 
phically  as  '  saying'  or,  more  fully, 
as   '  saying    to   his   heart,'    i.e.,  to 


CHAP.  XLII.] 


ISAIAH. 


271 


whom  I  ^  send  ?  Who  is  bh"nd  as  ^  the  surrendered  one  ^  and 
*  deaf  as  the  servant  of  Jehovah  ?  ^o  jj^q^  j^^g^  ^^^^  many 
things,  but  thou  observest  not ;  he  openeth  the  ears,  and 
heareth  not !  2'  It  was  Jehovah's  pleasure  for  his  righteous- 
ness' sake  to  make  the  instruction  great  and  glorious  ;  22  and 


K  Or,  will  send. 

•"  He  who  is  received  into  friendship 
(sh'ght  emendation). 

'  So  Symm. ,  2  Heb.  MSS. ,  Lo. ,  Gr. ;  Text,  blind 


Ges.,  Del.,  Naeg.  ;  the  sent  one,   Kr.,  Gr. 


himself  (Gen.  viii.  21).  It  is  such 
a  '  saying '  that  we  have  here. 
Jehovah  sadly  reflects,  '  Who 
among  earth's  inhabitants  is  so 
blind  and  deaf  as  Israel  my  Ser- 
vant ? '  Strange  fact  !  The  ser- 
vant, who  needs  a  sharp  eye  to 
catch  the  least  gesture  of  his  mas- 
ter (Ps.  cxxiii.  2) — the  messenger, 
who  requires  an  open  ear  to  re- 
ceive his  commissions,  is  blind — 
is  deaf  ! — To  interpret  '  Who  is 
blind,  &c.,'  of  Jesus  Christ,  as  if 
'  the  guilt  and  shame  of  the  people 
[were]  here  enforced  by  direct 
contrast  with  the  true  Israel,  the 
Prince  who  has  power  with  God,' 
and  as  if  the  true  no  less  than  the 
phenomenal  Israel  could  be  called 
blind  and  deaf,  with  reference  to 
his  slowness  to  take  offence  (Prof 
Birks),  is  to  go  directly  counter  to 
Biblical  usage.^  In  fact,  the  only 
passages  quoted  in  support  of  this 
farfetched  view  are  Ps.  xxxviii.  13, 
where  the  sm-cotiscious  psalmist 
resigns  his  defence  to  God,  and 
John  viii.  6-1 1,  where  the  Saviour 
(if  this  interpolated  narrative  may 
be  followed),  under  exceptional 
circumstances,   refuses  an    answer 

to   his   persecutors. 'Whom    z 

send]  This  alludes,  I  think,  not 
to  the  description  in  vv.  1-8,  but 
to  the  original  commission  of 
Israel,  referred  to  in  xli.  8-13. 
The  present  tense  is  used  because 
the  character  of  Jehovah's  Servant 
is  indelible  (as  we  have  been  told 
already,  xli.  9).  In  spite  of  Israel's 
offences,  Jehovah  still  '  sends '  and 
'  will  (continue  to)  send '  him. 
Chap.  liii.  will  throw  further  light 
on  this. As   the    surrendered 

'  See  vi.  9,  10,  Jer.  v.  2r, 


one]  One  might  almost  say,  'as 
the  Moslem,' for  the  prophet's  word 
{tn'shulldm)  is  closely  akin  to  the 
Axahm  mus/im  (Moslem),  i.e.,  'he 
that  devoteth  or  submitteth  him- 
self (to  God).'  Comp.  Emerson  : 
I A  more  surrendered  soul,  more 
informed  and  led  by  God.'  Appa- 
rently this  word  became  a  favourite 
among  the  pious  Jews  in  later 
times.  It  appears  as  a  proper 
name  in  Ezra  viii.  16,  x.  15,  29,  and 
the  fem.  Meshullemeth  (before  the 
Exile),  2  Kings  xxi.  19.  Comp. 
also  the  frequent  expression  lebh 
shalem,  '  a  perfect  ( =  devoted) 
heart.' 

^°  Tbon  hast  seen  .  .  .  ]  The 
people  of  Israel  is  likened  to  a  man 
of  mature  years  and  experience,  by 
which  he  has  failed  to  profit.  A 
different  image  from  that  in  liv.  ^,b. 
^^  Por  his  rig-hteousness'  sake] 
In  accordance  with  his  declared 
purpose,  Jehovah  sent  a  constant 
succession  of  prophetic  teachers 
'since  the  day  that  their  fathers 
went  forth  from  the  land  of  Egypt ' 
(Jer._  vii.  25).  A  stream  of  self- 
consistent  and  divinely  inspired 
instruction  struck  the  outward  or- 
gan of  hearing,  but,  alas  !  not  the 
inner  ear  {v.  20).  And  yet  this 
'instruction'  was  'great  and  glo- 
rious,' both  in  its  contents  and,  so 
far  as  the  course  of  history  had  yet 
gone    (see   v.  9),  in  its  fulfilment. 

Instruction]       Or,    teaching. 

Hebr.  tdrdh  ;  see  on  i.  10. 

^*  And  yet  it  Is  a  people  .  .  .] 
Clearly  these  expressions  are  not 
to  be  strained.  It  is  very  impro- 
bable that  any  large  portion  of  the 
exiles  suffered  literal  imprisonment 
Ezek.  xii.  2,  Zech.  vii.  11. 


2/2  ISAIAH.  [CHAP.  XLIII. 

yet  it  is  a  people  robbed  and  plundered  ;  snared  are  all  of 
them  in  holes,  and  hidden  in  houses  of  restraint  ;  they  are 
become  a  prey,  and  there  is  none  to  rescue — a  spoil,  and  none 
that  saith.  Restore.  ^^  Who  among  you  will  give  ear  to  this, 
will  attend,  and  be  obedient  for  the  time  to  come  ?  ^^  Who 
delivered  up  Jacob  for  a  spoil,  and  Israel  unto  robbers  ?  Was 
it  not  Jehovah,  he  against  whom  we  sinned,  and  they  would 
not  walk  in  his  ways,  and  were  not  obedient  unto  his  instruc- 
tion ?  ^'^  So  he  poured  upon  him  in  fury  his  anger,  and  the 
violence  of  war,  and  it  set  him  on  fire  round  about,  but  he 
took  no  notice,  and  kindled  upon  him,  but  he  would  not  lay 
it  to  heart. 

or  confiscation  of  goods.     The  de-  The    prophet,    identifying   himself 

pressed  life  of  the  Exile  is  what  is  with  his    people    (as    in  lix.  9-13, 

meant  ;    see  v.   7  (with  note),  Ps.  but  scarcely  in  ch.  liii.).     Contrast 

Ixxix.  II,  cii.  20,  Zech.  ix.   11. the  argument  of  the  unhappy  Jewish 

Zn  holes]  Rutgers^  draws  an  ar-  exiles  in  Egypt,  Jen  xliv.  17-19— 

gument  from  this  passage  against  a  most  instructive  passage  ! 
the  theory  of  the  late  origin  of  II.  '-■'  Kindled  upon  him]  There  is 

Isaiah,  because    'holes'  or   caves  an  evident  allusion  to  this  passage 

are  characteristic  of  Judea,  and  not  in  xliii.  2,  where  the  same  phrase 

of  Babylonia.     This  is  very  plau-  occurs,  '  a    striking    instance,'    as 

sible.       And   yet    might    not    the  Dr.    Kay   well    observes,    '  of  the 

prophet   use   figures    drawn    from  double  aspect  in    which    Israel    is 

the    older    Hebrew     writings,     in  presented  in  these  chapters.     The 

which  caves  are  so  frequently  re-  corrupt  nation  is  subjected  to  the 

ferred  to  ?     Comp.  /.  C.  A.,  p.  201.  fire  of  judgment  ;  but  the  Israel  of 

"^  Against  whom    we  sinned]  God  suffers  no  hurt.' 


CHAPTER  XLIII. 


Co7itents.—'-  All  Israel  shall  be  saved.'  Jehovah  is  the  only  God  ; 
prophecy  is  his  evidence  ;  his  word  none  can  make  void.  An  example 
of  such  an  irreversible  decree  is  the  fall  of  Babylon  and  the  restoration 
of  Israel  to  unimaginable  felicity. 

>  But  now,  thus  saith  Jehovah  thy  creator,  O  Jacob,  and 
he  that  formed  thee,  O  Israel :  Fear  not,  for  I  redeem  thee  ; 

^  But   now  .  .  .]       Another   of  indicates    that    there   has    been  a 

those  bold  transitions  in  which  our  conflict  between  Divine  love    and 

prophet  delights.     It  is  not,  how-  Di\'ine  wrath,  and  that  the  former 

ever,  entirely  abrupt.     '  But  now '  has   gained   the   victor)'.     In  fact, 

1  Dr.  Rutgers  is,  or  was,  the  leading  representative  of  orthodox  views  of  the  Old 
Testament  at  Leyden.  My  reference  is  to  his  able  but  inconclusive  work  on  the 
genuineness  of  II.  Isaiah  [De  echthcid  van  het  tweede  gededte  van  Jesaia,  Leiden, 
1866),  p.  79. 


CHAP.  XLIII.] 


ISAIAH. 


I  have  called  thee  by  name  ;  mine  art  thou.  ^  When  thou 
passest  through  the  waters,  I  will  be  with  thee, — and  through 
the  rivers,  they  shall  not  overflow  thee  :  when  thou  goest 
through  the  fire,  thou  shalt  not  be  scorched,  and  the  flame 
shall  not  kindle  upon  thee.  ^  For  I  Jehovah  am  thy  God;  (I) 
Israel's  Holy  One,  thy  deliverer  ;  for  thy  ransom  do  I  give 
Egypt,  Ethiopia  and  Seba  in  thy  stead.    ''  Since  thou  art  pre- 


the  wrath  of  Jehovah  was  but 
grieved  afifection.  Its  force  is  now 
for  the  time  spent  (comp.  xl.  2)  ; 
Jehovah  will  now  deliver  and  pro- 
tect,   reassemble   and    restore   his 

people. Thy    creator]       Israel 

is  a  new  and  singular  product,  in 
which  special  Divine  potencies 
have  been  at  work  :  therefore 
'  precious '  (v.  4).  Among  these 
potencies  is  affliction,  which  to  the 
unfaithful  Israel  is  only  depressing 
or  even  destructive,  but  to  the 
faithful  is  an  instrument  of  purifi- 
cation. It  is  the  faithful  Israel 
(in  spite  of  the  point  of  contact 
in    V.  24)  to   which  the   following 

promises    belong. Z     redeem 

tbee]  Lit.,  '  I  have  redeemed 
thee  ; '  i.e.,  historically,  of  the  past  ; 
and  prophetically,  of  the  future. 
Obs.,  verb  and  participle  occur 
above  twenty  times  in   II.  Isaiah. 

Called  thee   by  name]     Lit. 

'  called  with  thy  name,'  i.e.,  pro- 
claimed it.  To  utter  a  person's 
name,  in  primitive  times,  might  be 
a  grievous  injury  if  the  speaker's 
intention  were  malicious  ;  it  might 
also  be  a  high  distinction,  if  the 
speaker  were  much  superior  in 
rank.  Comp.  Ex.  xxxi.  2,  xxxiii. 
12,  17.  Israel  was  specially  hon- 
oured, for  Jehovah  combined  his 
own  name  with  Israel's,  calling  it 
'  my  people.'     It  was  a  kunya  (as 

in  the  case  of  Cyrus,  xlv.  4). 

Mine  art  thou]  Alluding  to  the 
Sinaitic  covenant  (see  Ex.  xix. 
5,  6).  On  that  wonderful  spiritual- 
isation  of  the  common  primitive 
idea  of  a  patron-deity,  the  German 


reader  should  consult  an  excel- 
lent chapter  in  Hermann  Schultz's 
Alftestamentliche  Theologie  (first 
ed.),  i.  401-410  ('der  Bund'). 

'^  Mt^hen  thou  passeth  througrh 
the  waters  .  .  .]  A  glance  at  the 
troubles  in  store  for  the  Babylonian 
empire,  but  also  at  any  subse- 
quent ones  in  which  the  Jews 
might  be  involved.  The  revelation 
fuses  all  these  together  in  one 
visionary  image.  The  same  use 
of  the  figures  of  fire  and  water 
occurs  in  Ps.  Ixvi.  12  ;  comp.  Dan. 

iii.    17,  27. When    thou  g:oest 

throug^h  the  fire]  Comp.  on  xlii.  25. 

^  For  thy  ransom  do  I  grive 
Egrypt]  No  price  is  too  great  for 
Israel's  redemption  ;  other  nations 
will  be  sacrificed  to  attain  it.^ — The 
passage  implies  (i)  that  the  judg- 
ments which  fall  upon  unbelievers 
are  arranged  providentially  for  the 
good  of  Jehovah's  chosen  ones — in 
this  sense,  '  the  wicked  are  a  ran- 
som for  the  righteous'  (Prov.  xxi. 
18,  comp.  xi.  8) ;  (2)  that  Jehovah 
has  a  personal  regard  for  Cyrus  as 
well  as  for  the  Jews,  and  considers 
his  generosity  to  the  latter  (so  un- 
like the  conduct  of  previous  con- 
querors) as  worthy  of  a  recompence. 
History  ratified  the  prophetic  word ; 
what  Cyrus  had  planned  (Herod,  i. 
153),  Cambyses  carried  out.  A 
more  minutely  exact  correspon- 
dence is  not  to  be  required.  A 
literal  fulfilment  is  not  the  test  of  a 
prophet's  veracity  ;  and  in  xlv.  14 
another  description  of  the  prospects 
of  these  nations  is  given,  which  it 
is    not  easy  to  reconcile  with  our 


1  The  promise  to  Nebuchadnezzar  in  Ezek.  xxix.  18,  19,  is  only  partly  parallel.  It 
represents  Egypt,  not  as  the  ransom  of  Tyre  (as  here  of  Israel),  but  as  a  compensation 
to  Nebuchadnezzar  for  his  ill-sTiccess  at  Tyre. 

VOL.    I.  T 


2  74 


ISAIAH. 


[chap,  xliii. 


cious  in  my  sight ;  art  honourable,  and  I  love  thee  ;  therefore 
will  I  give  men  in  thy  stead,  and  peoples  for  thy  life.  *  Fear 
not,  for  I  am  with  thee  ;  from  the  sunrising  will  I  bring  thy 
seed,  and  from  the  sunsetting  will  I  gather  thee  ;  ^  I  will  say 
to  the  north,  Give  up,  and  to  the  south.  Restrain  thou  not ; 
bring  my  sons  from  far,  and  my  daughters  from  the  ends 
of  the  earth,  ^  every  one  who  is  called  by  my  name,  and 
whom  for  my  glory  I  have  produced,  have  formed,  yea,  have 
prepared. 


passage.  It  is  clear  that  the  pro- 
phet sometimes  writes  with  an  eye 
on  the  actual  political  circum- 
stances, and  sometimes  is  wholly 
absorbed  in  the  glories  of  an  age 

still     future— the      Messianic. 

Seba]  i.e.,  the  peninsula  of  Meroe, 
or  N.  Ethiopia. 

*  »Xen]  i.e.,  ordinary  men  ;  comp. 
Jer.  xxxii.  20,  '  in  Israel  and  among 
men'  (Hebr.  'adarn). 

*.  «  From  east  and  west,  north 
and  south,  the  Israelites  are  to  be 
gathered  to  their  home.  (Parallel 
passages,  xlix.  12,  Ps.  cvii.  3).— 
Historically  interesting,  as  proving 
the  wide  extent  at  thus  early  a  date 
of  the  Jewish  Diaspora  (comp.  xi. 
1 1,  and  note).  Not  only  in  Baby- 
lonia and  Assyria,  but  in  the  '  far 
lands'  of  the  Mediterranean,  and 
even  perhaps  in  China  (xlix.  12) — 
one  at  least  of  the 'ends of  the  earth' 
to  the  geography  of  that  day,  there 
were  bands  of  Jewish  exiles.  But 
the  peculiarity  of  the  passage  does 
not  so  much  consist  in  this,  as  in 
the  fact  that  it  contains  no  express 
mention  of  Babylonia,  where  in 
general  the  scene  of  this  prophetic 
drama  is  laid.  It  thus  supplies  a 
striking  evidence  of  the  truth  that 
the  scope  of  a  prophecy  is  not  to 
be  confined  to  a  single  age  or 
country.  These  latter  chapters  of 
the  Book  of  Isaiah  are  something 
more  than  a  private  revelation  for 
the  exiles  in  Babylon.  Great  as 
are  the  miseries  of  the  author's  real 
or  assumed  present,  he  is  not  so 
absorbed  by  them  as  to  forget  the 
glories  in  prospect.— Rutgers  '  in- 


fers from  this  passage  that  chaps, 
xl.-xlvi.  cannot  have  been  written 
duringthe Exile;  otherwise  Babylon 
would,  he  thinks,  have  been  referred 
to.  The  foregoing  remarks  tend  to 
show  that  the  passage  has  no  bear- 
ing whatever  on  the  question  of 
date.  Rutgers  also  refers  to  xi.  11, 
as  showing  that  Isaiah  had  as  full 
a  view  of  the  Jewish  dispersion  as 
is  implied  in  the  verses  before  us. 
But  this  only  proves  (assuming,  as 
I  am  willing  to  do,  the  genuineness 
of  that  passage)  that  Isaiah  might 
have  written  these  verses,  not  that 
he  actually  did  so.  Besides,  that 
passage  contains  one  word  (Assy- 
ria), which  to  some  extent  dimi- 
nishes the  value  of  the  comparison. 

Bring:  my  sons   .  .  .  ]     Here 

the  earth  as  a  whole  must  be  ad- 
dressed.   '  Bring'  implies  the  escort 

of  the  Gentiles   (xlix.   22). XWy 

daug-bters]  Obs.  the  kind  and 
even  respectful  mention  of  the  fe- 
male sex  in  Messianic  descriptions  ; 
see  xi.  12  (note),  Ix.  4,  Joel  ii.  28, 
Gal.  iii.  28. 

^  ■«7ho  is  called  by  my  name] 
i.e.,  who  is  Jehovah's  servant.  '  Israel 
must  live,  because  the  name  of 
Jehovah  has  been  named  on  him.' 
Dr.    Weir,    comparing    Matt.   xxii. 

32. Produced     .     .     .     formed 

.  .  .  prepared]  The  three  verbs 
'  seem  to  describe  the  process  of 
formation  from  the  first  rough  cut- 
ting to  the  perfecting  of  the  work  ; 
comp.  xlvi.  1 1  '  (Dr.  Weir).  The 
first  verb,  however,  is  restricted  to 
the  Divine  creative  operations, 
whether  such  as  implyapre-existent 


'  De  echtheid  van  hei  huetdc  ged(        z'an  Jesaia,  pp.  78, "79. 


CHAP.  XLIII.] 


ISAIAH. 


«^  Bring  forth  »  a  blind  people  which  hath  eyes,  and  deaf 
who  have  ears.  ^All  ye  nations,  assemble  yourselves;  and 
let  the  peoples  gather  together:  who  among  them  can 
announce  such  things  ?  and  former  things  let  them  declare 
unto  us  ;  let  them  produce  their  witnesses,  that  they  may  be 
justified,  and  let  them  (?)  hear,  and  say,  It  is  truth.     '»  Ye  are 

He  bringeth  forth,    Hitz.,   Alexander.     I   will  bring  forth,   Ew.   (changing  one 


letter) 

material,  or  such  as  do  not.  The 
blessing  of  Jacob  (Gen.  xhx.) 
shows  us  how  rough  was  the  mate- 
rial out  of  which  the  church-nation 
of  Israel  was  carved. 

^  Another   of  those    mysterious 
voices,  of  which    we    have    heard 
already  (xl.  3-8),  bursts  on  the  ear. 
Bring- forth  a  blind  people  •   .    •   ] 
The    ministers  of  justice    are    the 
persons    addressed.       Israel,    once 
blind  and  deaf,  but  now  in  posses- 
sion of  sight  and  hearing,  is  to  be 
brought   into  court   (see  on  xli.  i). 
For  what  purpose  will  appear  later 
{v.  10). — Almost  all  critics  explain 
_'a  blind  people  that  hath  eyes,'  as 
if  it  were  '  a  people  that  hath  eyes 
and  seeth  not.'     This,  however,  is 
certainly  not  a  natural  view  of  the 
construction,  nor  does  it  harmonise 
well  with  the  context,  for  how  can 
a  spiritually  insensible    people  be 
produced   as  a  witness  against  the 
heathen     nations }        Calvin     and 
Ewald  seem  to  be  nearer  the  mark. 
The  former  comments  thus  :  '  Sic 
educam  cascos,  ut  visum  ipsis  resti- 
tuam  ;  surdos  ita  liberabo,  ut  aures 
recuperent;'  the    latter,    'He   will 
now  disengage  from    their   fetters 
those  who  in  xlii.  7,  18,  were  called 
blind  and  deaf,  that  they  may  again 
receive  eyes  and  ears  (as  in  xlii.  7).' 
Both  Calvin  and   Ewald,  however 
(the  one  virtually,  the  other  avow- 
edly),   alter    the    first    word  ;    the 
former  rendering  'that  I  may  bring 
out ; '  the  latter,  '  I  will  bring  out  ; ' 
and  both  failing  to  see  the  close 
connection    between    this  and  the 
next  verse.     The  truth  is  that  this 
passage    is    reversely    parallel    to 
xhi.  20,  where  of  the  actual  Israel 
it  is  said,  that  '  he  has  seen  many 


things,  but  observeth  not  ; '  and 
that  '  he  openeth  the  ears,  but 
heareth  not.'  It  is  to  Stier  that 
the  credit  belongs  of  restoring  its 
natural  sense  to  this  otherwise  ob- 
scure verse. 

All  ye  nations,  assenaMe 
yourselves]  On  the  one  side,  the 
spiritual  Israel,  a  small  company 
of  believers  in  Jehovah,  has  already 
taken  its  place  ;  a  mighty  host  of 
heathen  nations  is  now  summoned 
to  appear  on  the  other.  The  ques- 
tion IS  then  put  to  the  latter.  Which 
of  their  gods  can  produce  predic- 
tions such  as  those  in  vv.  1-7  .?  To 
prove  that  they  can,  the  Divine 
speaker  continues,  Let  them  men- 
tioii  former  things,  i.e.,  past  events 
which  they  have  correctly  foretold. 
-^ — Unto  us]    viz.,    Jehovah    and' 

his   servants  (as   xli.  22). That 

they  may  be  justified]  In  the 
event  of  their  professing  to  have 
foretold  events  correctly,  they  must 
produce  witnesses  to  justify    their 

assertions. And  let  them  hear 

and  say,  It  Is  truth]  I  do  not 
understand  this.  The  words  (or 
rather  the  word)  put  into  the  mouth 
of  the  speakers  is  more  suitable  to 
a  judge  than  either  to  a  defendant 
or  to  witnesses.  It  would  be  bold 
to  alter  the  text,  but  the  passage 
would  at  once  become  intelligible, 
if  we  might  emend  the  third  person 
mto  the  first  (on  the  analogy  of  xli. 
26),  and  render  '  and  that  we  may 
hear,  &c.'  The  alternative  is,  with 
Luther,  Ges.,  and  Naeg.,  to  make 
the  subject  indefinite  (' dass  .  .  . 
man  hcire ') ;  so  Dr.  Weir,  '  that 
men  may  hear.'  But  this  is  not  a 
natural  interpretation. 

'-   But  the  idol-gods  are  dumb  ; 
T  2 


/ 


270 


ISATAH. 


[chap,  xi.iii. 


my  witnesses,  (the  oracle  of  Jehovah,)  and  my  Servant,  whom 
I  have  chosen,  that  ye  may  acknowledge,  and  believe  me, 
and  understand  that  I  am  He ;  before  me  no  God  was 
formed,  neither  after  me  shall  there  be.  "  I,  I  am  Jehovah, 
and  beside  me  there  is  no  deliverer.  '^  /  have  announced  '^ 
and  declared,  for  there  is  no  stranger  among  you  ;  and  ye 

•>  Hebr.  text  inserts,  And  delivered.     Probably  this  is  merely  a  miswritten  form  of 
the  following  verb.     Bunsen  proposes  to  read,  And  made  known. 


they  have  no  witnesses  to  produce. 
Meantime  Jehovah  calls  upon  his 
witnesses,  viz.,  his  people  Israel, 
which  has  had  abundant  proof  of 

his  predictive  power. And  my 

Seivant]  i.e.,  '  and  ye  are  also 
my  Servant,  the  chosen  instrument 
of  my  purposes;'  comp.  xliv.  i. 
So  Del.,  Seinecke,  Riehm,  Naeg., 
taking  the  phrase  as  a  second  pre- 
dicate. Others  (Vitr.,  Ges.,  Hitz., 
Ew.,  Stier,  Kay)  explain,  '  and  so 
(or,  and  so  especially)  is  my  Ser- 
vant,' taking  the  two  latter  words 
as  a  second  subject,  and  distin- 
guishing the  Servant  from  the 
people  of  Israel  (at  any  rate,  from 
the  natural  Israel).  But  this  is  less 
obvious.  The  only  antithesis  sug- 
gested by  the  context  is  that  be- 
tween Israel  and  the  heathen  world 

(Naeg.).  That    ye    may    ac- 

knowledg-e  .  .  •  ]  It  is  not  only 
in  Jehovah's  interest,  but  in  that  of 
his  people  (the  spiritual  Israel), 
that  this  trial-scene  is  arranged. 
The  spectacle  of  the  futility  of 
heathenism  will  confirm  their  faith 

in  the  true  God. 1  am  He]  See 

on  xli.  4.-- — Befoi-e  me  .  .  .  ]  i.e., 
as  Dr.  Alexander  well  puts  it,  '  all 
other  gods  were  made,  but  none  of 
them  was  made  before  I  had  a 
being.'  There  is  also  an  ironical 
allusion  to  the  incongruity  of  '  form- 
ing' him  who  is  man's  '  former '  (xlv. 

9). After  me]  i.e.,  '  after  I  {per 

impossibile)  have  ceased  to  exist.' 

"  Then  follows  a  series  of  royal 
self-assertions,  resuming  what  has 

been    proved    above. 1,    Z  am 

Jehovah]    See   on    xlii.    8. No 

deliverer]     Alluding  to  7/.  3. 

•'■'  PreHiction  the  proof  of  divinity. 
/  hav«  announced  •  •  ■  ]  '  ^^  hat 
none    of    the     heathen     prophets 


can  do  {v.  9),  I,  Jehovah,  have 
performed.' — The  text  reading  pre- 
sents great  difficulties.  Such  an 
inconsistent  series  of  verbs  as  '  an- 
nounced— delivered — declared,'  can 
hardly  have  come  from  the  pen  of 
the  prophet.  Even  if  it  were  con- 
ceivable, another  objection  would 
remain  in  force.  The  subject  of 
the  prophesying  referred  to  in  v.  9 
(comp.  xlii.  9)  is  the  restoration  of 
the  Jews  and  the  Messianic  glories. 
Neither  of  these  events  had  as 
yet  taken  place.  Consequently  the 
middle  verb  of  the  series  must  be 
practically  future,  while  the  first 
and  third  are  past,  which  is  most 
unlikely.  Bunsen's  conjecture  is 
plausible,  but  less  so,  in  my  opinion, 
than  that  proposed  above.  [Dr. 
Weir  follows  Stier,  explaining 
'declared'  as  =  'proclaimed  the 
deliverance  which  prophecy  had 
announced.'  He  supports  this  by 
a  reference  to  xlviii.  20.  It  should 
be  remembered,  however,  that  in 
nine  out  of  sixteen  passages  in  II. 
Isaiah    the    verb    hishmi^a   means 

'to    prophesy.'] For    there    Is 

no  strangrer  .  .  •  ]  '  Stranger '  here, 
as  also  in  Deut.  xxxii.  16,  is  short 
for  '  strange,  or  foreign,  god  '  (for 
the  phrase  in  full,  see  Ps.  xliv.  20, 
Ixxxi.  9).  No  God  but  Jehovah  had 
any  power  for  good  or  for  evil  over 
Israel. — The  expression  seemingly 
admits  the  claims  of  other  gods 
for  other  nations,  but  the  prophets 
sometimes  understate  their  own 
belief,  through  adopting  popular 
phraseology.  According  to  our 
prophet,  the  idols  were  'of  the 
nature  of  nothing  '  (xli.  24).— — 
And  I  am  G"d]  This  is  the  in- 
ference from  all  the  foregoing 
farts.      'And'  =  consequently   (as 


CHAP.  XLIII.] 


ISAIAH. 


277 


are  my  witnesses  (the  oracle  of  Jehovah),  and  I  am  God. 
'^  Also  from  (this)  day  forth  I  am  He,  and  there  is  none 
that  rescueth  out  of  my  hand  ;  I  work,  and  who  can  turn  it 
back  .'' 

'*  Thus  saith  Jehovah  your  Goel,  the  Holy  One  of  Israel, 
For  your  sake  I  ""  have  sent "  unto  Babylon,  and  will  bring 
down  ^  as  fugitives,"^  all  of  them,  and  ^  the  Chaldaeans  into  the 
ships  of  their  shouting,*"  '-^  I,  Jehovah,  your  Holy  One,  the 

«  Send  (i.e.,  will  send),  Driver  [Hebreiv  Tenses,  §  113). 

•1  The  bars  (i.e.,  defences,  or,  possibly,  defenders),  Theodotion,  Vulg. ,  A.  E., 
I>owth.  Henderson,  Luzzatto  fone  vowel-point  different). 

e  The  shouting  of  the  Chaldseans  into  sighing.  Hit  Ew.,  Luzzatto  (one  point 
different). 


xl.  18,  25  (Del.).  '  God'  ;  Hebr. 
V/,  the  Strong  One — the  common 
Semitic  name  for  God. 

'^  Also  from  (this)  day  forth 
.  .  .  ]  A  fresh  fact  is  here  men- 
tioned. Jehovah,  who  had  for  a 
time  withdrawn  Himself,  has  begun 
again  to  iTianifest  Himself;  and  if 
He,  the  unique,  the  unchangeable 
one,  is  at  work,  the  result  is  certain. 

V^ho  can  turn  it  back  ?]  i.e., 

who  can  reverse  it .''  The  same 
phrase  occurs  in  Job  ix.  12,  xi.  10, 
xxiii.  13,  thus  forming  another  of 
the  numerous  affinities  between 
II.  Isaiah  and  Job.  In  Isa.  xiv.  27, 
where  it  also  occurs,  it  closes  a 
prophecy  ;  and  here  too  it  seems 
to  mark  a  secondary  pause  in  the 
discourse. 

"  An  example  of  such  a  work, 

which    no    man    can   reverse. 

Poryour  sake]  i.e.,  not  for  Israel's 
sake  as  Israel,  but  as  the  Servant 

of  Jehovah. X  have  sent]  viz., 

the   destined   instruments    of    my 

vengeance. And    will    hriniir 

down.  .  .]  i.e.,  'and  will  bring 
all  of  them  (viz.,  the  mixed  inul- 
titude  of  merchants  in  Babylon, 
see  on  xiii.  14-22),  and  espe- 
cially ("and"  as  in  ii.  i)  the 
Chaldeans,  down  into  the  ships 
of  their  shouting.'  The  rhythmic 
structure  of  the  verse  obliges  the 
prophet-poet  to  break  up  this 
clause  into  two.  Hence  arises  some 


amount  of  difficulty  in  the  exegesis 
'  To  bring  down,'  if  used  without 
qualification,  would,  in  such  a  con- 
nection, most  naturally  be  referred 
to  the  overthrow  of  proud  Babylon  ; 
comp.  X.  13,  xiv.  II,  15.  But  here 
the  verb  does  not  really  stand  un- 
qualifiedly ;  it  must  be  taken  to- 
gether with  'in  (or  into)  the  ships,' 
and  then  the  phrase  becomes 
analogous  to  '  to  go  down  upon  the 
sea'(.\lii.  10,  &c.)  for  '  to  embark 
on  a  voyage.'  '  The  ships  of  their 
shouting '  is  one  of  those  equivoqties 
in  which  the  prophets  delight.  It 
suggests  that  the  very  ships,  which 
formerly  resounded  with  shouts  of 
exultation,  now  only  echo  with  the 
cries  of  despair,  and  thus  forms  a 
condensed  elegy  on  the  strange 
TrepiTTfTeia  in  the  fortunes  of  the 
Chaldasans.  [The  Hebr.  rinnah^ 
in  fact,  will  bear  both  meanings, 
'  cry  of  joy '  and  '  cry  of  grief,' 
though  when  used,  as  here,  with  a 
suffix,  the  latter  meaning  is  the 
first  which  offers  itself.'  There  is 
a  singularly  exact  parallel  in  xvi. 
9,  10,  where  'the  cry'  {heddd)  is 
used  in  a  similarly  double  sense  of 
the  vintage-cheer  and  the  battle- 
shout.]  Either  reference  (to  re- 
joicing or  to  lamentation)  is  equally 
appropriate  in  this  context.  Baby- 
lonia was  famous  for  its  ships  in 
the  very  earliest  period  of  its  his- 
tory.-     It  was  also  famous  for  its 


'  Dr.  Weir  remarks,  '  rinnah  with  suffixes  never  means  "the  cry  of  joy,"  always 
the  prayer  cry,"  being  found  only  in  the  Psalms,  and  in  Jer.  xiv.  12.' 
'*   Mr.    Boscawen   states    that    the  bhips   of   Ur   and   other  cities  on  the  Persian 


2JS 


ISAIAH. 


[chap,  xliii. 


creator  of  Israel,  your  King.  '''  Thus  saith  Jehovah,  who 
giveth  a  road  through  the  sea,  and  a  path  through  mighty 
waters,  '^  who  bringeth  forth  chariot  and  horse,  army  and 
force — together  they  he  down,  they  cannot  arise,  they  are 
quenched,  they  have  gone  out  as  a  wick  : — '**  Remember  ye 
not  former  things,  and  things  of  aforetime  consider  ye  not. 
'^  Behold,  I  work  out  a  new  thing  ;  already  it  is  shooting 
forth  ;  ^will  ye  not  give  heed  to  it?*"     Yea,  I  will  set  a  road 

'  So  Hitz.,  Ew.,  Weir. — Shall  ye  not  e.vperience  it,  Ges.,  Del.*,  Naeg. 


music,  and  songs  to  the  music  of 
the  cymbal  (.\iv.  ii)  may  well  have 
enlivened  the  voyages  of  its  tra- 
velling merchants.  The  value  of 
its  ships  as  means  of  escape  was 
seen  by  Merodach  Baladan  at  one 
of  the  many  crises  of  his  history.' 
The  Assyrian  annalist  mentions  this 
in  his  usual  dry  way  ;  the  prophet 
is  a  poet  as  well,  and  hears  the 
plaintive  note  of  brave  men  '  cry- 
ing aloud'  (as  x.Kxiii.  7). — The 
flight  of  the  foreign  merchants  from 
the  doomed  city  is  referred  to  twice 
elsewhere;  see  xiii.  14,  xlvii.  15. — 
The  phraseology  of  the  verse  has 
struck  so  many  critics  as  singular, 
that  I  hesitate  to  express  a  strong 
opinion  in  favour  of  the  accuracy 
of  the  text.  But  why  may  not  a 
poet  express  himself  in  an  original 
manner  ?  There  is  nothing  con- 
trary to  usage  in  the  disputed 
words,  and  Hitzig's  and  Ewald's 
attempts  at  correction  are  certainly 
un-Hebraic,  not  to  add  (with  Del.) 

bombastic. rugritives]        The 

Hebr.  word  {bCirtkluDi)  is  uncom- 
mon, but  occurs  again  in  the  same 
sense  in  xxvii.  i,  xv.  5  (probably, 
but  there  is  a  similar  doubt  as  to 
the  reading),  Job  xxvi.  13.  The 
reading  b'rlkhim  '  bars '  does  not 
cohere  well  with  the  context,  and 
involves  a  less  natural  construction. 
vi>.  16-21.  A  fresh  prophecy  of 
redemption,  taking  in  a  much 
wider  field  than  Babylonia.      The 


prophecy  itself  begins  at  t/.  18  ;  it 
is  introduced  by  a  vivid  represen- 
tation of  the  passage  of  the  Is- 
raelites through  the  Red  Sea. 

"Who  ffiveth  a  road]  Not  '  who 
gave,'  but  '  who  giveth '  a  road,  as 
in  the  typical  instance  of  old  (so 
Del.).     Comp.  on  li.  9,  10. 

'*  Remember  ye  not  .  .  .  ]  So 
Jeremiah  (xxiii.  7,  8)  points  to  a 
time  when  the  great  manifestation 
of  the  living  Ciod  shall  no  longer  be 
the  deliverance  from  Egypt,  but 
the  restoration  of  Israel  from  'the 
recesses  of  the  earth.'  (Comp. 
by  all  means  Jer.  iii.  16,  17.) 
Both  to  Jeremiah  and  to  our 
prophet  the  chief  glories  of  the 
second  manifestation  are  spiritual. 
'  I  will  make  a  new  covenant  .  .  . 
I  will  put  my  law  in  their  inward 
parts'  (Jer.  xxxii.  31,  i^).  'They 
shall   tell   out   my  praise'   (?'.   21). 

Former     tbings]      Jehovah's 

past  interpositions  (comp.  xlvi.  9). 

'-'  A  new  tbine]  An  unheard-of 
thing  ;    see  on  xlii.  g,    and   comp. 

Jer.  xx.xi.  22.  Note  the  singular. 

It  is  sbootlng:  fortb]  A  stronger 
statement  than  in  xlii.  9/^.  Either 
events  were  more  advanced  than 
when  the  prophet  penned  that 
verse,  or  he  has  become  more  clear- 
sighted, owing  to  an  increase  of 
faith.  The  latter  alternative  is 
preferable.  Faith,  like  friendship,'- 
gives  intensified  keenness  of  vision. 
Like    other  faculties,    it   grows  by 


Gulf  are  mentioned  in  the  very  earliest  Babylonian  legends  {Athcnautn,  Jiily  20, 
1878). 

'  Schrader,  K.  A.  T.,  pp.  350,  351  ;  F.  P.,  xi.  pp.  51,  52.  I  am  indebted  to 
Dr.  Weir  for  the  illustration. 

-  Alluding  to  Leonora's  bold  reversal  of  a  popular  judgment  : — '  Die  Freundschaft 
isl  gcrecht,'  (ioethe's  Tusso,  i.  i. 


CHAP.  XLIII.]  ISAIAH.  279 

in  the  wilderness,  rivers  in  the  desert.  ^^  The  beasts  of  the 
field  shall  honour  me,  jackals  and  ostriches,  because  I  gave 
waters  in  the  wilderness,  rivers  in  the  desert,  to  give  drink  to 
my  people,  my  elect.  '''  The  people  which  I  have  formed 
unto  me,  they  shall  tell  out  my  praise. 

exercise.  Hence  in  the  words,  the  wild  beasts  shall  put  off  their 
"Will  ye  not  give  heed  to  It?  the  ferocity,  and  by  their  changed 
prophet  calls  upon  his  audience  by  natures  unconsciously  do  honour  to 
a  vigorous  effort  to  see  as  he  sees,  Jehovah.  The  prophet's  best  com- 
and  to  recognise  the  roots  of  the  mentator  is  St.  Francis.  See  fur- 
future  in  the  present.  (In  support  ther  on  xi.  6-9. 
of  the  rend,  see  xl.  21,  xlviii.  6,  7,  ^^  But  it  is  in  Israel  that  this 
Iviii.  3.  The  two  former  passages  moral  regeneration  attains  its 
seem  to  me  decisive.  For  alt.  climax.  They  alone  have  at  once 
rend.  comp.  '  Are  they  not  writ-  the  physical  power  and  the  will 
ten?' i.e.,  '  Surely  they  are  written.)  to  tell  out  my  praise  (comp. 
A  road  In  the  wilderness  .  •  •  ]  Ps.  Ixxix.  13).  Thus  Jehovah's 
A  symbolical  description  of  the  purpose  in  '  forming '  them  shall 
blissful  state  of  the  restored  exiles.  be  attained.  By  '  telling  out ' 
All  their  wants  are  supplied.  The  what  God  has  done  for  them,  and 
wilderness  has  become  like  the  why  He  has  done  it,  they  shall 
garden  of  Eden.  Life  is  one  stately  overcome  the  inner  opposition  of 
procession.  (Comp.  on  xxxv.  8,  the  unconverted  nations.  Comp. 
xl.  II,  xli.  18.)  the  development  of  this  in  i  Pet. 
^°  The  beasts  of  the  field]  Even  ii.  9. 

vv.  22-24.  But  the  opposition  between  the  ideal  and  the  actual  Israel 
forces  itself  upon  the  prophet's  attention,  and  the  tone  of  revelation,  ac- 
cording to  its  wont,  adapts  itself  to  this  altered  mood.  Jehovah  now 
sums  up  the  religious  history  of  the  Exile,  pourtraying  it  as  it  appears 
from  a  distance.  It  is  a  black  picture.  No  doubt  there  were  redeeming 
points  in  this  history,  but  not  enough  to  lighten  the  prevailing  hue  to 
any  appreciable  extent.  T/iese  three  verses  are  among  the  7nost  disputed 
in  II.  Isaiah.  According  to  some  (e.g.,  Hengst.,  Stier,  Naeg.,  Kay),  they 
furnish  strong  evidence  that  the  author  lived  before  the  Babylonian 
Exile  ;  according  to  others  (e.g.,  Ew.,  Del.),  they  prove  that  his  real 
or  assumed  '  standpoint '  is  among  the  exiles  at  Babylon.  The  difficulty 
lies  in  the  interpretation  of  the  first  part  of  v.  23,  and  the  first  part  of  v. 
24.  These  two  clauses  appear  to  deny  absolutely  that  sacrifices  had  been 
offered  by  Israel  to  Jehovah.  Yet  how,  asks  the  former  class  of  commen- 
tators, could  the  exiles  be  charged  with  this  neglect  as  an  offence,  sacrifices 
being  impossible  in  a  foreign  land  (Hos.  iii,  4,  Ps.  li.  18,  19)?  Is  it  not 
the  want  of  faith  and  love  which  is  complained  of,  rather  than  the  neglect 
of  the  outward  form  of  sacrifice  ?  May  not  the  phrase,  '  with  thy  sacri- 
fices thou  hast  not  honoured  me,'  be  compared  with  '  he  that  slaughtereth 
an  ox  (for  sacrifice)  is  (equal  to)  a  man-slayer'  (Ixvi.  3),  where  we  must 
apparently  understand  the  words  '  in  a  formal,  unspiritual  manner '  1  On 
this  vievv^  of  the  passage  the  complaint  will  be  equivalent  to  the  indignant 
question  in  i.  11,  '  Of  what  use  is  the  multitude  of  your  sacrifices  to  me.^ 
saith  Jehovah'?  I  do  not  myself  accept  this  interpretation,  because  it 
seems  inconsistent  with  the  latter  part  of  v.  23,  in  which  Jehovah  declares 


28o  ISAIAH.  [chap.  XLlll. 

that  the  sacriticial  system  altogether  was  no  part  of  his  requirements 
(comp.  Jer.  vi.  20,  vii.  21-23).  The  neglect  of  sacrifices  does  not  appear 
to  me  to  be  charged  against  the  people  as  an  offence.  The  point  of  the 
complaint  is,  that  the  religious  duties  of  the  Jews  being  so  very  light, 
there  was  no  possible  excuse  for  neglecting  them.  Prayer  was  the  only 
form  of  worship  which  Jehovah  required.  How  this  can  have  been  said 
by  a  prophet  who  had  before  him  an  authoritative  sacrificial  code  is,  no 
doubt,  a  difficult  question.  Such  passages  as  the  present  and  as  Jer.  vii. 
21,  23  indicate  that  the  Levitical  code,  in  its  present  form,  was  probably 
not  known,  and  certainly  not  regarded  as  authoritative,  by  either  of  the 
prophetic  writers.  They  may.  however,  perhaps  be  explained  on  the 
theory  of  oratorical  exaggeration  (see  my  Jeretniah,  on  vii.  21-23).  But, 
at  any  rate,  Ewald  and  Delitzsch  are  as  mistaken  as  Hengstenberg  in 
thinking  that  our  passage  is  at  all  decisive  as  to  the  real  or  assumed 
'  standpoint '  of  the  writer. 

'^-But  ^thou  hast  not  called  upon  me,^  O  Jacob,  ^' much 
less  hast  thou  wearied  thyself  about  me,''  O  Israel.  ^'Thou 
hast  not  brought  nie  the  sheep  of  thy  burnt-offerings,  and 
with  thy  sacrifices  thou  hast  not  honoured  me  ;  I  have  not 
made  a  slave  of  thee  with  offerings,  nor  wearied   thee  with 

p  Upon  me  thou  hast  not  called,  Del.,  Kay,  Weir. 

''  Yea,  thou  hast  been  wear)'  of  me,  Calv.,  Naeg.,  V\'eir. 

"^  Thou  hast  not  called  upon  is  probablyfor  the  sake  of  euphony ; 

me]     The  Jews   in  exile  are  here  comp.  I.  Sam.  ii.  3,  Qri,  Ps.  vii.  14, 

charged  with  the  neglect  of  prayer  Ixiii.  9,  cxxxix.  17,  Jer.  xxxi.  8,  in  the 

to    Jehovah.      That'  there    was    a  Hebrew.     I  do  not  think  it  can  be 

faithful  section  of  the  nation,  which  emphatic,  otherwise  v.  22  a  will  not 

poured  out  its  heart  before    God,  be  parallel  to?'.  23  a.— — Hast  thou 

we  know  from  the  group  of  Exile-  wearied  thyselt]    Note  the  paral- 

psalms,  and  perhaps  from  I  sa.xxvi.  lelism  between  the  second  halves 

16.     There  is  also  a  later  passage  of  this  and  the  two  liext  verses. 

in  II.  Isaiah  (Iviii.  2-4),  which  im-  '"  Thou  hast  not  brought  me 

plies  that,  when  the   hope  of  de-  •  •  •  ]     This  looks  like  an  accusa- 

liverance  dawned  upon  the  Jews,^  tion,  but  must  be  taken  as  qualified 

many  of  them  put  up  at  least  for-  by  the  second  half  of  the   verse. 

mal  petidons  to  Jehovah.     But  the      The    sheep  .  .  .  ]      Alluding 

statement  of  the  revelation  is  doubt-  to  the  daily  morning  and  evenmg 

less    true    of  the    majority   of  the  sacrifice.— The  three  kinds  of  sa- 

exiles  during  the  greater  part  of  the  crifices— burnt-offerings,  peace-  or 

Captivity.— Alt.  rend,  is  explained  thank-offerings,  and  meal-offerings, 

by   Del.  as  meaning   that    'Israel  and  the    incense,  are   grouped  as 

could  exert  itself  to  cmII  upon  other      in  Jer.  xvii.  26  (Stier). X  have 

gods,  but   not   upon  Jehovah  ; '  by  not  made  a  slave  of  thee  with 

Calv.'  and    Vim,   that   its    prayers  offerings]     Sacrifices  fell  through 

were  purely  formal,  and  therefore  during  the  Exile  (see  above).     But 

not  accepted  by  God  (comp.  Zech.  it  is  also  possible  to  explain  this 

vii.  5).     In  the  Hebr.  'me'  is  pre-  passage  on  the  analogy  of  Jer.  vi. 

fixed  ('  But  not  me,'  &c.),  but  this  20,  vii.  21-23. 

1   1  accept  for  the  present  the  view  whi.h  has  become  traditional,  that  the  dcsciip- 
tiun  in  chap.  Iviii.  relates  to  an  episode  in  the  life  of  the  Jewish  exiles. 


CHAP.  XLIll.] 


ISAIAH. 


281 


incense.  ^*  Thou  hast  not  bought  me  sweet  cane  with  money, 
and  with  the  fat  of  thy  sacrifices  thou  hast  not  sated  me  ; 
thou  hast  altogether  made  a  slave  of  me  with  thy  sins,  and 
wearied  me  with  thine  iniquities.  ^^  I,  even  I,  blot  out  thy 
rebellions  for  my  own  sake,  and  thy  sins  I  will  not  remember. 
^  Call  to  my  remembrance,  let  us  plead  together :  recount 
thou,  that  thou  mayest  appear  righteous.     ^^  Thy  first  father 


'^*  Sweet    cane]     This    was    an 
ingredient    in   the   holy   anointing 

oil  (Ex.  XXX.  23). The  fat  .  .  .] 

i.e.  the  fat  pieces  described  in  Lev. 


iii. "Wearied  me]      The  same 

expression  is  used  in  a  similar  con- 
text in  Mai.  ii.  17. 


vv.  25-28.  Here  the  connection  becomes  clear  again.  Jehovah  is  still 
the  speaker  ;  he  offers  Israel  a  free  pardon.  Israel,  on  his  side,  hesitates 
to  admit  his  need  of  it.  Jehovah  replies  by  calling  upon  Israel  to  mention 
his  supposed  meritorious  works.  But  Israel  has  no  such  works  to  men- 
tion. On  the  contrary,  as  Jehovah  reminds  him,  he  has  been  a  sinner 
from  the  beginning.  This  is  the  true  cause  of  Israel's  present  humiliation. 


^^  Call   to    my    remembrance] 

See  last  note.  Dr.  Weir  suggests 
a  new  interpretation.  '  Do  not  the 
words  rather  mean — Only  put  me 
in  mind  of  thy  relation  to  me,  and 
of  my  promises  to  thee,  my  Servant, 
recount  what  I  have  already  done 
for  thee  as  my  Servant,  that  through 
my  grace  thou  mayst  be  justified 
and  saved  .f"  (Comp.  the  use  of  the 
same  verb  in  Ixii.  6,  Ixiii.  7.)  He 
thus  obtains  a  closer  connection 
with  the  last  verse  :  'Thy  sins  I 
will  not  remember  ;  only  thou  put 
me  in  mind  of  my  promise,  and 
plead  with  me  on  that  ground.' 

-^  Thy  first  father  .  .  .  ]  The 
general  sense  is  that  of  Ps.  li.  5,  if 
the  speaker  there  is  a  representative 
of  the  nation.  '  Father '  may  ( i )  = 
founder  of  the  nation,  as  Gen.  x. 
21,  &c.  ;  and  the  founder  of  the 
Jewish  nation  may  be  either  (a) 
Abraham  (Rashi,  Stier,  Del.,Naeg.), 
comp.  li.  2,  Ixiii.  16,  Matt.  iii.  9, 
or  (b)  Jacob  (Ew.,  Seinecke,  H. 
Schultz,  Kay),  comp.  Iviii.  14,  and 
the  common  phrase,  '  children  of 
Israel.'  Of  the  two,  Jacob  is  much 
the  more  probable,  for  Abraham 
is  too  emphatically  canonised  by 


the  voice  of  prophecy  (see  xli.  8) 
to  be  described  here  as  the  first 
sinner,  whereas  certain  events  in 
Jacob's  life  were  felt  by  the  pro- 
phets to  be  spots  on  the  fair  fame 
of  that  patriarch ;  see  Jer.  ix.  4,  and 
comp.  John  i.  47,  'in  truth  a  guile- 
less son  of  Israel'  (spoken  with  a 
lofty  irony).  Or  (2)  'father' may 
be  a  collective  = '  fathers  ' ;  comp. 
Gen.  xxxi.  29,  42,  53  (.?),  Ex.  iii.  6, 
XV.  2,  xviii.  4.  In  this  case,  the 
'fathers'  of  Israel  will  be  either 
their  ancestors  (Ges.),  or  the  lead- 
ers of  the  nation  in  matters  civil 
(xxii.  21)  and  religious'  (Judges 
xvii.  10,  2  Kings  ii.  12).  The  latter 
view  is  taken  by  Sept.  ('  your  first 
fathers''),  and  among  moderns  by 
Hengst.  and  Henderson  (the  high 
priests  collectively  from  Aaron 
onwards),  but  is  opposed  by  the 
occurrence  of  a  plural  in  the  parallel 
line.  Of  less  likely  conjectures,  I  will 
only  mention  these  three.  Kimchi, 
followed  by  Hitz.,  Knob.,  Merx 
{Hiob,  p.  iv.),  Pusey  {Datitel,  p. 
407),  thinks  of  Adam ;  Vitr.  of 
Uriah,  the  High  Priest  in  the  reign 
of  Ahaz  (2  Kings  xvi.  10-16)  ;  Luz- 
zatto   of  the   sons  of  Jeshua   the 


'  Is  it  more  than  a  mere  coincidence  that  db,  which  in  Hebrew  means  (doubtless 
primarily)  'father,'  in  Egyptian  has  the  ordinary  sense  of  'priest'?  (Sec  Pierret's 
Vocabulairc  hieroglyphijue,  s.  \'. ) 


282 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  XLIV. 


sinned,  and  thy  mediators  rebelled  against  me  ;  '^^  therefore  I 
'profaned  consecrated  princes,  and  delivered  up'  Jacob  to  the 
ban,  and  Israel  to  reproaches. 


»  So  Sept.,  Pesh.,  Vulg.— Will  profane  . 
Targ.,  Hengst,  Slier,  Naeg. 

High  Priest  in  Ezra's  time,  who 
offended  by  taking  foreign  wives 
(Ezra  X.  i8).  The  reader  will  have 
gathered  that  I  myself  agree  with 

Ewald    (see    above    i  d). Thy 

mediators]  The  'interpreters'  (so 
literally),  i.e.,  '  mediators' or 'am- 
bassadors' (the  rendering  of  A.  V. 
in  2  Chron.  xxxii.  31),  are  the  pro- 
phets and  the  priests,  especially 
the  former.  The  intercession  of  a 
prophet  is  sometimes  described  as 
effectual  in  the  greatest  perils  of 
the  nation  (Ps.  cvi.  23,  comp.  Ex. 
xxxii.  10-14,  31,  32)),  though  before 
the  Exile,  Jeremiah  is  told  that 
the  prayer  of  the  greatest  prophets 
could  not  then  avert  the  punish- 
ment of  Judah  (xv.  i,  comp.  xi.  14). 
Both  classes  of  passages  prepare  us 
for  the  announcement  of  a  higher 
Mediator,  in  whom  Jehovah   is  so 


will  deliver  up,  Hebr.  pointed  text, 

'  well  pleased '  that  he  cannot  re- 
fuse to  accept  his  intercession  (liii. 
12).  The  word  rendered  'mediator' 
{mcIiO  is  also  used  of  an  angel  of 
high  rank  specially  friendly  to  man. 

Job  xxxiii.  23. Rebelled  agralnst 

xne]  See  Jeremiah's  denunciation 
of  the  deceitful  prophets  (Jer. 
xxiii). 

'•'®  I  profaned]  i.e.,  '  treated  as 
holding  no  relation  to  me' (Jeho- 
vah) ;  so  xlvii.  6.  (The  reading 
of  the  pointed  text  assumes  that 
the  profanation  is  future  ;  comp.  on 
Ixiii.  3,  6.     So  the  Targum.     See, 

however,  xlii.  25). Consecrated 

princes]  i.e.,  (l)  the  chief  priests, 
who  are  called  by  this  ver>'  title 
in  I  Chron.  xxiv.  5  ;  (2)  the  kings 
Jehoiakim  and  Zedekiah,  who  had 
received  the  'holy  oil'  (Ps.  Ixxxix. 
20). 


CHAPTER  XLIV. 

Vv.  1-5.  But  let  not  the  true  Israel  be  discouraged.  '  It  is  a  light  thing' 
that  he  shall  pass  uninjured  through  the  judgments  which  are  coming 
upon  the  world  (xliii.  2),  and  even  that  the  grievous  dispersion  caused  by 
the  various  captivities  shall  have  an  end.  A  nobler  object  of  ambition  is 
to  be  placed  before  him — the  introduction  of  the  heathen  nations  within 
the  circle  of  higher  spiritual  influences.  Success  is  assured  to  him  by  one 
of  the  grandest  Divine  promises. 

These  verses  ought  to  have  formed  part  of  the  preceding  chapter, 
with  which  the  two  first  words  connect  it.  The  error  in  the  current 
division  of  the  chapters  is  owing  to  the  analog}'  of  the  opening  of  chap, 
xliii.  But  though  there  is  a  similar  transition,  similarly  introduced,  at 
the  head  of  both  chapters,  there  is  a  manifest  break  in  the  discourse 
at  the  end  of  xliv.  5,  which  makes  it  entirely  misleading  to  continue  the 
chapter. 

'  But  now  hear,  O  Jacob  my  servant ;  and  Israel,  whom  I 
have  chosen.     ^Thus  saith  Jehovah,  thy  creator,  and  he  that 

'  Jesburnn]    Rather  Veshi'/run.       salem  has  a  second  name  among 
A  synonym  for  Israel.    Justasjeru-       her  intimates— Ariel  (xxix.  1,2,7), 


CHAP.  XLIV.] 


ISAIAH. 


283 


formed  thee  *  from  the  womb,  who  will  help  thee  "  ;  Fear  not, 
my  servant  Jacob,  and  thou,  Jeshurun,  whom  I  have  chosen  ; 
^  for  I  will  pour  water  upon  him  that  is  thirsty,  and  streams 
upon  the  dry  ground  ;  I  will  pour  my  Spirit  upon  thy  seed, 
and  my  blessing  upon  thy  offspring  ;  *  and  they  shall  shoot  up, 
•^as  grass  between  the  waters,''  as  poplars  by  water-courses. 
*  This  one  shall  say,  'I  am  Jehovah's,'  and  that  one  ''shall 

»  (So  accents.)     Who  helpeth  thee  from  the  womb,  Targ.,  Vulg.,  Vitr.,  Ges.  ' 

^  So  Sept.,  Lo.,  Evv.— Hei)r.  text.  Amidst  the  grass. 

<=  So  Symm.,  Lo.,  Bi.  (pomting  differently)  ;  shall  celebrate,  or,  proclaim,  TEXT. 


SO  Israel  has  an  alternative  appel- 
lation with  his  Divine  friend.  In 
the  earlier  name — Israel  — the  mili- 
tant character  of  Jehovah's  people 
was  brought  prominently  forward  ; 
in  the  new  name  it  is  the  moral 
attribute  of  uprightness  which  is 
emphasised,  corresponding  to  the 
new  office  of  teacher  conferred 
upon  the  spiritual  Israel.  Thus 
there  are  three  names  for  Jehovah's 
people,  Jacob  — Israel- Jeshurun, 
and  each  represents  a  separate 
phase  of  moral  progress.  —  The 
meaning  of  Jeshurun  (a  derivative 
of  }'ds/it.ir,  '  upright ')  is  the  Upright 
One.^  'Uprightness,'  indeed,  is  the 
constant  burden  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment :^the  ethical  character  of  its 
religion  is  the  source  of  its  vitality. 
In  Num.  xxiii.  10, '  Israel '  and  '  the 
upright '  are  even  used  synony- 
mously ;  and  a  collection  of  tradi- 
tions and  lyric  poems  relative  to 
model  Israelites  received  the  appel- 
lation, 'The  Book  of  the  Righteous 
One'  (Auth.  Vers,  'the  lio.k  of 
Jasher').^ — The  name  Jeshurun  only 
occurs  again  in  the  'Song  of  Moses' 
and  the  'Blessing  of  Moses'  (I)eut. 
xxxii.  I  5,  xxxiii.  5,  26).  - — -Whom  I 
have  chosen]  The  addition  illus- 
trates the  meaning  of  the  word 
Jeshurun.  It  is  an  'imputed  right- 
eousness (or,  uprightness) '  which 
is  the  ground  of  Israel's  election 


(Stier).  Israel  is  regarded  in  the 
flower,  and  not  in  the  bud. 

^  Z  wHl  pour  water]  See  on  xli. 
17,  18,  and  comp.  the  transition  in 
Joel  ii.  23-28  from  the  gift  of  rain 

to  the  outpouring  of  the  Spirit. 

I  will  pour  my  Spirit]  What  it 
is  to  have  the  Spirit  of  Jehovah  we 
know  from  xi.  2,  3,  and  especially 
from  xlii.  1-4.  It  is  to  be  full  of 
the  knowledge  and  fear  of  God, 
and  to  make  the  world-wide  spread 
of  the  true  religion  the  chief  object 
of  life.  After  such  a  promise  has 
been  given  in  this  half-verse,  we 
are  bound  not  to  interpret  the  next 
verse  too  narrowly,  as  if  it  meant 
no  more  than  Zech.  ix.  ly  (Q.  F.  B.), 

Upon    thy    seed]     And    who 

are  the  '  seed  '  of  Jacob  ?  See  v.  5 
for  the  answer. 

■•  As  grass]  Grass  is  generally 
used  as  an  image  of  what  is  tran- 
sient and  soon  withers,  but  now  and 
then  of  an  abundant  growth,  as  in 

Jobv.  25,  Ps.  Ixxii.  16. The  Sept. 

reading  completes  the  parallelism, 
and  restores  symmetry  to  the  para- 
graph.— As  poplars]  Not '  willows ;' 
see  Wetzstem  'in  Del.'s  comment- 
ary on  the  passage.  The  same  word 

as    in    XV.    7. Water-courses] 

Artificially  conducted  streams. 

^  The  stunted  spiritual  condition 
even  of  the  few  believers  in  Israel 
shall  be  remedied  (vv.  3,  4).     But 


'  Joshunm  is  often  stated  to  be  a  diminutive  (e.g.,  by  Ges.,  Hitz.,  Ew.,  Hender- 
son), but  on  very  weak  grounds,  Are  Zebulun  and  |edithun  diminutives?  and  would 
'  my  pious  little  one  '  (Ewald  renders  it  Frommcheii)  bo  in  harmony  with  the  fatherly 
seriousness  of  Jehovah's  language  ?  It  is  simply  a  personal  name,  as  Justus  Olshausen, 
Delitzsch,  and  (in  his  academical  lectures)  Dr.  Pusey,  rightly  regard  it. 

■^  Unless  we  .should,  with  the  Syriac  (Josh.  x.  13),  read  sefer  hash-shir,  '  the  Song- 
bcjok.' 


284 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  xliv. 


be  called  by  *=  the  name  of  Jacob,  and  that  one  shall  ^  mark 
on  his  hand,**  *  Jehovah's,'  and  ^  be  titled  by  ®  the  name  of 
Israel. 

<'  So  Sept.,  Lo.,  Hitz.,  Kn.— Write  with  his  hand,  Vitr.,  Ges.,  Ew.,  Del. 
•  So  Targ. ,  Lo.,  Bi.  (poiniing  differently) ;  use  for  a  title.  Text. 


how  ?  This  is  explained  in  the 
next  verse.  It  is  not  merely  the 
'seed'  of  believers  in  a  natural 
sense  to  which  the  outpouring  of 
the  Spirit  is  guaranteed  {v.  3),  but 
the  whole  body  of  believers  in  the 
coming  Messianic  age.  '  God  is 
able  of  these  stones  to  raise  up 
children  unto  Abraham'  (Matt.  iii. 

9).    Comp.  on  xlv.  25. This  one 

sball  say  •  •  •  ]  (Obs.,  the  first 
and  the  third  clauses  correspond, 
the  second  and  the  fourth.)  The 
prophet  is  so  full  of  the  idea  of  a 
comprehensive  Church  of  Jehovah, 
that  without  any  warning  he  trans- 
ports us  into  the  midst  of  the 
thronging  Jewish  proselytes.'  The 
description  reminds  us  somewhat  of 
Ps.  Ixxxvii.  4,  5  (already  compared 
by  Vitr.),  where  the  representatives 
of  the  heathen  nations  are  described 
as  being  born  anew  in  Zion.  Comp. 
also  Zech.  viii.  23  (referred  to  by 

'many'   in    Ibn  Ezra's   time). 

Celebrate  •  •  •  ]    See    on    xii.    4. 

Mark  on    his  handj    i.e.,  to 

express  his  devotion  to  his  new- 
found God.  Such  sacred  marks 
seem  to  have  been  once  very  pre- 
valent in  Palestine,  and  the  Damas- 
cene ladies  retain  the  habit  of 
tattooing  hands,  feet,  chin,  forehead, 
and  breast.'^  Such  a  prohibition  as 
Lev.  xix.  28  ('  nor  print  any  marks 
upon  you ')  could  never  have  been 
carried  out  absolutely,  and  probably 
referred  merely  to  heathenish  tat- 


tooing (see  the  context,  and  Deut. 
xiv.  i).  Our  prophet,  however, 
though  he  presupposes  the  custom 
of  tattooing,  of  course  does  not 
mean  to  be  taken  literally.  Similar 
phrases  are  used  elsewhere.  For 
instance,  '  I  bear  the  marks  of  Jesus 
in  my  body'  (Gal.  vi.  17).  '  Mark 
a  cross  upon  the  foreheads  of  the 
men  who  sigh  and  groan  over  all 
the  abominations  which  take  place 
in  their  midst'  (Ezek.  ix.  4,  so  Rev, 
vii.  3,  ix.  4,  xiii.  16,  xiv.  1,9).  'And 
it  shall  be  for  a  sign  unto  thee  upon 
thine  hand,  and  for  a  memorial  be 
tween  thine  eyes '  (Ex.  xiii.  9,  which 
is  not  to  be  violently  harmonized 
with  Deut.  vi.  8).  '  Behold,  I  have 
graven  thee  upon  the  palms  of  my 
hands'(xlix.  16,  see  note).  The  rend, 
'write  with  his  hand'  (i.e.  subscribe 
to  a  solemn  form  of  dedication  to 
Jehovah,  comp.  Neh.  ix.,  x.)  is  not 
without  a  theological  bearing.  It 
seems  intended  to  exclude  any 
favourable  allusion  to  a  custom  of 
heathenish  origin.  That  tattooing  is 
such  a  custom  cannot  be  doubted; 
see  Herod,  ii.  113,  vii.  235,  Lucian 
de  ded  syr.^  59,  and  comp.  the 
sacred  marks  on  the  Vishnavite 
sects  in  India,  and  Waltz's  instruc- 
tive remarks  on  Polynesian  tattoo- 
ing.^ But  such  Puritanism  is  un- 
historical.  The  Biblical  religion  is 
not  that  'exclusive  and  unsympa- 
thetic faith'  which  Positivists  repre- 
sent it  to  be.     See  further  crit.  note. 


1  It  has  been  doubted  whether  Judaism  can  be  called  a  proselytising  religion. 
(See  Prof.  Max  M  filler's  lecturer  on  Mhsions.)  We  should  certainly  expect  it  a  priori 
to  be  so  ;  such  fervent  monotheism  could  not  help  endeavouring  to  extend  its  sway. 
The  words  of  the  above  revelation,  moreover,  certiiinlv  regard  it  as  being  such,  for 
converts  imply  missionaries.  Yet  the  evidence  for  the  post-Captivity  periods  is,  I 
admit,  conflicting,  and  does  not  allow  a  generalisation.  Wiinsche  says  there  is  no 
evidence  in  the  Talmud  that  the  Pharisees  were  greedy  of  proselytes,  but  Matt,  xxiii. 
15,  must  have  some  foundition  (the  school  of  Hillel  seems  to  have  been  more  favour- 
able to  aspirants  than  that  of  Shammii).  The  Je«s  of  the  Dispersion  certainly  were 
pro'elyti/ers.  In  Damascus,  in  Arabin,  on  the  shores  of  the  Caspian,  in  Asia  Minor, 
in  Greece  and  Rome,  the  attraction  exercised  by  Judaism  is  as  certain  a  fact  as  any  in 
history. 

*  Orelli,  Durck's  Heili^^e.  Land,  p.  281. 

5  Anthropologic  der  XatuiiTlker,  vi.  36,  37. 


CHAP.  XLIV.j 


ISAIAH. 


vv.  6-28.— C^w/^w/j.— Jehovah,  the  God  of  prophecy,  contrasted  with 
the  manufactured  gods  of  the  deluded  heathen.  A  fresh  appeal  to  prophecy, 
culminating  in  the  prediction  of  the  rebuilding  of  Jerusalem  through  the 
favour  of  Cyrus. 

^Thus  saith  Jehovah,  the  King  of  Israel,  and  his  Goel 
Jehovah  Sabaoth  ;  I  am  the  first  and  I  am  the  last,  and 
beside  me  there  is  no  God.  '^And  who  calleth  as  I,  (let  him 
declare  it  and  expound  it  unto  me,)  since  I  placed  ^the 
people  of  antiquity*"?  and  future  things,  and  things  that  shall 

*■  The  everlasting  people,  Ew.,  Naeg. 


Be   titled  .  .  .  ]    '  Israel '   or 

*  Son  of  Israel'  shall  be  regarded 
henceforth  as  the  most  honourable 
title  which  a  man  can  bear. — It  is 
a  peculiar  kind  of  title  which  is  re- 
ferred to,  analogous  to  the  Roman 
cognomen,  and  still  more  closely 
to  the  kunya  of  men  of  distinction 
among  the  Arabs,  which  generally 
has  a  political  or  religious  signifi- 
cance (e.g.,  Salakh-eddin,i.e.,'salus 
religionis')-  The  verb  used  in  the 
Hebrew  {kinnah)  is  radically  the 
same  ;  from  it  is  derived  in  later 
Hebrew  kjnnuy  (i.e.,  a  cognomen 
or  agnomen,  though  not  specially 
in  an  honourable  sense).  It  occurs 
again  in  the  same  sense  in  xlv.  4, 

;  and  in  Job  xxxii.  21,  22,  in  that  of 
'to  flatter'  (Auth.  Vers.  'Give 
flattering  titles ').' 

®  Here  begins  one  of  the  prin- 
cipal sections  of  the  prophecy.  It 
is  prefaced  by  a  short  and  simple 
but  majestic  proclamation  of  Je- 
hovah concerning  His  being.  lam 
the  first  and  I  am  tbe  last]  '  I  am 
before  all  things,  and  shall  still 
endure  though  all  creation  pass 
away.'  So  xlviii.  12  ;  comp.  the 
slightly  different  form  of  expres- 
sion in  xli.  4,  and  Rev.  i.  8,  17, 
xxii.  13.  'The  last'  has  here  the 
same  sense  as  in  Job  xix.  25  (see 
Q.  P.  B.) 

'  The  eternity  of  Jehovah  in- 
volves his  sole  ability  to  foretell  the 

future. And  who  calletb  .  .  .  ] 

Or,  '  who  is  wont  to  call '  (i.e., 
prophesy,  xl.  2).     '  And '  is  expla- 


natory. The  prophecies  of  Jehovah 
(i.e.,  inspired  by  Jehovah)  reach 
back  to  the  'placing'  of  tbe 
people    of   antiquity  ...       It    is 

doubted  whether  the  latter  phrase 
means  the  Jews  (Vitr.,  Ges.,  Kay, 
Weir),  or  the  first  inhabitants  of 
the  world  (Ibn  Ezra,  Kimchi,  Hitz., 
Del.).  Dr.Weirthinksthat  'thecom- 
parison  <^iv.  8  shows  that  Jehovah 
is  here  appealing  to  the  long-con- 
tinued experience  of  his  people  in 
the  past  ;  and  therefore  the  point 
indicated  in  "  since  I  placed,  &c.," 
is  the  call  of  Abraham.'  In  sup- 
port of  this  view  he  very  aptly 
quotes  the  expression  in  Ixiii.  11, 
'  The  days  of  old  (or  of  antiquity), 
of  Moses.'  If,  however,  the  Jews 
are  to  be  brought  in,  it  seems  better 
to  adopt  Ewald's  rendering,  '  the 
everlasting  people,'  with  reference 
to  the  '  everlasting  covenant '  (Ex. 
xxxi.  16),  the  '  everlasting  priest- 
hood' (Ex.  xl.  15),  and  the  ever- 
lasting kingdom  (2  Sam.  vii.  13, 
16),  promised  to  the  people  of 
Israel.  Such  a  description  of  the 
Jews  is  fine  and  poetical,  and  not 
out  of  harmony  with  the  context 
(see  Stier).  It  suggests  the  ever- 
lastingness  of  God's  people,  in  op- 
position to  the  proximate  fall  of 
the  idolatrous  nations,  as  arising 
naturally  out  of  its  relation  to 
prophecy  and  to  'the  everlasting 
God '  (xl.  28).  But  I  cannot  help 
thinking  with  Del.  that,  if  Israel 
had  been  meant,  it  would  have 
been  more  directly  mentioned.  Our 


1  See,  besides  the  late-Hebrew  Lexicon  oi  Ruvtorf  or  Levy,  Ewald's  Lehrbuch  der 
heir.  Spracke,  §  271,  273. 


286 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  xtjv. 


come,  let  them  announce.  *  Shudder  ye  not,  neither  be  ye 
terrified  ;  have  I  not  long  since  caused  thee  to  hear  it,  and 
announced  it  ?  indeed  ye  are  my  witnesses  ;  is  there  a  God 
besides  me  ?  (Nay,)  and  there  is  no  Rock  ;  I  know  of  none. 
^  They  who  fashion  images  are  all  of  them  chaos,  and  their 
objects  of  delight  cannot  profit,  and  their  witnesses  are 
without  sight  and  without  knowledge,  in  order  that  they  may 
be  ashamed.     "^  Who  fashioneth  a  god,  and  casteth  an  image 

to  no  profit .?    "  Behold,  all  its  associates  shall  be  ashamed, 

and  as  for  the  craftsmen — they  are  of  men.     Let  them  all  of 


prophet,  as  we  have  seen  already, 
takes  a  singularly  wide  view  of  the 
course  of  history,  and  the  com- 
parison of  a  passage  in  the  Book 
of  Job  (so  rich  in  phraseological 
and  doctrinal  parallels),  where  the 
manner  of  life  of  the  antediluvian 
men  is  called  '  the  way  of  antiquity ' 
(A.  v.,  'the  old  way'),  confirms 
the  view  adopted  above.  I  sup- 
pose, then,  the  Divine  speaker  to 
affirm  that  the  succession  of 
prophets  goes  back  to  the  creation 
of  man — a  statement  which  agrees 
with  the  Book  of  Genesis,  and 
seems  to  be  repeated  in  xlviii.  i6 

(see  note). Placed  implies  that 

the  creation  of  man  had  a  pur- 
pose, viz.,  the  same  to  which  all 
prophecy  points  —  the  conscious 
and  intelligent  glorification  of  God. 

People    is    here   used    in    the 

same  sense  as  inxlii.  5. Thing-s 

tbat  shall  come]  Not  merely  things 
pretended  as  future,  but  such  as 
shall  actually  come  to  pass  (Naeg.). 

^  Shudder  ye  not]  Viz.,  at  the 
convulsions  of  the  Asiatic  nations. 

Z  know  of  none]     Elsewhere 

it  is  the  insult  to  his  glory  vvhich 
the  Divine  pleader  emphasises  ; 
here  the  injury  done  by  idolaters  to 
themselves.  If  there  were  another 
Rock  of  Ages,  Jehovah  would  not 
complain ;  but  as  his  being  is 
unique,  it  pains  him  that  men  will 
not  have  him  for  a  God  (Luther 
and  Stier). 

«  Chaos]     See  on  xxiv.  10. 

Their  objects  of  deiigrht]  In  a 
religious  sense,  as  Ixiv.  11,  Lam. 
i.  10.      Comp.  i.  29. Their  wit- 


nesses] i.e.,  the  witnesses  on  be- 
half of  the  idols — the  heathen,  as 
opposed  to  Jehovah's  witnesses — 

the  Jews  (7'.8). Thattbey  may 

he  ashamed]  The  consequence 
of  the  action  is  described  as  if  it 
had  formed  part  of  the  intention  of 
the  agent  ;  comp.  vi.  9,  xxviii.    13, 

XXX.    I. 

'°  "Who  fashioneth  a  Cod]     An 

image  can  doubtless  be  produced 
by  art,  but  who  can  think  of 
fashioning  an  image  into  a  god  ? 
'  Quis  nisi  demens'  (Grotius). 

"  ilill  its  associates]  A  khd- 
bher  is  a  member  of  a  k/iS/ier,  i.e., 
a  company,  guild,  or  society  (e.g., 
as  in  the  Mishna,  of  the  guild  of 
the  Pharisees)  ;  comp.  Hos.  vi.  9, 
where  the  priests  of  the  kingdom  of 
Israel  are  called  a  k/iS/ier.  Here 
the  prophet  means  the  worbhippers 
of  the  idol,  who  together  formed  a 
kind  of  guild,  and  by  partaking  of 
the  sacrificial  meals  were  brought 
into  a  mystical  union  with  the  god 
whom  they  worshipped  :  comp.  Ps. 
cvi.  28,  '  They  yoked  themselves  to 
Baal-Pcor'  ;  Hos.  iv.  17,  '  Ephraim 
is  {kJiabhilr)  in  association  with 
idols  ; '  I  Cor.  x.  20,  '  I  would  not 
have  you  become  associates  w-ith 
demons  ; '  Mark  i.  23,  '  a  man 
fastened  to  {fv  =  i\\G  Beth  societatis) 
an  unclean  spirit.'  With  regard  to 
this  mystical  union,  see  further  on 

i.  21. They  are  of  men]  i.e.,  of 

human  origin,  and  how  should  men 

make   their   maker? let  them 

.  .  .  assemble]  Let  the  members 
of  the  guild  combine  to  defend 
their  head. 


CHAP.  XI.IV.]  ISAIAH,  2S7 

them  assemble,  come  forward,  shudder,  be  ashamed  at  once. 
^^  ^  The  smith  sharpeneth  an  axe,^  and  worketh  in  the  coals, 
and  with  hammers  he  fashioneth  it  ;  he  worketh  it  with  his 
powerful  arm  ;  he  is  hungry  also,  and  hath  no  strength  ;  he 
drinketh  no  water,  and  is  faint.  '^  The  carpenter  stretcheth 
out  a  line,  he  sketcheth  it  with  ^a  sharp  tool'' ;  he  finisheth 
it  with  planes,  and  marketh  it  out  with  compasses  ;  and 
maketh  it  like  the  human  figure,  like  the  beauty  of  man,  to 
dwell  in  the  house.  '*  ^  He  heweth  him  down  *  cedars,  and 
taketh  the  ilex  and  the  oak,  and  ^  fixeth  his  choice  on  ^  trees 
of  the  forest  ;  he  planteth  a  pine,  and  the  rain  maketh  it 
grow  ;  '^  and  it  serveth  for  men  to  burn,  he  taketh  of  them 
and  warmeth  himself ;  also  he  kindleth  a  fire,  and  baketh 
bread  ;  also  he  worketh  it  into  a  god,  and  boweth  down  ;  he 
maketh  it  into  an  image,  and  worshippeth  it.  ^^  Half  thereof 
he  burneth  in  the  fire  ;  with  half  thereof  he  eateth  flesh  ;  he 
roasteth  roast,  and  is  satisfied ;  also  he  warmeth  himself, 
and  saith,  Aha !  I  am  warm,  I  '  feel  the  flame ;  ^^  and  the 
remainder  of  it  he  maketh  into  a  god,  into  his  image  :  he 

e  So  Sept.,  Del.,  Weir. — Hebr.  text,  The  smith  an  axe. 
•>  Red  chalk,  Kimchi,  Vitr. 

'  So  Ew.  (changing  a  letter). — Hebr.  text,  To  hew  down  (or,  possibly.   He  pre- 
pareth  to  hew  down,  Del. ). 
k  Reareth  him  some,  Ew. 
^  Lit.  see. 

u,  IS  ^   specimen   of  the  '  grim  and  misbelievers.    The  description 

and   caustic'  Hebrew  humour,  de-  'moves  retrogressively '  (Del.)  ;  the 

scribing  the   laborious  process    of  mention  of  the  trees  suggests  their 

*  making  a  god,'  first  of  all   of  iron,  selection,  and  this  again  their  plant- 

and  then  of  wood.  ing.      Tastes  may   differ ;   but   all 

^^  stretcheth  out  a  line]     i.e.,  agree  in  choosing  good  solid  tim- 

upon  the   block  of  wood. liike  ber.  —  rixeth  his  choice]  Ren- 

the  human  fig-ure]  Foolishly  for-  dering  as  xli.  10. a  pine]  The 

getting  that  man  was  made  in  the  Heb.  'oren  obviously  =  Ass.   I'r/n, 

image  of  the  true   God. In  the  the  cedar  of  Lebanon  (see  on  xli. 

house]  i.e.,  either  in  a  temple  or  19).  Consequently  the  former  must, 

in  a  private  house.  at    any   rate,   be    some  tree   more 

"  The  prophet  resumes  the  his-  akin   to    the    cedar    than    to    the 

tory  of  the  wooden  idol.   The  mode  ash. 

of    production    of    the  metal   is  a  "^  One  half  of  the  wood  the  man 

mystery  ;  iron  comes  from  '  a  path  uses    to   make  a  fire  for    cooking, 

which  no  eagle  knovveth' (Job  xxviii.  and  for  warming  himself Half 

7).     But  the  idol  of  wood  can  be  thereof,  in  the  second  line,  does  not 

traced  further  back.     Nature  itself  mean  the  other  half  of  the  wood  (as 

has  been  visibly  at  work,  or  rather  is  plain  from  ■z/.  17  ;  see  also  7^  19). 

—  strange  irony  of  circumstance  ! —  The  words  (or  rather,  in  the  Hebr., 

the  true  God  Himself  who  '  sendeth  word)  are  only  repeated  to  make 

his    rain  '  equally  upon    believers  out  a  second  member  to  the  verse. 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  xliv. 


worshippeth  it  and  boweth  down  ;  and  he  prayeth  unto  it 
and  saith,  Rescue  me,  for  thou  art  my  god.  ^*  They  have  no 
knowledge  and  no  understanding,  for  their  eyes  are  daubed 
so  that  they  cannot  see,  and  their  hearts  so  that  they  cannot 
consider.  *^  And  he  taketh  it  not  to  his  heart,  he  hath 
neither  knowledge  nor  understanding  to  say,  Half  of  it  I  have 
burned  in  the  fire,  and  I  have  also  baked  bread  over  the  coals 
thereof,  I  roasted  flesh  and  ate  ;  and  the  residue  thereof  shall 
I  make  an  abomination  .'*  the  produce  of  a  tree  shall  I  wor- 
ship ?  ^°  He  foUoweth  after  ashes  ;  a  deluded  heart  hath 
turned  him  aside,  and  he  cannot  rescue  himself,  nor  say.  Is 
there  not  a  lie  in  my  right  hand  ? 

2'  Remember  these  things,  O  Jacob  ;  and  Israel,  for  thou 
art  my  servant :  I  have  formed  thee,  thou  art  a  servant  unto 
me  ;  O  Israel,  thou  ™  canst  not  be  forgotten  of  me."*  ^^  I  have 
blotted  out  as  a  mist  thy  rebellions,  and  as  clouds  thy  sins  : 
return  unto  me,  for  I  have   released   thee.     ^^  Ring  out,  ye 

m  Shalt  (or,  shouldst)  not  forget  me,  Sept.,  Pesh.,  Targ.,  Vulg. ,  Rashi,  Hitz. 


'8  Whence  does  this  folly  pro- 
ceed? From  judicial  hardness  of 
heart.  Metaphorically,  ttaelr  eyes 
are  daubed  ;  comp.  on  vi.  lo. 

'■'o  The  idolater  is  so  wrapped  up 
in  his  delusion  that  he  never  thinks 
of  examining   the  grounds  of  his 

hopes. He    followetli     after 

ashes]  Comp.  '  Ephraim  foUow- 
eth after  wind,  and  chaseth  the 
east  wind'  (Hos.  xii.  i). 

21  A  fresh  section  begins  here, 
introduced  by  an  admonition. 
Israel,  attached  by  such  special 
ties  to  Jehovah,  should  remember 
these   things    (i.e.,  _  the    folly    of 

idolatry,    comp.    xlvi.    8). And 

Israel]  i.e.,  '  and  remember  this, 
O  Israel.' canst  not  be  forgot- 
ten .  .  .]  As  Jehovah's  people  fool- 
ishly complains  (xl.  27,  xlix.  14). 
Against  alt.  rend,  see  Del. 

'^'^  '^'^  Jehovah  has  already  proved 
(or  is  on  the  point  of  proving)  his 
fidelity  to  his  covenant  by  pardon- 
ing and  redeeming  (or  rather  re- 
leasing) Israel.  Pardon  and  re- 
lease are  but  two  sides  of  one  and 
the  same  deliverance.  'There  is 
no  peace'  (even  externally)  'for 
the  ungodly,'  and  those  who  would 


return  to  Zion  must  first  return  to 
Jehovah.  But  it  is  Jehovah  who 
makes  the  first  advances.  Pie  calls 
for  conversion,  on  the  ground  that 
Z  have  released  thee]  '  The  Israel 
of  God '  cannot  perish  ;  the  only 
question  which  remains  is  one  for 
man's  free  will  to  settle,  viz.,  the 
numbers  of  those  who  shall  consti- 
tute it. 

2^  Appeal  for  sympathy  to  heaven 

and    earth  ;    comp.    xlix.    13. 

Hath  done  nobly]  Lit., '  hath  done.' 
Used  pregnantly  as  in  Ixiv.  3  (4), 
Jer.  iv.  17,  and  probably  Ps.  xxii.  32 

(31). Ye  depths  of  the  earth] 

Heaven  above  is  contrasted  with 
Sheol  beneath  (as  in  vii.  11).  To 
have  introduced  the  word  Sheol 
would  have  marred  the  antithesis  ; 
hence  the  prophet  used  a  synony- 
mous phrase,  the  meaning  of  which 
was  familiar  to  his  readers.  For  a 
similar  reason  St.  Paul  says  that 
Christ  descended,  not  ds  adrjv,  but 

(IS  ra  KnTu>rffja  riji  yrjs  (Eph.  iv.  9)- 
A  difficulty  has  been  felt  by  some 
critics  in  admitting  that  She61  could 
thus  be  called  upon  to  rejoice  ;  see 
Ps.  vi.  5,  Ixxxviii.  12.  Hence  Calv. 
and  Vitr.  suppose  '  the  depths  (or. 


CHAP.  XLIV.] 


ISAIAH. 


289 


heavens,  for  Jehovah  hath  done  nobly  ;  shout,  ye  depths  of 
the  earth  ;  burst  out,  ye  mountains,  into  a  ringing  sound  ; 
thou  forest,  and  every  tree  therein  !  for  Jehovah  hath  re- 
deemed Jacob,  and  beautifieth  himself  with  Israel.  ^^  Thus 
saith  Jehovah,  thy  Goel,  and  he  that  formed  thee  from  the 
womb  ;  I  am  Jehovah,  the  maker  of  everything,  that  stretched 
forth  the  heavens  alone,  that  spread  forth  the  earth — "who 
was  with  me  ? ' "  ^'^  that  bringeth  to  nought  the  signs  of  the 
praters,  and  maketh  the  diviners  mad,  that  turneth  wise  men 
backward,  and  proveth  their  knowledge   to  be  folly,  ^s  that 

"  Or,  Who  beside  me?    This  is  the  reading  of  the  letters  of  the  text,  and  of  Sept. 
\'^ulg.     The  vowel-points  assume  the  reading,  By  myself. 


lower  parts)  of  the  earth '  are  the 
valleys  and  plains,  as  opposed  to  the 
mountains  ;  and  Del.  arbitrarilydis- 
tinguishes  Sheol  from  '  the  interior 
of  the  earth,  with  its  caves,  its  pits, 
and  its  deep  abysses.'  But  there 
is  one  argument  conclusive  against 
these  theories,  viz.,  that  wherever 
this  and  similar  phrases  occur  (see 
crit.  note)  there  is  always  an  im- 
plied reference  to  Sheol  :  Vitr.  has 
in  vain  attempted  to  disprove  this. 
— The  difficulty  of  these  critics  may 
be  met  in  two  ways  ;  either,  with 
Stier  and  Hahn,  by  comparing 
xxvi.  19,  where  some,  at  least,  of 
the  dwellers  in  Sheol  are  called 
upon  to  rejoice,  or,  better  (since 
this  view  is  not  favoured  by  the 
context,  and  is  opposed  by  xlix.  13, 
where  the  appeal  is  made  to  the 
heavens,  the  earthy  and  the  moun- 
tains,) by  supposing  that  Sheol  is 
not  here  referred  to  as  the  abode 
of  the  departed,  but  as  a  part  of 
the  material  world.  The  passage 
is  simply  a  poetical  apostrophe, 
like  '  Hear,  O  heavens  !  and  give 
ear,  O  earth,'  though  I  would  not 
deny  that  there  may  be  an  allusion 
to  the  regeneration  of  which  heaven 
and  earth   are  to  be  the  subjects 

(Ixv.  17). Ve  mountains]     The 

mountains  are  introduced  to  make 
a  second  antithesis  with  'the  depths 
of  the  earth.'  In  Ps,  xcvi.  11  their 
place  is  taken  by  the  sea.  Comp. 
the    striking    apostrophe    to     the 


mountains  (by  themselves)  in  Mic. 
vi.    2. Beautifieth     himself] 

So  xlix.  3,  Ix.  21,  Ixi.  3.  Comp. 
'  Thou  shalt  be  a  crown  of  beauty, 
in  the  hand  of  Jehovah.  &c., 
Ixii.  3. 

-^  The  prophet  gathers  up  his 
strength  for  a  fresh  flight.  The 
God  of  creation  and  of  prophecy 
has  already  selected  His  instru- 
ment   for    Israel's    liberation. 

"Who  was  with  me?]  As  my 
counsellor  (xl.  13).  This,  as  the 
more  peculiar  reading,  and  the 
more  easily  altered,  should  have 
the  preference.  Comp.  Job  ix.  8, 
'Who  alone  spread  out  the 
heavens.' 

-*  The  sigrns  of  the  prater.^] 
i.e.,  the  agencies  of  the  heathen 
soothsayers,  specially  those  of  Ba- 
bylon (xlvii.  13). 

'•^  His  servant]  The  context 
shows  that  '  servant '  is  here  a 
synonym  for  prophet ;  comp.  Mic. 
iii.  7,  8,  where  the  prophetic  writer 
is  opposed  to  the  deceitful  prophets 
(comp.  V.  25).  Isaiah  is  expressly 
called  Jehovah's  servant  in  xx.  3  ; 
the  Egyptians,  too,  according  to 
Brugsch,  called  their  prophets  by 
a  term  meaning  '  servant  of  God  ' 
{hon  nuter)}  Calv.  and  Ges.  think 
'  servant '  is  here  used  collectively 
for  '  servants,'  i.e.,  prophets.  But 
in  this  case  should  we  not  expect 
'messenger'  in  the  parallel  line, 
on  the  analogy  of  xlii.  19.?     It  is,  I 


1   Bnigsch,  HieroglyphisrJie  Grammafik,  p.  106. 


VOL.   I. 


290 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  xliv. 


maketh  his  servant's  word  to  stand,  and  accomplisheth  the 
counsel  of  his  messengers,  that  saith  of  Jerusalem,  Let  her  be 
inhabited,  and  of  the  cities  of  Judah,  Let  them  be  built,  and 
her  desolate  places  will  I  raise  up  ;  ^^  that  saith  to  the  flood, 
Be  thou  wasted,  and  thy  streams  will  I  dry  up  ;  ^^  that  saith 
of  Cyrus,  "  My  shepherd,"  and  all  my  pleasure  shall  he  accom- 

"  My  companion,  Kuenen  (see  crit.  note). 


think,  the  prophetic  writer  who  is 
meant  (Ibn  Ezra,  Kimchi,  Vitc, 
Naeg.,  Kay)  ;  though  Hitzig's  re- 
ference of  the  phrase  to  Jeremiah 
(see  Jer.  xxx.-xxxiii.,  1.,  li.)  is  cer- 
tainly ingenious. Counsel]  i.e., 

prediction  (comp.  xH.  28,  '  counsel- 
lor,' i.e.,  '  prophet '). His  mes- 
sengers] i.e.,  the  prophets  generally. 

"  Tlie  flood]  i.e.,  the  Euphrates. 
Similar  predictions  in  xi.  15,  Jer.  1. 
38,  li.  36  ;  comp.  Rev.  xvi.  12. 

28  That  saith  of  Cyrus]  '  The 
I  \ention  of  Cyrus  by  name  is  here 
the  seal  to  the  truth  and  consis- 
tency of  the  whole  message.'  We 
may  adopt  these  words  of  Prof 
Birks,  though  not  quite  in  the  sense 
in  which  he  uses  them.  The  pro- 
phet does  not  say, '  Behold,  a  child 
shall  be  born,  Cyrus  by  name,  and 
he  shall  be  my  shepherd'  (comp. 
the  prediction  of  Josiah's  birth,  i 
Kings  xiii.  2),  but,  assuming  the 
existence  of  a  person  named  Cyrus, 
predicts  that  he,  and  no  scion  of 
the  Davidic  house  (as  the  Jews 
may  well  have  supposed),  was  the 
chosen  instrument  of  Israel's  de- 
liverance. Here,  as  in  the  greater 
part  of  chaps,  xl.-xlvi.,  the  prophet 
incontrovertibly  occupies  the  stand- 
ing-ground of  a  Jewish  exile  in 
Babylon.  It  is  not  surprising  that 
a  Roman  Catholic  critic'  (Dr.  P. 
Schegg)  should  pronounce  the 
whole  verse  to  be  a  later  explana- 


tory addition,  and  the  words  (or 
rather  word)  *  to  Cyrus  '  {Pkoresh) 
in  xlv.  I  to  have  the  same  origin, 
or  that  Dr.  Plumptre  (following 
Hengstenberg)  should  have  tried 
to  show  that  the  name  of  Cyrus 
may  have  come  to  Isaiah  by  natural 
means.  The  theory  of  the  former 
critic  seems  to  me  as  purely  arbi- 
trary as  any  fancy  of  the  older  ra- 
tionalists ;  the  attempt  of  the  latter 
is  perfectly  justifiable,  and  I  cannot 
but  sympathise  deeply  with  it,  as  it 
springs  from  a  well-founded  objec- 
tion to  the  mechanical  theory''  of 
prophetic  revelations.  Dr.  Plump- 
tre's  explanation^  is  perfect,  if  only 
his  facts  are  sound.  If  it  can  be 
shown  (i)  that  Cyrus  was  an  old 
titular  name  of  the  Persian  kings 
(like  Pharaoh  for  the  kings  of 
Egypt);  (2)that  it  signifies  'thesun;' 
and  (3)  that  there  were  communica- 
tions between  Judah  and  Persia  in 
Isaiah's  time,  then  it  is  a  very  pro- 
bable supposition  that  Isaiah  would 
hear  of  the  name,  and  connect  it 
with  the  Divine  revelations.  But  I 
fear  the  two  former  positions  (not 
to  criticise  the  third)  cannot  any 
longer  be  maintained.  The  mean- 
ing of  '  the  sun '  for  Cyrus  rests 
ultimately  upon  a  statement  of  Plu- 
tarch •'' ;  it  was  long  ago  questioned 
by  our  countryman  Gataker,  and, 
as  Lassen  and  Spiegel  have  argued, 
is   philologically  untenable.*     The 


'  Referred  to  in  Strachey's  Jnuish  H/s/oty  and  Politics,  pp.  358-9. 

^  Biblical  Studies,  (Lend.  1870),  p.  195.  The  supposed  analogy  of  Pharaoh,  re- 
ferred to  by  Dr.  Plumptre,  is  untenable,  since  this  title  means,  not  'the  sun,'  but 
'Great  House'  (comp.  'the  Court,'  'the  Sublime  Porte').  In  Pp.  EUicott's  .5/?/.?, 
vol.  iv. ,  Dr.  Plumptre  still  advocates  his  old  view  on  very  weak  grounds. 

'  Plutarch  mentions  it  ;U  the  beginning  of  his  life  of  .'\rtaxer.\es.  Most,  after 
Gesenius,  claim  for  it  the  authority  ot  Ctesias,  but  this  can  only  be  done  inferentinlly. 

■•  Gataker,  Adversaria,  ed.  1659,  col.  659  ;  Lassen,  Zeitschr.  f.  d.  Kunde  des  Mor- 
gcnlandes,  vi.  153  ;  Spiegel,  Deitrdge  zur  -nerglcichcnden  Sprachforschiuig,  i.  33.  I 
am  sorry  that  Prof.  P.irks  (2nd  ed.  of  Comwcntaiy,  1878),  and  even  Dr.  Kay  (1875), 
thould  have  given  their  support  to  a  thoroughly  antiquated  explanation. 


CHAP.  XLIV.]  ISAIAH.  291 

pHsh,  even  in  saying  of  Jerusalem,  Let  it  be  built,  and  of  the 
temple,  Let  p  its  foundations  be  laid. 

p  Text,  thy. 

recently  discovered  Cyrus-inscrip-  of  his  prophecy  ;  for  this  man  said 

tion  shows  that  the  name  (which  that  God  had  spoken  thus  to  him 

the  Cyrus-cyHnder  gives  as  kuras)  in  secret  :  My  will  is  that   Cyrus, 

is  not  even  Aryan  at  all,  being  of  &c.  This  was  prophesied  by  Esaias 

Elamitish     origin.        Prof.    Sayce  one  hundred  and  forty  years  before 

plausibly   connects    it   with   kur=  the  demolition  of  the  temple.  When 

'mountain'    (in    proto-Medic    and  therefore  Cyrus  had  read  this,  and 

Accadian     inscriptions),     and    re-  marvelled  at  the  divinity,  a  kind  of 

marks  that  we  have  thus  a  ready  impt/he  (comp.   on  xlv.    13^)  and 

explanation  of  the  old  Herodotean  ambition  seized  upon  him  to  fulfil 

legend  of  Cyrus's  childhood  (^f(^-  what  was   so   written'    (Jos.    Afit. 

demy,  October   16,    1880,   p.    277).  xii.  i,  2).    May  there  not  be  an  ele- 

Cyrus]    Hebr.  koresh  (the  last  ment  of  truth  in  this  story?     May 

vowel  pronounced  very  short ;  the  not   Isa.  xliv.  24-xlv.  7  have  been 

word  is  a  so-called   '  segolate '   in  written,    partly   at    least,    with    an 

form. "SHy  Sliepherd]    i.e.,  no  apologetic  purpose,    and   intended 

mere  ordinary  ruler,  but  one  ap-  for  Cyrus  as  well  as  for  Jewish 
pointed  by  me  to  shepherd  my  readers.  The  apologies  for  the 
people  Israel  ;  comp.  Ezek.  xxxiv.  Christians  addressed  to  the  Roman 
ii,&c.,  and  see  above  on  xl.  11.—  emperors  missed  their  mark  and 
Josephus  makes  this  interesting  were  unread  ;  it  is  perfectly  con- 
statement  :  — '  Now  this  became  ceivable  that  the  apology  for  the 
known  to  Cyrus  by  his  reading  the  Jews  addressed  to  Cyrus  was  more 
book  which  Esaias  left  behind  him  fortunate. 

Note  on  '  That  saith  of  Cyrus''  {xliv.  28),  atid'-ivhen  thou  hast 
7!ot  k?iowH  vie '  {.v/v.  4). 

Two  illustrations  of  these  passages   from  an   Assyrian  source  seem 
worth  noticing.' 

It  has  been  observed  above  that  the  prophetic  writer  assumes,  rather 
than  predicts,  the  existence  of  Cyrus,  that  he  omits  to  mention  by  how 
many  years  (if  any)  his  announcement  preceded  the  birth  of  the  Deli- 
verer. His  interest  is  in  fact  wholly  absorbed  by  the  momentous  enter- 
prise which  has  been  confided  to  Cyrus.  The  following  quotation  from 
the  Annals  of  Assurbanipal  (king  of  Assyria  from  667  to  626  B.C.)  supplies 
a  contrast  rather  than  a  parallel  to  this  studious  reticence.  It  relates  to 
an  event  of  special  interest,  both  on  its  own  account  and  for  its  connec- 
tion with  the  fourteenth  chapter  of  Genesis,  viz.,  the  raid  of  the  Elamitish 
king,  Kudur-nankhundi,  into  Babylonia.  Assurbanipal  appears  to  state 
that  his  name,  and  the  high  religious  duty  committed  to  him,  had  been 
predicted  more  than  a  thousand  years  before.  These  are  his  words  :— 
'Nana,  who  1635  years  had  been  desecrated,  had  gone,  and  dwelt  |  in 
Elam,  a  place  not  appointed  to  her  ;  |  and  in  those  days,  she  and  the 
gods  her  fathers  |  proclaimed  my  name  to  the  dominion  o{  the  earth.  | 
The  return  of  her  divinity  she  entrusted  to  me   thus:    "Assurbanipal 

,1  History  of  Assiirbanipiil,   translnted  bv  George  Smith  (T.ond.  1871)    pp    2^4-1 
and  p.  4. 


292  ISATAH.  [CHAP.  XI.V. 

from  the  midst  of  Elam  (wicked),  |  bring  me  out,  and  cause  me  to  enter 
into  Bitanna."  |  The  will  commanded  by  their  divinity,  which  from  days 
remote  |  they  had  uttered,  again  they  spoke  to  later  people.' 

This  is  a  good  specimen  of  the  extravagance  of  fictitious  prophecy, 
and  illustrates  the  reasonable  demand  of  the  prophet  in  xliii.  9,  '  Let 
them  bring  forth  their  witnesses,  that  they  may  be  justified.' 

The  second  is  of  value,  as  showing  how  familiar  the  idea  of  predesti- 
nation was  to  another  Semitic  nation  besides  the  Jewish.  It  illustrates, 
not  only  the  passage  quoted  above  (xlv.  4),  hut  also  xlix.  i,  where  of 'the 
Servant '  it  is  said,  '  from  my  mother's  lap  (or,  womb)  hath  he  made  men- 
tion of  my  name.'  The  same  king  Assurbanipal  states  at  the  solemn 
opening  of  his  Annals,  that  the  gods  '  /« the  body  of  his  mother  have  made 
(him)  to  rule  Assyria.' 


CHAPTER    XLV. 


Contents. — The  achievements  of  Cyrus  ;  the  sinful  murmurings  of 
Israel  rebuked  ;  then,  returning  to  the  bright  theme  of  restoration,  the 
conversion  of  the  southern  nations  and  of  those  who  escape  in  the  judg- 
ment on  the  heathen  world. 

^7/.    1-8. Arrived  at  this   culminating   point    of  his    first    strain    of 

prophecy,  the  writer  lingers  awhile  on  the  motives  of  the  Divine  favour 
to  Cyrus.  Three  of  these  are  mentioned — (i)  That  he  might  be  led  to 
acknowledge  the  true  God,  (2)  that  Israel  might  be  liberated,  and  (3) 
that  the  world  might  be  converted  from  false  religions.  Then  follows  a 
short  song  of  praise. 

'  Thus  saith  Jehovah  to  his  anointed,  to  Cyrus,  whom  I 
have  grasped  by  his  right  hand,  to  bring  down  before  him 
nations,  and  to  ungird  the  loins  of  kings,  to  open  before  him 

'  To  his  anointed]  LXX.  rw  (2)  That  it  is  but  the  least  important 
vpio-rw  /xov  ;  Vulg.,  christo  meo.  of  the  functions  of  him  whom  we, 
Cyrus  is  the  only  non-Jewish  king  following  the  traditional  interpreta- 
called  Jehovah's  'anointed  one'  tion  of  Dan.  ix.  26,  call  the  Messiah 
(Hebr.  ?nashiakh  =  Messiah),  the  (or  the  Messianic  king),  which  is 
only  non-Davidic  ruler  Dei  gratia  here  allotted  to  Cyrus  (see  J.  C.  A., 
(unless  Nebuchadnezzar  be  thought  p.  166).  It  would  be  a  more  plau- 
an  exception,  see  Jer.  xxvii.  6,  xliii.  sible  conjecture  that  the  prophet 
10).  It  is  a  conjecture  of  Ewald's  was  looking  forward  to  an  inde- 
that  the  phrase  involves  a  rebuke  pendent  Israelitish  empire  to  be 
to  those  of  the  exiles  who,  on  the  set  up  by  Cyrus  ;  for  in  v.  14  he 
ground  of  the  ancient  prophecies,  speaks  of  captives  from  neighbour- 
were  expecting  an  Israelitish  de-  ing  countries  coming  to  Jerusalem, 
liverer.  Against  this  it  may  be  and  later  on  of  kings  being  the 
uro-ed  ( I )  That  the  ideal  king  of  the  '  nursing-fathers '  and  humble  vas- 
future  is  nowhere  in  the  prophetic  sals  of  Zion  (xlix.  23).  The  prophet 
canon  called  '  the  Anointed  One' ;  way   have    understood    this;    but 


CHAP.  XLV.] 


ISAIAH. 


293 


folding-doors,  and  that  the  gates  may  not  be  shut :  ^  I  will 
go  before  thee,  and  will  make  swelling  places  plain  ;  folding- 
doors  of  brass  I  will  break  in  pieces,  and  bars  of  iron  will  I 
cut  in  sunder  ;  ^  and  I  will  give  thee  treasures  of  darkness,  and 
hidden  things  of  secret  places,  that  thou  mayest  acknowledge 
that  I  am  Jehovah,  I  that  call  thee  by  thy  name,  the  God 
of  Israel.  *  For  the  sake  of  Jacob  my  servant,  and  of  Israel 
mine  elect,  I  have  called  unto  thee  by  thy  name,  I  have  titled 
thee,  when  thou  hast  not  known  me.  -^  I  am  Jehovah,  and 
there  is  none  else  ;  besides  me  there  is  no  God  ;  I  girded 
thee  when  thou  knewest   me   not ;  ''  that  men  might   know 


believers  in  revelation  will  not  ad- 
mit that  the  prophet's  view  of  the 

meanincr  of  this  revelation  is  deci- 

*  -■ 

sive. To  un^ird  the  loins  .   .  .J 

i.e.,  to  disarm,  the  weapons  being 
carried  at  the  girdle  or  belt  ;  comp. 
Ps.  xlv.  3,  Judges  xviii.  11.     So  'to 

gird,'    V.    5,    means    '  to  arm.' 

roldingr-doors]  i.e.,  those  of  the 
cities  which  Cyrus  attacks,  and  of 
the  temples.  Comp.  Baruch  vi.  18, 
'  the  priests  make  fast  their  temples 
with  folding-doors,  with  bolts  and 
bars,  lest  these  should  be  spoiled 
by  robbers.' 

'■*  Swelling:     places]        Milton's 

'  tumid  hills.' Doors  of  brass] 

Babylon  had  '  a  hundred  gates,  all 
of  brass,  with  brazen  lintels  and 
side-posts'  (Herod,  i.  179,  comp. 
180).  '  The  way  in  which  the  city 
was  treated  would  lead  us  to  sup- 
pose that  its  acquisition  cannot 
have  cost  the  conqueior  either 
much  time  or  much  loss  ...  it  is 
certain  that  the  vast  walls  and 
gates  were  left  untouched'  (Grote, 
History  of  Greece,  iv.  287).  This 
remark  is  fully  borne  out  by  the 
inscription  relating  to  the  capture  of 
Babylon  translated  by  Mr.  Pinches. 
After  the  defeat  of  Nabonidus,  Ba- 
bylon opened  its  gates  to  the  con- 
queror without  a  struggle  ( T.S.B.A., 
vii.  184).  Prosaic  persons  may,  if 
they  please,  point  to  this  as  an 
instance  of  the  non-fulfilment  of 
prophecy.  One  of  the  psalmists 
thought    differently   (see    Ps.    cvii. 

16}. Treasures    of  darkness] 

Comp.  the  description  of  Babylon 


as  '  abundant  in  treasures  '  (Jer.  li. 
13)     and      as     7roAi;;(pi;(roi-     (yEsch. 

PerscB,  53). That  thou  mayest 

acknowledge]  See  on  xli.  25-29. 

'  Tor  the  sake  of  JTacob  .  .  .]  'En 
magnam  sententiam  vatis  !  Fata 
imperiorum  et  regnorum  mundi  k 
Deo  disponi  cum  respectu  ad  eccle- 
siam.'  Vitringa.  A  true  exposition, 
though  the  prophet  clearly  instructs 
us  elsewhere,  that  not  only  is  Cyrus 
for  the  sake  of  Israel,  but  Israel  for 
the  sake  of  those  who  are  capable 

of  '  faith '  among  the  Gentiles. 

I  have  titled  thee]  viz.,  with  the 
honourable  epithets,'  My  shepherd,' 
'  My  anointed.'  It  is  the  same 
very  peculiar  verb  which   we  met 

with    in    xliv.     5    (see    note). 

VThen  thou  hast  not  known  me] 
This  might  mean,  '  When  thou 
wast  not  a  worshipper  of  mine, 
and  hadst  no  special  claim  on  my 
consideration.'  (So  Calv.,  Vitr., 
Knob.)  But  in  that  case,  should 
we  not  expect  the  sequel  to  run 
'  that  thou  mayest  know '  (or  ac- 
knowledge) ?  At  any  rate,  it  en- 
riches the  context  to  explain  the 
phrase  on  the  analogy  of  xlix.  i, 
'  From  the  bowels  of  my  mother 
hath  he  made  mention  of  my 
name.'  (So  Del.,  Naeg.,  Kay.)  For 
Cyrus  may  in  a  manner  be  called 
the  twin-brother  of  '  Jehovah's  Ser- 
vant.' 

^  That  men  mig^ht  kno'w   .  . 
'  Several  important  movements  in 
the  direction    of  monotheism    (no- 
tably, the  Pythagorean  .  .  .  )  had 
their  origin  about  the  time  of  Cyrus' 


294 


ISAIAH. 


[chap,  xlv, 


from  the  rising  of  the  sun  and  from  the  setting  thereof,  that 
there  is  none  beside  me— I  am  Jehovah  and  there  is  none 
else — "^  that  form  Hght  and  create  darkness,  and  make  welfare 
and  create  calamity, — I  am  Jehovah,  the  maker  of  all  these 
things. 

^  Shower,  ye  heavens,  from  above,  and  let  the  skies  pour 
down  righteousness  ;  let  the  earth  open,  and  let  "  them  bear 

»  So  Naeg. — Salvation  blossom,  Hitz. ,  E\v.,  Del.,  Weir. 


(Kay).  Let  us  frankly  admit,  how- 
ever, that  the  prophet  antedates 
the  glorious  prospect  revealed  to 
him.  He  would  certainly  not  have 
been  satisfied  with  '  monotheistic 
movements.' 

^  That  form  light  .  .  .  ]  '  The 
alternation  of  day  and  night  is 
Jehovah's  ordinance;  so  also  is  the 
alternation  of  light  and  darkness 
in  Providence,  of  peace  and  war, 
of  success  and  misfortune,  of  good 
and  evil.  Comp.  Lam.  iii.  38 '  (Dr. 
Weir).  See  also  liv.  16,  Am.  iii.  6. 
—  Saadya  (as  reported  by  Kimchi) 
found  in  this  passage  a  protest 
against  Persian  dualism,'  and  the 
view  has  been  accepted  without 
remonstrance  by  the  latest  critics. 
No  doubt  it  harmonizes  well  with 
the  prevalent  fancy  for  'tendencies,' 
and,  if  the  prophecy  were  not  of  so 
early  a  date,  it  would  be  impossible 
to  deny  a  degree  of  plausibility  to 
the  theory.  If,  however,  dualism 
is  referred  to  at  all  (which  I  doubt, 
the  language  of  the  prophet  being 
so  general),  it  is  rather  the  primitive 
dualism  of  the  Babylonian  religion 
(on  which  see  Lenormant's  La  inagie 
chez  les  Chaldeejis).  As  for  the 
earlier  Persian  religion,  the  inscrip- 
tions of  the  Achaimenida;  (e.g.,  that 
of  Darius  at  Nakshi  Rustam)-'  are  as 
guiltless  of  dualism  as  our  prophet 
himself  But  the  form  of  the  pro- 
phecy is  rather  chosen  with  regard 
to  its  application  to  Israel.  The 
'  light '  and  the  '  welfare '  are  that 


happy  state  to  which  Israel  was  to 
be  restored  through  (but  not  by) 
Cyrus  ;  the  '  darkness '  and  the 
'calamity,'  the  misery  and  woe  of 

the  Exile  (comp.  xlii.  7). VTel- 

fare]    Or,  peace    (lit.,   wholeness). 

Calamity]     Lit.,    evil  ;    comp. 

xlvii.  II,  Ivii.  I,  and  Jerome's  note 
here.  [One  of  the  earliest  Jewish 
*  Benedictions '  is  based  upon  this 
passage.  It  omits  the  word  'ca- 
lamity,' however, because,  according 
to  the  esoteric  doctrine,  nothing  that 

God  creates  is  evil] All  these 

thing's]  i.e.,  '  all  that  has  been 
mentioned  ; '  not,  '  all  this  that  thou 
seest '  (comp.  Ixvi.  2). 

^  The  appearance  of  the  Shep- 
herd of  Jehovah,  and  the  thought 
of  the  blessings  of  which  he  is  the 
medium,   inspire  the  prophet  with 

a  joyous    strain  of  psalmody. 

Shower,  ye  heavens  from  above 
.  .  .  ]  Parallels:  Ps.  Ixxxv.  11,  Hos. 
ii.  21,  22,  X.  12.  The  form  of  ex- 
pression is  borrowed  from  the 
Eastern  religions,  according  to 
which  the  fertility  of  the  earth  is 
owing  to  the  impregnating  influence 
of  heaven.  Comp.  the  Arabic 
phrases  mentioned  on   iv.  2  [Last 

Words,    vol.     ii.).^ Rigrhteous- 

ness]  It  is  doubted  whether 
'  righteousness '  is  here  substanti- 
ally the  same  as  salvation  (viewed 
in  its  relation  to  the  covenant-God), 
or  that  human  righteousness  in 
which  salvation,  on  its  moral  side, 
consists.     The  former  is  certainly 


'  See  R.  P.,  V.  151-153. 

'  Lagirdc  and  Gustave  d'Eichthal  have  discovered  a  similar  protest  in  Gen.  i.  3-5. 
More  tenable  is  the  view  th;it  Mohammeil  contradiets  Persian  dualism  in  the  opening 
words  of  the  6th  Sura,  which  strikingly  resembles  this  verse  of  our  propiiel. 

3  See  als(j  Lagarde  on  Astarte,  Nachrichtcn  der  Gotiing.  Gcscllsc/iaft,  1881,  p.  398  ; 
Robertson  Smith,   The  Prophets  of  Israel,  pp.  172,  409. 


CHAP.  XLV.]  ISAIAH.  295 

the  fruit  of  salvation,'^  and  ^  let  righteousness  shoot  forth  ^  at 
once  :  I,  Jehovah,  have  created  it. 

»>  So  all  versions.— Let  it   (the  earth)  cause  righteousness  to  shoot   forth     Hitz 
Kay.  '  ■' 

the  case  in  xlvi.  13,  and  is  in  more  let   them    bear  .         ]     The 

complete  accordance  with  the  usage  suppressed  subject  is  '  heaven  and 

of  the  prophet  ;  comp.  also  li.  5,  6,  earth  '   (Naeg.). Hava  created 

8;  Ivi.  I,  hx.  17,  l.xi.  10,  I],  Ixii.   I.  it]  As  xli.  20. 

vv.  9-13.  The  sure  promise  of  Jehovah  is  contrasted  with  the  little  faith 
of  Israel,  who  murmurs,  not  at  the  nationality  of  the  Deliverer  (as  Ewald 
represents),  but  at  the  tardy  advent  of  the  deliverance.  The  prophet 
rejoins,  '  Woe  unto  him,  who,  though  made  of  earth,  and  with  no  in- 
trinsic superiority  over  others  of  his  race,  presumes  to  find  fault  with 
his  Maker,  and  to  criticise  providential  arrangements.'  It  is  one  of  the 
most  decisive  Biblical  assertions  of  the  Divine  sovereignty.  For  the 
image  of  the  potter,  comp.  xxix.  16,  Ixiv.  8,  and  especially  Jer.  xviii.  1-6, 
xix.  I,   10,  II,  Rom.  ix.  20-24.      It  is  extremely  characteristic,  and  is 

evidently  based  on   the  account  in  Gen.  ii.   7. a  potsherd  among: 

potsherds  of  the  ground]  'Among,'  or  'like';  lit.,  '  with.'— The 
rendering,  however,  is  only  probable.  The  ideas  of  '  among'  and  '  like ' 
are  but  loosely  expressed  by  the  preposition  'with,'  and  there  is  the 
further  difficulty  (pointed  out  by  Dr.  Weir)  of  giving  the  same  pre- 
position (W/i)  a  different  sense  in  two  successive  clauses.  Calvin  re- 
marks, '  Id  est  quod  vulgo  dicere  solemus,  Que  chaa/n  se  prenfu  d  son 
pareil.     Testa  cum  testis  contendat.'     But  this  ellipsis  of  'contendat' 

is  very  harsh. What  makest  thou?]  Implying,  Thou  makest  me  amiss. 

He  hath  no  hands]  i.e.,  he  has  no  power  (comp.  Josh.  viii.  20, 
Ps.  Ixxvi.  5) ;  or,  better  in  this  connection,  no  skill.  Calvin  compares  the 
French  phrase,  mettre  la  derniere  main. 

^Woe  unto  him  that  striveth  with  him  that  formed  him, 
a  potsherd  among  potsherds  of  the  ground  !  Doth  the  clay 
say  to  him  that  formeth  it,  What  makest  thou  ?  or  thy  work, 
He  hath  no  hands  ?  10  Woe  unto  him  that  sayeth  to  a  father! 
What  begettest  thou  >  or  to  a  woman,  What  bringest  thou 
forth  ?     1'  Thus  saith  Jehovah,  the  Holy  One  of  Israel,  and 

^"^  Another  figure  expressing  the  Perhaps  to  emphasize  the  speaker's 

discontent    which    fixes    itself    on  want  of  natural  aftection  fStier) 

second  causes.'     A  child  expostu-  ''  Jehovah  here  speaks  without 

lates  with    Its    parents  for  having  figure.      '  Will  ye  be  so  presump- 

brought  so  weak,  or  deformed,  or  tuous  as  to  catechise   me  on  the 

ugly  a  being  into  the  world. future,  or  to  dictate  to  me  on  my 

"*^'!?%*,-u^^,®"®**  thou  7]  It  is  not  providential  arrangements  for  mv 

said  Why  begettest  thou  ?  (as  Job  people  1 '     Stier  mentions  this  view 

in.  II,  12,  X.  18,)  but  What,  either  as   Calvin's  (though  I  do  not  find 

as  a  question  of  anger,  or  an  excla-  it  in  the  1551   edition   of  Calvin's 

mation  of  scorn. To  a  woman]  Isaiah),  but  justly  asks  how  it  can 


296 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  XL  v. 


he  that  formed  him,  Concerning  the  things  to  come  "  will  ye 
question  me  '^  ■  concerning  my  sons  and  the  work  of  my 
hands '' will  ye  lay  commands  upon  me.'*'^  ''^  It  was  I  that 
made  the  earth  and  created  the  men  upon  it  ;  my  hands  that 
stretched  out  the  heavens,  and  upon  all  their  host  do  I  lay 
commands.  '''  It  was  I  who  stirred  him  up  in  righteousness, 
and  all  his  ways  will  I  make  level  ;  he  shall  build  my  city, 
and  mine  exiled  ones  shall  he  send  home,  not  for  price,  and 
not  for  reward,  saith  Jehovah  Sabaoth. 

<^  Text  has,  Ask  (or,  question)  me.      (.See  below.) 
■*  Most  render  (or  paraphrase),  Leave  me  to  care 

be  reconciled  with  the  imperative 
in  the  first  clause.  Certainly  it 
cannot  be,   if  the    text-reading   be 


correct.  But  is  it  possible  to  trans- 
late the  text-reading  in  such  a  way 
as  to  satisfy  at  once  the  require- 
ments of  the  context  and  those 
of  linguistic  usage  ?  Wherever 
the  Hebrew  verb  ((nnm/i)  is  used 
elsewhere  in  this  construction,  and 
with  the  sense  ascribed  to  it  of 
'  giving  over  to  one's  keeping  and 
direction,'  the  subject  of  the  verb 
is  invariably  Jehovah,  or  some 
superior  (see,  e.g.,  i  Sam.  xiii.  14, 
xxv.  30,  &c.).  It  seems  very  doubt- 
ful whether  the  words  before  us  can 
be  used  of  man  committing  any  ob- 
ject to  the  care  of  God.  This  seems 
an  insurmountable  difficulty,  for  it 
is  clear  from  the  context  that  we 
have  no  right  to  suppose  the  lan- 
guage of  the  prophet  to  be  ironical 
(Dr.  Weir). — A  very  slight  altera- 
tion is  recjuired  to  reconcile  the 
difference  between  sense  and  gram- 
mar, viz.,  to  suppose,  with  Dr.  Weir, 
that  a  letter  ( Tav)  which  ought  to 
have  been  repeated  has  dropped 
out-  -no  uncommon  phenomenon 
in  the  Masoretic  text  !  The  appro- 
priateness of  the  rendering  thus  ob- 
tained is  self-evident. Concern- 
ing-my  sons]  A  deep  saying.  Je- 
hovah implies  at  once  that  it  must 
be  well  with  those  whom  he  regards 
as  hissons(Hos.i.  io},andthat  those 
who  murmur  against  him  tacitly  rc- 


(.See  below. ) 

"  The  absurdity  of  such  pre- 
sumptuous conduct,  the  subject  of 
criticism  being  One  who  is  the 
creator    and    commander    of    the 

universe. All  their  bost]   i.e., 

the  stars,  not  the  angels  (Baudissin); 
see  on  xl.  26. Do  I  lay  com- 
mands] Or,  'Did  I  lay  commands' 
(i.e.,  '  I  commanded  them  into 
existence  ;' comp.  xlviii.  5).  This 
is  not  unsuitable  to  the  context. 
But  the  analogy  of  xlviii.  13  favours 
the renderingadopted.  Comp.  Josh. 
X.  12,  Ps.  civ.  4. 

'^  Who  stirred  him  up  .  .  ] 
The  same  phrases  occur  in  xli.  25, 

xlii.   6,    xlv.   2. Not  for  price] 

Not  from  earthly  motives,  but  from 
an  irresistible  Divine  impulse.  So 
Josephus  (see  on  xliv.  28)  ascribes 
the  action  of  Cyrus  to  op^ir)  ns. — 
It  is  quite  conceivable  that  a  lofty 
spirit  like  that  of  Cyrus  may  have 
at  once  obeyed  the  dictates  of  re- 
ligious sympathy  with  the  Jews. 
The  baser  earthly  motives  ('not  for 
price' =  ' not  for  money,'  lii.  3)  are 
at  any  rate  excluded  in  his  case. 
How  far  his  resolution  may  have 
been  confirmed  by  a  consideration 
of  the  usefulness  of  such  a  faithful 
advanced  guard  at  the  border  of 
Mgypt,  it  is  impossible  to  say.  [I 
leave  this  note  as  it  was  written, 
referring  for  the  necessary  correc- 
tions to  the  note  at  the  end  of 
chap,  xlvi.,  and  to  Essay  xi.  in 
Vol.  II.] 


nounce  the  privilege  of  sonship. 

vv.  14-17.     The  conversion  of  Cyrus,  representing  the  north,  is  now- 
balanced  by  that  of  Egypt  and  the  neighbouring  countries,  representing 


CHAP.  XLV.]  ISAIAH 


297 


the  south.  In  xliii.  3  these  regions  are  said  to  be  '  given  '  to  Cyrus  as  a 
compensation  for  his  liberality  towards  Israel.  Here,  however,  their  in- 
habitants are  described  as  'going  over  '  to  Israel  of  their  own  free  will 
(comp.  TT/joo-ijAurot),  and  surrendering  their  wealth  (impliedly  for  sacred 
uses,  as  xxiii.  18)  to  Israel  :— it  is  the  same  prospect  which  is  held  out  in 
Ps.  Ixviii.  31.  The  inconsistency  is  only  apparent,  the  later  prophecy  re- 
ferring to  the  Messianic  period,  when  Cyrus  shall  have  given  place  to  the 
Servant  of  Jehovah.  According  to  Knobel,  these  Egyptians  and  Ethio- 
pians are  a  part  of  the  captives  of  Cyrus,  who,  the  prophet  anticipates,  will 
present  them  to  the  Jews  as  slaves,  to  labour  on  the  new  building-works 
at  Jerusalem  (like  the  Canaanites  in  i  Kings  ix.  15-21).  A  prosaic  and 
most  unsuitable  theory.     What  we  have  here  is  simply  a  restatement  of 

the    'triple  alliance'  of  believing  nations  spoken  of  in  xix.  23-25. 

Men  of  stature]     Comp.  xviii.  2,  Herod,  iii.  20. in  cbains]     With 

a  primitive  love  of  symbol,  these  '  proselytes '  put  chains  upon  them- 
selves, to  represent  the  new  bonds  of  affectionate  reverence  which  attach 
them  henceforth  to  Israel. xrnto  thee  shall  they  pray]  An  unparal- 
leled expression.  It  is  not,  however,  to  Israel  as  a  collection  of  human 
beings,  but  as  divinised  by  mystic  union  with  Jehovah  (comp.  on  xliv.  11), 
that  prayer  is  to  be  offered.  The  prophet  could  not  have  said  '  Unto 
you  shall  they  pray,'  but  he  can  venture  (for  the  conception  of  mystic 
union  was  familiar  to  his  readers)  on  the  unusual  expression,  '  Unto 
thee  shall  they  pray '  (comp.  Rev.  iii.  9  with  xix.  10).  Delitzsch  most 
aptly  compares  i  Cor.  xii.  12,  where  Christ  is  used  synonymously  with 
the  mystical  body  of  Christ,  i.e.,  the  Church.     See  further  Last  Words, 

vol.  ii. (Yet)  surely]  As  in  liii.  4  ;   Hebr.  ^aken. Thou  art  a  God 

that  hideth  himself]     The  Sept.  paraphrases  thus,  '  For  thou  art  God, 
and  we  knew  it  not.     Following  the  hint  thus  thrown  out,  we  may  explain 
the  passage  as  follows  ;  '  Thou,  O  Jehovah,  art  indeed  the  Strong  One, 
but  until  now  thou  hast  concealed  thy  strength  both  from  thy  people  and 
from  us  [or,  simply,  from  us].     We  in  our  ignorance  thought  that  thou 
wast  only  the  weak  god  of  a  prostrate,  insignificant  people.     But  now  we 
are  forced  to  acknowledge  that  Israel's  God  is  the  absolutely  Strong  One, 
able  and  willing  to  deliver  (or,  save)  all  who  trust  in  him.'  The  nature  of 
this  deliverance  (or,  salvation)  is  indicated  in  vv.  16,  17.— This  explanation 
seems  to  do  the  most  justice  to  phraseological  usage.     The  word  for  '  a 
God '  in  the  Hebr.  is  not  Elohim  (the  Godhead),  but  El  (the  Strong  One) ; 
it    is  the  same  which  is    used  in  the    phrase,  'in    thee    is  God.'     The 
expression  'who  hideth  himself  must    be    interpreted   by  the  analogy 
of  other  passages  where  its  meaning  is  quite  clear  (see  viii.  17,  liv.  8, 
Ps.  Iv.   I,  and  comp.  Isa.  xl.  27).     Its  signification,  thus  determined,  is 
^  who  seems  unmoved  by  the  sufferings  and  the  prayers  of  his  servants  ; ' 
It  is,  in  fact,  equivalent  to  'who  holdeth  his  peace,'  and  the  verb  'to 
hold  one's   peace'  is   used    in   xlii.   14,  Ivii.   11,  of  Jehovah's    apparent 
neglect  of  his  people  during  the  Babylonian  Exile.     Hence  it  may  occur 
to  some  to  take  v.  15  as  an  exclamation  of  the  prophet,  suddenly  struck 
by  the  contrast  between  this  bright  vision  and  the  glowing  reality  of  the 
closing  period  of  the  Exile  :— in  the  words  of  Calvin,  '  Nunc  exclamat 


298  ISAIAH.  [CHAP.  XLV. 

Isaias,  longa  patienlia  opus  esse.'  This  view  is  plausible,  and  if  it  were 
not  for  the  phrase,  '  O  God  of  Israel,'  which  follows,  and  for  the  abrupt- 
ness of  the  transition  introduced,  it  would  be  worthy  of  adoption.  But 
on  these  two  accounts  the  verse  must  be  a  continuation  of  the  speech  of 
the  converted  heathen,  and  if  so,  the  phrase  'who  hideth  himself  must 
receive  a  somewhat  wider  meaning  than  usual.  This  involves  no  violence 
to  the  fundamental  notion,  which  is  simply  that  Jehovah  gives  no  sign  of 
his  operations,  but  whether  from  the  point  of  view  of  Israelites  or  heathen, 
must  be  determined  from  the  context.  In  the  above  paraphrase  I  have 
taken  account  of  both  points  of  view,  but  I  am  not  sure  that  it  was 
necessary  to  do  this  ;  hence  the  alternative  words  in  parenthesis. — 
Delitzsch  and  Dr.  Kay  give  the  phrase  '  who  hideth  himself '  the  sense 
of '  mysterious,'  and  regard  the  passage  as  a  cry  of  admiration  by  the 
prophet  or  the  church  at  the  splendid  and  far-reaching  consequences 
of  the  Babylonian  Exile.  St.  Pai'l's  'O  the  depth  of  the  riches'  (Rom. 
xi.  ^;^)  would  be  the  best  commentary  on  the  text  thus  interpreted.  But, 
besides  the  objections  mentioned  above  to  a  change  of  speakers,  I  fail  to 
see  the  requisite  points  of  contact  for  this  view  in  the  phraseology  of  the 
context. 

'•*  Thus  saith  Jehovah,  The  labour  of  Egypt  and  the 
earnings  of  Ethiopia,  and  the  Sabeans,  men  of  stature,  shall 
pass  over  unto  thee  and  become  thine  :  after  thee  shall  they 
go,  and  in  chains  pass  over  ;  and  unto  thee  shall  they  bow 
down,  unto  thee  shall  they  pray  :  '  Of  a  truth  in  thee  is  God 
and  there  is  none  beside — no  Godhead  at  all.  '^  (Yet)  surely 
thou  art  a  God  that  hideth  himself,  O  God  of  Israel,  saviour  ! ' 
'^  Ashamed  and  also  confounded  are  they  all  ;  gone  into  con- 
fusion together  are  the  artificers  of  images  :  '^  Israel  is  saved 
through  Jehovah  with  an  eternal  salvation  ;  ye  shall  not  be 
ashamed  nor  confounded  unto  all  eternity. 

15,  I-  -pi^g  {2Lte  of  the  rest  of  the  into  a  state  of  captivity,  of  peace, 

heathens    contrasted    with    that  of  "With  an  everlasting:  salva- 

Israel  and    Israel's  vassals  (comp.  tlon]     The  'everlasting  God'  (xl. 

w.  24,  25).      The    tense,    till  the  28}  cannot  but  give  an  '  everlasting 

latter  half  of  z/.  17,  is  the  perfect  of  salvation.'     But  if  so,  the  rcdemp- 

prophetic  certitude. Gone  into  tion  must    be  spiritual    as  well  as 

confusion]     So    'gone    into    cap-  temporal;  otherwise   Israel  would 

tivity'  (xlvi.  2),  and    perhaps    'he  infallibly  incur  the    same    penalty 

entereth  into  peace '  (Ivii.  2),  i.e.,  again. 

vv.  18-25.  The  foregoing  predictions  are  justified.  The  chosen  peopile 
/Cannot  be  rejected  for  ever,  nor  can  Israel  dwell  in  the  midst  of  a  desolated 
world  :  '  Israel  shall  blossom  and  bud  and  fill  the  face  of  the  world  with 
fruit '  (xxvii.  6).  The  prophet,  however,  takes  his  starting-point,  not  at 
the  call  of  Israel,  but  at  creation.  Jehovah  made  the  earth  as  a  dwelling- 
place  for  man.  He  then  chose  Israel  to  'seek  his  face,'  and  to  this 
'seeking'  he  attached  certain  promises,  viz.,  the  salvation  of  Israel,  and 


CHAP.  XLV.] 


ISAIAH. 


299 


through  Israel  of  the  Gentile  world.  Vv.  20,  21  are  parenthetical  •  they 
contain  a  renewal  of  the  invitation  in  chap.  xli.  to  a  debate  on  the 
respective  claims  of  Jehovah  and  the  idol-gods.  The  digression  was 
suggested  by  the  reference  to  Israelitish  prophecy  in  v.  19,  but  the  con- 
nection is  clearer  without  it. 

'^  For  thus  saith  Jehovah,  who  created  the  heavens  (/le 
is  the  Godhead),  who  formed  the  earth  and  finished  it  (/ic 
^  arranged  it,  he  created  it  not  as  a  chaos,  he  formed  it  to  be 
inhabited) :  I  am  Jehovah  and  there  is  none  beside.  ^^  Not 
in  secret  have  I  spoken,  in  a  place  of  ^  the  land  of  darkness*"; 
I  have  not  said  unto  the  seed  of  Jacob,  Seek  ye  me  as  chaos  ; 
I  am  Jehovah,  who  speak  justly,  who   announce   uprightly. 

=  So  Naeg.— Established,  Ew.,  Del.,  &c. 
<■  So  Del.,  Naeg.— A,  Ges.,  Ew.,  &c. 


'^  Thus   saith  Jehovah]     The 

contents  of  this  revelation  are  at 
first  given  imperfectly.  The  main 
point  is  not  merely  '  I  am  Jehovah,' 
but  '  Turn  to  me,  who  am  the  only 
true  God,  and  ye  shall  be  saved '  {v. 
22).  He  is  the  Godhead]  i.e.,  the 
God  of  gods,  the  true  God.  Hebr. 
ha-elohiui  (not  ha-^cl,  as  in  xlii.  5). 

Arranged  it]    Like  a  lodging 

for  a  friend.  The  sense  of  prepara- 
tion is  proved  by  Deut.  xxxii.  6, 
and  (Hifil  conjugation)  xiv.  21, 
Gen.  xliii.  16,   i  Kings  v.  32,  vi.  19 

(Naeg.) Created   it  not    as    a 

chaos]  i.e.,  not  to  continue  a  chaos 
(  Hebr.    tohu  ;    see   on    xxiv.    10). 
Neither  here  nor  in  Gen.  i.  2  is  any 
light  thrown  on  the  origin  of  tohi'i. 
'^  M"ot  in  secret]    So  xlviii.  16. 

In    a  place    of  the    land    of 

darkness]  So  in  Ueut.  xxx.  11-14. 
Moses  recommends  '  this  command- 
ment '  as  being  both  plain  and  ac- 
cessible : — '  It  is  not  in  heaven,  that 
thou  shouldst  say,  Who  will  go  up 
for  us  to  heaven  and  bring  it  unto 
us  .  .  .  neither  is  it  beyond  the  sea, 
that  thou  shouldst  say,  Who  will 
go  over  the  sea  for  us,  &c.'  The 
prophet,  as  it  were,  supplements 
the  words  of  Moses,  and  declares 
that  Jehovah's  Torah,  or  prophetic 
revelation,  is  not  to  be  obtained 
by  any  occult  arts  from  Sheol  or 
the  Underworld.  For  the  phraseo- 
logy, comp.  Job  X.  21,  Ps.  Ixxxviii. 
12. — The  best  commentary  on  alt. 


rend,  is  Jer.  ii.  31,  where  Jehovah 
pathetically  exclaims,  '  Have  I  been 
a  wilderness  unto  Israel .?  a  land 
of  darkness  } '  i.e..  Have  I  not  been 
the  source  of  light  and  happiness 
to  my  people,  and  all  temporal 
blessings '  (comp.  Jer.  ii.  6) }  But 
it  seems  doubtful  (to  say  the  least) 
whether  the  context  allows  us  to 
interpret  the  phrase  in  this  sense. 
'  A  land  of  darkness,'  without  fur- 
ther explanation,  cannot  mean  '  the 
desert,'  which  is  only  'dark'  (i.e., 
miserable)    to    one    who    is    not   a 

Bedawi. Seek  ye  me  as  chaos] 

God  is  as  far  from  meaning  the 
faithful  'seeking'  of  his  people 
(comp.  Ps.  xxvii.  8)  to  end  in  barren 
'  chaos '  as  he  was  from  permitting 
'chaos 'to  be  the  ultimate  destiny 
of  the  world.  Comp.  the  passage 
quoted  above  from  Jeremiah,  where 
the  'wilderness'  is  an  image  of  un- 

remunerativeness. "Who  speak 

justly  .  .  ,  ]  The  heathen 
oracles  are  as  obscure  in  their  origin 
as  they  are  unveracious  and  dis- 
appointing. Those  who  deliver 
them  say,  as  it  were,  '  Seek  ye  me 
as  chaos.'  But  the  revelations  of 
Jehovah  are  the  embodiments  of 
'righteousness'  and  'uprightness.' 
So  in  the  Discourse  of  Wisdom, 
'The  opening  of  my  lips  (i.e.,  that 
which  I  utter)  is  uprightness  "  (Prov. 
viii.  6),  i.e.,  never  deviates  from  the 
straight  line  of  truth  and  righteous- 
ness.    '  Speak  '  =  promise,  as  lii.  6, 


".oo 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  xlv. 


■^"  (Assemble  yourselves  and  come  ;  approach  together,  ye 
who  are  escaped  of  the  nations  : — they  are  without  know- 
ledge who  carry  the  wood  of  their  image  and  pray  unto 
a  god  who  cannot  save.  ^'  Announce  ye  and  produce  it ;  let 
them  also  take  counsel  together :  who  hath  declared  this  from 
aforetime,  and  long  since  announced  it  ?  have  not  I,  Jehovah  ? 
there  is  no  godhead  beside  me,  a  God  that  is  righteous  and 
a  saviour  ;  there  is  none  beside  me.)  ^^  Turn  yc  unto  me, 
and  be  saved,  all  ye  ends  of  the  earth  ;  for  I  am  God,  and 
there  is  none  else.  '^^  By  myself  have  I  sworn,  ^  a  just  word 
hath  gone  out  of  my  mouth,  a  word  that  shall  not  return,^ 
that  unto  me  every  knee  shall  bow,  every  tongue  shall  swear. 

8  So  Sept.  (virtually),  Ges.,  Hitz.,  Knob.,  Ew.  ( virtually ).-r-TEXT  has  a  super- 
fluous ydv  which  spoils  the  parallelism.  Del.,  following  the  accents,  renders  it,  A 
word  has  gone  out  of  a  mouth  of  righteousness  ;  Targ.,  Kimchi,  Calv.,  A.  V.,  Naeg., 
Weir,  better,  A  w>  rd  has  gone  out  of  my  mouth  in  righteousness  ;  (then  continue,) 
and  it  shall  not  return. 


xx.xviii.  1 5.  '  Announce '  =  prophesy, 
as  xlii.  9. 

■^  wdssemble  yourselves  •   •   •   ] 

See  above  on  ?'</.  iS-25. — The  in- 
vitation is  addressed  to  those  '  who 
are  escaped  of  the  nations,'  i.e.,  to 
the  survivors  of  the  great  judgment 
on  the  heathen  enemies  of  Jehovah 
which  will  immediately  precede  the 
final  Messianic  glory  :  com  p.  Ixvi. 

19,    Zech.    xiv.    16. They    are 

without  knowledge]  The  truth 
to  which  those  who  had  escaped 
could    from  tlieir   experience  bear 

witness. "Who  carry  the  wood 

.  .  .  ]  viz.,  in  religious  processions  ; 
see  xlvi.  i,  Jer.  x.  5,  Am.  v.  26.  In 
line  30  of  the  Inscription  of  Mesha 
the  same  word,  /u'lsa,  is  used  of  the 
Moabitish  god  Chemosh.  Comp. 
the  description  of  the  procession  of 
shrines  of  Egyptian  gods  in  Wilkin- 
son's note  on  Herod,  ii.  58  (Raw- 
linson). 

'^'  Produce  it]  viz.,  any  argu- 
•ment  in  support  of  the  divinity  of 

the    idols  (see   xli.  21). Rit^-ht- 

eous]  Not  in  the  forensic  sense,  but 
=  strictly  faithful  to  His  covenant, 
and  therefore  a  saviour  both  of  Is- 
rael, and  ultimately  of  the  Gentiles. 

'^^  Be  saved]  i.e.,  ye  shall  be 
saved  (coinp.  viii.  9,  Iv.  2). 


'^■'  By    myself   have    Z    s-worn] 

Jehovah  swears  '  by  himself"  ('be- 
cause he  could  swear  by  no  greater,' 
Heb.  vi.  13),  when  the  accompany- 
ing revelation  is  specially  grand, 
or  specially  hard  to  believe.  The 
phrase  occurs  also  in  Gen.  xxii.  16, 
Jer.  xxii.  5,  xlix.  13  ;  comp.  the  cog- 
nate expression,  'As  I  live,  (saith 
Jehovah,)'  Num.  xiv.  21,  28,  Deut. 
xxxii.  40  (Q.P.B.).  In  the  present 
case  it  introduces  the  abolition  of 
the  last  vestige  of  nationalism  in 

the  true  religion. A  just  word 

.  .  .  ]  Comp.  '  who  speak  justly ' 
(v.  19).  The  clause  occurs  again 
in  Sept.  after  Prov.  iii.    16,  as  the 

first  half  of  a  new  verse. Shall 

not  return]   i.e.,  shall  not  miss  its 

aim    (as    Iv.    Ii). Every    knee 

shall  bow]  i.e.,  in  homage,  as 
I  Kings  xix.  18,  Phil.  ii.  10.  A  simi- 
larly '  universalistic  '  prophecy  is 
found  in  Dan.  vii.  14.  But  though 
the  submission  is  universal,  the 
context  shows  that  it  takes  place 
subsequently  to  the  great  judgment 
on    Jehovah's     obstinate    enemies 

(see  on   ?'.    20). Every   tongrue 

shall  swear]  Carry  forward  '  unto 
me,'  and  understand  '  allegiance,'  as 
in  xix.  18;  comp.  Phil.  ii.  n. 


CHAP.  XLVI.]  ISAIAH.  3OI 

'■*  Only  in  Jehovah,  ^  it  shall  be  said,'^  are  righteousness 
and  strength  ;  unto  him  shall  '  they  come,*  and  ashamed 
shall  be  all  those  who  were  incensed  against  him.  ^'^  In 
Jehovah  shall  all  the  seed  of  Israel  be  justified  and  boast 
themselves. 

•>  So  Luz.    (see  crit.   note). — Text,  He  (or,  One)    said  unto  me  (Ew.)  ;  or,  One 
saith  of  me,  Ges.,  Hitz.,  Naeg. ,  Weir. 

<  So  some  MSS.,  Sept.  cod.  Alex.,  Pesh.,  A'^ulg.,  Houb.,  Lo.  ;  one  come,  Text. 

'*  The    submission   of  mankind  each  one  come,  &.c.]     These  are 

shall    be    unreserved   and   uncon-  probably  the  words  of  the  prophet, 

strained. Only]      Or,     surely.  not    of    the     converted     heathen. 

The  two  meanings  are  closely  con-  Taken  together  with  the  next  verse, 

nected  ;  comp.    in   the    Hebr.  Ps.  they  contrast  the  fates  of  the  ser- 

xxxix.  6,  7,  Ixxiii.  i,  13. It  sball  vants  and  the  obstinate  enemies  of 

be    said]      The   text-reading   (see  Jehovah. Each  one]  i.e.,  each 

above)    is    very   harsh.      Perhaps  of  the  adversaries. 

the  easiest  explanation  of  it  is  that  ^^  in  Jehovah]    i.e.,  joined    to 

a  mysterious    heavenly  voice,  like  Jehovah  in  mystic  union  (comp.  on 

those  mentioned  at   the   beginning  7/.  14). All  the  seed  of  Israel] 

of  the  prophecy,  is  suddenly  heard  Including  those  who  have,  accord- 
speaking  to  the  prophet. Rig-ht-  ing  to  7.'v.  6,    14,    attached   them- 

eousness]      The    Hebr.    has    the  selves  to  the  true   Israel.     Comp. 

plural,  '  righteousnesses,' to  express  on    xliv.    5. Be   justified]    lit. 

abundance  (comp.  xl.   14),  and  es-  'be  righteous,'  i.e.,  be   treated  as 

pecially  abundant  manifestation  in  such  (comp.  xliii.  26  in  the  Hebr.). 

act  (as  Ixiv.  5). Unto  him  shall 


CHAPTER  XLVI. 


Contents. — A  picture  of  the  fall  of  the  Babylonian  idols,  on  which  a 
powerful  appeal  is  based  in  favour  of  the  true  God.  A  further  argu- 
ment from  prediction,  and  a  warning  to  the  unbelievers,  conclude  the 
chapter. 

vv.  1-2.  The  scene  of  this  first  paragraph  is  laid  in  Babylon.  The 
prophet  is  an  imaginary  spectator,  whilst  the  most  venerated  idols  are 
thrown  down  by  the  conqueror  and  carried  away  in  triumph.  This,  no 
doubt,  was  in  those  times  an  ordinary  event  (comp.  note  on  x,  10,  and 
see  Hos.  x.  6,  Jer.  xliii.  12,  xlviii.  7,  xlix.  3,  2  Sam.  v.  21),  but  Babylon  had 
thought  herself  exempt  from  the  common  lot  of  Oriental  empires 
(xlviii.  8)  !  (It  is  difficult  not  to  think  of  the  last  strange  journey  of  these 
desecrated  images  ;  comp.  the  picture  of  '  The  Procession  of  the  Bull 
beneath  the  Mound  of  Nimroud  '  in  Layard's  Nineveh  and  its  Re7nains.) 

'  Bel  hath  bowed  down,  Nebo  hath  crouched  ;  their  idols 
are  given  up  to  the  beasts   and  to   the  cattle  :    your   carried 

'  Bel]  Hebraized  from  Bilu,  lord.       inscription  quoted  p.  'yi^)^  or  more 
It  may  either  mean  Bel  (as  in  the      probablyMerodach  (Hebraized from 


3C2 


ISAIAH. 


[CIIAP.  XLVI. 


things  are  borne  as  a  load — a  burden  for  the  weary  !  '^  They 
have  crouched,  they  have  bowed  down  together  ;  they  have 
not  been  able  to  rescue  the  burden,  and  their  soul  hath  gone 
into  captivity.  ^  Hearken  unto  me,  O  house  of  Jacob,  and 
all  the  remnant  of  the  house  of  Israel,  who  are  borne  as  a 
load  by  me  from  the  womb,  who  are  carried   from  the  lap  ; 


Marduk) ;  comp.  Jer.  1.  2,  where  the 
two  names  occur  in  synonymously 
parallel  lines.  The  latter  was  the 
tutelary  deity  of  Babylon,  which 
Nebuchadnezzar  calls  '  the  city  of 
Marduk,'  Originally  a  solar  per- 
sonification, Marduk  was  afterwards 
localised  in  the  planet  Jupiter,'  and 
later  still,  when  Babylon  had  grown 
in  importance,  identified  with  a 
member    of    the    supreme    divine 

triad—  Bilu  or  Bel. Netoo]  The 

Hebraised  form  of  Nabu,  the  Baby- 
lonian Mercury,  and  the  patron- 
deity  of  Borsippa.  Nebuchadnezzar 
calls  himself  once  '  Nabu's  darling.' 
The  name  undoubtedly  means  '  the 
revealer'  (compare  Hebr.  nabhi 
'  prophet ') ;  originally,  perhaps,  the 
revealer  or  precursor  of  the  Sun- 
god  (Sayce). Their  idols]  i.e., 

not  the  images  of  Bel  and  Nebo, 
but  the  idols  of  the  Chaldeans. 
'  This  is  according  to  usage.  The 
suffix  points  always  to  the  wor- 
shippers of  the  idols,  and  not  to  the 
divinities  supposed  to  reside  in 
them  J  as  in  Ps.  c.w.  4,  Mic.  i.  7, 
Isa.  X.  II,  I  Sam.  x.xxi.  9'  (Dr. 
Weir). Your    carried    things] 

I'v.  3-4.  Jehovah's  providential  care  of  his  people— what  a  contrast 
to  the  impotence  of  the  idol-gods  !  Note  the  meaning  repetition  of  the 
terms  already  used  in  vv.  i ,  2. 


i.e.,  the  images  which  used  to  be 
carried  by  priests  and  nobles  in 
solemn  procession  (see  on  xlv.  20). 
These  have  now  to  be  resigned  to 
common  beasts  of  burden  ;  hence 
they  are  said  to  be,  not  '  carried,' 
but  '  packed  up  as  a  load.'  Accord- 
ing to  Herodotus  (i.  183),  the  mas- 
sive golden  image  of  Bel  (or,  as  he 
calls  him,  Zeus)  was  carried  away 
by  Xerxes. 

^  They  have  not  been  able  to 
rescue  .  •  •  ]  For  a  moment  the 
prophet  assumes  the  point  of  view 
of  the  heathen,  and  distinguishes 
between  the  deity  and  his  image. 
He  means  to  say  that  if  Bel  and 
Nebo  had  been  really  gods,  they 
would  have  interposed  for  the 
rescue  of  their  images — for  surely 
the  massiveness  of  the  '  load '  would 
not  constitute  an  obstacle  !  But 
no,  they  are  not  gods  at  all  : — so 
the  prophet  adds,  their  scul,  i.e., 
all  that  there  was  of  a  '  soul,'  or  a 
personality  (iii.  9),  in  them,  hath 
^one  into  captivity.  Comp.  Jer. 
xlviii.  7.  '  Chemosh  shall  go  forth 
into  captivity  ; '  so  xliii.  12. 


3  All  the  remnant  •  .  •  ]  The 
'  house  of  Israel '  is  not  to  be  iden- 
tified with  the  ten  tribes  (Kimchi). 
Throughout  II.  Isaiah,  the  captives 
of  Judah  (not  of  course  excluding 
the  Judahites  who  had  been  left  at 
home)  appear  as  the  heirs  (condi- 
tionally on  their  loyalty  to  Jehovah) 
of  the  Divine  promises  to  Israel. 
'  All '  is  prefixed  to  meet  the  case 
of  some  timid   Israelite  hesitating 

'  See  Lenormant,  La  tnagir  c 


to  appropriate  the  words  of  com- 
fort  (Naeg.) "Who    are    borne 

.  .  .  from  the  womb]  The  figure 
of  the  infant  and  the  nurse  recurs 
in  Ixiii.  9;  comp.  Deut.  i.  31,  Ex. 
xix.  4,  Ps.  xxviii.  9  (and  perhaps 
Ixviii.  19,  where  St.  Jerome  'por- 
tabit  nos  '),  Hos.  xi.  3  ('  I  took  him 
upon  m/ne  arms ').  Tender  as  it 
seems,  it  is  inadequate  to  represent 
Jehovah's  affection.     The  devoted 

Jtez  hs  Chaldiens,  ed.  r,  p.  I2I. 


CHAP.  XLVI.]  ISAIAH.  303 

*  (and  even  to  old  age  I  am  the  same,  and  even  to  grey 
bairs  /  will  bear  ;  /  have  made,  and  /  will  carry,  and  /  will 
bear,  and  will  rescue.)  ^  Unto  whom  will  ye  liken  me,  and 
make  me  equal,  and  match  me,  that  we  may  be  like  }  ^  Those 
who  pour  out  gold  from  the  bag,  and  weigh  silver  in  the 
balance,  they  hire  a  goldsmith  to  make  it  a  god  ;  they  fall 
down,  yea,  they  worship.  ''  They  take  it  upon  the  shoulder, 
they  bear  it,  and  set  it  in  its  place,  that  it  may  stand  and  not 
remove  from  its  place  :  yea,  one  crieth  unto  it,  but  it  cannot 
answer,  nor  save  him  out  of  his  trouble.  *  Remember  this, 
and  ^  be  deeply  ashamed  '^ ;  take  it,  ye  rebellious  ones,  to 
heart.  ^  Remember  former  things  of  old  ;  how  that  I  am 
God,  and  there  is  none  else — the  Godhead,  and  there  is  none 
like  me  ;  '°  who  announceth  the  future  from  the  former  time, 

»  So  Joseph  Kimchi,  Vulg.  (see  crit.  note),  Calv.  (nominally  on  the  ground  of  a  bad 
etymology  of  text-reading,  really  from  the  tiue  view  of  the  context)  ;  so  too  Lagarde 
(on  paLi  ©graphical  grounds).  — Text-reading  is  very  obscure.  Strengthen  yourselves, 
Targ.,  Rashi,  Hitz.,  Del.,  Naeg.— Show  yourselves  men  (?  ?),  David  Kimchi,  Auth. 
Vers.,  Ges.,  Ew.,  Stier. 

watchfulnessof  the  parent  naturally  13).     Hence  the  qualifying  words 

dies  away  when  his  child  has  come  in  v.  4,  even  to  old  agre  X  am  tiie 

to  maturity,  and  the  parent  is  com-  same  (^lit.  I  am  He  ;  see  on  xli.  4). 

monly  removed  by  death  when  his  See  a  striking  parallel  in  Ps.  Ixxi. 

offspring  has  attained  to  old  age.  18  (the  speaker  in  the  Psalm  is  the 

Not  so  with    Israel  and  Jehovah.  personified  people ;  see  2/.  20,  where 

Israel  is  always  the  object  of  the  Hebr.  text  reads  'us'),  andcf.  Hos. 

jnotherly  care  and  affection  of  his  vii.  9. 
God(comp.  xlii.  14,  xlix.  15,  Ixvi.  9, 

vv.  5-7.  The  images  of  Bel  and  Nebo  remind  the  prophet  of  those 
subtle  Jewish  idolaters  (the  'rebellious  ones'  of  v.  8),  who  thought  to 
worship  Jehovah  under  outward  symbols.  It  is  remarkable,  says  Naeg., 
that  the  prophet's  controversy  with  idolatry  both  begins  and  ends  with 
an  attack  upon  its  most  refined  form  (see  xl.  17,  &c.). 

■^  They  take  it  upon  the  shoul-  he  repeats  the  argument  from  pre- 

der  .  .  .  ]  The  images  of  Jehovah  diction    (comp.  xli.   21-29,   ^^ii-    9? 

are  as  powerless  to  help  themselves  xliii.  8-13,  19-21,  xliv.  6-10,24-28) 

and   others   as   those   of    Bel'  and  °  rormer  thing-s]  i.e.,  Jehovah's 

Nebo.  past  mercies  to  Israel  (comp.  xliii. 

^  The  argument  for  the  sole  di-  18).— ^I  am  Cod]  Or,  developing 

vinity  of  Jehovah  (as  opposed  to  all  the  Hebr.  name  El,  '  the  absolutely 

idols,  even  those  representing  Je-       strong'    (comp.    xlv.    14). The 

hovah)  is  about  to  pass  into  a  new,  Godhead]  Hebr.  EIohT???,  'the  ab- 

a  positive,  phase.     But  first  of  all,  solutely  to  be  reverenced'  (comp. 

the  prophet  emphatically  commends  Gen.  xxxi.  42,  'the  Elohim  of  my 
the  negative  proof  just  given  to  the  .     father  .  .  .  and  the  fear  of  Isaac.') 

attention  of  his  readers,  especially  ^°  "Who  announceth  the  future 

of  the  idolatrous    section    (rebel-  •  ■  •  ]  Who,  from  the  very  begin- 

lious  ones,  as  in  i.  28).     Then  {v.  ning  of  a   new  period  of  history, 

9)  with  a  second  '  Remember  ye,'  announce  the  far-off  issue,  which 


304  ISAIAH.  [chap,  xi.vi. 

and  from  aforetime  things  that  arc  not  yet  done  ;  that  saith, 
My  purpose  shall  stand,  and  all  my  pleasure  will  I  perform  ; 
"  who  calleth  a  bird  of  prey  from  the  sun-rising,  the  man  of 
his  purpose  from  a  far  country  ;  I  have  spoken,  I  will  also 
bring  it  to  pass  ;  I  have  formed,  I  will  also  accomplish  it. 
'^  Hearken  unto  me,  ye  obdurate  ones,  who  are  far  from 
righteousness:  '^  I  bring  near  my  righteousness,  it  shall  not 
be  far  off,  and  my  salvation  shall  not  tarry  ;  and  I  appoint  in 
Zion  salvation,  unto  Israel  (I  give)  my  glory. 

to  human  eyes  is  utterly  incalcu-  stupid '    (comp.    vi.     10).      '  Hard- 

lable  (comp.  on  xli.  26).  hearted '    is    also    used    in  a  bad 

"  A  bird  of  prey]  So  Nebu-  sense  in  Ezek.  ii.  6;  'stiff-hearted' 
chadnezzar  is  called  an  eagle  (Jer.  in  Ezek.  iii.  7.  A  similar  figure 
xlix.  22,  Ezek.  xvii.  3).  According  occurs  in  xlviii.  4a.  The  paraphrase 
to  Xenophon  {Cyrop.  vii.  i,  4;  of  Henderson  and  Delitzsch, /^jr  ^j- 
Anab.  i.  10,  12),  the  ensign  of  Cyrus  przts  forts,  is  too  definite  as  well  as 
and  his  successors  was  a  golden  too  modern. rar  from  right- 
eagle. Formed]    i.e.    purposed,  eousness]   i.e.,  from  the  salvation 

as  xxii.  ii,xxxvii.  26.  which   Israel's  God  has  promised, 

'*  It  is  as  if  the  '  house  of  Jacob  '  'righteousness'      and     'salvation' 

addressed  in  v.   3  had  refused  to  being  two  aspects  of  one  and  the 

listen  to  the  Divine  oracle.     Jeho-  same  blessing.     The  '  distance' lay 

vah,  therefore,  renews  his  address  in  the  unbelieving  hearts  of  these 

in  another  tone.     '  Obstinate  as  ye  Jews;  comp.   liv.  14,   'be  far  from 

are,'  he  says,  'ye  shall  not  succeed  (the  dread  of)  oppression.'  Dr.  Kay 

in   thwarting   my   purpose.' Ye       refers  to  xxix.  13. X  bring:  near 

obdurate     ones]       Lit.     '  strong-  •  •  •  ]    '  For  near  is  my  salvation 

hearted,'    which  may  mean    either  to  come,  and  my  righteousness  to 

proud,  courageous  (as  Ps.  Ixxvi.  5),  be  revealed,'  Ivi.  i. 
or,  as  here,  slow  of  understanding, 


xXofe  on  '■  Bel  hcxih  bo7ved  do^on''  {xlvi.  i),  and'  not  for  price'  {xh>.  13). 

A  long  and  important  inscription  in  Babylonian  cuneiform,  about 
two-thirds  of  which  is  preserved,  enables  me  to  correct  and  supplement 
my  notes  on  these  passages.  The  clay  cylinder  on  which  it  occurs  was 
found  (broken)  in  one  of  the  Babylonian  ruins  in  the  summer  of  1879, 
and  is  now  in  the  British  Museum.  Sir  Henry  Rawlinson  read  a  paper 
on  the  subject  before  the  Royal  Asiatic  Society,  and  his  brother,  Pro- 
fessor Rawlinson,  published  an  article  upon  it  in  the  Con  temporary 
Review  {ox  January  1880.  From  the  latter  I  copy  the  portions  which 
specially  illustrate  Isaiah.  '  My  wide-spreading  rule  was  peacefully 
established  throughout  Dintir  and  the  many  districts  of  Sumir  and  Accad. 
Their  good  order  was  not  disturbed.  The  high  places  of  Babylon,  and 
all  its  fortresses,  I  maintained  in  good  preservation.  ...  To  the  work  of 
repairing  the  shrine  of  Merodach,  the  great  lord,  I  addressed  myself.  To 
me  (Cyrus  the  King)  and  to  Cambyses,  my  son,  the  offspring  of  my 
heart,  and  to  my  faithful  army  [the  Cod]  auspiciously  granted  his  favour, 


CHAP.  XLVI.]  ISAIAH.  305 

SO  that  we  succeeded  in  restoring  the  shrine  to  its  former  perfect  state. 
.  .  .  Many  of  the  kings  (dweUing  in  high  places,  who  belonged  to  the 
various  races  inhabiting  the  country  between  the  Upper  Sea  (i.e.,  the 
Mediterranean)  and  the  Lower  Sea  (the  Persian  Gulf),  together  with  the 
Kings  of  Syria  and  the  unknown  {?)  regions  beyond,  brought  to  me  their 
full  tribute  at  Kal-anna  (the  central  part  of  Babylon),  and  kissed  my 
feet.  .  .  .  The  Gods  who  dwelt  among  them  to  their  places  I  restored 
and    I    assigned   them   a   permanent    habitation.      All    their    people    I 
assembled,  and  I  increased  their  property ;  and  the  gods  of  Sumir  and 
Accad,  whom  Nabonidus  had  introduced  at  the  festivals  (or  processions) 
of  the  Lord  of  the  Gods  at  Kal-anna,  by  the  command  of  Merodach,  the 
Great  Lord,  I  assigned  them  an  honourable  seat  in  their  sanctuaries,  as 
was  enjoyed  by  all  the  other  gods  in  their  own  cities.     And  daily  I  prayed 
to  Bel  and  Nebo,  that  they  would  lengthen  my  days  and  increase  my 
good  fortune,  and  would  repeat  to  Merodach,  my  lord,  that  "  Thy  wor- 
shipper, Cyrus  the  King,  and  his  son  Cambyses.  .  .  ."  '     This  is  merely 
a  state-document,  and  it  leaves  us  uninformed  as  to  the  hidden  springs 
of  action  of  the  great  Persian  monarch.     It  is  therefore  still  possible,  in 
Professor  Rawlinson's  opinion,  that  he  was  actuated  to  some  extent  by 
religious  sympathy  with  the  Jews,  who  certainly  approached  nearer  to 
Zoroastrianism  than  any  of  the  other  nations.     There  is,  however,  no 
trace  of  this  in  the  inscription,  which  contrasts  strongly  with  the  '  pro- 
clamation of  Cyrus'  in  2  Chron.  xxxvi.  22,  23,  Ezra  i.  1-4.     How  is  this 
contrast  to  be  accounted  for  ?     Shall  we  follow  Ewald,  who  maintains  ^ 
that  this  edict  was  '  coloured '  by  the  compiler  of  Chronicles  and  Ezra, 
or  Professor  Rawlinson,  who  declares  thaf  no  Oriental  subject  would 
dare   to  meddle  with    a   royal  decree  ?     Both  theories  are  built   upon 
assumptions  :  Ewald's  assumption  being  that  the  passages  in  2  Chron- 
and  Ezra  are  derived  ultimately  from  the  Persian  archives,  and  Professor 
Rawlinson's  that  the  Books  of  Chronicles  and  Ezra  are  of  the  age  of 
Ezra.'^     The  former  assumption  implies  a  moral  backwardness  on  the 
part  of  the  Chronicler  which,  though  not  incredible,  is  at  least  not  to  be 
admitted  without  necessity,  while  the  latter  compels  us  to  a  non-natural 
interpretation  of  the  passage  in  chap,  xlvi  of  Isaiah.     The  question  is 
complicated  with  the  '  higher  criticism,'  and  is  therefore  not  to  be  settled 
here,  nor  perhaps  anywhere,  unless  indeed  the  original  '  proclamation  '  of 
Cyrus  respecting  the  Jews  should  one  day  come  to  light. 

If  the  author  of  the  inscription  may  be  trusted,  Cyrus  was  a  thorough 
indifferentist  in  his  religious  policy.  As  Professor  Rawlinson  puts  it,he 
was  '  so  "broad"  in  his  views,  as  to  be  willing  to  identify  his  own  Ahura- 
mazda,  the  Maker  of  Heaven  and  Earth,  the  All-Wise,  All-Bounteous 
Spirit,  alike  with  the  One  God  of  the  Jews,  and  with  the  chief  god  of  any 
and  every  religious  system  with  which  he  came  into  contact.'  He  goes 
even  beyond  the  Assyrian  kings  in  his  universal  toleration.  Sargon,  as 
we  have  seen  (on  x.   10),  did  hot  really  undeify  foreign  gods,  and  even 

*  History  of  Israel,  v.  48,  49.     Ewald,  however,  evidently  has  strong  doubts  whether 
any  part  of  the  original  edict  has  been  preserved  by  the  Chronicler. 
■'*  Professor  Rawlinson,  in  the  Speaker's  Commentary. 

VOL.    I.  X 


3o6  ISAIAII.  [c  HAP.  XLVIl. 

arranged  (under  very  special  circumstances,  see  2  Kings  xvii.  i6  28) 
for  the  propagation  of  the  religion  of  Jehovah  ;  but  Ashur  was  to  be 
acknowledged  by  all  subject  nations  as  supreme.  Cyrus,  too,  is  bound 
to  admit  that  Ahura-mazda  is  '  chief  of  the  gods,' '  but  he  interprets  this 
religious  phrase  in  a  most  refined  way.  Every  supreme  god  is  Ahura- 
mazda  under  another  name — Merodach  is  Ahura-mazda,  and  so,  we  might 
go  on  to  infer  in  the  spirit  of  the  inscription,  Chemosh  is  Ahura-mazda, 
and  Jehovah  is  Ahura-mazda. 

It  was  a  natural  result  of  such  indifferentism  that  the  idols  of  the 
conquered  nations  were  left  in  their  sanctuaries.  Bel  and  Nebo  are  even 
admitted  to  a  sort  of  inferior  divinity  in  Cyrus's  syncretistic  religion  (see 
the  last  sentence  in  his  inscription).  Yet  the  prophet  evidently  assumes 
that  Bel  and  Nebo  will  be  carted  away  as  so  much  secular  plunder. 
Professor  Rawlinson,  it  is  true,  does  not  think  this  so  evident.  He  takes 
the  passage  to  mean  simply  that  'the  old  Babylonian  and  Assyrian  creed 
had  sunk  from  a  dominant  to  a  subject  religion,  had  become  one  of  many 
tolerated  beliefs.'  Is  not  this  a  non-natural  interpretation  of  the  very 
strong  language  of  the  prophecy  ?  Why  not  admit  that  precisely  as  the 
prophet  in  x.  10  involuntarily  makes  Sargon  to  speak  as  an  Israelite,  so 
here,  from  the  intensity  of  his  faith,  he  fails  to  realise  the  possibility  of 
religious  indifferentism  ? 


CHAPTER    XT.VII. 

Contents. — Song  on  the  fall  of  Babylon,  in  four  strophes  or  stanzas — 
\.,vv.  1-4;  \l.,vv.  5-7;  III.,  ^'^^  8^-11  ;   IV.,  7-7'.  12-15. 

Here  the  thread  of  thought  is  broken  (comp.  xlvi.  11,  12  with  xlviii.  1-8) 
by  a  lyric  outburst,  proceeding  mainly  from  that  chorus  of  celestial  beings, 
traces  of  which  are  visible  throughout  the  prophecy  (see  on  xl.  3).  It  is 
a  '  taunt-song '  corresponding  to  the  ode  on  the  King  of  Babylon  in 
chap,  xiv.,  except  that  this  has  the  imperative  tone  of  higher  beings, 
whereas  that  was  the  emotional  vent  of  liberated  slaves.  Ewald,  regard- 
ing the  prophecy  to  which  chap,  xlvii.  belongs  as  a  production  of  the  Exile, 
declares  that  '  though  formed  upon  such  models  as  Ezek.  xxvi.  xxxii., 
it  ranks  the  highest  poetically  among  all  the  similar  voices  of  song 
which  in  chaps,  xl.-xlvi.  find  utterance  '  {Die  Propheten.,  iii.  63).  Del. 
remarks,  '  Isaiah's  artistic  style  maybe  readily  perceived  both  in  the  three 
clauses  of  v.  i,  comparable  to  a  long  trumj>et-blast  (comp.  xl.  9,  xvi.  i)  ; 
and  also  in  the  short,  rugged,  involuntarily  excited  clauses  that  follow.' 

'  Come  down   and  sit  in    the  dust,  O   virgin-daughter  of 
Babylon  ;  sit  on  the  ground  without  a  throne,  O  daughter 

'  Come  down  and  sit]  Parallel       Hebr.    has   two  monosyllabic    im- 
passage,     Jer.    xlviii.    \%a.       The      peratives,  expressing  a  decided  and 

>  R.  P.,  V.  i;i. 


CHAP.  XLVII.] 


ISAIAPI, 


307 


of  Chaldasa,  for  thou  shalt  no  more  be  called  Delicate  and 
Luxurious.  ^  x^ke  the  millstones  and  grind  meal;  remove 
thy  veil,  strip  off  the  train  ;  uncover  the  leg,  wade  through 
rivers.  ^  Let  thy  nakedness  be  uncovered,  yea,  let  thy  shame 
be  seen  :  I  will  take  vengeance,  neither  ^  shall  I  meet  any  ^ 
*  ^  As  for  our  Goel,  Jehovah  Sabaoth  is  his  name,  the  Holy 
One  of  Israel.'' 

*  Sit  silent,  and  enter  into  darkness,  O  daughter  of  Chaldsea, 
for  thou  shalt  no  more  be  called  Lad}-  of  kingdoms.  ^  I  was 
wroth  with  my  people,  I  profaned  mine  inheritance,  and  gave 

;  So  Junius  Ro.senmulle.-(Ges  regards  this  rend,  as  the  second-best).-No  man 
shall  re^st  me,  Symmachus  Vulg.  (paraphrasing).-I  will  not  attack  (hke)  a  man 
larg.    Kimchi    Calv.  Auth.  Vers.  (comp.  xx.xi.  8).-I  will  not  spare  any,  Ges     Hitz 

heTpK^^Rth^NLS:-  '  ""''  "''  '"'^""^  ""^"^'""^  '^-'  -'^^  -^  supp^catlmen  (fo; 

»  It  is  our  Goel,  whose  name  is,  &c.  (If  it  be  a  Liter  insertion,  see  below.) 
unrelenting  determination.  To  '  sit 
in  the  dust '  is  here  not,  as  in  iii, 
26,  a  sign  of  mourning  (Ges.),  but 
of  humiliation  (Hitz.,  Ew.,  Del., 
Naeg.).  Comp.  'I  raised  thee  from 
the  dust'  (i  Kings  xvi.  2),  parallel  to 
'  I  raised  thee  from  the  midst  of  the 


people'  (I  Kings  xiv.  7). 

^  The  delicate  virgin,  emblematic 
of  Babylon,  is  summoned  to  per- 
form the  duties  of  a  bondmaid. 

Take  the  millstones]  The  special 
work  of  female  slaves.  See  E.\.  .\i. 
5  (with  Kalisch's  note).  Job  xx.xi. 
10,  Matt.  xxiv.  41,  0((yss.  vii.  104, 
and    comp.    Van    Lennep's    Bt'd/e 

Lauds,   vol.    i.    p.    87. Remove 

thy  veil]  Laying  aside  all  feminine 
modesty.  First  of  all,  however,  she 
must  wade  throug-h  rivers,  i.e., 
struggle  as  best  she  can  to  the 
scene  of  her  servitude. 

^  A  common  image  for  the  lowest 
degradation  ;  so  iii.  17,  Jer.  xiii.  26, 
Nah.  iii.  5,  Ezek.  xvi.   t,!,  xxiii.  10, 

29,  Lam.  i.  8. 1  win  take  ven- 

g-eance]  Here  it  is  no  longer  the 
chorus,  but  Jehovah  who  speaks. 
These  reverses  of  Babylon  are 
a  just  retribution ;  they  are  the 
'vengeance'  of  an  offended  God. 

Neither   shall    1   meet  any] 

Any,  that  is,  who  can  resist  me. 
The  ellipsis  is  harsh,  but  is  more 
agreeable  to  the  context  than  that 
assumed  by  the  rendering  of  Ge- 
seniub.     Comp.  lix.  19,  Jer.  v.  i. 


As  for  our  Ooel  •  .  .  ]    The 

■  joyous  exclamation  with  which  the 
earthly  chorus  of  faithful  Israelites 
greet  the  appearance  of  Jehovah. 
Babylon  has  no  Goel  ;  Israel's 
Goel  is  Jehovah  Sabaoth.  [This 
connection,  however,  seems  a  little 
forced.  The  song  would  rather 
gain  than  lose  by  the  omission 
of  the  verse,  which  may  possibly  be 
a  marginal  note  by  a  sympathetic 
scribe,  which  has  made  its  way  by 
accident  into  the  text.] 

*  Sit  silent  .  .  .  ]  Another  scene, 
drawing  out  a  fresh  contrast  be- 
tween the  busy  hum  and  brilliant  va- 
riety of  Babylon's  former  life  and 

her    present    desolation. Enter 

into  darkness]  The  '  darkness  ' 
from  which  the  Jews  were  just  re- 
leased, xlii.  7,  22  (Ew.). 

^  I  was  wroth  .  .  .  ]  The  first 
of  two  reasons  for  Babylon's  re- 
verses. She  had  exceeded  the 
limits  of  her  commission,  'for  I 
was  wroth  a  little,  and  they  helped 
on  misfortune'  (Zech.  i.  i^).  A 
similar  charge  is  brought  against 

Assyria   (x.    6,    7). tJpon    him 

that  was  aged  .  .  .  ]  Is  this  to 
be  taken  literally.?  The  writings 
of  Jeremiah  and  Ezekiel  do  not 
suggest  that  the  Jewish  exiles 
were  great  sufferers.  Perhaps  the 
prophet  may  refer  to  the  cruelties 
which  disfigured  the  first  days  of 
the  Bab)Ionian  triumph  (comp. 
X  2 


;o8 


ISAIAH. 


[chap,  xlvii. 


them  into  thy  hand  :  thou  didst  not  show  them  compassion, 
upon  him  that  was  aged  thou  didst  make  thy  yoke  very 
heavy.  "  And  thou  saidst,  I  shall  be  *^  for  ever,  a  lady  per- 
petually :  thou  *^  wast  not  concerned  about  these  things,  neither 
didst  thou  remember  the  issue  thereof. 

*  And  now  hear  this,  thou  voluptuous  one,  who  art  seated 
securely,  who  sayest  in  thy  heart,  I  and  none  besides  ;  I  shall 
not  sit  as  a  widow,  nor  know  the  loss  of  children  ;  '^but  there 
shall  come  to  thee  these  two  things  in  a  moment  in  one 
day,  loss  of  children  and  widowhood, — "^  in  their  perfection^ 
shall  they  come  upon  thee,  '^  in  spite  of*^  the  multitude  of 
thine  enchantments,  in  spite  of  the  vast  number  of  thy  spells. 

"^  So  Hitz.,  f^roupins'  the  same  words  di.Terently.     The  pointed  text  runs,  For  ever 
a  lady,  So  that  (or,  whilst.  Weir)  thou. 

•i  Suddenly,  Sept.,  Pesh.,  Lo.,  Gr.  (an  easy  emendation). 
"  Amidst,  Kay. — Because  of,   E\v. — Tlirough,  Weir. 


Lam.  iv.  16,  v.  12)  ;  or  possibly  the 
conduct  of  the  Babylonians  varied, 
according  to  the  flexibility  and  sub- 
missiveness  of  the  conquered  ;  or, 
again,  the  description  may  be  sym- 
bolical of  the  distress  of  the  Jews, 
somewhat  as  .\lii.  22.  Against  the 
un-Biblical  view  of  Ges.  and  Hitz., 
that  the  '  old  man '  is  the  people  of 
Israel,  it  is  enough  to  refer  to  \1.  28, 
>dvi.  4  (with  Del.,  Naeg.). 

'  The  guilt  of  Babylon  is  intensi- 
fied by  her  reckless  arrogance.  She 
presumed  that  the  colossus  of  her 
power  would  never  be  broken,  for- 
getting  the   danger   of    provoking 

the  God  of  gods. Perpetually] 

Hitzig's  rendering  involves  no 
change  of  the  words,  but  only  of 
the  grouping.  The  construction  of 
the  Masoretic  text  is  as  awkward  as 
in  the  parallel  case  of  Gen.  xlix.  26 

(see  (2-  P-  />'•)     See  crit.  note. 

These  thing's]  viz.,  thy  cruelties,  or, 
the  inevitable  retribution  attending 
them. 

•*  X  and  none  besides]  In 
form  the  utterance  agrees  with 
those  of  Jehovah  (xlv.  5,  6,  18,  22), 
Vjut  the  meaning  is  obviously  very 
different.  There  it  is,  '  I  am  the 
only  true  God;'  here,  'I  am  an 
irresponsible  despot.'  There  is  a 
p.irallel  passage  in  Zeph.  ii.  15, 
but  it  is  {|uestionablc  whether  any 


inference  can  be  drawn  as  to  the 

date   of   II.    Isaiah. Sit    as    a 

widow]  i.e.,  in  mournful  solitude 
(comp.  Lam.  i.  i),  deserted  by  the 
merchants,  who  once  flocked  to 
Babylon.  It  is  a  figure  from  poly- 
andry.    Comp.   xxiii.    16,    and  the 

imitation  in  Rev.  xviii.  7. The 

loss  of  children]  The  people  of 
Babylon  are  the  '  sons  of  Babylon  ;' 
comp.  li.  18-20,  liv.  I,  4. 

''  In  their  perfection]  i.e.,  in  the 

full  extent  of  their  bitterness. 

Thine  enchantments]  Babylon 
was  famous  for  its  quasi -scientific 
development  of  astronomy,  astro- 
logy, and  all  kinds  of  magic.  See 
Lenormant, /./J  niagie  chcz  Ics  CJial- 
dcois  (Par.  1874),  Chaldean  Magic 
(Lond.  1878),  La  divination  et  la 
science  dcs  pri'sages  dies  le  Chal- 
dJcns  (Par.  1875);  Sayce,  'The 
Asti^onomy  and  Astrology  of  the 
Bab)lonians'  {Trans.  Soc.  Dibl. 
Arch.  iii.  145,  <S:c.),  '  Babylonian 
Augury  by  means  of  Geometrical 
Figures'  {op.cit.  iv.  302,  «S:c.);  Baby- 
lonian Liiei-alure  {LowA.,  1878). 

Spells]  Comp.  Ps.  Iviii.  5  (6),  '  the 
charmers,  (even)  him  that  is  versed 
in  sj^ells  and  trained.'  The  root 
means  binding  ;  comp.  KurdbdTfins, 
though  we  need  not  suppose  that 
'magic  knots'  arc  e.vpressly  in- 
tended. 


CHAP.  XLVII.] 


ISAIAH. 


309 


•°  And  thou  *"  hast  been  secure  ^  in  thine  evil,  and  hast  said, 
None  seeth  me  ;  and  thy  wisdom  and  knowledge,  they  per- 
verted thee,  and  thou  hast  said  in  thine  heart,  I  and  none 
besides  :  "  but  there  cometh  an  evil  upon  thee,  ^  which  thou 
hast  not  the  knowledge  to  charm  away,^  and  there  shall  fall 
upon  thee  a  mischief,  which  thou  shalt  not  be  able  to  appease, 
and  there  shall  come  upon  thee  suddenly  crushing  ruin,  of 
which  thou  shalt  not  be  aware. 

^^  Persist,  I  pray,  in  thy  spells,  and  in  the  multitude  of 
thine  enchantments,  wherein  thou  hast  laboured  from  thy 
youth  ;  perchance  thou  wilt  be  able  to  profit,  perchance  thou 
wilt  strike  terror  !    '•*  Thou  hast  wearied  thyself  with  the  mul- 

'  So  Alexander,  Naeg. — Hast  tru  ted,  Ges  ,  Ew.,  Del.,  &c. 

B  So  Hitz.,  Ew.,  Del.,    Naeg.,   Weir. — Of  which  thou  knowest  no  dawn,  Vulg. , 
Vitr.,  Ges.,  &c. 


^^  Tbou  hast  been  secure  in 
thine  evil]  Obs.  the  prophet  de- 
nies any  restraining  power  to  the 
religion  of  the  Babylonians  so  far  as 
relates  to  their  conduct  towards 
other  nations.  Among  themselves, 
however,  they  were  in  one  sense  very 
religious, — dfiaidainoiea-Tepoi.  The 
hymns  translated  by  Lenormant  and 
Sayce  prove  the  existence  among 
both  the  Assyrians  and  the  Baby- 
lonians of  a  genuine  moral  senti- 
ment towards  the  gods. — Alt.  rend, 
does  not  yield  a  good  sense,  for 
how  could  'evil'  or  'wickedness'  as 
such  be  a  source  of  confidence .'' 
And  even  if  we  take  '  evil '  as  a 
synonym  for  tyranny  or  for  magic, 
yet  why  should  the  Babylonians  be 
represented  as  saying,  '  None  seeth 
us'.-"  Surely  'he  who  relies  upon 
his  power  or  his  cunning  as  a  com- 
plete protection  will  be  not  so  apt 
to  say  "  None  seeth  me,"  as  to  feel 
indifferent  whether  he  is  seen  or 
not '  (Alexander). 

''  An  evil  cometh]  In  antithesis 
to  the  '  evil '  of  which  Babylon  had 

been  guilty  (v.    10). To  charm 

aisray]  The  Babylonians  boasted 
of  their  knowledge — both  mundane 
and  supramundane,  but  '  knew  not ' 
a  remedy  against  this  unforeseen 
calamity.  In  the  Hebr.  this  verb  and 
that  in  the  parallel  line  present  a 
striking  assonance  {shd'chrah  -kap- 


frah). — Alt.  rend,  is,  apart  from 
the  context,  the  more  obvious  one. 
But  it  is  unnatural  to  say  that  the 
'  dawn '  of  a  calamity  means  its 
end,  nor  is  this  objection  removed 
by  comparing  viii.  20,  Iviii.  8.  The 
parallelism  suggests  a  word  analo- 
gous to  '  to  appease,'  and  the  Arabic 
actually  has  a  word  exactly  cor- 
responding to  the  Hebrew  root 
{Sahara  ■=  s/iak/iar),  and  with  the 
required  meaning. 

^-  The  last  strophe  has  a  strongly 
ironical  tinge,  reminding  us  of 
Elijah's  language  to  the  priests  of 

Baal  (i    Kings  xviii.  21    &c.). r 

Persist,  I  pray,  in  thy  spells]^ 
if  one  does  not  succeed,  another 
may  ;  perchance  thou  wilt  strike 
terror,  viz.,  into  the  enemy. 

'^  The  multitude  of  thy  cout 
sultations]  The  '  consultations ' 
here  referred  to  are  scarcely 
astrological  ones,  as  Sayce  {T.  S, 
B.  A.  iii.  150)  supposes.  The  con- 
struction of  the  sentence  (comp. 
also  xix.  11)  seems  to  show  that 
astrology  is  here  the  final  resource 
of  the  despairing  Babylonians. — 
The  extent  to  which  astronomy  and 
astrology  were  cultivated  by  the 
early  Babylonians  and  Assyrians 
has  been  of  late  revealed  by  cunei- 
form study.  As  early  as  the  i6th 
century  B.C.  it  had  become  neces- 
sary to  construct  a  'standard  astro- 


lO 


ISAIAH. 


[chap,  xlvii. 


titude  of  thy  consultations  ;  let  them,  I  pray,  stand  forth  and 
save  thee — the  dividers  of  the  heavens,  the  star-gazers,  who 
make  known,  at  every  new  moon,  things  that  shall  come  upon 
thee.  '■*  Behold,  they  are  become  as  stubble,  the  fire  hath 
burned  them  ;  they  cannot  rescue  their  soul  from  the  clutch 
of  the  flame  :  it  is  not  a  coal  to  give  warmth,  a  fire  to  sit 
before.  '^  Such  are  they  become  to  thy  loss  about  whom 
thou  hast  wearied  thyself ;  they  that  have  been  thy  traffickers 
from  thy  youth — flee  staggering  every  one  to  his  quarter, 
there  is  none  to  save  thee. 


logical  work,'  which  consisted  of 
70  clay  tablets,  and  was  deposited 
in  the  library  of  the  reigning  king 

Sargina  or  Sargon  of  Agane. 

The  dividers  of  the  beavens]  Al- 
luding to  the  signs  of  the  zodiac 
(of  primitive  Babylonian  origin),  or 
to  some  other  division  of  the  sky 
for  astrological  purposes.  — —"Who 
make  kno\(rn,  at  every  new  moon] 
The  calendar  of  the  Semitic  Assy- 
rians and  Babylonians  was  borrowed 
by  them  from  the  primitive  non- 
Semitic  Accadians.  The  Accadian 
year  'contained  360  days  and  12 
months,  each  of  which  is  noted  as 
being  lucky  or  unlucky  for  com- 
mencing a  campaign,  attacking  a 
city,  and  expecting  prosperity  for 
a  fortified  country  or  city'  (Sayce's 
paper,  as  above,  p.  160).  The  pro- 
phet apparently  refers  to  the  reports 
which  the  official  astronomers  at  the 
various  observatories  in  the  empire 
were  required  to  send  in,  every 
month,  to  the  king.  We  still  possess 
many  such  Assyrian  reports  (Sayce, 
p.  229),  and  there  can  be  no  doubt 
that  the  later    Babylonian  empire 


had  the  same  astronomical  and 
astrological  arrangements  as  its 
predecessor  (comp.  Dan.  ii.  2  &c.). 
Some  of  the  reports  confine  them- 
selves to  the  astronomical  facts  ; 
others  expressly  mention  political 
occurrences  which  the  appearance 
of  the  sun  or  the  moon  foreboded. 

^^  These  wise  astrologers  cannot 
even  save  themselves  from  the  fire 

of    judgment. Not    a    coal    to 

give  warmth]  Not  a  moderate  fire 
for  comfort,  but  an  all-devouring 
conflagration. 

'^  Thy  traffickers  from  thy 
youth]  The  only  other  friends  of 
Babylon,  viz.,  the  foreign  mer- 
chants settled  in  her  midst,  flee 
in  consternation  to  their  native 
countries  ;  comp.  xiii.  14.  On  the 
Babylonian  commerce,  see  Prof. 
Rawlinson's  Ancient  Alonarchies, 
iii.  15,  16,  Lassen's  Indischc  Alter- 
t/iinnski/ndc,  ii.  598,  599.  The 
prophet  Ezekiel  calls  Chalda^a  em- 
phatically the  'land  of  traffic,'  and 
Babylon  the  'city  of  merchants' 
(xvi.  29,  xvii.  4). 


END   OF   THE   FIRST   VOLUME. 


THE 

PROPHFXIES    OF    ISAIAH 


VOL.  II. 


I'HE 


PROPHECIES    OF    ISAIAH 

A    NEW    TRANSLATION 
WITH    COMMENTARY  AND    APPENDICES 


BY    THE 

REV.  T.  K.  CHEYNE..   MA. 

HOKORARV    D.D.    EDINBURGH;   RECTOR   OF   TENDRING,    ESSEX;   AND 
LATE    FEU.OM-    AND    LKCTLRER    OF    BALI.IOL   COLLEGE,    OXFORD 


IN     TWO     VOLUMES 
VOL.   II. 


THIRD     EDITION,      REVISED 


NEW    YORK 
THOMAS      WHITTAKER 

2   &  3    BIBLE    HOUSE 


PREFACE. 


With  a  kindly  greeting  to  old  friends  and  to  new,  I 
once  more  introduce  the  second  volume  with  a  preface 
adapted  to  the  special  nature  of  its  contents.  There 
are  many  improvements  in  detail,  but  the  character  of 
the  book  remains  unchanged.  It  would  be  tedious  to 
explain  afresh  how  this  my  '  second  Isaiah  '  came  into 
existence,  and  why,  with  much  reluctance  and  contrary 
to  the  leadings  of  the  past,  I  confined  myself  through- 
out as  much  as  possible  to  exegesis  (broadly  viewed), 
and  in  place  of  any  constructive  *  higher  criticism ' 
simply  inserted  in  the  series  of  essays  one  '  on  the 
present  state  of  the  critical  controversy.'  So  far  as  I 
can  feel  the  pulse  of  English  students  (and  for  German 
reviewers  I  have  a  friendly  word  later  on),  the  plan 
which  I  adopted  corresponds  to  their  requirements. 
Tired  of  the  traditionalism  of  the  older  commentators, 
they  seem  to  ask,  not  indeed  to  be  kept  in  complete 
ignorance  of  critical  problems  and  solutions,  but  to  be 
enabled  to  study  the  text  in  a  historical  spirit,  without 
(as  they  might  express  it)  being  under  the  dominion 
of  a  fixed  critical  theory.  A  different  style  of  com- 
mentary, appealing  to  a  smaller  public,  would  have 
its  justification  ;  criticism   is  the  only  key  to  the  inner 


VI  PREFACE. 

chamber  of  exegesis  ;  but  I  have  the  support  of  Prof. 
Davidson  (in  opposition  to  a  German  reviewer)  for  the 
opinion  that  the  second  Book  of  Isaiah  loses  less  from 
the  student's  uncertainty  as  to  its  origin  than  many 
other  parts  of  the  Old  Testament.  There  are  some 
writers  who  seem  only  to  care  for  'the  higher  criticism  ;' 
/am  not  one  of  those.  Pure  exegesis  has  a  fascination 
of  its  own,  and  is  a  great  liberalizer  of  the  mind.  Even 
small  details  connected  with  the  text  have  to  me  their 
significance  ;  and  hence,  besides  the  'critical  and  philo- 
logical notes,'  I  have  thought  it  worth  while  to  offer 
my  gleanings  once  more  in  the  '  Last  Words '  which 
conclude  this  volume.  The  changes  in  both  parts, 
partly  in  the  way  of  addition,  partly  of  rearrangement 
and  condensation,  will  be  at  once  apparent  to  the  care- 
ful reader.  I  may  indicate,  for  example,  the  fusion  of 
two  long  notes  into  one  (at  pp.  296-9),  relative  to  the 
Cherubim  and  the  Seraphim,  though  I  hope  I  may  add 
that  the  more  detailed  discussions  in  the  earlier  editions 
still  retain  their  value.  With  all  respect  to  Mr.  le  Page 
Renouf,  I  think  that  he  would  find  a  few  minutes  well 
spent  in  glancing  at  this  application  of  the  comparative 
method.  His  remark  (in  the  valuable  paper  mentioned 
on  p.  298)  as  to  the  failure  of  etymologists  up  to  the 
present  time,  must  be  due  to  the  use  of  antiquated 
books  of  reference. 

Let  me  now  turn  to  the  eleven  essays  which  explain 
in  some  detail  the  general  position  of  the  work.  The 
original  fourth  essay — that  on  '  The  Royal  Messiah  in 
Genesis  ' — will  not  be  found  in  this  edition  ;  it  seemed 
desirable  that  the  earlier  editions  should  have  some- 
thing distinctive  of  their  own.      It  was   not   inserted 


PREFACE.  Vll 

without  an  object ;  Isaiah,  in  his  extant  prophecies, 
is  so  reserved  on  the  subject  of  the  Messiah,  that  an 
early  Messianic  prophecy  of  the  same  type  as  those  in 
Isa.  ix.,  xi.,  has  a  special  illustrative  value.^  The  place 
of  the  omitted  essay  has  been  taken  by  one  on  '  The 
Suffering  Messiah,'  as  a  further  application  of  that  con- 
ciliatory method  which  cultured  theologians  may  find 
so  fruitful  in  results.  I  am  not  myself  as  fond  of 
apologetics  as  of  philology,  but  the  need  of  reconstruc- 
tion in  this  department  of  theology  is  so  urgent  that 
I  could  not  withhold  a  few  seeds  of  thought.  I  am 
thankful  for  the  encouragement  which  Dr.  Westcott 
has  given  to  the  honest  recognition  of  Old  Testament 
difficulties.  By  neglecting  this  heirloom  of  the  Church 
on  the  ground  of  its  difficulty  (so  largely  caused  by  our 
own  prejudices),  we  lose,  not  merely  a  part  of  the  basis 
of  Christianity,  but,  to  apply  Dr.  Westcott's  words, 
'just  those  helps  to  knowing  how  God  disciplines 
races,  classes,  individuals,  who  are  most  unlike  our- 
selves, which  we  need  sorest  when  we  look  on  the  sad 
spectacle  of  a  disordered  and  divided  world.' 

The  alterations  in  the  remaining  essays  are  mostly 
formal.  I  wish  I  could  have  inserted  a  discussion  of 
the  chronology  of  the  age  of  Isaiah  ;  but  the  whole 
question  of  the  chronology  of  the  pre-exile  period  awaits 
a  comprehensive  handling.      Would  that  an   English 

'  The  rendering  of  Gen.  xlix.  lo  (which  involves  a  change  of  reading) 
adopted  in  the  essay  is — 

The  sceptre  shall  not  depart  from  Judah, 

Nor  the  staff  (of  authority)  from  between  his  feet, 

Until  he  come  for  whom  it  {i.e.  the  dominion)  is  appointed. 

And  to  him  be  the  obedience  of  peoples, 

the  meaning  of  which  will  be,  'The  dominion  granted  to  Judah  shall  only 
give  place  to  a  far  wider  monarchy,  viz.  that  of  the  Messiah,' 


VI 11  rREFACE: 

writer  specially  marked  out  for  such  a  work  could  only 
find  leisure  to  undertake  it !     For  want  of  this  chrono- 
logical discussion,  my  reply  to  Prof.  Robertson  Smith 
on  Sargon's  invasion  must  remain  in  substantially  its 
original  form.      It  should  be  taken  in  connection  with 
the  revised  introductions  to  x.  5— xii.  6  and  xxi.    i-io 
in  vol.   i.      In  the  latter  of  these   I   have  emphasized 
more  the  exeeetical  difficulties  which  make  me  hesitate 
to  ascribe  xxi.  i-io  to  a  writer  at  the  close  of  the  Exile. 
I  think  that  these  difficulties  have  been  underestimated. 
It  seems  to  me,  too,  that  this  prophecy  and  that  in 
chap.  xxii.  ought  in  future  to  be  considered  together, 
since  even  in  the  case  of  chap.   xxii.   there  are,  not 
indeed    exegetical,    but    Assyriological    difficulties    in 
admitting  the  authorship  of  Isaiah,      I   hope   that  no 
word  of  mine  will  be  thought  to  indicate  either  obstinacy 
or  partisanship  in  matters  of  criticism  and  philology. 
It  is  true,  I  cannot  take  up  an  attitude  of  suspicion  and 
reserve  with  regard  to  cuneiform  researches,  but  those 
who  do  so  will  admit  that  I  am  no  blind  follower  of 
the  Assyriologists.    Like  others,  I  have  been  sometimes 
shocked  by  their  needlessly  rash  statements,  such  for 
instance  as  my  friend   Prof.  Sayce's  appeal  to  Cyrus 
for  '  a  most  interesting  testimony  to  the  accuracy  of 
the  Old  Testament  records '  (see  vol.   ii.,  pp.  304-5). 
There  is  surely  no  occasion  for  a  philologist  to  supply 
doubtful   arguments   to  the  uncritical   advocates   of  a 
mechanical  theory  of  Inspiration.     May  I  add  an  ex- 
pression of  regret  that  Prof.   Friedrich   Delitzsch,  who 
has   thrown  so  much   fresh   light  on   the  relations  of 
Assyrian  and  Hebrew,  should  have  challenged  opposi- 
tion  and   endangered   results  alrcad)-  attained   by   an 


PREFACE.  ix 

apparent  want  of  modesty  and  by  not  recognising  the 
various  degrees  of  probability  ? 

Having  ventured  on  some  certainly  not  aggressive 
criticisms,  it  is  time  to  reply  to  one  of  which  this  volume 
is  the  subject  ;  the  reply  may  perhaps  interest  other 
than  German  readers.     The  '  friendly  smiting'  to  which 
I   refer  is  from    Dr.    H.   Guthe    in    the    Theologischc 
Literatiirzeitung  of   May   17,    1884.       The    reviewer 
thinks  that  I  have  in  Essay  III.  partly  neutralized  my 
own    endeavours    as    an    exegete    by    mixing    up    the 
thought  of  the  prophet  with  the   meaning  which  his 
words  came  to  bear  in  the  light  of  certain  events.     That 
is  precisely   what  many   English   commentators  have 
seemed  to  me  to  do,  and  what  I  have  sedulously  and 
expressly  avoided  doing.     Dr.  Guthe  supposes  me  to 
have  said  that  a  belief  in  the  existence  of  references  to 
doctrines  of  the  Church  in  Isaiah  is  '  a  mark  of  Christian 
exegesis  to  which  every  philologist  co7i.ld  assent'  ;i  but 
the  passage   referred    to   simply  says  that  'with   this 
striking  confession'   (viz.   that    Isa.    liii.   impresses  an 
ordinary  reader  like  a  description  of  the  life  and  death 
of  Christ)  •  nothing  need  prevent  even  a  philologist  from 
agreeing';  what  has  it,  indeed,  to  do  with  philology? 
Vatke  himself  says,  '  The  intuition  '  (Hansel's  rendering 
of  Anschauung)  '  of  the  sufferings  and  glorification  of 
the   Servant  of  Jehovah  forms  the  most  remarkable 
presentiment  of  Redem.ption  in  the  Old  Testament,  and 
so  is  a  prophecy,  not  a  prediction,  of  Christ '  {Biblische 
Theologie  des  A.  T.,  i.  531).     Vatke  was  no  Vermittel- 
tingstheologe,  and  thought  that  the  Servant  in   Isa.  liii. 

^  'Jenem    Merkmale   der  christlichen    Exegese   soil   jeder  I'hilolocre 
znstimmen  konnen,  p.  195.'  '"^ 


X  PREFACK. 

meant  the  people  of  Israel.  But  he  would  not  have: 
joined  Dr.  Guthe  in  accusing  me  of  having  wilfully  in- 
troduced the  notion  of  a  sin-offering  into  liii.  lo,  for  he 
says  on  the  same  page,  '  If  the  people  was  considered 
in  its  ideality  ....  its  suffering  could  be  regarded  as 
guiltless,  and  formed  a  voluntary  guilt-offering.'  I  am 
aware,  however,  that  my  treatment  of  liii.  lo  is  incom- 
plete, and  freely  admit  (as  stated  on  p.  307)  that  the 
'simpler  solution'  mentioned  on  p.  51  (foot  of  col.  i) 
commends  itself  to  my  judgment.  That  there  is  a 
considerable  element  of  truth — I  cannot  honestly  say 
more — in  Kuenen's  (and  Wellhausen's)  Pentateuch- 
hypothesis  has  long  seemed  to  me  in  the  highest  degree 
probable,  but  it  would  be  unfair,  in  the  present  crude 
state  of  opinion  in  England,  *  to  import  the  huge  diffi- 
culties which  beset  this  question'  into  the  exegesis  of 
Isaiah.  It  is  possible  that  many  English  students  may 
soon  advance  as  far  as  I  have  done,  and  then  it  will  be 
time  to  revise  my  exegesis  of  chap.  liii.  It  is  perhaps 
worthy  of  remark  that  at  the  Church  Congress  of  1883 
my  attempt  to  show  how  unnecessary  were  certain 
semi-theological  inferences  from  the  recent  Pentateuch- 
hypothesis  was  received  without  a  word  of  protest. 
Before  passing  on  to  Dr.  Guthe's  objections  to  my  treat- 
ment of  '  the  critical  question,'  let  me  observe  that  I 
have  corrected  a  phrase  to  which  he  justly  takes  excep- 
tion on  p.  214  {[>.  207  in  ed.  2),  which  now  runs  thus — 
*  the  Servant  of  Jehovah  embodies  a  presentiiucnt  ^the 
historical  Redeemer  of  Israel  and  the  world.'  I  think 
there  can  be  no  fundamental  difference  between  us  ;  but 
I  do  fear  that  Dr.  Guthe  has  forg^otten  his  Lessinor  when 
he  wishes  me  to  address   English  theological  students 


PRliFACE,  Xi 

as  though  they  had  enjoyed  as  much  historico -theo- 
logical culture  as  himself.  After  all,  will  any  theolo- 
gical symbols  be  less  subject  to  criticism  than  those 
which,  though  construed  variously,  satisfy  most  of  us  in 
England  ? 

Dr.   Guthe's  objection   to   my   treatment   of   those 
parts  of  '  Isaiah  '  where  the  standpoint  of  the  writer  is 
that  of  the  exile  or  post-exile  period,  shows  me  how 
rare  a  thing  '  self-denying  and  theory-denying  exegesis  ' 
must  be.   To  the  theory  of  an  assumed  exile-standpoint 
which  he   imputes  to  me   I   have  nowhere  given  my 
sanction,    and     English    readers    must    know    that     I  i 
have  only  referred  to  it  so  often  as  a  theory  just  con-  ] 
ceivable  in  itself,  and  worthy  of  respectful  treatment 
on  educational  grounds.      Had    Dr.    Guthe    read    my 
earlier  work  on   Isaiah  (never  recalled  and  not  quite 
unknown  in  Germany),  he  would  have  felt  that  I  could 
not  have  so  sinned  against  light  as  to  adopt  such  a 
weak  compromise  between  the  new  and  the  old.     Had 
he  further  glanced  at  the  preface  of  the  volume  named 
at  the  head  of  his  review  (p.  vii),  he  would  have  seen 
why  no  essay  on  the  origin  of  the  Book  of  Isaiah  was 
inserted  in  the  present  work,  and  where  such  an  essay 
from  my  pen,  clear  and  precise,  ma)'  be  found. 

The  historical  school,  which,  though  in  hearty 
sympathy  with  Biblical  religion,  scruples  to  be  influ- 
enced in  its  examination  of  ancient  writings  by  theo- 
logical formulae,  is  gaining  strength  in  Germany  ;  in 
England  it  is  still  painfully  struggling  for  existence.  It 
is  therefore  not  out  of  place  to  express  gratitude  for  Dr. 
Guthe's  friendly  criticism,  and  for  his  recognition  of  the 
'  independent  work  '  bestowed  on  this  edition  of  Isaiah. 


XU  I'KEFACi;. 

'  Independent  '  study  in  any  other  sense  ot  the  word  is 
of  course  an  impossibiHty ;  when  popular  writers  of  a 
certain  class  describe  some  unlucky  scholar  as  a  copyist 
of  '  German  criticism,'  it  is  only  a  distortion  of  the 
truth  that  all  scholars  of  the  present  day,  whether  he^x 
or  abroad,  are  deeply  indebted  to  their  German  prede- 
cessors. For  all  this,  the  history  of  our  science  will 
one  day  prove  that  the  critical  movement  both  has  been 
and  is  an  international  one.  Free  and  honest  Biblical 
criticism  is  not  confined  to  any  one  country,  though  all 
thorough  students  must  cherish  a  warm  but  not  an 
indiscriminating  regard  for  the  past  and  present  repre- 
sentatives of  Biblical  science  in  Germany.  May  the 
Church  in  England,  now  that  the  decisive  crisis  is 
at  hand,  not  refuse  to  cast  in  her  lot  with  a  criticism 
and  an  exegesis  which  have  no  party  character,  and 
simply  aim  at  a  progressive  insight  into  the  true 
meaning  of  the  sources  of  our  religion  ! 


Alt  trust  18S4. 


TABLE    OF    APPENDICES,    ESSAYS,    &c. 


On  'Jehovah  Sabaoth  ' 
On  xmv.  28,  XLV.  4. 
On  xLvi.  I,  XLV.  13 


Vol.  I. 


PAGES 

II-I4 

291-292 

304-306 


Vol.  II. 

On  the  Land  of  Sinim         ......  20-23 

Critical  and  Philological  Notes      ....  135-174 

Essays  : — 

I.  The  Occasional   Prophecies  of  Isaiah  in  the  Light 

of  History 177-186 

II.  The  Arrangement  of  the  Prophecies    .         .          .  186-191 

III.  The  Christian  Element  in  the  Book  of  Isaiah       .  1 91-2 11 

IV.  The  Servant  of  Jehovah       .....  21 1-2 17 
V.  The  Suffering  Messiah  .         .....  z  17-224 

VI.  The  Present  State  of  the  Critical  Controversy       .  224-235 

VII.  Correction  of  ihe  Hebrew  Text  ....  235-240 

VIII.  The  Critical  Study  of  Parallel  Passages        .         .  241-25S 

IX.  Job  and  the  Second  Part  of  Isaiah  :  a  Parallel     .  259-268 

X.  Isaiah  and  his  Commentators        ....  268-288 

XL  II.  Isaiah  and  the  Inscriptions      ....  2S8-294 

Last  ^VoKDs  ox  Isaiah  .......  295-310 


ADDENDA  AND  CORRIGENDA. 


Vol.  I. 
J'age   300   (note   on    xlv.   20).      A  correction   duly   made   in   the   author's  copy  hiis 
uscaiied  incorporation.     The  name  '  Chemosh  '  was  supphtd  by  Schlott- 
mann  in  hne  30  of  the  Moabite  Stone,  but  is  now  justly  recognised  by  him 
to  be  very  doubtful. 

Vol.   II. 

89,  line  2.      Transfer  the  sign  ^  to  'be  enlarged.' 
,,       ,,     note".     Add,   'The  Massoretic  reading  is  undoubtedly   "  thou  shalt  see," 
though  the  alternative  reading  has  much  authority,  including  that  of 
A  E.' 
,,  note  ^     Add,   '  V>\.\\  rahab  "to  tremble"  is  a  Syriasm.' 
143,  note  on  ix.  3.     For   '  to  omit '  read  'to  suit." 

i.j8.  note  on  xiii.  6.     Add  '  Comp.  Ass.  sadu  with  Ar.  saddtt  and  siiddit,  both 
meaning  "  a  mountain."  ' 


ISAIAH. 


CHAPTER  XLVIII. 

Contents. — A  recapitulation  of  the  heads  of  the  preceding  discourses, 
from  chap.  xl.  onwards,  closing  with  a  summons  to  flee  from  Babylon, 
and  a  solemn  declaration  excluding  the  ungodly  from  a  share  in  the 
promises. 

•  Hear  ye  this,  O  house  of  Jacob,  who  are  called  by  the 
name  of  Israel,  and  have  come  forth  from  the  waters  of  Judah  ; 
who  swear  by  the  name  of  Jehovah,  and  celebrate  the  God  of 
Israel  (not  in  truth  and  not  in  righteousness) ;  ^  for  they  call 


^  O  house  of  Jacob  .  .  .  ]  The 

prophet,  in  the  name  of  Jehovah 
(see  V.  3),  first  addresses  the  Jews 
by  their  natural  and  as  it  were 
secular  designation  '  the  house  of 
Jacob,'  and  then  subjoins  their  spiri- 
tual or  covenant-name  of  Israel. 
But  as  both  these  titles  would 
strictly  speaking  include  the  ten 
tribes,  and  the  prophet  is  specially 
addressing  the  Juda;an  exiles  at 
Babylon,  he  adds,  and  have  come 
forth  from  the  \i^aters  of  Judah 
(comp.  Ps.  Ixviii.  27,  'ye  that  are  of 
the    fountain    of    Israel,'   and    the 

analogous  figure  in  Isa.  li.  i). 

AWho  swear  by  the  name  •  ■  .  ] 
One  of  the  outward  marks  of  an 
Israelite  (Deut.  vi.  13,  x.  20).  Both 
this  and  the  next  feature  in  the 
description  are  elsewhere  charac- 
teristics of  true  believers  (see  xlv. 
23,  xliv.  5).  Here  the  prophet  in- 
troduces them  ironically.  In  the 
case  of  the  majority  of  Israelites, 
they  are  disconnected  from  a  living 
faith.     Hence  the  qualifying  words 


at  the  close  of  the  verse,  not  in 
truth  and  not  in  righteousness. 

'  Truth,'  literally  '  continuance,'  i.e., 
unwavering  fidelity  (so  in  xx.xviii.  3). 
'  Righteousness,'  i.e.,  the  strict  per- 
formance of  their  part  in  the  na- 
tional covenant  with  Jehovah,  es- 
pecially of  the  moral  duties  which 
this  involved.^  (The  root-meaning 
is,  '  to  be  stiff,  tight.')  The  two 
qualities,  '  truth '  and  '  righteous- 
ness,' are  combined,  as  in  Zech. 
viii.  8,  I  Kings  iii.  6. 

"  Tor  they  call  themselves  .  .  .  ] 
There  is  a  change  of  construction, 
but  the  tone  and  the  tendency  re- 
main the  same.  In  %'.  i  the  pro- 
phet seems  to  be  full  of  praise,  but 
the  closing  words  make  it  but  too 
manifest  that  the  eulogy  is  ironical. 
So  here.  '  Who  are  called  by  the 
name  of  Israel'  corresponds  to  'for 
they  call  themselves  of  the  holy 
city,'  and  '  not  in  truth  and  not  in 
righteousness  '  is  parallel  to  'Jeho- 
vah Sab^oth  is  his  name.'  In  v.  i 
it   is  mainly  formalism,  in  z/.  2  a 


1  The  sense  of  'righteousness'  for  f ti/ty  and  <;'Jdqdh,   is  ahnost  always  sufficient 
in  11.  Isaiah  ;  indeed,  it  characterises  the  book. 

VOL.    II.  B 


ISAIAH. 


[chap,  xlviii. 


themselves  of  the  holy  city,  and  on  the  God  of  Israel  they  lean 
— Jehovah  Sabaoth  is  his  name — ^  The  former  things  long 
ago  I  announced  ;  from  my  mouth  they  went  forth,  and  I  de- 
clared them  ;  suddenly  I  wrought,  and  they  came  to  pass. 
*  Because  I  knew  that  thou  wast  hard,  and  an  iron  band  thy 


narrow  *  particularism '  or  national- 
ism, which  is  censured.  Formalism 
is  reprehended  by  pointing  to  the 
moral  requirements  of  the  religion 
of  Jehovah ;  nationalism  by  ad- 
ducing that  most  comprehensive  of 
the  Divine  titles,  Jehovah  Sabdoth 
(comp.  vi.  3).  In  paraphrasing  ?'.  2, 
we  may,  without  injuring  the  sense, 
return  to  the  construction  of  7/.  i. 
It  is  equivalent  to  saying,  '  who  ex- 
press the  strongest  regard  for  the 
city  of  the  sanctuary,  and  attach 
the  highest  value  to  their  hereditary 
religious  privileges,  not  considering 
whom  they  have  for  a  God,  namely, 
Jehovah  Sabdoth,  who  is  thrice 
holy  (vi.  3),  and  who  "  is  exalted  in 
(or,  through)  judgment,  and  shew- 
eth  himself  holy  through  righteous- 
ness" V.  16).'  [The  'for'  at  the  be- 
ginning of  the  verse  has  been  very 
variously  explained.  Some  (e.g. 
Calv.,  Kay)  regard  it  as  explanatory 
of  the  preceding  clause,  '  not  in 
truth  '  &c. ;  as  if  the  prophet  would 
say,  '  for  they  take  a  pride  in  the  so- 
called  holy  city,  but  where  is  their 
holiness  .•* '  According  to  others 
(Alexander,  Birks),  it  introduces 
Jehovah's  self-justification  for  still 
continuing  to  plead  with  his  people: 
— '  however  much  individuals  have 
fallen  away,  the  national  privileges 
are  still  unrevoked  by  Ciod.'  Others 
again  (Vitr.,  Ew.,  Uel.)  take  'for' 
in  the  sense  of  in  fact,  I'/u/no,  pro- 
jector which  ki  so  often  has  in  He- 
brew.]  The   holy  city]    .So  lii. 

I  ;  comp.  Ixiv.  9.  This  title  of  Jeru- 
salem only  occurs  elsewhere  in  tlie 
later  books  ;  see  Neh.  xi.  i,  18, 
Dan.  ix.  24,  Matt.  iv.  5,  xxvii.  53, 
Rev.  xi.  2,  and  comp.  'Jerusalem 
the  holy,'  a  common  inscription  on 

Maccabean  coins. They  lean] 

Comp.  X.  20,  '  but  shall  rely  (lit. 
stay  themselves)  upon  Jehovah,  the 
Holy  One  of  Israel,  /«  truth' 


^  The  foraier  thing:s  .  .  .  ]  The 
appeal  to  prophecy  is  repeated  for 
the  seventh  time. — To  understand 
this  and  the  two  next  verses,  we 
must  take  them  in  connection  with 
vv.  6,  7  ;  there  is  an  evident  con- 
trast intended.  '  The  former  things ' 
(see  on  xli.  22)  were  predicted  to 
Israel  in  order  to  prevent  him  from 
committing  fresh  sin  through  as- 
cribing Jehovah's  wonders  to  false 
gods;  it  is  an  additional  character- 
istic that  they  were  foretold  '  long 
since.'  With  regard  to  the  '  new 
things,'  it  is  stated  that  they  have 
only  been  announced  on  the  very 
eve  of  their  accomplishment,  for  if 
they  had  been  predicted  centuries 
before,  Israel  would  have  forgotten 
the  source  of  his  knowledge,  and 
would  have  said,  'It  is  a  trite  story, 
I  know  it  already'  (viz.  through 
another  than  the  true  channel- 
either  his  idol-god,  or  his  natural 
powers  of  calculating  the  future). 

Suddenly]   In    both    parts    of 

Isaiah  the  unexpectedness  of  the 
events  in  which  prophecy  finds  its 
fulfilment,  is  emphatically  referred 
to  (comp.  xxi.x.  5,  xlvii.  9).  Men  hear 
the  prophecy,  but  it  takes  no  hold 
of  them  ;  they  do  not  practically 
believe  in  it.  Still  the  prophecy 
has  produced  this  negative  result, 
that  no  one  can  ascribe  the  event 
predicted  to  any  other  agency  but 
the  true  God. 

■*  Hard]  i.e.,  hard  of  heart,  slow 
of  understanding  (comp.  'obdurate,' 
xlvi.  12).  It  is,  in  fact,  a  prophetic 
doctrine  that  all  actual  rebellion 
against  Jehovah  is  preceded  by  a 
loss  of  spiritual  sensibility.  Thus 
we  read  that  '  the  heart  of  Pharaoh 
grew  stiff,  and  he  did  not  hearken 
unto  them '  (E.x.  vii.  13);  that,  before 
all  hope  of  Israel's  conversion  is 
given  up,  Jehovah  must  '  make  the 
heart  of  this  people  fat '  (Isa  vi.  10), 


CHAP.  XLVIIl.] 


ISATAH. 


neck,  and  thy  forehead  brass,  ^  therefore  I  announced  it  to  thee 
long  since,  before  it  came  to  pass  I  showed  it  thee  ;  lest  thou 
shouldest  say,  Mine  idol  hath  wrought  them,  and  my  graven 
image,  and  my  molten  image,  hath  commanded  them.  ^  Thou 
hast  heard  it ;  see  it  as  a  whole  ;  (and  as  for  you — should  ye 
not  announce  it  ?)  I  declare  to  thee  new  things  from  this  time, 
even  hidden  things,  which  thou  knewest  not.  ^  They  have 
been  created  now  and  not  heretofore,  and  before  to-day  thou 
heardest  them  not,  lest  thou  shouldest  say.  Behold,  I  knew 


and  that  in  Ezekiel's  time  '  all  the 
house  of  Israel  (were)  stiff  in  the 
forehead,  and  hard  of  heart/  (Ezek. 
iii.  7).  The  '  heart/  as  usual  in  the 
Old  Testament,  is  here  the  organ 
of  the  understandingand  of  the  con- 
science.  Thy  forehead  brass] 

i.e.,  thou  wast  defiant  and  unap- 
proachable ;  comp.  Ezek.  iii.  8,  9. 
A  similar  figure  in  a  good  sense, 

1.7. 

^  Therefore  Z  announced  it  to 

thee]  Jehovah  speaks  as  a  loving 
father  to  his  rebellious  child.  He 
takes  the  obstinacy  of  Israel  very 
calmly  ;  it  is  a  reason,  not  for  cast- 
ing him  off,  but  for  showing  more 
kindness.  He  will  at  least  prevent 
him  from  committing  fresh  sin  by 
ascribing  Jehovah's  mighty  deeds 

to     false     gods.  Hath     coni- 

mandedl  them]  i.e.,  '  called  them 
into  being  ;'  comp.  Ps.  xxxiii.  9. 

"  See  it  as  a  whole]  Behold 
the  prediction  fully  accomplished. 
H impel  makes  the  accusative  here 
refer  to  the  past  history  of  Israel 
as  witnessing  to  a  God  who  fulfils 
His  predictions.^  This  is  surely 
inadmissible.  '  Thou  hast  heard  it 
&c.'  can  only  mean  'See  as  a  whole 
that  which  thou  hast  heard/  and 
the  preceding  verse  shows  that 
what  the  Jews  had  '  heard '  was 
not  their  past  history,  but  predic- 
tions relative  to  the  achievements 

cf  Cyrus. And  as  for  you  •  .  .  ] 

This  is  evidently  addressed,  not 
to  the  nation  in  general,  but  to 
the  individuals  actually  around  the 
prophet.     It  is  thoroughly  in  the 


style  of  Isaiah,  and  of  the  old 
prophets  in  general,  who  really 
uttered  their  prophecies  before  com- 
mitting them  to  writing.  On  the 
whole,  II.  Isaiah  is  both  in  form  and 
in  style  intensely  literary  ;  it  is  the 
more  remarkable  that  the  writer 
should  involuntarily  fall  into  ora- 
torical   turns    of    expression. 

Should  ye  not  announce  It  f  ] 
Ought  ye  not  to  make  known  such 
a  striking  proof  of  the  unique 
divinity  ofJehovah.?—Hitzig,  taking 
the  word  '  announce '  in  the  sense 
of  '  predict,'  which  it  has  in  v.   5 


explains,  '  Will  ye 


and  xli. 

not  predict  something  yourselves  ?' 
But  the  context  seems  rather  to 
require  an  appeal  to  the  conscience 

of  the  idolaters. Wew  thing-g] 

See  on  xlii.  9. 

^  They  have  been  created 
now]  i.e.,  they  are  now  for  the 
first  time  brought  (or  beginning  to 
be  brought)  into  actual  existence— 
hitherto  they  have  only  had  an 
ideal  life,  'hid  in  God'  (Eph.  iii.  9), 
in  the  Divine  counsels  (comp. 
on  xxii.  II).  According  to  Naeg., 
however,  (who  does  not  mention 
that  he  is  but  following  Kimchi), 
the  word  '  created  '  is  equivalent  to 
'  prophesied/  since  a  word  of  pro- 
phecy is  in  a  sense  creative  (see  on 
ix.  8),  and  converts  the  Divine 
counsel  from  a  Xoyos  fpSidderos  into 
a  Xoyof  TTpofpnpiKos.  This  is  an 
unsuccessful  attempt  to  preclude 
the  inference  which  has  been 
drawn  from  this  passage  in  favour 
of  a  Babylonian  origin  of  II.  Isaiah. 


Theologische  Qvcrtalschrift  (Rom.  Cath.),  Tubingen,  1878,  pp.  306-7. 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  XLVIII. 


them.  'Neither  hast  thou  heard  them,  neither  hast  thou 
known  them,  neither  did  thine  ear  open  heretofore  ;  for  I 
knew  that  thou  wast  indeed  treacherous,  and  wast  called 
Rebellious  from  the  womb  ?  ^  For  my  name's  sake  I  defer 
mine  anger,  and  for  my  praise  I  am  temperate  towards  thee, 
not  to  cut  thee  off.  ^^  Behold,  I  have  refined  thee,  but  ^  not 
as  silver"  ;  I  have  '^tested  thee  in   the   furnace  of  affliction. 

o  Not  for  silver,  Ew.  ;  not  obtained  any  silver,  Gcs. 

*>  So  Pesh.,  Targ.,  Gcs.,  Hitz.,  Ew.,  Hend.,  Kr.,  Del.,  Naeg.  (mentioned  also  by 
A.E.  and  Kimchi). — Chosen,  Vulg. ,  the  Rabbis,  Calv.,  Vitr.,  Stier,  Weir.  (Rashi 
renders  the  clause,  '  I  chose  for  thee  the  furnace  of  affliction,'  but  against  the 
parallelism.) 


Dr.  Rutgers,  with  the  same  object, 
attempts  to  show  that  there  was 
nothing  in  the  successes  of  Cyrus 
to  justify  such  language  in  a  pro- 
phet Hving  at  the  close  of  the 
Exile.  He  refers  to  the  (rather 
dubious)  oracles  which  are  said 
(e.g.,  by  Dino,  Fragvi.  7,  and  by 
Herodotus,  i.  53)  to  have  an- 
nounced the  victories  of  Cyrus. 
Dr.  Land  replies,  that  it  required  an 
unusual  intensity  of  faith  to  predict 
in  such  positive  terms  what  we  can 
now,  perhaps,  a  postoiori  see  to 
be  very  natural.  Was  it  not  rather 
to  be  apprehended  that  the  Jews 
would  simply  exchange  a  Chaldean 

oppressor  for  a  Persian  ? ' Iiest 

thou  shouldest  say  •  •  •  ]  See 
note  on  '  The  former  things'  (7/.  3). 
^  Neither  did  thine  ear  open] 
A  synonym  for  '  didst  thou  hear ' 
(i.e.,  with  the  natural,  not  the 
spiritual  organ)  ;  comp.  xlii.  19 
(where,  however,  the  verb  is  differ- 
ent).  For  Z  knew  .   .  •  ]    Here 

the  same  reason  is  given  for  the 
postponement  of  the  prediction  of 
the  'new  things'  which  has  been 
urged  for  the  early  dale  of  the 
announcement  of  '  the  former 
things '  (v.  4).  There  is  no  incon- 
sistency, however.  It  is  the  '  new- 
ness,' the  unheard-of  grandeur, 
of  the  second  cycle  of  predicted 
events,  which  causes  the  difference 
in  Jehovah's  procedure.  Israel  was 
etjually  'hard'  at  both  periods  of 
prophecy,  but  his  guilt  would  have 


been  greatly  increased  by  denying 
the    Divine    origin   of   these  won- 

drously  'new'  facts. That  thou 

virast  indeed  treacherous]  It  is 
difficult  to  realise  the  closeness 
of  the  relation  felt  by  primitive 
races  to  exist  between  them  and 
their  gods.  This,  however,  is  the 
basis  on  which  the  Biblical  doc- 
trines of  the  relation  between  Je- 
hovah and  Israel,  and  between  (jod 
and  the  Church,  are  established. 
See  Mic.  iv.  5,  and  comp.  Hos.  v.  7, 

vi.  7,  Jer.  iii.  7,  10,  Mai.  ii.   11. 

Rebellious]  The  allusion  is  pri- 
marily to  the  provocations  of  the 
Israelites  in  the  wilderness  (comp. 

Ps.  cvi.  7-  "^yl^,. From  the  womb] 

The  accents  link  this  with  '  Rebel- 
lious '  (in  this  case  render  '  art 
called')  ;  it  gives  a  better  sense, 
however,  to  connect  it  with  the 
verb. 

"  But  some  objector  may  ask, 
Why  has  not  Jehovah  taken  sum- 
mary vengeance  on  such  an  im- 
pious   race  t ror    my    name's 

sake,  &c.,  gives  the  answer.  Be- 
cause it  would  have  compromised 
Jehovah  in  the  eyes  of  the  heathen, 
who  are,  in  His  own  good  time,  to 
become  subjects  of  the  Divine 
King.     Comp.   Ezek.   xx.   9,  xxxvi. 

21-23. 1  am  temperate]    Or,  I 

refrain  (it).  The  Arabic  cognate 
suggests  the  idea  of  muzzling. 

'°  Z  have  refined  thee,  but  not 
as  sliver]  The  precise  meaning 
is  obscure.     We  may,  however,  at 


'  Rutgers,  De  echtheid,  enz..   pp.  64-68  ;    Land, 
Jesaias,'  Theologisch  Tijdschrift.  1867,  p.  202. 


'  Prof.    Rutgers  en   do  twccde 


CHAP.  XLVIII.] 


ISAIAH. 


"  For  mine  own  sake,  for  mine  own  sake  will  I  do  it  ;  for 
how  should  it  be  desecrated  ?  and  my  glory  I  will  not  give 
unto  another. 

12  Hearken  unto  me,  O  Jacob  ;  and  Israel,  my  called  one  ; 
I  am  He,  I  am  the  first,  1  also  am  the  last.  '^  It  was  my 
hand  also  that  laid -the  foundation  of  the  earth,  and  my  right 
hand  that  spread  out  the  heavens  ;  if  I  call  unto  them,  they 
stand  up  together.  '"*  Assemble  yourselves,  all  of  you,  and 
hear ;  who  among  °  them  announced  these  things  ?  He 
whom    Jehovah    hath   loved    shall    perform    his  pleasure  on 

"  You,  not  a  few  Hebr.  MSS.,  Pesh. 


once  dismiss  the  explanation  of 
Ewald  ('  my  refining  did  not  result 
in  the  production  of  pure  metal'), 
which  is  here  '  purposeless  '  (Del). 
(It  is  not  the  so-called  -Be//i  prctii, 
but  the  Beth  essenttce,  which  we  have 
here.  For  the  latter,  besides  xl.  lo, 
comp.  Ezek.  xx.  41,  'as  a  sweet 
savour  I  will  accept  you  gladly.') 
But  what  does  'not  as  silver'  mean? 
Not  merely  '  in  a  higher  sense  than 
the  refining  of  silver '  (Hitz.,  Del.), 
comp.  xxix.  9;  but  rather  'not  with 
such  uncompromising  severity  as 
silver,'  (so  Calv.,  Vitr.,  Hengst.). 
To  have  tried  Israel  'as  silver,' 
which,  as  a  Psalmist  says,  is  'puri- 
fied seven  times '  (Ps.  xii.  6),  would 
have  been  to  '  cut  off'  the  nation 
entirely  (comp.  v.  9) ;  Jehovah, 
therefore,  mindful  of  his  covenant, 
'  reined  in '  or  '  restrained '  the 
anger  due  to  its  iniquity. — The 
beauty  of  the  passage,  thus  ex- 
plained, shines  out  the  more  by 
comparison  with  the  application  of 
the  same  figure  in  other  prophecies ; 
see  i.  25,  Ezek.  xxii.  18-22,  Mai. 
iii.  3  ;  Zech.  xiii.  9  is  more  nearly 
in  harmony  with  it. In  the  fur- 
nace of  affliction]  An  allusion  to 
the  '  iron  furnace  '  of  the  Egyptian 
bondage,  Deut.  iv.  20.  The  pro- 
phets regard  Egypt  as  the  type  of 
all  subsequent  oppressors. 

^'  Tor  liow  should  it  be  dese- 
crated?] Understand  'my  glory,' 
by  a  '  proleptic  ellipsis '  ;  comp. 
Judg.  V.  20,  '  They  fought  from 
heaven  —  the  stars  from  their 
courses  fought  against  Sisera.'     So 


Ges.,  and  formerly,  Del.  (in  his 
comment  on  Hab.  i.  5).  Or,  though 
this  is  less  obvious,  supply  my  name 
from  V.  9  (with  Sept.,  Vitr.,  Hitz., 
Del.,  Naeg.).  The  verb  will  suit 
equally  well  with  '  name '  (comp. 
xxiii.  9),  and  'glory'  (comp.  Lev. 
xviii.  21,  xix.  12,  Ezek.  xx.  9,  xxxvi. 

22). Unto  another]    i.e.,  to  an 

idol-god.     So  xlii.  8. 

12-15  ^  gtiu  more  complete  and 
more  condensed  summary  of  the 
chief  contents  of  chaps,  xl.-xlvii. 
The  summons  to  attend  to  the  new 
and  grand  revelation  (comp.  xliv.  i, 
xlvi.  3).  '  I  am  He,'  (comp.  xliii. 
10,  13,  25,  xli.  4,  xlvi.  4).  'The 
First  and  the  Last '  (xli.  4,  xliv.  6). 
The  Creator  (comp.  xl.  12,  22,  26, 
28,  xlii.  5,  xliv.  24,  xlv.  12, 18).  De- 
bate on  prophecy  (comp.  xli.  i,  22- 
28,  xliii.  9-12,  xliv.  7,  8).  Mission 
of  Cyrus  (xli.  2,  25,  xliv.  28,  xlv. 
1-7,  13,  xlvi.  II). 

'^  Assemble  yourselves]  Ad- 
dressed to   the    idolatrous  natioris 

(xliii.    9). He    ■whom    Jehovah 

hath  loved]  Cyrus  inherits  the 
honour  conferred  on  the  child 
Solomon  (comp.  the  Hebrew  of 
2  Sam.  xii.  24,  Del.).  There  is,  it 
is  true,  no  verbal  parallel  for  such 
a  phrase  in  the  preceding  dis- 
courses, but  the  personal  regard  of 
Jehovah  for  Cyrus  has  been  clearly 

enough  expressed  (see  xlv.  4). 

His  arm]  The  subject  is  uncertain. 
Is  it  Jehovah  ?  is  it  Cyrus  ?  Dr. 
Weir  remarks,  with  perfect  accu- 
racy, that  it  is  elsewhere  God's  arm 
which  the  prophet  refers  to.     But 


ISAIAH. 


[chap,  xlviii. 


Babylon,  and  ''his  arm  (shall  be)''  '"on  Chalda^a.^  ''*  I,  even  I, 
have  spoken  ;  1  have  also  called  him  ;  I  have  brought  him, 
and  his  way  shall  be  prosperous. 

'*'  Draw  near  unto  me,  hear  ye  this  ;  (from  the  beginning 
I  have  not  spoken  in  secret,  from  the  time  that  it  came  into 
being,  there  have  I  been  :  and  now  the  Lord  Jehovah  hath 

"1  His  arm  (viz.  Jehovah's),  Hitz.,  Ew.,  Naeg. 
^  Text,  Chaldea  (see  crit.  note). 


surely  he  has  not  thereby  debarred 
himself  from  speaking  of  the  'arm' 
of  a  human  agent !  ('  Arm '  =  power ; 
comp.  Job  xx.w.  9,  '  they  cry  out  by 
reason  of  the  arm  of  the  mighty.') 
The  form  of  the  phrase  is  no  doubt 
peculiar.  We  should  have  expected 
something  like  '  and  the  lighting 
down  of  his  arm  shall  be  on 
Chaldfea '  (comp.  xxx.  30),  but  we 
can  quite  well  supply  the  verb  from 
the  preceding  line.  Alt.  rend,  may 
indeed  be  supported  by  Ex.  xiv.  31 
('the  great  hand  which  Jehovah 
did')  but  'his  arm'  is  not  a  satis- 
factory parallel  to  '  his  pleasure.' 

'6  Here  the  recapitulation  of  the 
previous  discourses  is  interrupted. 
The  prophet,  in  the  name  of  Jeho- 
vah, is  about  to  put  forth  his  good 
tidings  in  a  more  striking  form  than 
he  has  yet  given  them.  But  first 
he  must  prepare  the  minds  of  his 
readers  by  a  pathetic  appeal  to  their 

consciences. Draw  near  unto 

me]  Jehovah  is  still  the  speaker, 
but  he  addresses,  no  longer  the 
heathen  (as  in  v.  14),  but  the  Is- 
raelites, especially  those  who  are 
'  far  from  righteousness  '  (xlvi.  12). 
The  main  point  of  his  address  is  in 

7n>.  18, 19. From  the  beg-innlns] 

The  passage  thus  introduced  is 
open  to  various  interpretations. 
The  most  ]:)robable  seems  to  me  to 
be  this — that  from  the  beginning  of 
the  world  (comp.  xl.  21,  xli.  4)  Jeho- 
vah has  '  raised  up  a  succession  of 
prophets,  each  bearing  his  own  un- 
aml)iguous  message  ;  "  and  now,"  as 
the  prophetic  writer  subjoins,  Jeho- 
vah has  crowned  his  previous  work 
with  this  grandest  of  revelations." 
Compare  Calvin's   note,  '  Teslatur 

>  /.  C.  . 


Deum  ilium  qui  ab  initio  loquutus 
est,  per  ipsum  loqui.  Itaque  sic  hab- 
endam  essefidem  iis  qu;c  nunc  Deus 
per  ipsum  loquitur,  ac  si  palam 
adesset.' — The  phrase  '  from  the 
beginning'  may,  however,  also  be 
taken  as  meaning  '  from  the  be- 
ginning of  that  historical  period 
to  which  the  fall  of  Babylon  be- 
longs.' Jehovah  certainly  claims, 
according  to  the  prophet,  to  have 
foretold  the  future  from  primeval 
times,  but  he  also  insists  repeatedly 
on  the  early  date  of  his  predictions 

respecting   Cyrus. 1   have   not 

spoken  in  secret]  '  My  revelations 
have  not  been  obscure  and  am- 
biguous like  the  heathen  oracles ' 

(see    xlv.    19). Prom   tbe  time 

that  it  came  into  beingr  •  •  •  ] 
The  subject  of  the  verb  is  doubt- 
ful. Most  expositors  think  it  to 
be  Jehovah's  purpose  respecting 
Cyrus.  In  this  case,  the  Divine 
speaker  declares  that  not  only  had 
He  foretold  the  Persian  victories 
(comp.  xli.  26),  but  from  the  time 
that  these  announcements  'came 
into  being'  (i.e.,  began  to  be 
fulfilled),  '"there  (was)  He,'  as  the 
director  and  controller  of  events. 
But  is  this  view  quite  consistent  with 
the  latter  half  of  the  verse,  which 
so  distinctly  refers  to  prophecy.''  Is 
it  not  more  natural,  with  Ewald,  to 
take  the  words  '  there  (was)  He'  as 
referring  to  the  succession  of  pro- 
phetic messengers,  and  as  the  sub- 
ject of  the  verb  'came  into  being' 
to  understand  '  the  earth  '  (from  7'. 
13).'  'From  the  beginning'  will  then 
mean  'from  the  beginning  of  the 
world.'  It  maybe  noticed  in  thiscon- 
ncction  that  the  word-group  '  there 

.  P-  175- 


CHAP.  XLVIII.] 


ISAIAH. 


sent  me  and*' his  Spirit*":)  '^  thus  saith  Jehovah,  thy  Goel, 
the  Holy  One  of  Israel,  I  am  Jehovah  thy  God,  he  who 
teacheth  thee  to  profit,  who  leadeth  thee  by  the  way  thou 

f  His  Word,  Tar?. 


I  (have  been)'  occurs  again  in  the 
description  of  the  work  of  Wisdom 
at  the  creation  (Prov.  viii.  27).  (For 
the  elHpsis  of  '  the  earth,'  comp. 
viii.  21,  Ps.  Ixviii.  15  in  the  Hebr.) 

• And  no'w  the  Iiord  Jehovala 

bath]  Here  a  fresh  speaker  is 
evidently  introduced,  though  his 
speech  only  extends  to  the  end  of 
the  verse.  But  who .''  According  to 
Delitzsch,  it  is  the  servant  of  Jeho- 
vah, who  has  already  been  declared 
to  be  divinely  '  sent,'  and  to  be  in- 
vested with  the  Divine  Spirit.  This 
is  possible,  but  not,  in  my  opinion, 
probable.  A  concise  and  incidental 
utterance  of  this  kind  seems  hardly 
consistent  with  the  dignity  of  this 
great  personage,  while  an  occa- 
sional brief  reference  to  himself 
is  characteristic  of  the  prophetic 
writer  (comp.  xl.  6,  xliv.  26,  Ivii.  21). 
So  Targ.,  which  interpolates  '  the 
prophet  saith  : '  so  Calv.  and  Ges. 
There  is  a  partly  similar  transition, 
pointed  out  by  Del.,  from  Jehovah 
as  a  speaker  to  the  prophet  in  Ixii. 
6. — It  is  difficult  to  see  liow  Hitzig, 
Knobel,  and  Naegelsbach  can  as- 
sign the  whole  verse  to  one  person, 
and  that  person  the  prophet  (in 
spite  of  xlv.  19).  If  the  latter  had 
only  been  sent  '  now,'  how  could 
he  have  '  spoken  from  the  begin- 
ning' ? And  his  Spirit]   It  has 

been  much  debated  whether  these 
words  are  the  subject  (with  'the 
Lord  Jehovah')  or  the  object  of 
the  verb,  i.e.,  whether  the  Spirit  is 
the  sender  or  the  sent.  The  Targ. 
(most  probably),  Sept.  (see  Dr. 
Kay's  note),  and  Vulg.,  followed 
by  the  English  and  German  ver- 
sions and  by  Naeg.,  take  the  for- 
mer view ;  Calv.,  Vitr.,  Del.  and 
indeed  most  moderns,  the  latter. 
Grammatically,  both  renderings  are 
equally  admissible,'  though  the  for- 


mer is  somewhat  more  obvious. 
But  as  there  is  no  analogy  in  the 
O.  T.  for  the  Spirit's  being  the 
sender  of  a  prophet  (in  i  Kings 
xxii.  21,  22,  'The  Spirit'  of  prophecy 
is  himself  sent),  and  as  the  spirit  is, 
elsewhere  in  II.  Isaiah,  distinctly 
subordinated  to  Jehovah  (see  xliv.  3, 
Ixi.  I,  Ixiii.  10, 11)  it  seems  to  me  safer 
to  take  the  words  '  and  his  Spirit ' 
=  '  with  the  Spirit '  (for  the  idiom, 
see  crit.  note  on  vii.  i).  Possibly 
this  particular  construction  may 
have  been  chosen  here  to  indicate 
the  personality  of  the  Spirit,  for  I 
c^h«*et--^t-^thTniq--''5vith'~Kleinert 
(who,  however,  makes  '  his  Spirit ' 
the  subject),  that  we  have  both  here 
and  in  Gen.  i.  2  an  early  trace  of 
what  is  known  as  the  Christian 
doctrine  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  If  a 
parallel  for  the  claim  here  put  for- 
ward by  the  prophet  be  required, 
comp.  Hos.  ix.  7,  '  the  man  of  the 
Spirit '  =  avdpconos  6  Trveviiaroipopos^ 
Sept.  (The  whole,  subject  of  the 
O.  T.  doctrine  of  the  Spirit  is 
well  treated  by  Dr.  Paul  Kleinert, 
in  Jahrbiicher  fiir  dcutsche  Theo- 
logi_e,  1867,  pp.  3-59.) 

''  '^  A  tender  complaint  that 
Israel  has  not  taken  the  straight 
road  to  peace  and  righteousness, 
but  has  obliged  Jehovah  to  'lead 
them  round'  (Ex.  xiii.  18),  as  it 
were,  by  the  rough  road  of  chas- 
tisement.  'Wlio  teacheth  thea 

to  profit]  Deep  down  in  human 
nature  lies  the  idea  of  a  covenant 
between  the  worshipper  and  his 
god.  In  return  for  external  service, 
the  god  gives  help  and  protection. 
The  prophets,  with  a  generous 
freedom,  retain  so  much  of  this 
primitive  theory  as  matches  with 
the  truths  revealed  to  them.  Je- 
hovah's protection  is  still  condi- 
tional, but  the  conditions  extend  to 


1  So  Origen  (  Works,  ed.  Lommatzsch,  iii.  244),  though  he  decides  on  theological 
grounds  for  this  latter  view,  explaining  that  '  the  Father  sent  both,  the  Saviour  and  the 
Holy  Spirit.' 


ISAIAH. 


[chap,  xlviii. 


shouldest  go.  '^  O  that  thou  «  haclst  hearkened  ^  unto  my 
commandments!  then  would  thy  peace  '^have  been '^  as  the 
river,  and  thy  righteousness  as  the  waves  of  the  sea  ;  '^  and 
thy  seed  would  have  been  as  the  sand,  and  the  offspring  of 
thy  body  as  the    'entrails  thereof;  his  name  would  not  be 

8  Didst  hearken,  Hitz. ,  Knob.,  Stier,  Del. 

••  Be,  Hitz.,  Knob.,  Stier,  Del.  (the  letters  leave  the  point  of  time  uncertain). 
'  So  Rashi,  A.E.,  Ges.,  Hitz.,  Naeg.,  Weir. — All  the  old  versions  agree  substan- 
tially in  rendering  '  grains  (of  sand) '  ;  so  Vitr. ,  Ew.,  Del. 


the  inner  as  well  as  the  outer  man. 
His  terms  are  therefore  more  severe 
than  those  of  the  idol-gods,  but 
the  result  justifies  their  acceptance. 
For  the  idol-gods  are,  as  Jereiniah 
puts  it  (ii.  ii),  'the  not-profitable,' 
and  similar  statements  occur  in 
II.  Isaiah  (xliv.  9,  10,  comp.  xlv.  19). 
Jehovah,  on  the  other  hand,  teaches 
only  what  is  'profitable' (i.e.,  in  a 
moral  sense,  comp.  Mic.  vi.  8),  and 
leads  in  the  right  way  (Ps.  xxiii.  3). 

O  that  tbou  hadst  hearkened 

.  .  .  ]  This  is  the  literal  render- 
ing. Some  critics,  however,  are 
of  opinion  that  it  does  not  suit  the 
context,  that  it  leads  rather  away 
from,  than  up  to,  the  enlivening 
promise  which  underlies  the  con- 
cluding injunction.  The  same  con- 
struction, they  remind  us,  occurs  in 
Ixiv.  I,  where  all  critics  are  agreed 
that  the  sense  is  a  wish  for  the 
future,  and  not  for  the  past,  and 
that  the  perfect  merely  expresses 
the  impatient  eagerness  of  the  wish. 
But,  as  Naeg.  remarks,  the  two 
passages  are  not  entirely  parallel. 
The  one  refers  to  an  action,  the 
other  to  a  state.  A  form  of  expres- 
sion suitable  enough  in  the  one 
case  would  lead  to  ambiguity  or 
worse  in  the  other.  It  is  safer  to 
render  as  above,  and  the  meaning, 
though  more  subtle,  is  not  inappro- 
priate.— There  is  a  similar  and  an 
equally  touching  apostrophe  in  Ps. 
Ixxxi.  13-16,  where,  however,  the 
construction  is  different,  and  we 
must  certainly  render,  not  as  Auth. 
Vers,  and  (at  least  as  regards  t'ta 
13,  14)  Vulg.,  '  had  hearkened,'  'had 
walked,'  '  should  have  subdued,' 
&.C.,  but  '  would  hearken,'  '  would 
walk,'  '  would  subdue,'  (S:c. The 


River]    i.e.,     the     Euphrates    (so 

Targ.). Thy        rlgrhteousness] 

'  Righteousness  '  here,  as  so  often 
in  II.  Isaiah,  means,  not  rectitude, 
but  prosperity,  not  however  pros- 
perity />er  se,  but  as  the  manifesta- 
tion of  Jehovah's  righteousness  or 
fidelity  to  His  promises. 

'®  As  the  sand]  Thus  the 
ancient  promises  to  Abraham  and 
to  Jacob  (Gen.  xxii.  17,  x.xxii.  12), 
and  indeed  those  recent  ones  to 
Israel  himself  (xli\'.  3,  4),  would 
have    been    realised,    as    it    were, 

naturally.  As     the      entrails 

thereof]  i.e.,  the  fishes,  which 
have  their  name  in  Hebr.  from 
swarming  (comp.  Gen.  i.  20).  The 
subject  in  Hebr.  is  not  always  the 
noun  last  mentioned  ;  it  must  in 
this  case  be  supplied  from  the  pre- 
ceding line.  The  word  for  '  entrails ' 
is  the  feminine  form  of  that  ren- 
dered '  body  ' ;  masculine  and  femi- 
nine forms  standing  together  as  in 
iii.  I. — This  rend,  seems  to  me  now 
safer  than  that  of  Ew.  or  of  Del. 

(The  phrase  is  Spenserian.) His 

name  \irouId  not  be  cut  off]  Not 
only  would  these  blessings  have 
been  attained,  but  Israel's  name  as 
a  people  would  be  secured  against 
extinction  for  all  time. — But  is  not 
this  explanation  against  the  spirit 
of  Old  Testament  prophecy,  which 
assumes,  like  St.  Paul,  that  the 
XapiaixiiTa  of  God  are  irrevocable  ? 
Are  we  not  therefore  driven  to 
Ewald's  way  of  rendering  the  pas- 
sage ?  No  ;  for  no  people  can  be 
secured  in  existence  beyond  that 
Day  of  Jehovah  which  marks  off 
one  'age'  (^ plam  or  a\u>v)  from 
another.  It  is  only  a  moral  bond 
of  union  which  can  so  attach  Israe 


CHAP.  XLVIII.] 


ISAIAH. 


cut  off,  nor  destroyed  from  before  me.  ^°  Go  ye  out  from 
Babylon,  flee  ye  from  Chaldsea  ;  with  a  ringing  cry  announce 
ye  this  and  show  it  ;  cause  it  to  go  forth  even  to  the  end  of 
the  earth  ;  say  ye,  Jehovah  hath  redeemed  his  servant  Jacob. 
^^  And  they  thirsted  not  in  the  deserts  through  which  he  led 
them  :  water  from  the  rock  he  caused  to  flow  down  unto 
them  ;  he  clave  the  rock,  and  water  gushed  out.  ^"^  There  is 
no  peace,  saith  Jehovah,  to  the  ungodly. 


to  Jehovah  that  his  existence  be- 
comes absolutely  illimitable.  For 
'  the  coming  age  '  (to  adopt  the  late 
Jewish  phrase)  a  special  promise  is 
required  (see  Ixvi.  22).  '  Before  me,' 
i.e.,  under  my  care  and  protection. 
—  See  crit.  note. 

"°  The  prophet,  'becoming  in 
the  Spirit '  (Rev.  i.  10),  sees  the  de- 
struction of  Babylon  in   the  act  of 

accomplishment. Plee  ye  .  .  .J 

'  Escape  for  thy  life  '  (Gen.  xix.  17). 
At  a  later  period,  the  prophetic  in- 
junction took  a  different  form  : — 
'  ye  shall   not    proceed   in    flight ' 

(lii.   12). IWitU  a  ringing   cry] 

The  accents  connect  these  words 
with  '  announce,  tell.'  Vitringa,  in- 
deed, thinks  this  produces  an  im- 
probable phrase — 'announce  with 
the  voice  of  song.'  But  rinnah  is 
not  properly  '  song,'  and  if  the  mes- 
sage were  to  reach  '  the  end  of  the 
earth,'  a  'ringing  cry'  would  indeed 
be  necessaiy.  The  contents  of  the 
message  are  the    redemption  and 

return  of  Israel. 7ehovab  hath 

redeemed]  Not  the  prophetic 
perfect  (as  in  xliii.  i,  xliv.  22),  but 
the  historical.  The  Israelites  have 
now  escaped  from  the  fallen  city, 
and  not  only  so,  but  received  '  the 
earnest  of  their  inheritance.'  These 
great  mercies  they  are  to  pioclaim 


far  and  wide  (comp.  xii.  4).  In 
fact,  as  we  know  from  xlv.  22,  '  all 
the  ends  of  the  earth '  are  vitally 
interested  in  the  salvation  of  Israel. 

*^  And  they  thirsted  not  .  .  .] 
Literalists  will  remark  (as  David 
Kimchi  long  ago,  with  naive  as- 
tonishment, remarked)  that  no 
miracle  of  bringing  water  out  of 
the  rock  is  mentioned  in  the  Book 
of  Ezra.  But  the  picture  is  of 
course  symbolical.  Similar  figures 
occur  in  xli.  17-19,  xliii.  19,  20, 
xliv.  3,  4,  but  here  the  emphasis 
is  laid  more  on  the  refreshment 
vouchsafed  during  the  homeward 
journey,  than  on  the  blessedness 
reserved  for  the  true  Israel  after 
their  resettlement.  The  prophet 
aims  at  showing  that  the  restora- 
tion from  Babylon  was  as  great  a 
Divine  interposition  as  the  deliver- 
ance from  Eg}'pt  (comp.  Ex.  xvii. 
6,  Num.  XX.  11).— The  last  words 
of  the  verse  reminds  us  of  Ps. 
Ixxviii.  20,  cv.  41  (see  Hebr.). 

^"  There  is  no  peace  .  .  .  ] 
'  Peace  '  (comp.  v.  18)  sums  up  all 
the  promised  blessings  ;  from  these 
the  '  ungodly,'  those  who  do  not 
belong  to  the  spiritual  Israel,  are 
self-excluded.  The  same  words 
occur,  in  the  manner  of  a  refrain, 
in  Ivii.  21. 


lO  ISAIAH.  [CHA1\  XLIX. 


CHAPTER  XLIX. 

We  now  enter  upon  a  new  section  of  the  prophecy.  This  is  ad- 
mitted even  by  those  who,  denying  the  unity,  deny  also  the  division 
of  II.  Isaiah  into  three  symmetrical  books.  In  it,  we  hear  no  more 
of  the  antithesis  between  Israel  and  heathenism,  no  more  except 
allusively  of  Babylon,  no  more  even  of  Cyrus.  Israel  himself,  in  all 
his  contradictory  characteristics,  becomes  the  engrossing  subject  of 
the  prophet's  meditations.  His  restoration,  still  future,  but  indubit- 
able, is  celebrated  in  Chap.  Ix.  by  an  ode  somewhat  similar  to  that 
on  the  fiill  of  Babylon  in  the  preceding  part.  But  the  nearer  the 
great  event  arrives,  and  the  more  the  prophet  realises  the  ideal 
Israel  of  the  future,  the  more  he  is  depressed  by  the  low  spiritual 
condition  of  the  actual  Israel.  Strange  to  say,  this  combination  of 
apparently  inconsistent  data— the  splendour  of  the  future  and  the 
misery  of  the  present — supplies  the  material  for  a  specimen  of 
dramatic  description  surpassing  anything  in  the  rest  of  the  Old 
Testament. 

The  scene  with  which  the  section  opens  is  a  singularly  striking 
one.  The  Servant  of  Jehovah,  wearied,  as  it  seems,  with  the  infatuated 
opposition  of  the  majority  of  the  Israelites,  turns  to  the  'countries  ' 
and  '  peoples  afar  off,'  and  unfolds  at  length,  although  not  as  yet  in 
all  its  fulness,  his  origin  and  his  high  mission. 

It  is  true  that  here,  as  in  the  case  of  the  parallel  prophecy  xlii. 
1-7,  many  critics  deny  that  'the  Servant'  is  the  speaker,  and  assign 
the  soliloquy  either  to  the  prophet  or  to  the  spiritual  Israel.  Of  these 
two  theories  the  former  is  the  more  plausible,  as  it  does  fuller  justice 
to  the  individualising  features  of  the  description.  It  is  also  confirmed 
by  Jer.  i.  5,  where  it  is  said  of  Jeremiah,  that  before  he  came  out  of 
the  womb  he  was  '  known,'  '  consecrated,'  and  '  ordained '  of  Jehovah. 
The  drawback,  however,  to  this  comparison  is  that  Jeremiah  does  not, 
like  the  speaker  in  xlix.  i,  presume  to  state  this  of  himself;  it  is  in 
*  the  word  of  Jehovah  '  \\-liich  '  came  to  him.'  Besides,  the  greater  part 
of  what  the  speaker  says  is  so  grand  and  so  self-assertive  that  no 
prophet,  least  of  all  such  a  reticent  prophet  as  the  author,  can  be 
imagined  as  uttering  it.  The  latter  theory  has  but  one  point  in  its 
favour — the  second  line  of  e'.  3,  and  this  no  doubt  is  at  first  sight 
conclusive.  It  is  opposed  however  by  vik  5,  6,  which  unmistakeably 
refer  to  the  spiritual  Israel,  and  expressly  distinguish  it  from  the 
Servant  of  Jehovah.  The  only  other  theory  worth  mentioning  is  that 
which  regards  the  speaker  as  that  human  yet  superhuman  ])ersonage 


CHAP.  XLIX.]  ISAIAH.  .         I  I 

to  whom  the  latter  appellation  belongs.  All  the  conflicting  data  at 
once  fall  into  their  proper  places  when  we  accept  this  explanation. 
Our  only  reasonable  doubt  will  be  connected  with  the  surprising 
statement  in  v.  2,  '  Thou  art  my  servant,  (thou  art)  Israel  with  whom 
I  will  beautify  myself.'  How  can  this  be  ?  How  can  the  speaker  be 
destined  to  bring  Israel  back  to  Jehovah,  &c.,  and  at  the  same  time 
himself  be  Israel  ?  ^ 

It  is  perhaps  a  riddle  of  a  kind  not  unrepresented  elsewhere 
in  the  Old  Testament— a  riddle  like  the  'I  am  '  of  Ex.  iii.  14,  and  like 
the  '  dwelhng  in  the  house  of  Jehovah  all  the  days  of  my  life '  (Ps. 
xxvii.  4),  and  of  which  a  satisfactory  solution  was  early  found,  viz., 
that  the  speaker  is  called  Israel  as  being  the  noblest  and  truest  repre- 
sentative of  the  people  of  Israel.  So  Ibn  Ezra,  though  the  speaker, 
according  to  him,  is  not  the  prophet  but  the  Servant ;  so  too  Delitzsch, 
who  considers  the  personal  Servant  to  be  as  it  were  the  apex  of  a 
pyramid,  of  which  Israel  in  its  entiret>'  forms  the  basis,  and  the  ideal 
or  spiritual  Israel  the  centre.  So  too  De  Dieu,  Vitringa,  Naegelsbach, 
and  Birks,  who  explain  v.  2,b  as  an  allusion  to  Gen.  xxxii.  29,  and  as 
meaning,  in  the  words  of  Vitringa,  'Tu  es  Israel,  inter  omnes  veros 
Israelitas  unus  et  solus,  qui  in  te  vere  exhibiturus  es  characteres 
omnes  patris  tui  Jacobi,  qui  cum  Deo  ipso  luctatus  vicit  .  .  .  hac 
ipsa  de  caussa  meritus  appellari  Israel.'  There  is  indeed  no  other 
instance  of  the  antitypical  use  of  the  name  Israel  (like  that  of  David 
and,  in  St.  Paul,  of  Adam).  But  why  should  not  this  'Israelite 
indeed '  be  '  honourably  -titled '  by  this  name  as  well  as  Jacob's 
spiritual  seed  in  xliv.  5  ? 

Cojifents.—i:h&  Servant's  declaration  conceraing  his  intercourse  with      / 
Jehovah,  his  functions,  and  his  experience  {vv.   1-13)  ;  Zion  comforted 
in  her  despondency  {vv.  14-26). 

1  Hearken,  ye  countries,  unto  me,  and  listen,  ye  far-ofi 
peoples  :  Jehovah  hath  called  me  from  the  womb,  from  my 
mother's  lap  hath  he  made  mention  of  my  name  ;  ^  and  he 

1  Hearken,  ye  countries,  unto  ^  He    made    my    mouth  ...  ] 

me  '         .1      This     is     no    mere  i.e.,  he  endowed  my  word  with  his 

rhetorical  phrase.    The  '  countries '  own  omnipotence,  so  that  it  puts 

and  the  'nadons'   fell   within  the  down   all   opposition,  just   as    his 

scope  of  the  Servant's  oricrinal  com-  word.     So  in  h.    16,  '  the  word  of          ^ 

mission  (xHii.  1,4,6). Prom  the  the  LORD,    which    is   put  into   the 

wombl  i  e.,  I  was  predestinated  to  mouth  of  the  Servant,  is  so  hving 

my  missionary  office.     Comp.  Jer.  and  powerful,  so  borne  by  omnipo- 

i  \   Gal  i.  1 5,  and  note  at  end  of  tence,  that  thereby  the  heavens  are 

chap.  xlii.  planted,  and  the  foundations  of  the 

1  It  is  enough  to  chronicle  the  suggestion  of  Gesenius.  in  his  note  on  v  3  that  the 
word  ■  Israel'  may  be  an  interpolation  (like  '  Israel '  and  '  Jacob  m  the  Sept.  of  xlu. 
1)      In  the  notes  to  his  translation  of  Isaiah  (2nd  ed.  1829)  he  retracted  this  view. 


12 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  XLIX. 


J 


OC 


made  my  mouth  as  a  sharp  sword,  in  the  shadow  of  his  hand 
he  hid  me  ;  and  he  made  me  a  polished  shaft,  in  his  quiv^er 
he  covered  me  :  ^  and  he  said  unto  me,  Thou  art  my  servant  ; 
(even)  Israel,  with  whom  I  will  beautify  myself.  ^  But  / 
had  said,  I  have  laboured  in  vain,  for  nought  and  for  a 
breath  have  I  spent  my  strength  ;  but  surely  my  right  is 
with  Jehovah,  and   my  recompence  with  my   God.      ^  And 


earth  are  laid.'  So  too  in  xi.  4 
(see  note)  it  is  said  of  the  Messianic 
king  that  '  he  shall  smite  the  tyrant 
with  the  sceptre  of  his  mouth.' 
Comp.  also  Heb.  iv.  12,  Eph.  vi. 
17,  and  the  passages  in  Revelation 
(i.  16,  xix.  15)  based  upon  this 
imaginative  description  of  the  Ser- 
vant.  He  hid  me]    The  incisive 

preaching  of  the  Servant  was  dis- 
pleasing to  the  natural  man,  who 
therefore  sought  to  parry  the  sword 
of  the  Spirit  by  the  arm  of  flesh. 
Hence  not  only  the  'mouth,'  but 
the  entire  person  of  the  preacher 

needed  the  Divine  protection. 

And  he  made  me  a  polished 
shaft]  The  whole  soul  of  the  pro- 
phet is  absorbed  in  his  message  ; 
he  is  all  mouth — a  '  mouth  of  God ' 
(Ex.  iv.  16,  comp.  vii.  i).  '  Po- 
lished,' so  as  to  penetrate  easily ; 
comp.  Jer.  li.  il. 

•'  And  he  said  .  .  .  ]  '  And  '  is 
explanatoiy.  Jehovah  tells  His 
Servant  why  He  watches  over  him 
with  such  solicitude.  It  is  because 
he  is  His  precious  instrument,  and 
because  in  and  through  him  He 
designs  to  manifest  His  glory.  The 
Servant  will  become  the  head  of  a 
regenerated  and  expanded  Israel, 
which  Jehovah  will  hold  forth  to 
the  universe  as  His  fairest  prize 
(Ixii.  3). — The  phrase  at  the  end  of 
the  verse  is  repeated  from  xliv.  23. 

'  But  /  had  said  .  .  .  ]  'My 
thoughts  were  very  different — ever 
ready  to  sink  into  dejection  and 
despair.  And  if  I  struggle  against 
this,  the  utmost  I  can  reach  and 
rise  to  is  to  cast  myself  upon  God's 
judgment,  and  to  leave  all  in  His 
hands.'  So  Dr.  Weir.  But  this  is 
far  from  doing  justice  to  the  firm 
faith    of  the    closing    words.     The 


Servant  of  Jehovah  may  indeed 
give  way  to  dejection,  but  only  for  ^ 
a  moment.  His  cry  of  pain  and 
astonishment  does  but  show  that 
he  is  a  man — a  historical  person, 
and  is  as  consistent  with  a  deeply- 
rooted  faith  as  the  '  Eli,  Eli '  of 
Ps.  xxii.  I,  I\Iatt.  xxvii.  46.  Directly 
after  relieving  his  feelings  by  the 
cry,  '  I  have  laboured  in  vain,'  he 
gives  the  lie,  with  a  '  but  surely,' 
to  all  delusive  appearances,  and 
with  the  bold  declaration,  'my  re- 
compence is  with  my  God,'  appeals 
to  tlie  impending  interposition  of 
the  Divine  Judge  (comp.  xl.  10). — 
The  scene  of  this  seemingly  result- 
less  labour  is  evidently  Israel,  not 
the  heathen  world  (see  v.  6).  In  a 
subsequent  chapter  we  find  Zion 
giving  utterance  to  a  complaint 
corresponding  to  the    exclamation 

of  the   Servant  (see  on  li.   14). 

tHy  rlg-ht]  The  expression  reminds 
us  of  xl.  27,  where  Israel  com- 
plains, '  My  right  has  been  let  slip 
by  my  God.'  There,  however,  the 
'  right '  is  clearly  that  of  an  op- 
pressed nation  as  against  its  op- 
pressors ;  here  it  is  the  '  right '  of 
an  envoy  from  the  King  of  Israel 
to  be  received  with  heartfelt  sub- 
mission. The  work  of  the  Servant 
is  described  under  the  same  figure 

of  a  judicial  pleading  in  1.  8. 

IVIy  recompence]  What  this  re- 
compence is,  will  appear  in  liii. 
10-12.  The  mention  of  a  '  recom- 
pence '  of  itself  shows  that  '  ser- 
vant '  in  the  phrase  '  the  Servant 
(literally  slave)  of  Jehovah '  has  a 
special  meaning  of  its  own.  A 
slave  can  have  no  recompence. 

^  And  no\7  Jehovah  hath 
said  .  .  •  ]  '.And'  is  again  ex- 
planatory.    Jehovah  has  rewarded 


CHAP.  XLIX.] 


ISAIAH. 


now  Jehovah  hath  said,  he  who  formed  me  from  the  womb  to 
be  a  servant  unto  him,  that  I  might  bring  back  Jacob  unto 
him,  and  that  Israel  might  *unto  him '^  be  gathered,  (for  I 
am  honoured  in  the  eyes  of  Jehovah,  and  my  God  is  become 
my  strength,)  '''  he  hath  said,  It  is  too  hght  a  thing  that  thou 
art  unto  me  a  servant,  to  raise  up  the  tribes  of  Jacob,  and 
to  restore  the  preserved  of  Israel  ;  so  I  appoint  thee  the 
light  of  the  nations,  ^  to  be  my  salvation  ^  unto  the  end  of 
the  earth. 

^  Thus  saith  Jehovah,  the  Goel  of  Israel,  and  his  Holy 

»  So  Heb.  marg.  some  MSS. ,  Aquila,  Pcsh.  (virtually),  Targ.,  Lc,  Vitr. ,  Ges., 
Ew.,  Del.,  Naeg.,  Weir. — Not,  Heb.  Text,  Vulg.,  Symm.,  Theod.,  Calv.,  De  Dieu, 
Hend.,  Hitz.,  Hengst.,  Alexander,  Kay.  (The  following  verb  is  variously  rendered  ; 
see  crit.  note.) 

^  So  Sept.,  Vulg.,  Vitr.,  Hengst.,  Del.,  Naeg.,  Weir. — That  my  salvation  may  be, 
Ges.,  Hitz.,  Ew.  (Weir  is  uncertain). 


the  Servant's  recent  exercise  of 
faith  by  a  fresh  revelation.  But 
before  announcing  it,  the  Servant 
joyfully  repeats  the  facts  which 
have  ever  lain  deep  down  in  his 
'"'i-^ consciousness,  though  obscured  for 
a  moment  by  despondency,  viz. 
that  he  is  Jehovah's  predestined 
instrument  for  the  restoration  of 
the  Chosen  People.  '  To  bring 
back'  (i.e.,  that  I  may  bring  back) 
at  any  rate  includes  a  spiritual  re- 
ference. See  on  .xlii.  7,  and  comp. 
the  use  of  to  return'  in  I.  Isaiah 
(i.  27,  vi.  10,  X.  20-22,  XXX.  15). — 
Alt.  rend,  entirely  spoils  the  sym- 
metry of  the  verse  (analogous  cases 

in    ix.     2,  Ixiii.     9). For  Z    am 

honoured  •  .  •  ]  Lit.  '  and,  &c.'  ; 
the  '  and '  is  explanatory  of  the 
circumstance  that  a  new  Divine 
revelation  has  been  accorded  to  the 
Servant.  He  now  feels  that  he  is 
honoured  (the  imperfect  tense  may 
be  chosen  as  being  the  tense  of 
emotion)  in  the  eyes  of  God  if  not 
in  those  of  tnen,  and  consequently 
his  despondency  gives  place  to  a 
sense  of  an  indwelling  Divine 
strength. 

^  This  is  what  he  has  been  long- 
ing to  say,  (for  it  concerns  the  far 
countries  so  much,)  but  seems  to 
have  feared  to  bring  out  too  hastily 
— so  wondrous  is  it  !.,-It  is  too 
light    a    tblng  •  •  •  ]  '    Even  the 


restoration  of  Israel  is  a  '  light 
thing'  by  comparison  with  the 
exalted  privilege  of  bringing  all 
mankind  to  the  knowledge  of  the 
true  God.-^ — The  tribes  of  Jacob 
(i.e.,  Israel)]  The  prophet  retains 
the  old-fashioned  phrase,  precisely 
as  the  New  Testament  writers 
(Matt.  xix.  28,  Rev.  vii.  4).  The 
parallel  clause  has  simply  the  pre- 
served of  Israel,  i.e.,  those  who 
in  I.  Isaiah  (e.g.,  x.  20)  are  called 
the  '  remnant,'  with  reference  to  the 

great  judgment    upon    Israel. 

The    lig'ht    .  .    .  ]    Comp.    xlii.   6. 

To  be  my  salvation]  i.e.,  the 

bearer  of  my  salvation  (as  the 
Messiah  is  called  '  peace,'  i.e.,  '  the 
author  of  peace,'  Mic.  v.  5). — Alt. 
rend,  is  equally  possible  grammati- 
cally, and  harmonizes  better  with 
the  theory  that  the  people  of  Israel 
is  the  speaker.  But  the  parallelism 
favours  the  first  rendering. 

'"®  A  further  revelation  of  Jeho- 
vah, rewarding  the  revived  faith  of 
his  Servant.  It  is  a  kind  of  pre- 
lude of  chap.  liii.  Nowhere  else, 
except  in  that  famous  chapter,  are 
the  humiliation  and  subsequent 
glorification  of  this  great  personage 
so  emphatically  dwelt  upon. 

'  The  Coel  of  Israel]  (See  on 
xli.  14.)  Israel  and  the  greatest  of 
Israel's  saplings  (liii.  2)  are  indis- 
solubly  united.     Is  the   '  Servant' 


14 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  xlix. 


One,  unto  him  who  is  "=  despised   '^ofsouls,'^  abhorred  of  '^  the 
people,^    a    servant    of  rulers  :  kings  shall  see  and  rise  up  ; 

'  Despicable,  Calv.,  Del.  (Vulg. ,  contemptibilcm  animam  ;  Sept.  rbr  <t>avKi^ovra 
TT)!'  «/;u\r)i'  aijTov:  i.e.  bozeh.) 

^  (,i)  Of  persons,  Targ.  (virtually),  Auth.  Vers.,  Ges.,  Hengst.,  Knobel.  (|3)  In  the 
soul,  Calv.,  Vitr. ,  Ew. ,  Naeg.,  Weir.      (y)  As  to  (his)  soul,  Hiiz.,  Del.  (see  crit.  note). 

«'  Peoples,  Sept.,  Saadya,  A.E.,  Kimchi,  Luzzatto  (as  if  a  collective). 


reduced  to  low  estate  ?  So,  too,  is 
Israel.  Is  the '  Servant '  appointed 
for  a  glorious  issue  ?  Those  who 
are  mystically  joined  to  him  shall 
share  his  prosperity. His  Holy- 
One]  '  Holiness'  is  closely  related 
to  the  idea  of  strength,  comp.  xxi.K. 

19. "Wbo  is  despised  of  souls] 

i.e.,  whom  men  heartily  despise. 
The  obscurity  of  this  expression  is 
chiefly  owing  to  the  circumstance 
that  the  Hebr.  has,  not  'souls,'  but 
'  soul '  incJesJi).  '  Despised  of  soul ' 
(if  we  interpret  ncfcsh  as  a  singular) 
may  be  explained  in  two  ways  (see 
a  and  y  in  note  <*),  of  which  the  first 
seems  to  me  the  more  plausible — 
comp.  the  phrase  '  desire  of  soul '  = 
'  deep  desire  '  (xxvi.  8),  and  'my ene- 
mies in  soul '  =  'my  deadlyenemies  ' 
(as  A.  V.  Ps.  xvii.  9).  The  soul  is 
in  Biblical  language  the  seat  of  the 
deepest  feelings  and  affections  (the 
Gemiith),  of  "pleasure  and  pain, 
desire  and  disgust,  love  and  hate, 
admiration  and  contempt;  con- 
tempt, in  particular,  is  again  con- 
nected with  the  soul  in  Ezek.  xxxvi. 
5,  '  with  the  joy  of  a  full  heart,  with 
despite  of  the  soul.'  On  the  other 
hand,  the  rend,  of  those  who  take 
fi(fesh  collectively  is  recommended 
by  its  accordance  with  the  parallel 
members  of  the  verse  ('  .  .  .  people 
.  .  .  rulers'),  and  by  the  parallel 
passage  in  Ps.  xxii.  (a  psalm  so 
strikingly  germane  to  this  para- 
graph and  to  Isa.  liii.),  in  which 
the  pious  sufferer  is  called  'a  re- 
proach of  men  and  despised  of  the 
people  '  {v.  6) ;  while  the  rend.  '  per- 
sons'  is  justified  by  the  conmion 
phrase  '  every  soul '  for  '  every  per- 
son,' and  by  Gen.  xii.  5,  xiv.  21, 
Ezek.  xxvii.  13  (where  the  singular 
is  used,  as  here,  collectively).  Still, 
though  the  parallelism  imperatively 
demands    a    collective    reference. 


'  soul '  in  the  sense  of  '  person  ' 
seems  to  me  to  belong  specially  to 
phrases  and  formulas  (see  instances 
in  Lexicon),  and  to  be  altogether 
too  mean  a  word  for  those  who  are 
in  the  position  of  tyrants.  I  there- 
fore agree  grammatically  with  Ge- 
senius,  and  exegetically  with  Ewald. 
— The  rend,  of  Hitz.  and  Del. 
means  '  whose  life  is  deemed  of 
little  or  no  value  '■ — the  opposite 
of  Ps.  Ixxii.  14b.  (Obs.  the 
commentators  grouped  together 
above  do  not  always  agree  in  their 
exegesis.  Thus  Knobel,  while 
rendering  as  Gesenius,  gives  an  ex- 
position akin  to  my  own,  '  despised 
of  men,  who  despise  him  in  the 
soul,  i.e.,  heartily.'  Vitringa,  too, 
though  he  translates  as  Ewald, 
explains  substantially  as  I  have 
done,  '  Contempto  fastiditoque  il 
cujuscjue  desiderio ;  cjuem  nemo 
concupiscit ;  quo  nemo  delectatur  ; 
qui  cuiquefastidioest.'  Calvin,  how- 
ever, with  the  same  version  as  Vitr. 
and  Ew.,  gives  a  very  different  in- 
terpretation, 'Hoc  autem  miseriam 
populi  auget,'  he  says  (taking  the 
promise  to  be  addressed  to  the 
people),  '  quod  "  in  anima "  apud 
seipsum  contemptibilcm  esse  dicit.') 

The    people]    Hebr.    i^oy   (no 

article).  The  term  is  here  used  in 
its  widest  and  primary  meaning,'  a 
collection  of  people,'  viz.  all  those 
with  whom  the  Servant  has  to  do, 
not  merely  Jews,  and  not  merely 
Gentiles,  but  all  mankind.  Comp. 
the  use  of  the  synonym  {dm)  in  xl.  7, 
xlii.  5,  Num.  xxi.  6,  Ps.  xviii.  28 
(26),  xxii.  7  (6),  and  perhaps  Ixii.  9 
(8) ;  also  the  phrase  '  righteous 
people'  {jQoy  (^addig).  Gen.  xx.  4. — 
The  rendering  '  peoples '  may  be 
supported  by  Job  xvii.  6,  where 
Job,  the  typical  righteous  man, 
complains   that   he   is  become   '  a 


CHAP.  XLIX.] 


ISAIAH. 


15 


princes— they  shall  bow  down  ;  because  of  Jehovah,  in  that 
he  is  faithful,  and  of  the  Holy  One  of  Israel,  in  that  he  chose 
thee.  *Thus  saith  Jehovah,  In  the  season  of  favour  do  I 
answer  thee,  and  in  the  day  of  salvation  I  help  thee  ;  and  I 
^keep  thee  and  appoint  thee  for  a  covenant  of  the  people,  to 
raise  up  the  land,  to  assign  the  desolate  heritages,  ^  saying  to 
the  bondsmen,  Go  forth,  and  to  those  who  are  in  darkness, 
Show  yourselves.     They  shall  pasture  ^  on  the  ways,  and  on 


*'  Form,  Ew, ,  Del. 

byword  of  peoples '  (plural,  not  col- 
lective). The  sense  is  of  course 
the  same,  but  the  rend,  adopted  is 

simpler. of  rulers    .  .  .  ]     Or, 

paraphrastically,' of  despots'  (comp. 
xiv.  5),  for  the  context  shows  that 
stern,  irresponsible  heathen  lords 
are  here  intended.  Obs.  the  skilful 
transition.  He  whom  Jehovah  has 
honoured  with  the  title  of '  Servant ' 
and  the  authority  of  a  vicegerent 
becomes  the  slave  of  Jehovah's 
enemies.  Yet  these  very  kings 
shall  have  to  do  obeisance  to  him 
whom  they  once  'heartily  despised' 
(comp.  Ps.  Ixxii.  11,  and  see  on  lii. 

15)- Because  of  Jelicvah  .  .  .  ] 

These  acts  of  reverence  and  homage 
are  ultimately  offered  to  Jehovah.  It 
is  Jehovah's  promise  and  Jehovah's 
election  which  have  been  verified 
by  his  Servant's  glorification. 

^  Thus  saitb  Jeliovali  .  .  .  ] 
The  prophecy  takes  up  the  thread 
which  has  been  dropped  in  v.  7. 
The  new  revelation  refers  to  the 
mediatorial  position  of  the  Servant 
and  his  spiritual  activity.  In  the 
fulness  of  time,  when  the  '  season' 
has  arrived  for  proving  to  the  world 
the  truth  of  the  declaration  in  xlii. 
I  (instead  of  'favour'  we  might 
render  '  good  pleasure '),  the  Ser- 
vant of  Jehovah  shall  himself  be 
'helped,'  or  'saved,'  and,  like  the 
sufferer  in  Ps.  xxii.  {w.  23-27),  be- 
come the  source  of  help  and  salva- 
tion to  others. 1  answer  tliee] 

The  tense  is  the  prophetic  perfect. 
SLxkd.  I  .  .  .  the  people]  Re- 
peated verbally  from  xlii  6  (see 
notes).  The  person  addressed  is 
obviously  the  same,  and  is  distinct, 


8  In  all,  Sept.,  Ew. 

in  some  sense,  from  the  people  of 
Israel— distinct  even  from  the  '  spi- 
ritual Israel'  which  is  to  take  the 
place  of  the  unpurified  race  of  the 

past. To    raise    up    tSie  land] 

Comp.    V.    19    'thy    broken-down 

(or,    ruined)    land.' To  assig-n] 

viz.  to  the  families  to  which  the 
respective  possessions  belonged. 
Clearly  this  function  belongs  to  a 
historical  person,  such  as  Joshua 
was  in  the  past,  and  Zerubbabel  was 
destined  to  be  in  the  future.  Here, 
as  elsewhere,  in  his  picture  of  the 
'  Messianic'  future,  the  prophet  com- 
bines events  which  the  reality  of 
history  spreads  over  long  stretches 
of  time. 

^  Obs.  it  is  not  the  word  of  Cyrus 
(as  in  xliv.  28),  but  that  of  Jehovah 
through  his  Servant,  which  is  the 

efficient  cause  of  deliverance. 

To  the  bondsmen]  The  'bonds- 
men '  are  the  Jews,  or,  more  pro- 
perly, the  Israelites  (from  whichever 
section  of  the  nation).  Contrast 
xlii.  7  (see  note).  This  portion  of 
the  prophecy  {vv.  7-12)  belongs 
specially  to  Israel :  notice  the  sig- 
nificant omission  in  v.  8  of  the 
words    '  a   light     of    the   nations  ' 

(found  in  xlii.  6). Shall  pasture 

oa  the  ways]  Here  follows  a 
digression  suggested  by  the  men- 
tion of  deliverance.  (Obs.  the  de- 
liverance is  taken  for  granted  ;  the 
Divine  word  '  Go  forth  '  has  a  self- 
fulfilling  power.)  The  digression 
describes  not  merely  the  comfort 
of  the  return-journey  (though  this 
is  not  excluded),  but  also  the  bliss- 
ful condition  of  the  restored  exiles 
(comp.  on  xl.   11).     The  latter  are 


i6 


ISAIAH. 


[C  HAP.  XI.IX. 


all  bare  hills  there  is  pasture,  for  them:  "^  they  shall  not 
hunger  nor  thirst,  the  ''  mirage  and  the  sun  shall  not  smite 
them,  for  he  that  hath  compassion  upon  them  shall  lead  them, 
and  unto  springs  of  water  shall  he  guide  them.  "  And  I  will 
make  all  my  mountains  a  road,  and  my  highways  shall  be 
exalted.  ^^  Behold,  these  come  from  afar  ;  and  behold,  these 
from  the  north  and  from  the  '  south,  and  these  from  the  land 
of  Sinim.     '^  Ring  out,  O  heavens,  and  exult,  O  earth,  and 


h  Glowing  heat,  Lowth,  Ges.  (with  the  ancients) 
I  West,  Hebr.  text. 


-But  see  xxxv.  7. 


compared  to  a  well-tended  flock, 
which  has  no  temptation  to  scatter, 
as  it  finds  pasture  '  on  the  ways  ' 
(i.e.,  whichever  way  the  sheep  turn), 
and  even  on  the  '  bare  hills '  of  the 
wilderness  (comp.  xli.  18,  Jer.  xii. 
12). 

10  The  literal  journey  homeward, 
and  the  metaphorical  journey  of  life, 
shall  both  be  made  easy  to  them. 
The  misery  of  intense  heat,  and 
the  phenomenon  of  the  deluding 
mirage  (see  on  xxxv.  7)  which  so 
often  accompanies  it,  will  be  equally 
unknown  in  '  the  coming  age.' 
Neither  the  mirage,  nor  the  sun, 
shall  smite  them.  Comp  the  pa- 
rallel passage,  Ps.  cxxi.  6  (where, 
however,  the  zeugmatic  use  of  the 
verb  is  not  absolutely  neces- 
sary). 

"-12  The  prophet  is  always  ho- 
vering between  the  near  and  the 
distant  future.  But  as  these  two 
verses  clearly  show,  his  conception 
even  of  the  near  future  is  modified 
by  his  vision  of  what  is  really  far 
off.  He  is  thinking  here  of  the  re- 
turn of  the  exiles,  but  the  language 
which  he  uses  is  by  no  means  ex- 
hausted by  the  return  of  the  Jews 
from  P.abylon,  though  this  event 
\was  all  that  a  Jew  of  ordinary  fore- 
isight  living  at  the  close  of  the  Exile 
could  anticipate. 

"  tHy  mountains]  Not  merely 
the  mountains  of  Canaan  (as  xiv. 
25),  but  those  of  the  whole  earth  ; 
it  is  an  assertion  of  Jehovah's  uni- 
versal lordship. My  tolghways] 

See  on  xl.  4. 

'*  The    return     of     the     exiles. 


Comp.  xliii.  5,  6  (with  note),  where, 
however,  the  quarters  are  given  in 
a  different  order.  Jerusalem  seems 
to  be  here  regarded  as  the  centre 

of  the  world  (as  Ezek.  v.    5). ■ 

Come  from  far]  The  vagueness 
of  this  term,  '  from  far,'  suggests 
that  the  writer  did  not  origin- 
ally intend  a  catalogue  of  the  four 
quarters  of  the  world.  Taken  in 
connection,  however,  with  what  fol- 
low, the  '  far '  region  should  be  the 
west,    which    is   favoured    also   by 

7.'.  \a. rrom  the  south]     This 

rendering  seems  to  be  rec[uired  by 
the  context  : — '  from  the  north  and 
from  the  west '  would  be  an  unna- 
tural combination.  And  yet  '  the 
sea,'  which  the  Hebr.  has  instead 
of  '  the  south,'  in  definitions  of 
place  commonly  means  '  the  west.' 
The  same  difficulty  occurs  in  Ps. 
cvii.  3,  where  '  the  redeemed '  are 
said  to  be  gathered  '  from  the  east, 
and  from  the  west,  from  the  north, 
and  from  the  sea'  -.—here  'the  sea' 
clearly  cannot  mean  '  the  west,'  be- 
cause that  quarter  has  been  already 
mentioned.  Del.  (on  Ps.  I.e.)  thinks 
'  the  sea'  means  the  Mediterranean 
about  Egypt,  i.e.,  the  south-west, 
but  against  the  parallelism  ;  Hitzig 
prefers  the  F^rythrean,  but  against 
usage.  For  a  justification  of  the 
rendering    '  south '    see    crit.   note. 

Sinim]     See  appendix  to  this 

chapter. 

'^  Rin^  out,  O  heavens]  In 
ecstatic  transport,  the  prophet  calls 
upon  heaven  and  earth  to  sympa- 
thise. His  language  reminds  us  of 
the  poetry  of  art,  but  it  is  really  the 


CHAP.  XLIX.] 


ISAIAH. 


17 


burst  out,  O  mountains,  into  a  ringing  sound,  for  Jehovah 
doth  comfort  his  people,  and  yearneth  upon  his  afflicted 
ones. 

'^  And  Zion  said,  Jehovah  hath  forsaken  me,  and  the  Lord 
hath  forgotten  me  !  ''^  Can  a  woman  forget  her  suckling,  so 
as  not  to  yearn  upon  the  son  of  her  womb  ?  Should  even 
these  forget,  yet  will  I  not  forget  thee  !  ^'^  Behold,  I  have 
portrayed  thee  upon  the  palms  of  the  hands  ;  thy  walls  are 


soberest  truth  (see  on  xliv.  23). 
Too  soon,  alas  !  he  is  recalled  from 
anticipations  of  the  future  to  the 
miseries  of  the  present  (or,  more 
correctly  perhaps,  from  the  distant 
to  the  near  future).  Zion  and  the 
Servant  stand  over  against  each 
other,  without  having  been  able  to 
form  an  intimate  relation.  Hence 
the  complaint  of  the  Servant,  '  I 
have  laboured  in  vain'  (xlix.  4), 
finds  a  responsive  echo  in  the  words 

of  the  personified  Zion  {v.  14). • 

Jehovah  hath  forsaken  me]  This 
is  not  an  expression  of  absolute 
unbelief;  it  is  the  pain  of  seem- 
ingly unreturned  affection  which 
borrows  the  language  of  scepticism 
(comp.  xl.  27).  The  highest  act  of 
faith  is  to  see  God  with  the  heart 
when  all  outward  tokens  of  His 
presence  are  removed.  There  are 
times  when  even  the  noblest  of 
mankind  are  unequal  to  such  an 
effort  ;  even  the  '  Servant  of  Jeho- 
vah '  gave  way  to  dejection  for  a 
moment  (see  on  xlix.  4). 

'^  Can  a  woman  •  ■  .  ]  Jehovah 
meets  this  wounded  heart,  not 
with  harsh  censure,  not  even  with  a 
gentle  remonstrance  (comp.  xl.  28), 
but  with  an  assurance  of  uninter- 
rupted affection.  His  loving-kind- 
ness surpasses  that  of  a  father 
(comp.  on  Ixiii.  16);  it  is  even  more 
tender  than  that  of  a  mother  for 

her  suckling  (comp.  Ixvi.    13). 

Should  even  these  forget]  For 
Lady  Macbeth  can  say — 

]  would,  while  it  was  smiling  in  my  face, 
Have  plucked  my  nipple  from  his  bone- 
less gums, 
And  dashed  the  brains  out. 

(Macbeth,  Act  I.  Sc.  7.) 

VOL.    IT. 


"^  X  have  portrayed  thee]  Sept. 
e(a>yi)a(f)>]<rd  ere.  It  is  of  course 
implied  that  the  portraiture  is 
indelible,  like  the  sacred  marks  of 
devotees  (see  on  xliv.  5).  With 
touching  condescension,  Jehovah 
inverts  the  usual  order.  A  wor- 
shipper needs  a  consecrating  mark 
to  remind  him  at  all  times  of  his 
relation  to  his  God.  Zion's  God, 
though  not  in  need  of  such  a  re- 
minder, has  condescended,  as  it 
were,  to  '  grave  Jerusalem  on  the 
palms    of  his    hands.' — Dr.    Weir 

compares   Ex.   xiii.   9,   16. Thy 

■walls]  This  might  mean  '  thy 
ruined  walls,'  but  as  it  is  the  ideal 
Jerusalem  (see  on  xl.  9)  which  is 
addressed,  it  seems  better  to  take 
the  walls  to  be  those  'great  and 
high '  walls,  which  exist  ideally  in 
the  heavenly  Jerusalem. — No  better 
commentary  on  this  verse  can  be 
given  than  a  passage  from  the 
Apocalypse  of  Baruch,  cap.  iv. 
Baruch  complains  of  the  ruin  which 
has  befallen  God's  city.  The  Lord 
replies,  '  Anne  putas,  quod  ista  sit 
urbs  de  qua  dixi  :  super  volas  ma- 
nuum  descripsi  te?  Non  ista  fedi- 
ficatio  nunc  sdificata  in  medio 
vestrum,  ilia  est  qu£e  revelabitur 
apud  me,  quae  hie  prjeparata  fuit  ok 
quo  cogitavi  ut  facerem  paradisum, 
et  ostendi  eam  Adamo  priusquam 
peccaret,  cum  vero  abjecit  manda- 
tum,  sublata  est  ab  eo,  ut  etiam 
paradisus  .  .  .  Et  nunc  ecce  rusto- 
dita  est  apud  me,  sicut  est  para- 
disus.' (Fritzsche,  Libri  apocryphi 
Vet.  Test.,  p.  655.)  See  also  4  Ezra 
X.  50,  &c. 


ISAIAH. 


[CHAP.  XI. IX. 


continually  before  me.  '"  Thy  ^  sons  make  haste  ;  those  who 
laid  thee  in  ruins,  and  those  who  wasted  thee,  be^^in  to  de- 
part out  of  thee.  '^  Lift  up  thine  eyes  round  about,  and  see  ; 
they  are  all  gathered  together,  and  are  come  that  they  may 
be  thine.  As  I  live,  (it  is  the  oracle  of  Jehovah,)  thou  shalt 
surely  clothe  thee  with  them  all,  as  with  ornaments,  and  bind 
them  upon  thee  like  a  bride.  '^  For  thy  ruined  and  desolate 
places,  and  thy  broken-down  land — yea,  thou  wilt  now  be  too 
narrow  for  the  inhabitants,  and  those  who  swallowed  thee  up 
will  be  far  away.  ^^  The  children  of  thy  bereavement  shall 
yet  say  in  thy  ears.  The  place  is  too  narrow  for  me  ;  make 
room  for  me  that  I  may  dwell.  ^'  And  thou  shalt  say  in  thy 
heart,  Who  hath  ^  borne   me  these,   seeing   I   was  bereaved 

k  Builders,  Sept.,  Targ. ,  Viilg.,  Saadya,  ancient  Babylonian  MS.  {pri»id  mariu), 
Lo.,  La. — Ew. ,  combining  both  readings  (bamiyik  and  boiidyik),  has,  Soon  shall  thy 
children  become  (?)  thy  builders.     (There  may  at  least  be  a  play  upon  words.) 

1  Begotten,  Ges.,  Ew.,  Stier  (taking  the  question  as  referring  to  the  father). 


1^  Thy  sons  make  haste  •   .   •  ] 

The  ideal  Jerusalem  is  to  be 
brought  into  the  region  of  pheno- 
mena, not  by  descent  from  heaven 
(as  in  Rev.  xxi.),  but  by  the  labours 
of  her  '  children.'  First,  Zion  is 
told,  in  the  verbal  form  appro- 
priated to  the  objective  statement 
of  facts,  that  her  children  (comp.  Ix. 
4),  '  haste '  (or  '  have  made  haste  ') 
i.e.,  run  swiftly  to  her  side  ;  then, 
in  the  emotional  or  descriptive 
tense,  that  her  destroyers  '  go  forth ' 
(or  '  begin  to  go  forth ')  from  her — 
as  if  they  had  been  all  those  years 
engaged  on  the  task,  never  able  to 
sate  their  fury.  The  alternative 
reading,  '  thy  builders,'  produces  a 
good  antithesis,  and  agrees  well 
with  7A  19,  but  not  with  in'.  20,  21. 
"^  1.1ft  up  thine  eyes]  The 
first  half  of  the  verse  recurs  in  Ix.  4. 

Thou  Shalt  clothe  thee  .  •  .  ] 

The  new  inhabitants  are  compared 
to  ornaments  on  a  dress  (comp. 
Zech.  ix.  16),  and  to  the  state-girdle 
worn  by  a  bride  over  her  robe 
(Jer.  ii.  32,  where  A.V.  has  wrongly 

'attire')- 

^®  The  prophet  seems  to  observe 
gestures  of  incredulity.  In  reply, 
lie  is  far  from  underrating  the  in- 
trinsic improbability  of  the  change 
(note  the  triple  reference  to  the  low 


estate  of  Zion),  and  yet  he  em- 
phatically maintains  its  certainty. 
The  change  is  to  be  a  Divine 
wonder.  The  *  desolate  land  of 
Canaan  shall  have  such  fertility 
restored  to  it  as  to  support  a  teem- 
ing   population. "Will    be    far 

away]  The  tense  is  the  perfect  of 
prophetic  certitude. 

^°  The  children  of  thy  be- 
reavement] i.e.,  those  born  while 
Zion  thought  herself  bereft  of  all 
her  children.  For  the  figure, 
comp.  xlvii.  8. — The  new  inhabi- 
tants shall  be  heard  to  say,  not  to 
Jerusalem,  as  Naeg.  strangely,  but 
the  one  to  the  other,  The  place  Is 
too  narrow^  for  me.  It  is  the 
complaint     of    an     oxerpopulated 

country. IKtake     room]      Lit., 

'  move  further  off; '  the  same  idiom 
as  in  Ccn.  \ix.  9. 

"'  "Who  hath  borne  me  these  T 
Supposing  that  the  new  children 
are  applying  to  l)e  adopted  by  her, 
Zion  incjuires  who  is  their  real 
mother  (so  Hitz.,  Del.,  Naeg.).  Alt. 
rend,  is  in  itself  improbable,  and 
is  against  the   Hebrew  usage  (see 

Ccn.     xvi.     l). An     exile     and 

removed]  Here  the  pro])hct  falls 
out  of  the  figure.  But  he  returns 
to  it  directly  :  '  I  was  left  alone,'  i.e., 
I  was  the  sole  surxivor.     The  as- 


CHAP.  XI.IX.] 


ISAIAH. 


19 


and  unfruitful,  an  exile  and  removed  ?  and  these,  who  hath 
brought  them  up  ?  Behold,  I  was  left  alone  ;  these,  where 
have  they  been  ? 

"Thus  saith  the  Lord  Jehovah,  Behold,  I  wmII  lift  up 
mine  hand  towards  the  nations,  and  set  up  my  banner  towards 
the  peoples,  and  they  shall  bring  thy  sons  in  the  bosom,  and 
thy  daughters  shall  be  carried  on  the  shoulder.  ^3  /^j-,^  kings 
shall  become  thy  foster-fathers,  and  their  queens  thy  nursing- 
mothers  ;  with  their  face  to  the  earth  shall  they  bow  down 
unto  thee,  and  the  dust  of  thy  feet  shall  they  lick  ;  and  thou 
shalt  know  that  I  am  Jehovah,  those  that  hope  in  whom  shall 
not  be  ashamed.  ^"^  Can  the  prey  be  taken  from  the  mighty 
one,  or  the  ^^  captives  of  the  terrible  one  "*  escape  ?     "^^  For 

™  So  read  by  Pesh.,  Vulg.,  Lowth,  Ew.,  Knob.,  Weir. — Hebr.  text  is  variously 
rendered.  Captives  of  the  righteous  one,  Vitr. ,  Kay  ;  or,  of  him  who  has  the  right 
(of  possession),  Stier. — Captive  band  of  righteous  ones,  Hitz. ,  Del. — Righteous  cap- 
tives, Naeg. — Booty  (?)  taken  from  the  righteous  one,  Ges. 


tonishment  of  Zion  is  caused  by 
the  vast  multiplication  of  the  com- 
paratively few  who  had  gone  into 
exile. 

**  The  explanation  of  the  mystery. 
At  Jehovah's  bidding,  but  with 
hearty  compliance  on  the  part  of 
the  Gentiles,  the  exiled  Jews  shall 
be  restored  to  their  homes.  There 
is  evidently  an  allusion  to  xi.  1 1,  12. 

In  the  bosomj  The  figure  is 

suggested  by  v.  21,  for  it  was  tlte 
part  of  the  foster-father  to  carry  the 
child  in  the  bosom  {sinus)  of  his 
garment,  Num.  xi.  12  (where  the 
word  for  '  bosom,'  however,  is  dif- 
ferent). 

■•^^  Thy  foster-fathers]  '  Comp. 
Num.  xi.  12,  Esth.  ii.  7,  but  espe- 
cially 2  Kings  X.  I,  v.'here  we  read 
of  those  who  brought  up  the  seventy 
sons  of  Ahab,  which  is  explained 
at  V.  6  by  the  statement  that  the 
king's  sons  were,  with  the  great 
men  of  the  city  who  brought  them 
up.  So  in  this  passage  Zion  is 
described  as  a  sovereign  with  a 
numerous  progeny,  giving  out  her 
children  to  such  foster-fathers,  and 

to    nurses.'      Dr.    Weir. Their 

queens]  So  sarofk  should  be 
rendered,  as  will  be  clear  from 
comparing  i  Kings  xi.  3,  with  Cant, 
vi.   8.     >SVz;7-a/ =  ' queen '    in  Assy- 


rian (and  Sarah,  the  proper  name, 
in  Hebrew).  By  '  queens  '  the  pro- 
phet   means    principal   wives. 

Shall  they  bo\7  do\irn]  It  is  the 
worship  due  to'  God  and  to  the 
Church     in    which    God     dwells  ; 

comp.    xlv.    14,    Rev.    iii,    c)b. 

Xiiek  the  dust]  i.e.,  lie  down  in 
the  dust  (see  Ps.  Ixxii.  9,  and  espe- 
cially Mic.  vii.  17),  as  a  token  of 
submission. 

*'  But    incredulous    hearers   put 
the    question,    Can   the   tyrant   be 

made    to    disgorge   his   prey } 

The  captives  of  the  terrihle  one] 
'  Our  present  reading  gives  no  good 
sense.  Vitr.  explains  (;addiq  by 
"  s^Evus  ferox,"  but  it  is  never  found 
in  this  sense.  Ges.  and  others 
prefer  [see  above],  but  besides  that 
sh'bhi  cannot  well  be  rendered 
"booty,"  the  mention  of  the  right- 
eousness of  Israel  is  altogether 
foreign  to  the  scope  of  the  passage 
....  However  unwilling  to  alter 
the  present  text  without  manu- 
script authority,  I  must  agree  with 
those  who  read  ^drig  instead  of 
qaddlq.  There  can  be  no  doubt  it 
was  a  very  old  reading.  It  is,  be- 
sides, greatly  favoured  by  the  next 
verse  '  (Dr.  Weir).  The  correction 
is  also  palaeographically  a  natural 
one.  Dr.  Kay  (see  above)  takes 
c  2 


20  ISAIAH.  [chap.  XLIX. 

thus  saith  Jehovah  :  Even  the  captives  of  the  mighty  one 
shall  be  taken,  and  the  prey  of  the  terrible  one  shall  escape, 
for  with  him  that  contcndeth  with  thee/ will  contend,  and  thy 
children  /  will  save.  ^'^  And  I  will  cause  those  that  oppress 
thee  to  eat  their  own  flesh,  and  with  their  own  blood,  as  with 
new  wine,  shall  they  be  drunken  ;  and  all  flesh  shall  know 
that  I  Jehovah  am  thy  saviour,  and  that  thy  Goel  is  the  Hero 
of  Jacob. 

the  'righteous  one'  to  be  Jehovah,  but  in  God?  (Dr.  Weir), 
whose  instrument  Zion's  captor  was.  '-*'  To     eat     their     own    flesh] 

■^  This  almost  incredible  thing  Comp.  'they  shall    cat   every  one 

shall    indeed    take    place;     Israel  the  flesh  of  his  own  arm'  (ix.  20), 

shall    be  rescued. /  will  con-  a  figure  for  disunion  to  the  point 

tend]    The    pronoun   is    very   em-  of  mutual  hostility. The  Hero 

phatic.      What    hope    could    Zion  of  Jacob]  See  on  i.  24,  where  the 

have  against  the  f^ibbor,  the  '^"Vf,  same  rare  word  l^abhif)  occurs. 

Appendix  on  '  T/ie  Land  of  S.'fiim  '  {C/iap.  xlix.  v.  14). 

From  all  the  ends  of  the  earth  the  scattered  Israelites  gather  to 
their  home.  Among  the  centres  of  their  dispersion  is  mentioned 
'  the  land  of  Sinirt  (or,  of  the  Sinim).'  Who  or  what  is  Sinim  ?  Re- 
ferring for  the  views  of  the  older  commentators  to  a  famous  article 
by  Gesenius,'  and  to  the  dictionaries  of  the  Bible,  I  will  simply  state 
what  seems  to  me  the  present  state  of  the  controversy. 

It  is  probable,  though  not  certain  (considering  the  vagueness  of 
the  phrase  '  from  afar  '  in  the  first  line),  that  the  prophet  intends  to 
describe  the  Israelites  as  flocking  from  the  four  quarters  of  the  earth. 
If  so,  the  Sinim  (for  Sinim  is  obviously  the  name  of  a  people)  will 
represent  the  remote  east  or  west,  from  the  point  of  view  of  Babylonia. 
Hence  we  may  at  once  dismiss  the  only  people  called  Sinim  else- 
where in  the  Old  Testament,  viz.  the  Phoenician  Sinites  of  Gen.  x.  1 7, 
for  these  (though  westward  of  Babylonia)  were  too  near  at  hand,  as 
well  as  too  unimportant  a  tribe,  to  be  mentioned  in  this  connection. 
The  only  claimants  remaining  (for  the  Pelusiotes  were  not  a  nation, 
and  are  nowhere  called  Sinim)  are  the  Chinese,  who,  though  rejected 
with  scorn  by  Vitringa,  have,  since  the  elaborate  discussion  by 
Gesenius,  received  the  general  adhesion  of  commentators.  It  must, 
however,  be  candidly  admitted  that  the  rea.soning  of  Gesenius  falls 
short  of  demonstration.  His  most  plausible  argument  is  based  on 
the  Chinese  name  Thsin,  originally  belonging  to  a  powerful  family 
which,  from  246-206  b.c.,  united  the  various  petty  states  of  China 
under  their  sway,  and  then  (as  is  supposed)  further  applied  by  foreign 

'    Thesuiirus  lingii.  Ilibr.  et  Chald.   I'd.   Tat.  cd.  II.,  toni.  ii.  (1840),  s.  v.  'Sinim." 


CHAP.  XLIX.]  ISAIAH.  2 1 

nations  to  the  country  which  this  family  governed.  This,  however, 
as  well  as  the  inference  which  has  been  drawn  from  the  similar  names 
of  other  much  more  ancient  local  dynasties,  and  from  the  Chinas  of 
the  Sanskrit  Laws  of  Manu  and  the  Mahabharata,  is  now  known  to 
be  valueless  (Strauss  ;  Richthofen).  Still  the  case  of  the  Chinese 
is  not  desperate^  It  is  historically  certain  from  the  Chinese  records 
that  there  were  foreign  merchants  in  China  as  early  as  the  loth  cent. 
B.C.,  and  Chinese  merchants  in  foreign  lands  as  early  as  the  12th, 
and  it  is  probable  that  direct  commercial  relations  existed  between 
China  and  India,  and  consequently  at  any  ^rate  direct  relations 
between  China  and  Phoenicia,  which  will  account  for  the  presence 
of  porcelain-ware  with  Chinese  characters  upon  it  in  the  Egyptian 
Thebes.  • 

This  is  substantially  the  contention  of  Victor  von  Strauss-Torney.^ 
Another  eminent  scholar,  indeed,  (Freiherr  von  Richthofen,)  takes 
a  somewhat  different  view.  The  theory  of  an  early  intercourse  be- 
tween the  Chinese  and  the  peoples  of  Western  Asia  does  not  com- 
mend itself  to  him  as  probable.  If  there  was  any  such  intercourse, 
he  says,  it  must  have  been  by  sea,  and  not  by  land,  for  the  vast  high- 
land of  Tibet,  with  its  wild  nomadic  population,  put  an  effectual 
bar  to  all  access  from  the  west.^  A  statement  like  this  from  such  a 
competent  authority  puts  an  end  to  the  hypothesis  of  Movers,''  that 
Chinese  silk  was  imported  to  Babylon  by  land  through  Phoenician 
merchants.  And  yet  is  it  not  conceivable  that  roving  Phoenician 
merchants  may  have  reached  China  in  their ^  coasting  voyages  ?  That 
the  Assyrians,  at  any  rate,  arrived  in  China  by  sea  as  far  back  as 
2353  B.C.,  there  is  positive  traditional  evidence,  if  M.  Pauthier's 
report  may  be  trusted.  In  that  year,  he  says,  according  to  Chinese 
traditions,  an  envoy  arrived  from  a  far  country  bearing  a  wondrous 
gift.  It  was  nothing  less  than  'a  divine  tortoise  a  thousand  years 
old,  on  the  back  of  which  was  an  inscription  in  strange  characters 
like  tadpoles,  comprising  the  history  of  the  world  from  its  origin.'  A 
second  embassy  is  said  to  have  arrived  in  mo  B.C.,  and  the  historians 
afifirm  that  it  took  the  envoys  a  whole  year  to  return  to  their  own 
country  from  Siam  by  the  sea-coast.  This,  with  the  fact  that  they 
are  called  '  the  people  of  the  long  trailing  robes '  (a  description 
quite  unsuitable  to  the  costumes  of  the  tropical  countries  south  of 
China),  and  above  all  the  tadpole-characters  (which  at  once  suggests 
cuneiform  writing),  leads  M.  Pauthier  to  the  conclusion,  that  the  nation 

^  Wilkinson,  A'Ia?tners  and  Customs  of  the  Ancient  Egyptians,  ist  series  (Lond. 
1837),  iii.  106-109. 

-  Excursus  on  '  The  Land  of  Sinim,'  in  Delitzsch's  Jesaia,  2  Aufl.,  S.  712-715 
(3  Aufl.,  S.  688-692). 

5  Col.  H.  Yule's  review  of  Von  Richthofen's  China,  in  Academy,  xiii,  339. 

*  Movers,  Die  Phonizier,  ii.  3,  p.  255. 


2  2  JSAIAII.  [CHAP.  XLIX, 

to  which  the  envoy  Ijelonged  was  the  Assyrian,  or  the  Babylonian.' 
It  is  worth  noticing  that  the  king  of  Assyria  in  mo  would  be  the 
warlike  and  enterprising  Tiglath-Pileser  I. 

As  for  the  name  Sinim,  it  has  been  plausibly  accounted  for  by 
the  frequent  use  oi  sjtn  (nearly  =  r///-'/),  literally  'man,' to  describe 
persons  according  to  their  qualities,  occupation,  country,  or  locality. 
Hearing  the  Chinese  so  often  call  themselves  sjin,  it  was  natural  for 
foreigners  to  call  them  by  this  name.  The  form  Sinim  is  accounted 
for  by  the  absence  of  the  soft  g  in  Hebrew.  With  reference  to 
Gescnius's  opinion  that  the  name  -/>■,  tc/u'fi,  ^c,  spread  over  the 
East  from  India,  it  has  been  pointed  out  to  me^  that,  according  to 
Remusat,  the  Chinese  first  entered  India,  not  by  a  direct  route,  but 
from  the  north-west,  and  were  therefore  actually  known  at  any  rate 
to  the  peoples  dwelling  on  that  side  of  India  before  they  were  known 
to  the  Hindus  themselves. 

In  conclusion,  I  may  remark  that  it  is  not  necessary  to  assume 
that  Jewish  exiles  actually  lived  in  China  when  the  prophet  wrote  ; 
enough  that  he  knew  of  (or,  as  the  case  may  be,  foresaw)  the  exist- 
ence of  a  numerous  and  extensive  Diaspora.  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
however,  Jewish  immigrants  from  Persia  do  appear  to  have  entered 
China  before  the  Christian  era.  This  is  generally  recognised  as  one 
result  of  the  intercourse  with  the  unfortunate  Jews  at  Kai-fung-foo.-* 
Of  the  antit]uity  of  this  settlement  there  can  be  no  doubt,  and  the 
inscribed  marble  tablets  which  were  till  lately  accessible  to  all  comers 
place  the  immigration  at  least  as  far  back  as  the  third  century  u.c. 
The  synagogue  with  its  tablets  has  disappeared,  and  the  '  orphan 
colony  '  is  in  danger  of  passing  away.  Fortunately  for  us,  we  can  ap- 
peal both  to  Roman  Catholic  and  to  Protestant  testimony.  The  early 
Jesuit  missionaries  were  the  first  discoverers  of  these  Chinese  Jews, 
and  one  of  them,  Father  Gozani,  took  a  copy  of  the  inscriptions  in  the 
synagogue,  which  he  sent  to  Rome.  The  verj'  interesting  mcmoire  of 
the  Jesuits  omits  to  give  any  direct  account  of  the  inscriptions  ;  it 
contains,  however,  the  following  statement  : — 

Ces  Juifs  disent  qu'ils  entr^rent  en  Chine  sous  la  dynastie  des  Han 
pendant  le  r^gne  de  IIan-niini(  Ti,  et  qu'ils  venaient  de  Si-yu,  c"est-h-dire, 
du  pays  de  rOccident.  II  parait  par  tout  ce  qu'on  a  pu  tirer  d'cux  que 
ce  pays  de  I'Occident  est  la  Perse,  et  qu'ils  vinrcnt  par  le  Corassan  et 
Samarcande.     Us  ont  encore  dans  lour  langue  plusieurs  mots  persans, 

'  Pauthier,  Relations  polili<iiics  de  hi  Chine  avcc  Ics  puissances  occiJenialcs  ij':\.v\s,, 
1859),  pp.  5-8.  I  am  indelited  for  this  reference,  which  I  have  of  course  verified,  to 
the  Kev.  R.  A.  Armstrong,  of  Nottingham.  M.  I'auiliier's  authority  as  a  critic  h.as,  I 
am  aware,  been  challenged.  His  interpretation  of  the  Chinese  traditions  seems  to  nie 
very  plausible,  but  is  not  absolutely  essential  to  my  arjjument. 

-   Mr.  .Vrnistrong  will  permit  me  apain  to  mention  his  name. 

'  Kai-fung-foo  is  the  capital  of  Ilonan,  the  most  central  province  of  the  C  hinese 
Kmi-ire. 


CHAP.  L.]  ISAIAH.  23 

et  ils  ont  conserve  pendant  longtemps  de  grands  rapports  avec  cet  etat. 
lis  croient  etre  les  seuls  qui  se  soient  etablis  dans  ce  vaste  continent.* 

Mr.  Finn's  statement  is  in  complete  accordance  with  the  Jesuit 
report  of  the  tradition  of  the  date  of  the  settlement.  He  says,  '  Ac- 
cording to  the  inscribed  marble  tablets  upon  the  walls,  there  may 
have  been  several  immigrations  of  this  people  into  China  at  different 
epochs:— (i)  In  the  Chow  dynasty,  between  a.c.  1122  and  a.c.  249  ; 
(2)  In  the  Han  dynasty,  between  a.c.  205  and  a.d.  220  ;  (3)  In  the 
LXV.  cycle  (a.d.  1163),  when  they  brought  a  tribute  of  cotton  cloth 
to  the  emperor.  There  was  also  their  own  oral  statement  to  the 
Jesuit  missionaries,  referring  their  arrival  [i.e.,  that  of  the  ancestors 
of  the  then  existing  families]  to  a  period  shortly  after  the  Roman 
dispersion  from  Jerusalem.' ^ 

See  further  Lassen,  Indische  Alterihumskimde,  ii.  1029  ;  L. 
Geiger,  Ursprung  der  Sprache,  p.  456;  Egli,  Zeitschrift  filr  wissen- 
schaftliche  Theologie,  vi.  40°,  &c.  (mainly  a  criticism  upon  Gesenius); 
and  a  paper  by  '  E.B.'  (dated  from  Pekin),  in  Ausla7id,  1873,  p.  267, 
&c.  (this  I  only  know  through  the  third  edition  of  Delitzsch's/^^rt-Zf?  ; 
it  comes  to  the  purely  negative  result  that  the  name  Tschina  is  not 
at  all  Chinese).  It  may  be  noticed  here,  that  our  form  China 
comes  to  us  from  the  Malays,  as  the  wise  and  adventurous  Marco 
Polo  already  knew  {The  Book  of  Ser  Marco  Polo  ed.  Yule,  Book  iii. 
chap.  4). 


CHAPTER    L. 


Gw/.v/Zj-.— Israel  has  been  self-rejected  ;  Jehovah,  on  his  part,  is  willing 
and  able  to  redeem,  though  no  human  champion  answers  to  his  call  {vv. 
1-3).  Then  the  scene  changes.  The  Servant  describes  his  intimate  re- 
lation to  Jehovah,  his  gift  of  eloquence,  his  persecutions,  and  the  stead- 
fast faith  with  which  he  undergoes  them  {vv.  4-9).  The  chapter  closes 
with  a  solemn  contrast  and  warning  {vv.  10,  11). 

•  Thus    saith    Jehovah,    Where    is    your    mother's  bill   of 

divorce  with  which  I  put  her  away  .^  or  which  of  my  creditors 

1-3  vitringa   and   Ewald   regard  part  of  Jehovah  to  the  complaint 

these  verses'' as  an  integral  part  of  of  Zion  in  xlix.  14.     On  the  other 

thediscoursecontainedinchap.  xlix.  hand,    it   should   be    observed    (i) 

As  long  as  we  confine  our  view  to  that  chap,  xlix  falls  into  two  equal 

V.   I,  this   theory  of  theirs    seems  parts,  and  that  the  conclusion  of 

highly  plausible,  for  v.   i   certainly  the    second   of  these    is,  from    its 

looks  like  a  second  reply  on  the  solemnity,  perfectly  adequate  as  a 

1  '  M(^moire  sur  les  Juifs  Etablis  en  Chine,'  in  Lettres  ddifiantes  et  curieuses,  dcrites 
des  missions  itrangircs,  torn.  xxiv.  (Toulouse,  iSii),  pp.  50,  51. 

"-  linn,  The  Orphan  Colony  of  Jews  in  China  (Lend.  1S72)    pp.  6,  7. 


24 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  L. 


is  it  to  whom  I  sold  you  ?  Behold,  for  your  iniquities  were 
ye  sold,  and  for  your  rebellions  was  your  mother  put  away. 
"^  Wherefore,  now  that  I  am  come,  is  there  no  man  ?  now  that 
I  have  called,  is  there  none  that  answereth }  Is  my  hand  too 
s/iort  to  deliver  ?  or  have  I  no  power  to  rescue  ?     Behold,  by 


close  to  the  entire  prophecy,  and 
(2)  that  w.  2  and  3  are  very  dif- 
ferent in  tone  and  purport  from 
all  that  precedes.  Is  it  not  the 
more  probable  view  that  7/.  I  con- 
tains a  thought  suggested  by  xlix. 
14,  subsequently  to  the  final  redac- 
tion of  the  prophecy  .?  Not  being 
able  to  work  it  into  chap,  xlix., 
the  prophet  seems  to  have  allowed 
himself  to  give  it  a  new  develop- 
ment (in  V7/.  2,  3)  which  would 
have  been  unsuitable  to  the 
original  prophecy. — Obs.  the  Di- 
vine speaker  here  addresses  the 
children  of  Zion  ;  in  xlix.  14-26,  he 
confined  himself  to  Zion  the  mo- 
ther.  Where  is  your  mother's 

bill  of  divorce  .  .  •  ]  In  Jere- 
miah (iii.  8)  it  is  said  of  the  '  back- 
sliding'kingdom  of  Samaria  that 
Jehovah  'put  her  away,  and  gave 
her  a  bill  of  divorce,'  though  a  hope 
is  still  held  out  of  her  ultimate  re- 
storation. Judah,  however,  maybe 
still  more  easily  restored  to  her 
full  privileges,  for — '  where  is  her 
bill  of  divorce.?'  There  is  none; 
Jehovah  in  His  mercy  omitted  this 
formality ;  consequently  her  dis- 
missal has  not  the  legal  value  of 
a  divorce.  Obs.  marriage  is  here 
a  figure  of  the  mystic  relation  be- 
tween the  Deity  and  his  worship- 
])ers  (see  Hos.  ii.  and  my  notes  on 
1.  21,  xliv.  ll). — ■ — "Which  of  my 
creditors  .  •  •  ]  Another  figure 
condescendingly  borrowed  from  the 
experience  of  human  life.  From 
2  Kings  iv.  i,  Neh.  v.  5,  it  appeals 
that  Hebrew  parents,  when  hope- 
lessly in  debt,  were  accustomed 
to  sell  their  children  to  their  cre- 
ditors. Such  an  unqualified  sur- 
render of  a  man's  flesh  and  blood 
is  not  expressly  sanctioned  in  the 
Law  (not  even  in  Ex.  xxi.  7),  but 
it  was  a  custom  too  strong  to  be 
eradicated.     Jehovah    admits  pro 


forma  that  He  may  have  creditors, 
but  denies  that,  in  pursuance  of 
this  old  custom,  He  has  sold  the 
Jews  to  any  of  them  : — conse- 
quently there  is  none  but  a  moral 
bar  to  their  restoration  to  His  favour 
Comp.  Iii.  3,  '  Ye  were  sold  for 
nought,  and  ye  shall  not  be  re- 
deemed with  money.' For  your 

iniquities  were  ye  sold  •  ■  •  ] 
Israel,  then,  (represented  by  Judah,) 
has  really  been  '  sold,'  has  really 
been  '  put  away.'  But  this  is  not 
by  Jehovah's  will  ;  the  cause  lies  in 
Israel  himself.  It  was  a  necessary 
punishment  for  Israel's  sins,  but 
only  a  temporaiy  one,  thanks  to 
the  'unfailing  loving-kindnesses  of 
David'  (Iv.  3). 

*  Most  commentators  take  the 
first  part  of  this  verse  as  mention- 
ing some  of  the  sins  which  had 
led  to  Israel's  temporary  rejection. 
But  it  rather  expresses  Jehovah's 
painful  surprise  that  he  is  not 
seconded  by  any  human  cham- 
pion.   Now  that    Z    am  come] 

viz.,  with  a  call  to  repentance  and 
an  offer  of  deliverance.  In  what 
way,  it  may  be  asked,  can  Jehovah 
be  said  to  have  come  .^  The  Tar- 
gum  gives  an  answer,  which  has 
been  largely  adopted,  by  inserting 
the  explanatory  words  '  in  the 
prophets.'  This  view  is  not  in  it- 
self inadmissible  (comp.  Ixv.  I,  2, 
Jer.  xi.  7),  but  is  very  unsuitable  to 
the  context.  For  the  same  j)erson 
who  has  '  come,'  and  who  has 
'called,'  goes  on  to  declare  that  he 
can  dry  up  the  sea  and  clothe  the 
heavens  in  mourning  ; — surely  then 
he  can  be  none  other  than  Jehovah 
in  all  the  plenitude  of  his  per- 
sonality. Obs.  it  is  Jehovah  im- 
mediately who  'comes,' not  as  re- 
presented by  his  Servant  (Del., 
Naeg.).  The  passage  is  precisely 
parallel  to  lix.  16  (comp.  Ixiii.  3,  5), 


CHAP.  L.] 


ISAIAH. 


25 


my  rebuke  I  can  dry  up  the  sea,  I  can  make  the  rivers  a 
wilderness,  their  fish  stinking  for  lack  of  water  and  dying  for 
thirst ;  ^  I  can  clothe  the  heavens  in  mourning,  and  make 
sackcloth  their  covering. 

*  The  Lord  Jehovah  hath  given  me  the  tongue  of  dis- 
ciples, that  I  may  ^  edify  the  weary  by  a  word  :  he  wakeneth 
morning  by  morning,  wakeneth  to  me  an  ear  to  hearken  as 

•  So    Klostcrmann   (see  crit.    note). — Text,   know  how  to  sustain   (?),    (Aquila, 
Viilg.,  Ges  ,  Del.,  Naeg.,  Weir),  or,  moisten  (?),  i.e.,  bedew,  refresh  (Ew.,  Knob.). 


where  Jehovah  is  represented  as 
wondering  that  there  was  no  one 
morally  qualified  to  be  the  national 
champion,  and  as  throwing  himself 
unassisted  into  the  breach  on  be- 
half of  his  people.  The  rendering 
'  I  have  come '  is  preferable  to  '  I 
came,'  because  the  interposition  of 
Jehovah  is  still  future,  or  at  any  rate 

incomplete. Behold]  The  usual 

word  for  introducing  the  descrip- 
tion of  a  Divine  judgment. By 

my  rebuke]  '  Rebuke '  is  the 
term  for  the  opposite  of  the  crea- 
tive word.  Instead  of  calling  into 
existence,  it  sends  into  non-exist- 
ence, or  at  least  confines  within 
bounds  (see  xvii.  13,  li.  20,  Ixvi.  15, 
Nah.  i.  4,  Ps.  ix.  5,  xviii.  15,  civ.  7, 
cvi.  9,  Matt.  viii.  26,  Luke  iv.  39). 

1  can  dry  up  the  sea]   Some, 

e.g.,  Calv.,  Kay  (rendering  in  the 
present  tense,  '  I  dry  up '),  see  in 
this  and  in  the  next  verse  a  direct 
reference  to  miracles  like  the  di- 
viding of  the  Red  Sea  and  the 
Jordan,  the  changing  of  the  Nile- 
water  into  blood,  and  the  darken- 
ing of  the  heavens  (Ex.  x.  21).  As, 
however,  we  find  similar  phrases 
elsewhere  in  descriptions  of  Divine 
interpositions  (see  Ps.  xviii.  15, 
Nah.  i.  4,  Hab.  iii.  8,  11,  Isa.  xiii. 
10),  it  is  allowable  to  interpret 
these  two  verses  symbolically.  A 
secondary  reference  to  the  ancient 
miracles  may  of  course  reasonably 
be  admitted,  God's  wonders  in  the 
past  being  regarded  by  the  pro- 
phets as  typical  (see  x.  26,  xi.  16, 

xliii.     16,    17). The     rivers     a 

wilderness]  Imitated  in  Ps. 
cvii.  33. 

^  Sackcloth      their     covering] 


Comp.  Rev.  vi.  12, '  the  sun  became 
black  as  sackcloth  of  hair '  (the 
dress  of  mourners,  Joel  i.  8,  &c.). 

•*  A  fresh  prophecy,  chiefly  in 
the  form  of  a  soliloquy.  Its  con- 
tents remind  us  of  xlii.  1-4,  xlix. 
1-9  (see  especially  xlix.  2,  7),  except 
that  there  is  no  reference  here  to 
the  evangelisation  of  the  heathen. 
If  the  subject  of  those  two  pro- 
phecies is  the  Servant  of  Jehovah, 
it  follows  of  necessity  that  the  same 
personage  is  the  speaker  here.  It 
would  be  strange  indeed  to  suppose 
that  the  prophet  is  the  speaker, 
'  blown  in  as  it  were  by  a  snow- 
storm' (Hengstenberg).  The  sec- 
tion would  then  stand  quite  soli- 
tary, without  connection  either  with 
the  preceding  or  the  following  dis- 
courses. (Ewald,  however,  thinks 
that  Israel  is  the  speaker ;  Sei- 
necke,  the  pious  kernel  of  the 
nation  ;  Gesenius,  Hitzig,  Knobel, 
the  prophet.) The  Iiord  Je- 
hovah] Notice  the  solemnity  of 
the  introduction  ;  the  same  double 
name  {Adonai  Yahveh)  occurs  three 
times    aftenvards    {vv.     5,    7,    9). 

The  tong'ue  of  disciples]  i.e., 

a  facility  like  that  of  well-trained 
scholars  (see  viii.  16,  liv.  13),  full  of 
their  morning  lesson,  or,  as  Luther 
(ap.  Naeg.)  puts  it,  'lingua  discipu- 
lata,  quae  nihil  loquitur,  nisi  quod  k 
Deo  didicit.'  From  the  occurrence 
of  the  plural  ('disciples')  Seinecke 
draws  an  argument  in  favour  of  his 
view  mentioned  above  ;  he  com- 
pares Job  xix.  II,  'He  accounteth 
me  as  His  enemies '  (Job,  according 
to  Seinecke,  being  also  a  collective 
personification).  It  seems  to  me 
a  sufficient  reply  that  the  picture 


26 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  l. 


disciples,  ■'  The  Lord  Jehovah  hath  opened  to  me  an  ear,  and 
I  have  not  been  defiant ;  I  have  not  turned  back,  ^  My  back 
I  have  given  to  smiters,  and  my  cheeks  to  those  who  plucked 
out  the  hair ;  my  face  I  have  not  hidden  from  confusion  and 


which  the  prophet  here  gives  us  is 
that  of  a  class  of  disciples,  all  with 
'  wakened  ears,'  and  swift  to  re- 
produce their  master's  instruction, 
while  in  Job  the  hostility  of  God 
appears  to  the  sufferer  in  his  illu- 
sion great  enough  to  be  expended 
on  a  whole  company  of  his  ene- 
mies.  The  •weary]  A  com- 
parison of  Ivii.  15  shows  that  here, 
as  in  Matt.  xi.  28, it  is  an  inward  and 
spiritual  as  well  as  outward  and  phy- 
sical weariness  which  is  intended. 

He    wakeneth    morningr    by 

morning-]  The  Servant  does  not 
receive  revelations  like  ordinary 
prophets  in  ecstatic  moments,  in 
dreams  and  visions  of  the  night, 
but  in  his  waking  hours,  and  not 
only  so,  but  every  morning — the 
spirit  of  prophecy  abides  constantly 
upon  him  (Uel.,  Naeg.).  The  mes- 
sage is  the  same — peace  and  resto- 
ration, but  it  needs  daily  varying 
to  meet  daily  needs.  It  is  hardly 
necessary  to  point  out  the  e.xquisite 
felicity  of  phrase  in  this  verse. 
There  are  indeed  similar  expres- 
sions elsewhere  (see  i  Sam.  ix.  15, 
XX.  2,  Job  xxxiii.  16),  but  not  equally 

poetical. An    ear]       It    is    of 

course  the  inner  ear  which  is  meant, 
as  in  xlviii.  8.  Comp.  I  Kings  iii. 
12  'a  hearing  heart.' 

■'  Katb  opened  to  me  an  ear] 
The  supposed  reference  to  Ex.  xxi. 
5,  6,  Deut.  XV.  16,  17,  has  been  de- 
servedly set  aside  by  recent  com- 
mentators. It  is  obviously  a  par- 
ticular command  which  is  referred 
to.  The  piercing  of  a  slave's  cars 
made  all  commands  binding  for  the 
rest  of  his  life  ;  '  defiance  '  was  ex- 
cluded ;  moral  conflict  was  out  of 
the  question.  Besides,  the  mean- 
ing of  the  phrase  '  to  open  the  ear ' 
is  determined  by  v.  4  (comp.  xlviii. 
8,  xlii.  18,  19).  The  Servant  was 
not  a  mechanical  organ  of  revela- 
tion, but  had  a  spiritual  sympathy 


with  it,  even  when  it  told  of  suffer- 
ing  for    himself. /    have    not 

been  defiant]  I,  weak  and  suscep- 
tible to  pain  and  reproach  as  I  am, 
have  not  stiffened  my  back  in  op- 
position to  duty.  (The  root-mean- 
ing is  stringcre.)  The  declaration  \ 
thus  ascribed  to  the  Servant  is  deci-  \ 
sive  against  the  '  collective  '  theory. 
It  was  the  offence  of  Jonah,  a  type  j 
or  symbol  of  Israel,  that  he  pursued 
the  very  opposite  line  of  conduct 
to  that  which  is  here  described. 
Few  even  in  the  class  of  prophets 
could  take  up  the  words  of  the 
Servant.  Jeremiah  indeed  does 
utter  a  like  statement,  but,  both  in 
his  sufferings  and  in  his  deportment, 
Jeremiah  was  a  striking  type  of  the 
Servant  of  Jehovah.  '  As  for  me,' 
he  says, '  I  have  not  withdrawn  from 
following  lovingly  after  thee'  (Jer. 
xvii.  6).  So,  too,  the  Servant  can 
declare,  '/  have  not  been  defiant, 
I  have  not  turned  back.'  In  both 
cases,  the  words  are  only  appro- 
priate in  the  mouth  of  an  individual. 
^  vay  back  I  have  given  •  .  .  ] 
He  has  patiently,  willingly  endured 
humiliation  and  scorn.  So  the  type 
Jeremiah,  '  I  have  been  in  derision 
continually,  everyone  mocking  me  ' 
(Jei-.  XX.  7).  So  the  pious  sufferer, 
also  (to  say  the  least)  a  type,  in 
Ps.  xxii.  7,  '  All  they  that  see  me 
laugh  to  scorn.'  So  the  typical 
righteous  man  in  the  Book  of  Job 
(xxx.  10),  'They  abhor  me,  they 
flee   far   from    me,    and    withhold 

not  spittle   from    my  face.' To 

those  who  plucked  out  the  hair] 
Comp.  Neh.  xiii.  25,  'And  I  cursed 
them.  .  .  .  and  plucked  the  hair 
oft"  them.'  Of  all  such  expressions 
in  this  section,  as  even  Vitringa 
candidly  admits,  the  primary  sense 
not  only  may  be,  but  must  be,  figu- 
rative, since  there  is  no  one  in  the 
religious  history  of  Israel  to  whom 
they  can  be  literally  applied. 


CHAP.  L.] 


ISAIAH. 


27 


spitting.  "^  But  the  Lord  Jehovah  will  help  me  ;  therefore  am 
I  not  confounded  ;  therefore  have  I  made  my  face  as  flint, 
and  I  know  that  I  shall  not  be  ashamed.  ^  Near  is  he  that 
justifieth  me ;  who  will  contend  with  me  }  let  us  stand  forth 
together.  Who  is  mine  adversary  ?  let  him  come  near  unto 
me.  ^  Behold,  the  Lord  Jehovah  will  help  me  ;  who  is  he 
that  can  condemn  me  ?  behold,  they  shall  all  fall  to  pieces 
like  a  garment  ;  the  moth  shall  eat  them.  "^  Who  is  there 
among  you  that  feareth  Jehovah,  that  hearkeneth  to  the  voice 
of  his  servant  ?  He  that  walketh  in  darkness,  and  hath  no 
light,  let  him  trust  in  the  Name  of  Jehovah,  and  rely  upon 
his  God.  ^'  Behold,  all  ye  that  kindle  a  fire  and  ^gird  your- 
self with  ^  °  brands  ;  begone  into  the  flame  of  your  fire,  and 

^  Set  a  light  to,  Pesh. ,  Seeker,  Hitz.,  Ew.  (one  letter  different). 
'■  Sparks,  Kimchi,  Calv.,  Hengst.,  Hahn,  Weir. 


"  '  Against  the  crowd  of  mockers 
he    places    Adonai   Jehovah  '  (Dr. 

Weir). As    flint]       The    same 

hgure  is  applied  in  a  bad  sense, 
Jer.  V.  3,  Zech.  vii.   12  ;  in  a  good, 

Ezek.     iii.    9. X    shall    not    be 

ashamed]  i.e.,  not  disappointed 
(see  on  liv.  4). 

^  He  that  justifieth  me]  '  To 
justify'  in  the  O.  T.  almost  always 
(see  on  liii.  1 1)  means  to  pronounce 
a  man  righteous,  or  to  prove  him  so 
in  act  : — Job  xxvii.  5  is  not  funda- 
mentally an  exception.  The  Servant 
of  Jehovah  speaks  of  the  final  stage 
of  his  career  in  figuratiA'e  language 
as  a  trial,  in  which  God  is  the 
judge.  This  is  a  fresh  point  in 
which  he  resembles  Job.  But 
whereas  Job,  the  type  of  a  righte- 
ous man,  shrinks  in  terror  from  the 
issue,  the  Servant,  human  and  yet 
superhuman  in  nature,  has  no  doubt 
as  to  a  favourable  result. 

10,  11  ^  short  speech,  addressed 
first  to  those  who  fear  and  obey 
Jehovah,  and  then  to  those  who 
resist  "his  will.  It  is  not  quite  clear 
what  is  the  meaning  of  the  words 
his  servant.  In  xliv.  26,  they  are 
a  designation  of  the  prophetic 
writer  himself,  and  they  may  per- 
haps be  so  here.  This  view,  it  is 
true,  isolates  w.  10,  11  from  the 
rest   of  the  chapter,   but  there   is 


nothing  in  these  verses  directly 
referring  to  the  preceding  para- 
graph. There  are  some  very 
abrupt  transitions  in  the  prophecy 
before  us,  and  this  may  be  one  of 
them.  Otherwise  we  may  under- 
stand '  his  servant '  to  mean  the 
servant  of  Jehovah  specially  so 
called.  I  incline  to  the  former 
theory.  The  speech  of  the  Ser\ant 
in  vv.  4-9  is,  I  think,  a  pure  soli- 
loquy, and  belongs  not  to  the 
present  but  to  the  future — it  is 
given  here  by  anticipation  ;  V7>.  10, 
1 1,  on  the  other  hand,  are  addressed 
to  the  Jews  living  in  Babylon  at 
the  close  of  the  Exile.  V.  10  is 
spoken  by  the  prophet  (so  IbnEzra), 
who,  however,  soon  loses  himself 
(see   V.    11)  in  his  Divine  master. 

The  name  of  Jehovah]     No 

mere  synonym  for  'the  Divine  cha- 
racter,' but  a  symbolic  expression 
for  a  special  aspect,  not  to  say 
'  Person '  of  the  Godhead  ;  see  on 
XXX.  27. 

^^  All  ye  that  kindle  a  fire] 
The  meaning  of  this  figure  is  un- 
certain. I  follow  Hitz.,  Ew.,  Knob., 
Del.,  Naeg.  in  taking  the  '  fire '  to 
represent  either  the  rage  of  unre- 
strained passion  (comp.  ix.  18),  or 
the  destruction  which  the  enemies 
of  Jehovah  prepare  for  his  servants. 
Others  (as  Vitr.,  Lowth,  Ges.)  re- 


28 


ISAIAH, 


[chap.  LI. 


into  the  brands  that  yc  have  ki 
bcfallcth  you  ;  in  torment  shall 

gard  it  as  a  figurative  expression 
for  rebellion  against  the  oppressors 
of  the  Jews.  Others  again  (as  Calv., 
Hahn,  Birks,  Weir)  suppose  it  to 
be  a  domestic  fire  (.\lvii.  14)  which 
is  meant,  and  take  this  to  be  a 
figure  for  all  merely  human  com- 
forts and  supports,  corresponding  to 
the  figure  of  darkness  for  distress 
and  perplexity  in  v.  10.  The  last- 
mentioned  view  has  but  a  precarious 
existence,  as  it  depends  on  the 
dubious  rendering  '  sparks  ' ;  the 
second  strikes  me  as  too  narrow 
for  the  wide  symbolism  of  pro- 
phecy. The  first  produces  a  striking 
and  natural  antithesis  (comp.   xlii. 

16,  17). "Witli  brands]  i.e.,  with 

'  fier}' darts '  (Eph.  vi.  16,  Ps.  vii. 
13).  The  deadly  machinations  of 
the   enemy   are    meant.     '  Gird '  = 


ndlcd.     From  mine  hand  this 
ye  lie  down. 

arm  (see  on  xlv.   5).     So  '  facibus 

pubes    accingitur,'     Virg. Be- 

erone  into  tbe  flame]  The  destruc- 
tion they  have  prepared  for  others 

shall  overtake  themselves From 

mine  band]    Jehovah   is  evidently 

the  speaker. Zn  torment  sball 

ye  lie  down]  An  awful  picture, 
the  more  impressive  for  its  vague- 
ness. To  '  lie  down  '  is  not  a  phrase 
for  dying  (as  A.  E.  takes  it),  but 
suggests  the  fate  of  the  guilty  souls 
in  the  underworld.  '  To  lie  down  ' 
is  often  used  of  the  rest  of  the 
grave  (e.g.,  i  Kings  ii.  10,  and  Inscr. 
of  Eshmunazar,  1.  8).  But  the  grave 
and  the  underworld  are  closely  al- 
lied conceptions,  and  the  tortures  of 
the  soul  in  Hades  are  ascribed  in 
Ixvi.  24  (see  note)  to  the  dead  body 
on  earth. 


CHAPTER   LI. 

Contents. — Instruction  for  the  spiritual  Israel  {vv.  I-8) ;  appeal  to  the 
self-revealing  might  of  Jehovah  {^jv.  9-1 1);  Divine  e.xpostulation  with 
Israel  for  his  unbelief  {^ov.  12-15);  address  of  Jehovah  to  the  Servant 
{v.  16)  ;  encouragement  for  down-trodden  Jerusalem,  mingled  with  a 
pathetic  picture  of  her  troubles  [vv.  17-23). 

'  Hearken  unto  me,  ye  that  pursue  righteousness,  that 
seek  Jehovah  ;  look  unto  the  rock  whence  ye  have  been 
hewn,  and  to  the  hole  of  the  pit  whence  ye  have  been  dug. 
"^  Look  unto  Abraham  your  father,  and  unto  Sarah  that  bare 


*  Hearken  unto  me  •   •   •  ]  The 

prophet  is  drawing  nearer  and 
nearer  to  the  great  central  revela- 
tion (chap,  liii.),  and  summons  to  his 
side  the  spiritual  Israel,  for  whom 
alone,  as  he  has  expressly  said  (see 
xlviii.  22),  the  future  blessedness  is 

reserved. Bigbteousness]      It 

is  of  course  '  righteousness  '  in  the 
objective  sense  of  which  he  speaks 
— a  way  of  life  in  accordance  with 
the  Divine  commands,  i.e.,  '  righte- 
ous   dealing  '  (Rodwellj. Ztook 

unto  tbe  rock  •  •  •  j  Unlikely  as 
llic   fulfilment    of  such  '  exceeding 


great  and  precious  promises '  may 
seem,  it  is  not  more  unlikely  than 
the  original  wonder  of  a  great 
nation  being  descended  '  from  one 
man,  and  him  as  good  as  dead  ' 
(Heb.  xi.  12).  The  figure  of  the 
'  rock,'  thus  explained,  is  natural 
enough,  without  supposing  a  sur- 
vival of  a  myth  like  that  of 
Pyrrha. 

^  Bybimseir]  Lit.,  '(as)  one.' 
There  are  two  remarkable  verbal 
parallels  in  Ezck.  xxxiii.  24  and 
Mai.  ii.  15.  The  latter  indeed 
seems  to  me   only   a   verbal    one, 


CHAP.  LI.] 


ISAIATI. 


29 


you.  for  by  himself  I  called  him,  and  I  blessed  him,  and  in- 
creased him.  '  For  Jehovah  doth  comfort  Zion,  doth  comfort 
all  her  ruined  places,  and  maketh  her  wilderness  as  Eden, 
and  her  desert  as  the  garden  of  Jehovah  ;  joy  and  gladness 
shall  be  found  therein,  thanksgiving  and  the  sound  of  melody. 
''  Listen  unto  me,  *  my  people,  and  ^  my  nation,**  give  ear 
unto  me  ;  for  instruction  shall  go  forth  from  me,  and  my  law- 
will  I  fix  for  the  light  of  the  peoples.  ^  Near  is  my  righteous- 
ness ;  gone  forth  is  my  salvation  ;  and  mine  arms  shall  judge 
the  peoples  ;  for  me  the  countries  shall  wait,  and  upon  mine 

"  Ye  peoples,  very  few  MSS. .  Pesh.,  Lowth,  Ges. 

^  Ye  nations,  few  Hebr.  MSS.,  Pesh.,  Lowth,  Ges.     (Sept.  has,  Ye  kings.) 


but  the  former  suggests  one  pos- 
sible object  of  the  prophet  in 
adopting  this  form  of  words.  It 
runs  thus,  '  Son  of  man,  they  that 
inhabit  those  ruined  places  on  the 
soil  of  Israel  say,  Abraham  was  one, 
and  he  became  possessor  of  the 
land  :  but  we  are  many,  the  land 
hath  been  given  to  us  for  a  posses- 
sion '  ;  i.e.,  '  if  Abraham  received 
the  promise  of  Canaan,  when  he 
was  but  one,  and  when  there  were 
great  nations  already  in  possession, 
how  much  more  shall  we,  who  are 
many,  and  who  are  living  on  the 
land  of  our  forefathers,  retain  a 
permanent  and  growing  hold  upon 
it  ! '  No,  the  prophet  replies  ;  the 
true  lesson  of  the  solitariness  of 
Abraham  is  different.  The  few 
genuine  believers,  who  seek  to  do 
the  will  of  God,  are  the  represen- 
tatives of  Abraham,  and  the  fresh 
starting-point  for  the  promise. — ■ — 
I  blessed  him,  and  increased 
him]  The  two  principal  features 
of  the  promises  to  Abraham  (Gen. 
xii.  2,  3,  xxii.  17  &c.). 

^  Doth  comfort]  Lit.,  '  hath 
comforted.'  The  perfect  expresses 
the  self-fulfilling  power  of  the  Di- 
vine   word. As     Eden  ...   as 

the  garden  of  Jehovah]  The 
occurrence  of  these  phrases  is 
worth  noticing,  as  it  supplies  a 
subsidiary  argument  in  contro- 
versies as  to  the  date  of  certain 
books.  '  The  garden  of  Jehovah  ' 
occurs  only  here  and  in  Gen.  xiii. 
10  ;  '  the  garden   of  Elohim  '  (an- 


other synonym  for  '  the  garden  of 
Eden')  in  Ezek.  xxviii.  13,  xxxi. 
8,  9.  The  garden  of  Eden  itself  is 
mentioned  Gen.  ii.  15,  iii.  23,  24, 
Ezek.  xxxvi.  35,  Joel  ii.  3  ;  '  the 
trees  of  Eden,'  Ezek.  xxxi.  9,  16,  18. 

^  Iiisten  unto  me  .  .  .  ]  Not 
'listen  unto  the  instruction  which 
proceeds  from  me' ;  this  would  be 
opposed  to  v.  fa.  The  prophet 
mentions  a  second  attraction  for 
Jehovah's  true  people.  It  is,  'too 
light  a  thing '  (xlix.  6)  that  Zion's 
wilderness  shall  be  transformed  ; 
Jehovah,  enthroned  anew  in  Israel,' 
shall  send  forth  his  light  and  his 
truth  among  the  distant  nations 
(comp.  ii.  2).  In  xiii.  1-4  this 
function  is  ascribed  to  the  personal 
Servant,  in  and  by  whom  Jehovah 
works. 

*  My  rigrhteousness]  There  is 
no  occasion  to  paraphrase  this  into 
'my  grace'  (Hitz.),  or  '  my  salva- 
tion' (Ges.).  Both  expressions  say 
too  little.  Jehovah's  'righteous- 
ness' means  his  consistent  ad- 
herence to  his  revealed  line  of 
action,  which  involves  deliverance 
to  faithful  or  at  least  repentant 
Israel,  and  destruction  to  those  who 
thwart  his  all-wise  purposes.  '  Mine 
arms  shall  judge  the  peoples '  ex- 
presses, or  at  least  includes,  the 
darker  side  of  Jehovah's  righteous- 
ness.  Shall  wait]     Not  '  wait ' 

as  Knobel  ;  as  if  the  judgment  was 
.simply  to  fall  upon  Babylon,  and 
the  oppressed  nations  were  already 
longing  for  its  coming.     The  pro- 


30 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  1.1. 


arm  shall  they  trust.  •■'  Lift  up  your  eyes  to  the  heavens,  and 
look  upon  the  earth  beneath  ;  for  the  heavens  shall  vanish  like 
smoke,  and  the  earth  shall  fall  to  pieces  like  a  garment,  and 
the  dwellers  therein  shall  die  ''  like  gnats  '^ ;  but  my  salvation 
shall  be  for  ever,  and  my  righteousness  shall  not  be  annulled. 
^  Hearken  unto  me,  ye  who  know  righteousness,  the  people 
in  whose  heart  is  my  instruction  ;  fear  ye  not  frail  man's  re- 
proach, and  at  their  revilings  be  ye  not  dismayed.  "  For  as 
a  garment  shall  the  moth  eat  them,  and  as  wool  shall  the 
worm  eat  them  ;  but  my  righteousness  shall  be  for  ever,  and 
my  salvation  to  successive  generations. 

^  Awake,  awake,  put  on  strength,  O  Arm  of  Jehovah  ; 
awake,  as  in  the  days  of  antiquity,  the  generations  of  old. 
Art  thou   not  it  that  hewed  Rahab  in  pieces,   that  pierced 

c  So  Weir.— A  gnat  (i.e.,  gnats,  Ges.,  &c.),  De  Dieu,  Vitr.,  Lo..  Ges.,  Hitz.,  Ew. 
(see  crit.  note).— Even  so,  Versions  and  Rabbis,  Kay,  Naeg.— Thus  (with  a  gesture  of 
contempt),  Del. 


phet     has     forgotten    Cyrus     and 
Babylon,   and  is  absorbed  by  the 

thought  of  the  Messianic  age. 

IWine  arm]  i.e.,  my  help,  my  pro- 
tertion  (comp.  x.xxiii.  2). 

^  The  heavens  .  .  .  like  a  gar- 
ment] The  same  figure  as  in  Ps. 
cii.  26.  Elsewhere  the  order  of  the 
world  is  described  as  everlasting 
(Gen.  viii.  21,  22,  ix.  9-1 1,  xlix.  26, 

Ps.    cxlviii.    6). l.lke    grnats] 

Like  the  mosquitos  of  the  Euphra- 
tes and  the  Nile  (but  the  uord  is 
applicable  to  insects  both  with  and 
without  wings).  A  simile  which 
appears  ignoble  to  us,  but  did  not 
so  appear  to  the  more  simple- 
minded  Semites.  So,  in  the  first 
of  the  Babylonian  '  Izdubar'  legends 
(in  the  Assyrian  version),  we  hear 
of  the  gods  of  Uruk  (Erech),  during 
a  siege  of  that  city,  being  over- 
powered with  fear,  and  turning 
themselves  into  flies  {Trans.  Soc. 
Bibl.  Arch.  iv.  268)  ;  and  the  Kordn 
declares  (Sura  xiii.  24),  '  Verily  God 
is  not  ashamed  to  set  forth  as  well 
the  instance  of  a  gnat  as  of  any 
nobler  object.'  Dcl.'s  explanation 
(comp.,  besides  the  passages 
quoted  by  him,  Am.  iv.  12,  Jer.  v. 
13)  is  in  keeping  with  the  iisages 
of  Eastern  conversation,  but  is  less 


suitable  in  a  passage  not  designed 
for  oral  delivery.  Besides,  as  De 
Dieu  long  ago  pointed  out,  we  de- 
siderate a  third  simile  to  correspond 
to  the  smoke  and  the  garment. 
Del.'s  philological  difficulty  is  obvi- 
ated by  Dr.  Weir. 

^  A  fresh  turn  in  the  discourse. 

Awake,  awake]  Who    utters 

this  splendid  ajiostrophe  !  —  Most 
commentators  reply,  Zion,  or  the 
prophet  in  Zion's  name.  There 
are  two  objections  to  this  :  (1) 
Wherever  Zion  or  the  Church  is 
represented  as  uttering  a  cry,  it  is 
in  the  tone  of  complaint  (see  xlix. 
14,  Ixiii.  II,  tS:c.,  Ixiv.  i),  whereas 
this  explanation  is  in  the  language 
of  the  boldest  faith  ;  and  (2)  in  7'.  17, 
Jerusalem  (which  is  here  synony- 
mous with  Zion,  see  lii.  i)  is  re- 
presented as  asleep.  Two  better 
theories  arc  open  to  us.  Looking  at 
71,  9  alone,  and  comparing  it  with 
lii.  I,  it  seems  natural  to  regard  it, 
with  Ges.,  as  an  exhortation  of  Je- 
hovah to  himself  (comp.  Judg.  v.  12, 
'Awake, awake,  Deborah  '),or,  if  we 
object  to  a  rhetorical  formula  in  so 
solemn  a  passage,  as  a  fragment  of 
a  deliberation  within  the  jiluiality 
of  the  Godhead  (comp.  Gen.  i.  26, 
xi.  7).     The  latter  is  the  form  given 


CHAP.  LI.] 


ISAIAH. 


through  the  dragon  ?  ^°  Art  thou  not  it  that  dried  up  the 
sea,  the  waters  of  the  great  flood,  that  made  the  depths  of  the 
sea  a  way  for  the  released  to  pass  over?  "  ['^  And  the  freed 
ones  of  Jehovah  shall  return  and  come  to  Zion  with  a  ringing 
sound,  and  everlasting  joy  shall  be  upon  their  head  ;  they 
shall  overtake  gladness  and  joy,  sorrow  and  sighing  shall  flee 
away.'^] 

^  Omitted  by  E\v.      (See  below.) 


to  the  theory  by  Prof.  Birks,  who 
supposes  God  the  Son  to  be  plead- 
ing with  God  the  Father  for  the 
renewal  of  His  mighty  works.  This, 
however,  is  not  only  expressed  in 
too  theological  a  way,  but  is  con- 
trary to  the  analogj''  of  Scripture  ; 
it  is  God  the  Son  (if  I  may  follow 
Prof.  Birks  on  theological  ground), 
and  not  God  the  Father,  who  cor- 
responds to  the  Arm  (as  also  to  the 
Name  and  to  the  Face)  of  Jehovah, 
but  a  glance  at  vv.  ()b,  lo,  suggests 
another  theory  in  preference.  The 
solemn  appeal  which  we  there  find 
to  God's  wonders  of  old  time  is 
certainly  more  appropriate  to  one 
who  is  not  a  Divine  being  ;  in  Ixiii. 
1 1  a  very  similar  form  of  words  is 
put  into  the  mouth  of  the  people. 
Vitringa  assigns  the  apostrophe  to 
a  chorus  of  doctors  (prophets?)  and 
saints,  '  coetui  doctorum  sive  choro 
sanctorum  illustrium,  ardentium 
zelo  divinae  glorise  et  salutis  ec- 
clesiee.'  I  should  almost  prefer 
regarding  it  as  a  specimen  of  the 
intercession  of  the  angels  called, 
in  Ixii.  6,  Jehovah's  '  remem- 
brancers.' The  interest  of  the  celes- 
tial beings  in  the  fortunes  of  Zion 
has  been  already  repeatedly  mani- 
fested   (see    on   xl.    3). O  Arm 

of  Jehovah]    See   on    xl.    10. 

That  hewed  Rahab  in  pieces 
.  .  .  ]  Comp.  Ps.  Ixxxix.  10,  '  Thou 
hast  broken  Rahab  in  pieces  as  one 
that  is  slain  ;  thou  hast  scattered 
thine  enemies  with  thy  strong  arm.' 
In  both  these  passages,  the  exegeti- 


cal  tradition  from  the  Targum  on- 
wards has  taken  Rahab  (with  which 
the  'dragon'  of  the  parallel  line  here 
is  clearly  synonymous)  as  a  sym- 
bolic expression  for  Egypt.  It  has 
been  pointed  out  (in  note  on  xxvii.  i) 
that  the  phrase  has  a  substratum 
in  mythology.  The  great  enemy  of 
Jehovah's  people  on  earth  was  de- 
scribed in  expressions  coined  origi- 
nally for  the  constantly  recurring 
'  war  in  heaven'  between  the  powers 
of  light  and  darkness.  In  confir- 
mation of  this,  see  chap.  xv.  of  the 
Egyptian  Book  of  the  Dead  (RlrcWs 
transl.  in  Bunsen's  Egypt,  vol.  vi.), 
where  the  sun-god  Ra  is  addressed 
thus  : 

'  Hail  !  thou  who  hast  cut  in  pieces  the 
Scorner  and  strangled  the  Apophis '  (i.e., 
the  evil  serpent). 

This  suggests  the  possibility  that 
in  the  passage  before  us  the  prophet 
alludes  not  only  to  the  fate  of  the 
earthly  but  to  that  of  the  heavenly 
Rahab  (see  on  xxvii.  i).  The  strife 
between  light  and  darkness,  sun- 
shine and  storm,  is  always  recom- 
mencing ;  in  mythic  language  the 
sky-dragon,  though  killed,  returns 
to  life.'  The  Hebrew  is  not  opposed 
to  such  a  reference  ;  it  may  equally 
well  be  rendered  '  that  heweth,' 
'  that  pierceth '  (comp.  on  xliii.  16). 
The  next  verse,  however,  shows 
that  if  there  was  this  reference,  it 
lay  quite  in  the  background  of  the 
prophet's  mind.* 

''  And    the    freed    ones   .   .   .  ] 
The  verse   occurs    with    one   very 


'  Tyler,  Prim  Hive  Culiure,  i.  299. 

2  Steinthal,  in  his  essay  on  Samson,  remarks,  '  It  is  clear  how  the  prophet's  con- 
sciousness passed  imperceptibly  from  the  myth  into  the  legend,  or,  if  you  prefer  to 
call  it  so  '  [and  doubtless  the  prophet  at  least  would  have  preferred  this],  '  history. ' 
(Martineau's  translation,  appended  to  Goldziher's  Mythology  among  the  Hel'rews, 
P-  425-) 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  I.I. 


'M,  even  I,  am  your  comforter:  who  art  thou  that  thou 
fearest  frail  man  that  dieth,  and  the  son  of  the  earth-born  who 
is  given  up  as  grass  ;  '•''and  hast  forgotten  Jehovah  thy  maker, 
who  stretched  out  the  heavens,  and  laid  the  foundations  of 
the  earth,  and  hast  been  trembling  continually  all  the  day  for 
the  fury  of  the  oppressor,  according  as  he  hath  taken  aim  to 
destroy?  and  where  is  the  fury  of  the  oppressor?  '^  He  that 
was  bent  down  is  quickly  released  ;  he  shall  not  die  unto  the 
pit,  neither  shall  his  bread  fail,  ^^  seeing  that   I  Jehovah  am 


sli<;ht  variation  in  xxxv.  lo.  Here 
it  is  clearly  not  original.  Either  it 
is  a  quotation  by  the  author,  or  an 
interpolation  from  the  margin.  It 
seems  to  have  been  suggested  by 
the  closing  word  of  v.  lo  in  the 
Hebrew,  '  the  released.'  Such  sug- 
gestions were  more  congenial  to  a 
copyist  than  to  a  prophet. 

*'^  X,  even  Z,  am  your  comforter] 
This  is  not,  I  venture  to  think,  the 
answer  of  Jehovah  to  the  appeal  in 
V.  9,  but  a  fresh  starting  point  in 
the  prophecy.  The  fault  which  the 
Divine  speaker  reprehends  is  unbe- 
lief, whereas  V7'.  9,  10  shine  by  the 
brightness  of  their  faith.— '  Your 
comforter'  alludes  to  v.  3.  Jehovah 
first  of  all  addresses  Israel  in  the 
plural,  as  an  aggregate  of  indivi- 
duals (2  plur.  masc),  then  in  the 
singular  as  a  living  organism  (the 
fem.  gender  in  7/.  12*  personifies 
Zion  as  a  matron,  the  masc.  in 
V.  13  indicates  Israel  as  Jehovah's 

son). 'W/'ho  art  thou  .  .  •  ]  '  Why 

wilt  thou  pay  more  respect  to  the 
futile  menaces  of  man  than  to  the 
promises  of  thy  God?'  Jehovah 
chides  this  unbelief  as  disobedience, 
but  with  what  tenderness — '  das 
freundlichste  Schellen   der   Liebe ' 

(Stier). Given  up]  viz.,  into  the 

hand  of  the  mower.  Death. 

'3  Tliy  maker]  With  reference 
to  the  nation,  comp.  xliii.  i. Ac- 
cording as  be  bath  taken  aim 
.  .  .  ]  The  Jews  are  always  on  the 
tenter-hooks  of  expectation.  When 
the  'aiming'  seems  to  fail,  their 
spirits  rise  :  when  it  promises  to 
succeed,  they  fall;  instead  of  which 
they  ought  simply  to  *  rest  in  Jeho- 


vah.'  "Where  Is  the  fury  •  •  •  ] 

Anticipating  the  sudden  destruction 
of  Babylon.  Hence  in  the  next 
verse  we  have  the  perfect  of  pro- 
phetic certitude.  It  seems  strange 
to  read  of  the  '  fuiy '  of  the  Baby- 
lonians ;  see,  however,  on  xlvii.  6. 

"  He  that  w^as  bent  dovirn]  i.e., 
by  the  weight  of  his  fetters,  or  by 
confinement  in  the  stocks  (Jer.  xx. 

2,  xxix.  26).     Comp.  on  .xlii.  22. 

Unto  the  pit]  i.e.,  so  as  to  be  cast 
into  the  pit  or  grave. 

'•^  "VWho  stirreth  up  ...  is  Jeho- 
vah Sabaoth]  The  same  description 
is  found  in  Jer.  xxxi.  35. — Taking 
the  opening  words  in  connection 
with  7'.  9  and  with  Job  xxvi.  12,  13 
(see  on  Isa.  xxvii.  i),  it  is  tempting 
to  suppose  a  primary  reference  to 
the  upper  ocean,  the  '  waters  above 
the  expanse,'  which  were  the  scene 
of  the  contest  between  Jehovah  and 
the  leviathan  (or,  sky-dragon).  But 
the  mention  of  the  '  roaring'  of  the 
sea  (which  does  not  occur  in  Job  /.c.) 
favours  the  ordinary  view  that  it 
is  the  lower  earthly  ocean.  Comp. 
Nah.  i.  4,  where  this,  among  other 
signs  of  the  theojihany,  is  given, 
that  '  he  rebuketh  the  sea  .  .  .  and 
drieth  up  all  the  rivers.'  The  figure 
in  Ivii.  20  points  in  the  same  direc- 
tion. The  meaning  will  therefore 
be  that  He  who  raiseth  storms, 
alike  in  the  world  of  nature  and  of 
history,  is  able  to  still  them,  and 
that  His  friends  have  no  cause  to 
fear.  The  name  '  Jehovah  Sabiioth' 
enforces  the  same  lesson.  Israel's 
God  has  at  his  command  all  tlie 
forces,  the  potencies,  the  '  hosts,'  of 
heaven  and  earth. 


CHAP.  LI.] 


ISAIAH. 


33 


thy  God,  who  stirreth  up  the  sea,  so  that  its  waves  roar,  whose 
name  is  Jehovah  Sabaoth. — "^  And  I  put  my  words  in  thy 
mouth,  and  in  the  shadow  of  my  hand  I  covered  thee,  to  plant 
the  heavens  and  lay  the  foundations  of  the  earth,  and  to  say 
unto  Zion,  Thou  art  my  people. 

'^  Wake  thee  up,  wake  thee  up,  arise,  O  Jerusalem,  who 
hast  drunk  at  the  hand  of  Jehovah  the  cup  of  his  fury  ;  the 
goblet-cup  of  reeling  hast  thou  drunken  and  wrung  out. 
•®  There  was  no  guide  for  her  of  all  the  sons  that  she  had 
borne,  and  none  taking  hold  of  her  hand  of  all  the  sons  that 
she  had  brought  up.    '^  Two  are  the  things  which  befell  thee  : 


'®  And  I  pat  my  words  .  .  .  ] 

It  is  difficult  to  make  out  the  con- 
nection here.  The  preceding  verses 
are  addressed  to  Zion  or  Israel,  but 
this  verse  can  hardly  be  so,  on  ac- 
count of  the  closing  words.  Look 
at  the  passage  by  itself,  however, 
and  all  the  difficulty  vanishes.  *  I 
put  my  words  in  thy  mouth '  is  pre- 
cisely parallel  to  the  speech  of  the 
Servant,  'he  made  my  mouth  .as 
a  sharp  sword '  (viz.  by  giving  me 
his  own  self-realising  words),  and 
the  next  clause,  '  in  the  shadow  of 
my  hand  I  covered  thee,'  is  even 
verbally  almost  identical  with  the 
Servant's  declaration,  '  in  the  sha- 
dow of  his  hand  he  hid  me '  (xlix. 
2).  The  Servant  of  Jehovah,  then, 
must  be  the  person  addressed.  The 
sudden  change  of  object  is  no 
doubt  surprising,  and  has  to  be  ac- 
counted for.  My  conjecture  is  that 
the  verse  originally  stood  in  some 
other  context,  and  that  the  para- 
graph  closed — very  suitably,  as  it 

seems  to   me— with  v.    15. To 

plant  the  heavens]  i.e.,  either 
'  that  I  may  plant,'  Sec.  (so  Jerome, 
Ew.,  Del.),  or  'that  thou  mayest 
plant '  (Calv.,  Vitr.,  Hengst.,  Naeg.). 
The  analogy  of  xlix.  8fi  favours  the 
second  alternative,  which  is  also 
more  suitable  both  to  the  preceding 
and  to  the  following  stat-ement, 
'  I  put  my  words  into  thy  mouth 
...  to  say  unto  Zion,'  &c.  The 
'  heavens '  and  the  '  earth  '  are  the 
new  ones  spoken  of  in  Ixv.  17,  Ixvi. 
22;  certainly  not  'the  Israelitish 
state  '  (as  Ges.,  following  Ibn  Ezra). 

VOL.    II. 


The  production  of  this  new  world 
depends  on  the  words  of  Jehovah 
committed  to  the  Servant  (comp. 
Jer.  i.  9,  10). — For  the  use  of  the 
verb  'to  plant,'  comp.  Dan.  xi.  45. 
The  figure  is  that  of  a  tent  with 
its  stakes  set  firmly  in  the  ground 
(comp.  xl.  22). 

"  'U^ake  thee  up,  wake  thee  up 
.  .  .  ]  The  prophet,  or  the  chorus 
of  prophets  (comp.  on  xl.  i),  or 
of  angelic  'remembrancers,'  salutes 
Jerusalem  with  a  cheering  cry.  In 
form  it  is  parallel  to  the  invocation 
in  V.  9.  With  delicate  thoughtful- 
ness,  the  consolation  is  prefixed  to 
the  piteous  description  of  Jeru- 
salem's calamity  ('  Wake  thee  .  .  . 
/las/  drunken  .  .  .  /uis^  drained '). 

The   groblet-cup   .   .    .  \trrung- 

out]  The  combination  'goblet- 
cup'  is  not  a  pleonasm;  it  vividly 
represents  the  fulness  of  the  mea- 
sure of  Jerusalem's  punishment 
(comp.  xl.  2).  '  Reeling'  means  the 
horror  and  bewilderment  caused  by 
a  great  catastrophe  (comp.  Ps.  Ix.  3, 
Zech.  xii.  2).  Note  the  cadence 
of  the  two  closing  woi-ds  in  the 
Hebrew.  The  whole  passage  finds 
a  parallel  in  Ezek.  xxiii.  32-34, 
comp.  Ps.  Ixxv.  8  (9). 

'*  Notice  the  elegiac  rhythm  in 
the  Hebrew. 

'^  Two  are  the  things  •  .  •  ] 
i.e.,  two  kinds  of  evils  (comp.  xlvii. 
9),  viz.,  desolation  for  the  land,  and 
death  for  the  people.  These  are 
expanded  into  four,  to  express  their 
depth  of  meaning  ('and  '  =  with — 
the  Vav  of  association,  see  crit.  note 

U 


34  ISAIAH.  [CHAP.  LII. 

who  is  there  to  condole  with  thee  ?  desolation  and  destruc- 
tion, famine  and  the  sword  :  ®  who  is  there  to  comfort  thee  ^  ? 
^°  Thy  sons  are  in  a  swoon  ;  they  lie  at  the  corners  of  all  the 
streets,  like  an  antelope  in  a  net,  full  as  they  are  of  the  fury 
of  Jehovah,  the  rebuke  of  thy  God.  ^'  Therefore  hear  now 
this,  thou  afflicted  one,  and  drunken,  but  not  with  wine, 
"  Thus  saith  thy  Lord  Jehovah,  and  thy  God  who  is  the  ad- 
vocate of  his  people.  Behold,  I  take  out  of  thy  hand  the  cup 
of  reeling  ;  the  goblet-cup  of  my  fury,  thou  shalt  not  drink  it 
again  ;  ^^  and  I  put  it  into  the  hand  of  those  who  tormented 
thee,  who  said  to  thy  soul,  Bow  down,  that  \vc  may  pass  over  ; 
and  thou  madest  thy  back  as  the  ground,  and  as  the  street 
for  those  that  passed  over, 

«  Sept.,  Pesh. ,   Targ.,   Vulg.,   Lo.,    La.,  Gr.  (see  crit  note). — In  what  guise  (or, 
character)  shall  I  comfort  thee  ?    Hebr.  text  (?). 

onvii.  I.)    Or,  we  may  explain  with  against  thee?     Comp.  Rev.  vi.  i6 

Stier,     'desolation     without,     and  'the  wrath  of ///(?Z(^rw/^' (Dr.  Weir), 

breaking  (so  Hterally)  within — hun-  -^  Therefore]      Here,    as    often 

ger  within,  and  the  sword  without'  elsewhere  (e.g.,  x.  24,  xxvii.  9,  xxx. 

(comp.  Ezek.  vii.  15).     The  elegiac  18)  the  transition  from  threatening 

passage  which   follows    should   be  to  promise  is  marked  by 'therefore.' 

compared  with  Lam.  ii.   11-13,  19,  Jehovah    cannot   bear   to   see    his 

21  (see  also  Jer.  XV.  5).  Jerusalem  is  people  suffer   any   longer   than   is 

represented  as  a  mother,  its  inhabi-  necessary  ; '  therefore '  he  will  inter- 

tants  as  sons  :  comp.  xlix.  17,  1.  i.  pose  to  help  them.     Drunken,  but 

^°  Ziike  an  antelope  In  a  net]  not  with  v.'ine]     So  x.xix.  9.     See 

A   noble   though  a   tragic    figure,  crit.  note. 

Israel,     the     mountain-people,    is  '■'^  "Who  said  to  thy  soul  .  .  .  ] 

likened  to  a  gazelle,  which  all  its  A  figurative  application  of  a  real 

swiftness  and  grace  has  not  saved  custom  (Josh.  x.  24).     There  is  a 

from   the   hunter's    snare. The  similar  but  still  stronger  image  in 

iiury   of  Jehovah]      What   hope,  Ps.  cxxix.    3,  'ploughed    upon  my 

when'  Jehovah  thy  God'  is  'furious'  back.' 


CHAPTER   LII. 


Contents. — Jerusalem  can  and  must  be  redeemed  {vv.  1-6)  ;  a  dramatic 
picture  of  the  redemption  itself  (^'■^/.  7-12). 

(The  chapter  should  have  been  ended  at  v.  12). 

'  Awake,  awake,   put  on  thy  strength,   O  Zion  !  put  on 
thy  robes  of  adornment,  O  Jerusalem,  holy  city  !  for  no  more 

'  Awake,  awake]  Another  first  was  merely.  Stand  up  ;  the 
bracing  summons  from  the  Divine  second  is,  Tut  on  thy  strength 
representatives  (see  on  li.  17).    The      and  thy  robes. Thy  strength] 


CHAP.  LII.] 


ISAIAir. 


35 


shall  there  come  into  thee  the  uncircumcised  and  the  unclean. 
^  Shake  thyself  from  the  dust ;  arise  and  sit  down,  O  Jerusalem  : 
^  loose  thyself  from  the  bonds  of  thy  neck,*  O  captive  daughter 
of  Zion  !  '  For  thus  saith  Jehovah,  For  nought  were  ye  sold, 
and  not  for  money  shall  ye  be  redeemed.     •*  For  thus  saith 

■  So  Hebr.  marg.  and  most  critics. — The  bonds  of  thy  neck  are  unloosed,  Hebr. 
text,  Targ. ,  Kay,  Naeg.  (This  form  of  the  text  would  have  to  be  put  in  a  paren- 
thesis.) 


Strength  returns  to  Zion  when  the 
Arm  of  Jehovah  is  mighty  within 

her  (see    H.    9). Thy  robes  of 

adornment]  i.e.,  those  which  be- 
long to  the  holy,  priestly  city.  Dr. 
Kay  aptly  quotes  the  description  of 

Aaron's  robes,  E.\.  xxviii.  2. STo 

more  sball  there  come  into  thee 
.  .  .  ]  'Then  shall  Jerusalem  be 
holiness,  and  no  strangers  shall 
pass  through  her  any  more '  (Joel 
iii.  17).  'Strangers'  here  =  'enemies,' 
those  who  do  not  acknowledge  Je- 
hovah for  their  king.  The  throng- 
ing of  foreigners  announced  in 
chap.  Ix.  is  of  quite  a  different  kind. 
— Comp.  XXXV.  8,  Rev.  xxi.  27. 

"  Shake  thyself  .  .  .  sit  do-wn] 
A  striking  contrast  to  Babylon, 
xlvii.  I. 

*  It  might  seem  as  if  Jehovah 
willed  the  perpetual  captivity  of 
his  people.  Not  so.  They  may 
complain  that  they  have  been  '  sold.' 
Jehovah  accepts  the  word,  but  so 
qualifies  it  as  to  give  it  quite  a  new 

meaning. ror   noug-ht  {gratis^ 

Vulg.)  were  ye  sold]  Jehovah  has 
received  no  equivalent  for  his  pro- 
perty. It  is  therefore  not  a  sale, 
but  only  a  temporary  transfer.  Je- 
hovah has  accepted  no  other  nation 
as  his  treasure,  his  pecuHum  (Ex. 
xix.  3),  his  Servant,  his  agent  in 
his  world-wide  purposes  of  grace. 
Your  successive  captivities  have 
been  a  lamentable  interruption  in 
the  progress  of  his  work.  But  at 
least  they  do  not  prevent  him  from 
receiving  you  back  to  your  old 
place.  He  took  nothing  for  you 
from  your  so-called  '  buyers,'  and  of 
his  own  free  will  he  can  renew  your 
covenant.  Thus  the  passage  is  a 
further  development  of  1.  i.  The 
verbally  parallel  passage  Ps.  xliv. 


12  has  quite  a  different    meaning 
(see  Del.  ad  loc). 

*  To   Egypt  my    people  .  .   .  ] 

This  verse  seems  to  give,  though 
only  allusively,  a  historical  explana- 
tion of  the  general  statement  in  v. 
3.  Israel  went  down  to  Egypt  '  to 
sojourn  there '  by  invitation,  but 
the  sacred  right  of  hospitality  was 
basely  violated  (we  must  supply 
this  from  the  second  half-verse). 
Assyria  oppressed  him]  Al- 
luding not  merely  to  the  payment  of 
tribute  (Hitz.),  but  to  the  captivities 
of  Israel,  and  the  desolating  inva- 
sions (comp.  i.  7-9,  xxxvii.  30)  of 
Judah  by  Sargon  and  Sennacherib. 
This  seems  the  natural  meaning  ; 
the  expressions  used  in  v.  5  make 
it  plain  that  a  new  captivity  is  there 
intended.  Vitr.,  however,  thinks 
'  Assyria '  includes  Babylonia  and 
the  Syro-Macedonian  kingdom,  re- 
ferring for  the  former  to  2  Kings 
xxiii.  29,  and  for  the  latter  to  Zech. 
X.  1 1  (.^).  The  literal  interpretation 
of  '  Assyria,'  he  says,  renders  it  im- 
possible to  explain  the  ne.xt  verse, 
and  destroys  the  coherence  of  the 
paragraph  with  the  following  con- 
text (see,  however,  on  next  verse). 
Dr.  Weir,  too,  is  of  the  same 
opinion,  so  far  as  Babylonia  is  con- 
cerned, on  the  ground  that '  history 
mentions  no  deliverance  from  As- 
syria, which  can  be  at  all  compared 
with  the  deliverance  from  Egypt.' 
This  statement,  however,  comes 
into  direct  collision  with  the  pro- 
phecy in  X.  26  ;  and  even  were  it 
not  so,  the  question  is  of  oppres- 
sions rather  than  of  deliverances. 
Besides,  it  is  conti-ary  to  the  custoni 
of  this  prophecy  to  use  the  name 
'  Assyria  '  in  the  comprehensive 
way   supposed   by    Dr.    Weir. 


36 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  lii. 


the  Lord  Jehovah,  To  Egypt  my  people  went  down  at  the 
first  to  sojourn  there,  and  Assyria  oppressed  him  without 
cause.  *  And  now  what  have  I  (to  do)  here  ?  is  the  oracle  of 
Jehovah  ;  for  my  people  have  been  taken  away  for  nought  ; 
those  who  rule  over  him  howl  (the  oracle  of  Jehovah)  ;  and 
continually,  all  the  day,  my  name  is  reviled.  ''  Therefore  my 
people  shall  know  my  name  :  therefore  (he  shall  know)  in 
that  day  ^  that  I  am  he  that  speaketh,  '  Here  am  I.'  ^ 

^  For  I,  the  same  that  promised,  am  here,  Ges. 


"Without  cause]  Lit  ., '  for  nothing.' 
This  might  mean  '  without  paying 
a  price '  (Knob.,  Naeg.),  but  the 
connection  would  be  obscured. 

*  And  now  .  .  .  ]  The  third 
great  captivity  was  the  Babylonian. 
Jehovah  is  represented,  in  anthro- 
pomorphic language,  as  enquiring 
what  it  was  fitting  for  him,  as  the 
God  of  Israel,  to  do  at  Babylon  ; 
bere  implies  that  he  had  come 
down  to  see  (as  Gen.  xviii.  21,  Ex. 
iii.  8,  Isa.  xxxi.  4).  The  reply  to 
his  enquiry  is  involved  in  lii.  8,  12, 
'Jehovah  returneth," Jehovah  goeth 
before  you.' — It  is  only  fair  to  men- 
tion some  divergent  expositions 
of  this  important  passage.  '  What 
have  I  to  do  here?'  might  mean 
'  What  sufficient  cause  is  there  for 
my  remaining  inactive  in  heaven  .'" 
So  Hitzig,  whom  it  is  not  fair  to 
answer  with  a  charge  of  pagan- 
izing (so  Del.)  in  the  face  of  Gen. 
xviii.  21,  &c.  It  might  also  be 
taken  in  the  same  sense  as  v.  3. 
The  Babylonians  had  paid  no  price 
to  Jehovah  for  his  people  ;  of  what 
is  he  the  possessor  '  here,'  i.e.,  m 
Jerusalem^  except  a  heap  of  stones 
and  prowling  wild  beasts  .?  So  Nae- 
gelsbach.  I'he  same  view  of  the 
meaning  of  '  here '  is  advocated  by 
11  impel,  who  writes  to  this  effect.' 
'  The  words,  What  have  I  here  ? 
cannot  possibly  refer  to  the  Baby- 
lonian ?3xile.  God  could  not  be 
said  to  be  present  with  the  Jews  in 
the  Exile  ;  the  misery  of  their  con- 


dition lay  precisely  in  their  sense 
of  the  Divine  alienation.  They 
refer  rather  to  Jerusalem,  which 
indeed  forms  the  centre  of  the 
description.  God  must  return  to 
Jerusalem,  otherwise  His  gracious 
purposes  would  be  frustrated,  but 
in  its  present  state  He  cannot  do 
so  ;  therefore  Jerusalem  must  rise 
from  its  humiliation.'-  Titjc,  these 
words  cannot  refer  to  the  Exile,  but 
they  can  refer,  as  remarked  above, 
to  a  (symbolic)  descent  of  Jehovah 
to  judgment.  Still  the  question 
might  possibly  bear  Naeg.'s  in- 
terpretation, if  the  continuation  of 
the  sentence  were,  '  for  Zion  is  de- 
spoiled of  her  children'  ;  but  as  the 
words  stand,  Jehovah  must,  I  think, 
be  supposed  to  be  in  the  place 
whither  (or,  where)  his  people  had 
been  '  taken  away,'  i.e.,  in  Baby- 
lonia.  Taken   a\ray]  viz.,  as  a 

booty  (so  constantly)  ;  or  it  may 
mean  '  destroyed '  (see  on  liii.   8). 

For  nougrlit]  i.e.,  undeservedly. 

The  same  word  as  in  v.  3,  but  in  a 
different  sense. Howl]  i.e.,  tri- 
umph brutally  (it  is  the  oppressors 
who  are  spoken  of— see  Del's  note). 
"  Therefore]  i.e.,  because  my 
people  is  oppressed,  and  because 
my  name  is  reviled.— Shan  know 
my  name]  i.e.,  shall  know  by  ex- 
perience the  meaning  of  my  name 
Jehovah  (comp.  on  xlii.  8).  '  The 
allusion  to  the  Egyptian  deliverance 
is  still  kept  up.  Then  God  revealed 
Himself  most  gloriously  as  Jehovah 


'  Theohgische  Quartahchrift,  iSyR,  p.  309.  Dr.  Himpel  is  a  member  of  the 
Roman  Catholic  Theologic.ii  facuhy  at  Tiihingen. 

'  Thougli  the  idiom  'what  have  I,'  '  what  hast  thou,'  is  elsewhere  a  formula  of  dis- 
approval (Gesenius  on  .\xii,  i).     See  especially  x.xii,  16, 


CHAP.  HI.] 


ISAIAH. 


^7 


^  How  comely  upon  the  mountains  are  the  feet  of  the 
bringer  of  tidings,  the  proclaimer  of  peace,  the  bringer  of  good 
tidings,  the  proclaimer  of  salvation,  who  saith  unto  Zion,  Thy 
God  hath  become  king  !     *  Hark,  thy  watchers  !  they  lift  up 


(Ex.    iii.    15,    &c.) ;    now    He    will 

again  do  so '  (Dr.  Weir). He  that 

speaketli,  Here  am  l]  i.e.,  He  who 
answereth  their  cry  by  coming  in 
person  to  help  them.  Dr.  Weir  com- 
pares Iviii.  9,  '  Then  .  .  .  thou  shalt 
cry,  and  he  shall  say,  Here  I  am.' 

'  The  prophet  here  passes  into 
an  ectasy.     What  he  sees  with  the 
inner  eye,  he  expresses  pictorially. 
He  has  told  us  already  of  the  ideal 
Zion  ascending   a  high  mountain, 
and  acting  as  herald  of  the  Divine 
deliverer.       Now    he    varies     the 
picture.      It   is  Zion  to  whom  the 
herald  is  seen  to  come — bounding 
over  the  mountains   'like  a  roe  or 
a  young  hart,'    Cant.   ii.  8,  comp. 
2  Sam.  xviii.    24-27   Hebr.     '  The 
feet    already   give    a    greeting    of 
peace,  before  the  mouth  utters  it ' 
(Stier).     The  prophet's  fondness  for 
the  mountains  reminds  us  of  Eze- 
kiel's  (see  Ezek.  vi.   i  and  parallel 
passages). — How  comely  .  .  .   are 
the  feet  of  the  messenger  means 
'  how     welcome     is     his      arrival ' 
(Lowth),  or  better  still,  '  his  rapid 
approach'    (Dr.    Weir).      Nahum, 
announcing    the    fall   of   Nineveh, 
has  the  same  image  in  nearly  the 
same    words,    '  Behold    upon    the 
mountains  the  feet  of  the  bringer 
of  tidings,  the  proclaimer  of  peace,' 
i.  15  (ii.    I    Hebr.).     The  one  pas- 
sage, or   the   other,    is    clearly  an 
imitation.     Comp.  also  Rom.  x.  15, 
where    the    passage    of    Isaiah    is 
applied  dogmatically,  and  Eph.  vi. 
15,  where  it  is  alluded  to  with  true 

poetic  feeling. -Who  saith  unto 

Zion  .  .  .  ]  His  tidings  are  that 
Zion's  God  has  resumed  the  crown 
which  he  had  laid  aside  (see  on 
xxiv.  23). 

*  Hark,  thy  watchers  l]  Be- 
cause the  prophets  are  sometimes 
called  '  watchmen'  (Ivi.  10),  Jer.  vi. 
17,  Ezek.  iii.  17,  xxxiii.  7),  it  has 
been  supposed  by  Ges.,  Ew.,  Hitz., 
Knob.,  Del.  that  the  prophets,  i.e., 


those  of  the  Exile  (see  on  xl.  i),  are 
here  referred  to.  But  (i)  this  greatly 
'  mars  the  unity  and  beauty  of  the 
scene  presented'  (Alexander),  and 
(2)  the  prophets  in  question  were 
(as  few  but  Seinecke  will  doubt) 
in  Babylonia,  and  not  in  Palestine 
(Naeg.).  The  'watchers'  are  ideal, 
supersensible  beings,  like  those 
whose  voice  has  been  already  re- 
peatedly heard  (see  on  xl.  3),  and 
will  shortly  be  again  in  Iii.  11,  12  ; 
they  are  also  referred  to  in  xlii.  6,  7 
as  Jehovah's 'remembrancers.'  So 
too  the  Zion  who  is  addressed  is  not 
the  ruined  and  deserted  Jerusalem, 
but  belongs  to  the  ideal,  super- 
sensible world  ;  it  is  the  Zion  whose 
walls  are  '  continually  before '  Je- 
hovah (xlix.  16,  comp.  on  xl.  9). 
Faith  has  brought  down  the  new 

Jerusalem  to  earth. Ring:  out  a 

cry  to§:ether]  i.e.,   lift  up  a  '  long- 
toned  cry,'  like  an  Arab  watchman 

of  our  day  (Thomson). Eye  to 

eye]  If  Jehovah  can  be  said  to 
have  'eyes'  (e.g.,  Zech.  iv.  10,  Prov. 
V.  21,  XV.  3),  why  not  the  heavenly 
host .?  These  friendly  '  watchers ' 
note  every  advance  of  the  kingdom 
of  God  (comp.  Luke  xv.  10) ;  they 
see  it  all  'eye  to  eye,'  as  a  man 
looks  into  the  eye  of  his  friend— so 
near  are  the  two  worlds  of  sight  and 
of  faith.  Comp.  Num.  xiv.  14,  Ex. 
xxxiii.  II. The  return  of  Je- 
hovah to  Zion]  This  rend,  is  most 
favoured  by  the  context,  which 
speaks  of  the  return  of  the  exiles 
{vv.  II,  12),  and  not  of  Zion  (see 
V.  i).  Jehovah  is  the  leader  of  the 
exile-band  {v.  12);  without  Him, 
what  profit  would  there  be  in  a 
change  of  abode  }  It  is  the  spiritual 
banishment  of  which  II.  Isaiah  so 
pathetically  complains.  Comp.  Ixiii. 
17,  'Return,  for  thy  servants'  sake.' 
Alt.  rend,  is  perfectly  possible  gram- 
matically (comp.  Ps.  Ixxxv.  5  Hebr.), 
but,  with  an  eye  to  the  context, 
seems    to   me   only   admissible    if 


38 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  lii. 


the  voice  ;  they  ring  out  a  cry  together  ;  for  they  behold  eye 
to  eye  "^the  return  of  Jehovah  to  Zion.'^  °  Burst  out  into 
a  ringing  cry  together,  ye  ruined  places  of  Jerusalem  ;  for 
Jehovah  hath  comforted  his  people,  he  hath  redeemed  "^Jeru- 
salem. ^"Jehovah  hath  bared  his  holy  arm  in  the  eyes  of  all 
the  nations  ;  and  all  the  ends  of  the  earth  have  seen  the 
salvation  of  our  God.  "  Away  !  away  !  go  ye  out  thence,  touch 
not  an  unclean  thing  ;  go  ye  out  of  the  midst  of  her  ;  purify 
yourselves,  ye  ®  armour-bearers  of  Jehovah  !  •^  For  not  in 
trembling  haste  shall  ye  go  out,  and  not  in  flight  shall  ye 
proceed  ;  for  there  proceedeth  before  you  Jehovah,  and  your 
rear-guard  is  the  God  of  Israel. 


Kimchi,  Hitz.,  Ew.,  Luzzatto, 
Pesh.,  Vitr.,  Ges.,  Stier,  Del., 


e  So  Targ.  ('bringeth  back  his  Shekinah  to  Zion 
Kay,  Naeg. — How  Jehovah  bringeth  back  Zion,  Vul 
Weir. 

<*  Israel,  2  MSS.,  Lowth. 

«  So  A.  E.,  Kimchi,  Ltiz.,  Bunsen. — Most,  That  bear  the  vessels  of. 


*  bringeth  back  Zion '  be  taken  as 
shortened  from  '  bringeth  back  the 
prosperity  of  Zion  '  (see  crit.  note). 
**  Burst  out  .  .  .  ]  The  Hebr. 
has  two  imperatives,  'a  combina- 
tion which  occurs  elsewhere  only 
in  Ps.  xcviii.  4'  (Alexander).  Coin- 
cidences with  Ps.  xcviii.  (see  vv. 
2,  3)  are  also  found  in  the  second 
half  of  V.  10 ;  the  author  of  that 
psalm  must  indeed  have  known  II. 
Isaiah  '  by  heart.' 

^°  Hatb  bared  his  boly  arm] 
viz.,  for  action  (comp.  Ezek.  iv.  7, 
Ps.  Ixxiv.  11);  alluding  to  the 
sleeveless  Eastern  dress. 

"  Away  I  away !  .  .  .  ]  Almost 
the  same  language  recurs  in  Lam. 
iv.    15,  but    the   parallel    is  purely 

verbal Thence]  Because  in  this 

section  (^'7'.  7-i2)the  prophet  places 

himself  in  spirit  at  Jerusalem 

Purify  yourselves  .  .  .  ]  With  a 
view  to  the  re-establishment  of  the 
religion  of  Jehovah,  the  returning 
exiles  must  become  legally  '  pure  ' 
(comp.  Ps.  ex.  3,  if  the  text  there 
jje  correct),  for  which — sec  next 
verse — they  will  have  ample  time. 
By  a  striking  poetic  figure  they  are 
called  armour-bearers  of  Jehovah 
— this  is  the  meaning  whicli  the  He- 


brew phrase  constantly  has.  A '  man 
of  war '  (and  Jehovah  is  represented 
as  such  in  v.  12)  could  not  support 
his  dignity  without  an  armour- 
bearer,  and  a  king,  upon  solemn 
occasions,  appears  to  have  had  a 
troop  of  armour-bearers  (i  Kings 
xiv.  28).  Much  more  must  Jehovah 
unto  whom,  as  a  Psalmist  tells  us, 
the  shields  of  the  whole  earth 
belong  (Ps.  xlvii.  10),  have  a  multi- 
tude of  armour-bearers.  So  else- 
where (Ixvi.  15,  note)  He  is  said 
to  have  (many)  chariots.  Still,  alt. 
rend,  is  perfectly  tenable  ;  '  vessels 
of  Jehovah'  may  exceptionably  be 
used  for  '  vessels  of  the  house  of 
Jehovah  '  (Ezra  i.  7).  The  'bear- 
ers '  will  then  be  the  Levites. 

'^  The  Exodus  from  Babylon 
was  to  resemble  the  first  Exodus 
only  in  its  nobler  circumstances. 
Jehovah  was  again  to  be  the  guide 
and  protector  of  his  people  (Ex. 
xii.  5i,xiii.  21,22,  cf  Mic.  ii.  13), 
but  that  trembling:  haste  (Ex.  xii. 
11)  in  which  the  first  Israelites 
departed  was  to  be  exchanged  for 
a  solemn  deliberateness.  The  pro- 
phet thus  modifies  the  earlier  in- 
junction, '  Flee  ye  from  Chalda^a  ' 
(xlviii.  20). 


CHAP.  LII.  13— LIII.]  ISAIAH.  39 


CHAPTERS   LII.  13— LIII. 

We  have  already  seen  (notes  on  xlii.  1-7,  xlix.  1-9)  that  the  author  of 
II.  Isaiah  in  his  moments  of  highest  inspiration  conceived  of  the  Servant 
of  Jehovah  as  an  individual,  and  that  he  ascribes  to  Him  a  nature  which 
is  (to  judge  from  His  acts)  at  once  human  and  superhuman,  though  he 
has,  of  course,  given  no  hint  of  anything  like  a  theory  to  account  for  this. 
But  no  passage  which  we  have  as  yet  met  with  is  so  strongly  individual- 
ising' in  its  account  of  the  Servant  as  the  famous  chapter  on  which  we  are 
about  to  enter.  So  deep  is  the  impression  which  it  produced  on  Ewald 
that  he  felt  compelled  to  assign  it  in  its  original  form  to  an  age  of  perse- 
cution (he  thought  of  the  reign  of  Manasseh),  and  to  suppose  that  it 
described  the  martyrdom'^  of  one  of  the  leading  champions  of  true  or 
theistic  religion  (comp.  on  Ivii.  i).  The  hypothesis  possesses  a  high  degree 
of  plausibility  ;  it  is  recommended,  not  only  by  the  character  of  the  con- 
tents, but  by  the  singular  linguistic  phenomena.  The  style  of  II.  Isaiah 
is  in  general  full  and  flowing ;  the  style  of  this  chapter  is  '  hard,  obscure, 
and  awkward'  (Delitzsch),  and  reminds  us  in  this  respect  of  another 
famous  disputed  passage,  Ivi.  9-lvii.  iia  (which  indeed  Ewald  ascribes  to 
the  same  author).  It  is  not  within  my  present  scope  to  discuss  critical 
questions  of  this  sort;  the  ordinary  view  which  accepts  the  continuity  of 
the  composition  is  not  to  be  too  hastily  rejected  (comp.  introduction  to 
Ivi.  9,  &c.).  The  Servant  of  Jehovah,  according  to  Bleek,  is  here  described 
in  essentially  the  same  terms  both  with  regard  to  his  past  and  to  his  future, 
as  in  xlii.  1-7,  xlix.  1-9.  The  statement  is  a  biassed  one,  and  hardly  does 
justice  to  \}r^&  peculiarity  of  some  parts  of  the  chapter.  At  any  rate,  one 
critical  point  may  be  regarded  as  almost  certain,  viz.,  that  chap.  liii.  existed  '\ 
in  some  form  in  the  time  of  the  author  of  the  Book  of  Job,  who  apparently  * 
alludes  to  it  (see  below  on  v.  9). 

The  importance  of  this  chapter  justifies  a  somewhat  fuller  commentary 
than  usual.  The  ideas  are  well  fitted  to  arrest  the  attention,  especially 
that  of  Vicarious  Atonement,  which  some  have  laboured  hard  to  expel 
from  the  prophecy,  but  which  still  forces  itself  on  the  unbiassed  reader :  o.f 
this  I  shall  have  to  speak  in  a  subsequent  essay.  The  style  is  obscure,  but 
is  sometimes  relieved  by  an  exquisite  elegiac  cadence,  faintly  perceptible 
even  in  the  poorest  translation.  To  elegance  my  own  version  makes  no 
pretence ;  only  to  fidelity.  One  word  as  to  the  tenses.  We  ought  clearly 
to  carry  either  the  perfect  or  the  future  (the  latter  would  express  the 

1  I  agree  with  Oehler  (see  my  crit.  notes  on  liii.  8,  9)  tliat  '  the  supposed  traces  of  a 
collective  meaning  disappear  >\'hen  they  are  correctly  interpreted'  [Old  Testament 
Theology,  ii.  426). 

^  Saadya  thought  of  Jeremiah,  'and  this  interpretation  is  attractive,'  remarks  Ibn 
Ezra,  whose  development  of  the  comparison  is  worth  reading  (see  Neubauer  and 
Driver,  T lie  Fifty- third  Chapter  of  Isaiah,  &c.,  pp.  43-44).  Grotius  (note  on  liii.  i) 
remarks,  '  H^  notae  in  leremiam  quidem  congruunt  prius,  sed  potius  subUmiusque, 
sJKpe  et  magis  Kara  Acftf,  in  Christum.'  Bunsen  unreservedly  adopts  the  same  hypo- 
thesis in  his  Bibelwerk.  But  of  what  martyr,  be  he  a  Jeremiah  or  an  Ignatius,  could 
it  be  said  that  he  was  '  a  guilt-offering  '  (liii,  10)? 


40  ISAIAH.  [CHAP.  LI  I. 

ideality,  the  prophetic  imaginativeness,  of  the  point  of  view)  throughout 
vv.  2-loa.  The  inconsistent  future  of  the  Auth.  Vers,  in  v.  2  comes  from 
the  Vulgate  (though  in  7k  zb  this  version  has  the  perfect).  The  Septuagint 
mostly  has  aorists  (presents  twice  in  v.  4,  twice  in  v.  7,  once  in  v.  10). 
Both  Sept.  and  Vulg.  strangely  give  the  future  in  v.  9. 

The  New  Lectionary  has  familiarised  many  English  readers  with  the 
fact  that  lii.  13-15  belongs  together  with  chap.  liii.  The  traditional 
arrangement  is  a  'divulsio'  (as  Calvin  well  calls  it),  which  leads  the  un- 
tutored reader  astray.  It  separates  the  theme  from  its  commentary,  and 
above  all  prevents  the  student  from  getting  the  right  point  of  view  from 
which  to  examine  the  sequel  (see  below  on  vv.  13-16). 

Of  monographs  on  this  chapter,  six  have  a  claim  to  be  mentioned  :^ 

Chr.  Dav.  Ant.  Martini,  Comfnentatio  pJiilologico-criiica  in  locum 
/esatis,  \ii.  13-liii.  12;  Rostochice,  1791. 

Franz  Delitzsch,  'Die  Stellung  der  Weissagung  Jes.  lii.  13-liii.' 
u.s.w.  in  Zeitschr.  fiir  luth.  Theologie,  1850,  pp.  29-42  (an  able  defence, 
since  retracted,  of  the  view  that  the  subject  of  the  chapter  is  the  spiritual 
Israel). 

Friedrich  Bleek,  '  Auslegung  des  Abschnittes  Jes.  lii.  13  ff.,'  in  T/ieo- 
logische  Studien  und  Kritikef?,  1861,  pp.  1 7 1-2 18. 

Paul  Kleinert,  '  Ueber  das  Subject  der  Weissagung  Jes.  lii.  12-liii.  12,' 
in  Theol.  Stud.  u.  Krit.,  1862,  pp.  699-752. 

William  Urwick,  The  Servant  of  Jehovah.  A  Covunentary.^  Gravi- 
matical  and  Critical,  upon  Isaiah  lii.  \2,~liii.  12.     Edinburgh,  1877. 

The  Fifty-third  Chapter  of  Isaiah  according  to  the  Jewish  Interpreters. 
Vol.1.  Text.  By  Ad.  Neubauer.  Vol.11.  Translations.  By  Ad.  Neu- 
bauer  and  S.  R.  Driver.  With  an  Introduction  to  the  Translations,  by 
E.  B.  Pusey,  Regius  Prof,  of  Hebrew.     Oxford,  1877. 

vv.  13-15.  Jehovah  delivers  a  short  but  comprehensive  oracle  on  the 
wonderful  course  of  his  Servant.  The  predominant  idea  is  that  of  his 
complete  success  in  his  mission,  arising  from  that  '  calm,  deep  wisdom ' 
which  willingly  accepted  the  vast  but  inevitable  sufferings  which  lay  on  his 
road  to  glory.  A  prospect  is  held  out  at  the  close  of  the  admission  of  the 
Gentiles  to  a  share  in  his  mediatorial  gains. 

*'  Behold,  my  servant  shall    *  deal    wisely " ;    he  shall  be 

"  Prosper,  Targ.,  Lowth,  Vitr.,  Ges.,  Hitz. 

"  Shall  deal  wisely]  We  might  twcen  xlii.   \b  and  4).     The  same 

add 'and  prosperously,' for  this  idea  verb  is  applied  to  the  'righteous 

is  connoted;  in  Josh.  i.  8,  Jer.  x.  Branch'  (i.e.,  probably,  the   Mes- 

21,  it  even  predominates  over  the  siah)  in  Jer.  xxiii.  5.     We  cannot, 

original   idea  of  wisdom.      Ewald,  however,  infer  from  this  the  iden- 

not  amiss,  '  wird  gcschick  haben.'  tity  of  the  two  personages.      The 

The  rend,  'shall  prosper'  is,  how-  description  'he  shall  deal  wisely' 

ever,  a  mistake ;    the   Divine  wis-  belongs    to   any   who   are    endued 

dom  of  the  Servant  is  the  source  with  the  Divine  Spirit  for  practical 

of  his  world-conquering  faith,  and      ends. He  sball  be  bigli  .  .  .  ] 

the  secret  of  his  success  (comp.  liii.  Notice  the  accumulation  of  kindred 

\\b,  and   note  the  connection  be-  verbs.   No  single  expression  seemed 


CHAP.  LII.] 


ISAIAH. 


41 


high  and  exalted,  and  lofty  exceedingly.  '^  According  as 
many  were  appalled  at  thee,  (so  disfigured  was  his  visage  from 
that  of  a  man,  and  his  form  from  that  of  the  sons  of  men,) 
'*  ^  so  shall   he  -X-  many  nations  ^ ;    kings    shall    shut    their 

*•  So  shall  many  nations  marvel  (exult,  Ges.  ;  start  up,  E\v.)  at  him,  Sept. — Aquila 
and  Theodotion,  Vulg. ,  A.  E.,  Calv. ,  Vitr. ,  Hengst.,  Kay,  Pusey,  Weir,  render  the 
doubtful  verb,  'sprinkle'  ;  Pesh.,  'purify'  ;  Symniachus,  'fling  away'  ;  Targ.,  Saadya, 
Rashi,  'scatter';  Hitz.,  Del.,  Naeg.,  'make  to  start  up.' 


Strong  enough,  for  Jehovah  had  de- 
creed to  '  super-exalt '  him  (Phil.  ii. 
9).  This  suggests  another  parallel 
with  the  Messiah,  of  whom  Jehovah 
says,  '  I  also  will  make  him  First- 
born, supreme  above  the  kings  of 
the  earth '  (Ps.  Ixxxix.  27,  Weir). 
The  first  and  second  verbs  occur  in 
combination  again  in  ii.  12,  13,  vi.  i, 
Ivii.  15  ;  the  second  and  third  in 
Ivii.  7  (all  passages  relating  to  God 
or  to  worship). 

14,  15  Yhe  exaltation  of  the  Ser- 
vant is  proportionate  to  his  humilia- 
tion.  "Were      appalled]       The 

word  expresses  a  stupefied  surprise, 
as  of  one  who  beholds  a  strange 
reverse  of  fortune  (i  Kings  ix.  8, 
Lev.  xxvi.  32).  Here,  however,  as 
the  following  parenthesis  shows, 
the  comparison  of  the  spectators  is 
not  between  what  the  Servant  was 
and  what  he  is,  but  between  the 
ordinary  aspect  of  a  man  and  the 
degraded  appearance  of  the  Ser- 
vant.    Who  the  spectators  are,  will 

be  seen  from  liii.  1-4. So  dis- 

fig^ured  .  .  .  ]  The  phrase  is  a 
compound  one.  '  To  such  a  degree 
was  his  appearance  disfigured  ;  it 
was  in  fact  removed  thereby  from 
being  that  of  a  man,  and  his  form 
from  being  that  of  the  sons  of  men.' 
The  parenthesis  contains  a  remark 
of  the  prophet's  ;  hence  the  change 
of  person  (comp.  xlii.  20),  which 
continues  naturally,  though  illogi- 
cally,  in  the  next  verse.  For  strik- 
ing parallels  see  1.  6,  Ps.  xxii.  6a, 
Job  ii.  12  (Job  being  a  type  of  the 
righteous  sufferer). 


'"*  So  shall  be  •)(-  many  na- 
tions] A  most  difficult  passage. 
The  received  text  has  '  So  shall  he 
sprinkle,' &c.,  which,  with  due  regard 
to  Hebrew  usage,  can  only  have  the 
meaning  which  is  thus  expressed 
by  a  Rabbi '  '  (So  shall  he)  expel 
and  scatter  them  from  his  land, 
like  a  man  sprinkling  water,  with- 
out one  drop  touching  another.' 
But  a  reference  to  the  dispossessing 
of  the  Gentiles  by  the  Israelites 
(comp.  perhaps  liv.  3)  is  not  at  all 
in  harmony  with  the  context.  I 
see  no  resource  left  but  to  alter  the 
text,  which  is  at  any  rate  sounder 
policy  than  to  impose  unphilo- 
logical  meanings  on  the  traditional 
reading.  Two  courses  are  open 
to  us  :  to  supply  words  which  may 
have  fallen  out,  or  to  emend  the  un- 
translatable verb.  If  after  'sprinkle' 
and  before  'many  nations'  we  might 
insert  the  words  'pure  water  upon,' 
or  'his  blood  upon'  (alluding  to 
the  sprinkling  of  the  blood  of  the 
sin-offering — see  on  liii.  10),  we 
should  obtain  a  really  fine  sense, 
viz.,  either  that  the  Servant  of  Je- 
hovah by  a  sacerdotal  act  of  puri- 
fication (Pesh.  even  renders  the 
text  '  he  shall  purify ')  should  re- 
move the  distinction  between  the 
true  Israel  and  the  Gentiles  (comp. 
Ezek.  xxxvi.  25),  or  else  that  he 
should,  by  the  offering  of  himself, 
make  atonement  for  the  sins  of 
'  many  nations.'  (Compare  Jerome, 
below.'-)  The  context,  however,  is 
decidedly  against  this  view  of  the 
sense  ;    for  it  contains  nothing  to 


1  R.  Y'sha'yah  ben  Mali,  translated  in  Tke  Fifty-tkird  Chapter  of  Isaiah 
according  to  the  Jewish  Ititerpreters,  by  Neubauer  and  Driver,  vol.  ii.  p.  75. 
Similarly  R.  Yoseph  Qara  (p.  41),  the  older  Nizzakhon  (p.  90),  and  R.  Mosheh  Kohen 
(p.  105). 

*  Jerome  :  '  ipse  asperget  gentes  multas,  mundans  eas  sanguine  suo,  et  in  bap- 
tismate  Dei  consecrans  servituti.' 


42 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  Lin. 


mouths  because  of  him  ;  for 
them  shall  they  see,  and  that 
they  perceive. 

suggest  that  the  Servant  is  invested 
with  the  sacerdotal  office.  Besides 
the  sacrificing  function  of  the  priest 
is  nowhere  distinctly  brought  into 
relation  to  a  Messianic  personage 
(see  Essay  III).  The  easiest 
course,  then,  seems  to  be  to  sup- 
pose a  corruption  of  the  text.  It 
is  not  improbable  that  the  verb 
between  '  so  '  and  '  many  nations ' 
became  partly  obliterated,  and  was 
then  (as  such  half-effaced  words 
often  were)  misread  and  miscopied. 
It  is  clear  to  me  that  the  sense  re- 
quires a  word  (such  as  yatter)  ex- 
pressing the  shock  of  joyful  surprise 


that  which  had  not  been  told 
which  they  had  not  heard  shall 


with  which  the  nations  shall  greet 
the  turn  in  the  Servant's  fortunes, 
as  an  antithesis  to  the  shock  of 
horror  in  v.   14.     (See  further  crit. 

note.) King's  shall  sbut  their 

mouths  .  .  .  ]  in  reverential 
acknowledgment  of  his  superior 
dignity  (see  Job  xxix.  9,  xl.  4). 
Strange  paradox  !  The  humble 
Servant  has  become  a  conqueror 
(see  Essay  V.,  near  end).     Parallel 

passage,   xlix.    7. That    which 

had  not  been  told  them  .  .  .  ] 
i.e.,  events  such  as  it  had  never 
entered  the  heart  of  man  to  con- 
ceive, much  less  to  talk  about. 


(CHAPTER    LIII.) 

Vv.  1-3.  The  expansion  of  the  preceding  sketch  begins.  '  The  com- 
mentary upon  "  they  were  appalled  "  is  given  in  t'.  i  :  a  large  portion  of 
the  Jews  do  not  believe  in  the  salvation  which  has  appeared.  The  en- 
largement of  "  so  disfigured  "  &c.,  is  given  in  vv.  2,  3.  The  cause  of  the 
unbelief  is,  that  the  glorj'  of  the  Servant  of  God  is  concealed  behind 
humiliation,  misery,  and  shame'  (Hengstenberg).  The  paragraph  has 
this  peculiarity  that  in  each  verse  one  word  of  the  first  half  is  repeated 
in  the  second  '  who  ' — '  and  not ' — '  despised '. 

^  Who  believed  •=  that  which  we  heard  ""  ?  and  the  Arm  of 

"^  Our  preaching,  Luther,  Del. — Our  prophecy,  Ew. — Most,  Our  tidings  ;  or.  Our 
message. 


'  "Wnio  believed]  Before  com- 
pleting his  portrait-sketch  of  the 
Servant,  the  prophet  expresses  his 
painful  sense  of  the  incredulity 
with  which  his  revelation  will  be 
received.  He  does  not,  however, 
say,  '  Quis  crcdct  auditui  nostro?' 
as  Calvin  represents  him,  but 
'  Quis  credidit.?'  He  takes  his 
stand  among  the  Israelites  of  a 
later  age  (not  among  the  Gen- 
tiles, as  Rosenmiiller,  following 
the  Rabbis),  and  hears  their  peni- 
tent musings  on  the  national  rejec- 
tion of  the  prophecies  respecting 
the   Servant,  all  of  which  were   in 


course  of  coming  true.  The  Gen- 
tiles believed  as  soon  as  they  had 
heard  (Hi.  15):  Israel  had  heard 
the  voice  of  prophecy,  but  '  who 
believed  ?'  Hitzig,  indeed,  objects 
that  on  this  view  of  the  passage  we 
should  expect,  not  '  Who  believed,' 
but  '  Which  of  us  believed,'  but  the 
reference  is  clear  enough  from  the 
pronoun  in  '  that  which  we  heard.' 
He  would  explain  the  clause,  'Who, 
whether  Jew  or  Gentile,  believed 
that  which  we,  the  prophets,  heard 
(and  announced)  from  God  ? '  No- 
thing, however,  has  been  said  about 
the  prophets   in   the  context,  and 


CHAP.  LIII.] 


ISAIAH. 


4. 


Jehovah,  unto  whom  did  it  become  manifest  ?  ^  por  he  grew 
up  '^  before  us  "^  as  a  sapling,  and  as  a  root  out  of  a  parched 
ground  ;  he  had  no  form  nor  majesty,  *=  and  if  we  looked  at 
him,  there  was  ^  no  sightliness  that  we  should  delight  in  him. 


d  So  Ew. — Before  him,  Hebr.  text, 
e   That  we  should  look  at  him,   and 
Hitz. ,  Ew. 

this  explanation  compels  us  to 
ascribe  a  different  meaning  to  the 
pronoun  '  we '  in  successive  verses. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  view  adopted 
suits  the  context,  and  is  favoured 
by  the  analogy  of  xlii.  24,  Ixiv.  5, 
both  passages  embodying  the  con- 
fessions of  the  people.  The  '  we,' 
as  I  understand  it,  is  dramatic. — 
The  confession,  involves,  of  course, 
an  unconscious  exaggeration  (comp. 
Ps.  xiv.  3,  quoted  by  Hengst.).  St. 
Paul  well  interprets,  '  Not  all  hear- 
kened to  the  good  tidings '  (Rom, 
X.  16),  '  mitissUna  ititerpretatio^ 
inenti  prophet (S  conformis '   (Vitr.). 

That  •whicli  we  heard]   Lit., 

'our  hearsay,'  or  'our  tidings.' 
The  noun  is  occasionally  used 
technically  for  a  prophetic  reve- 
lation (xxviii.  9,  19,  Ob.  v.  i,  Jer. 
xlix.  14);  we  might  therefore  render 
'our  revelation,'  i.e.,  either,  'the  re- 
velation communicated  to  us  by  the 
prophet,'  or  '  the  revelation  respect- 
ing us,  the  Israelites'  (comp.  xxiii.  5, 
2  Sam.  iv.  4).  In  either  case  the 
speakers  refer  to  the  prophecies 
relating  to  the  Servant.  [The  other 
possible  explanation,  '  that  which 
we,  the  prophets  heard,'  has  been 
rejected  above.  It  has  been  adopted, 
indeed,  by  Calv.,  Vitr.,  Ges.,  Stier, 
Urwick,  but  not  by  Hengst.,  Ew., 
Del.,  Naeg.]. The  Arm  of  Je- 
hovah] For  a  commentary,  see  Hi. 

10  (and  comp.  note  on  xl.  10). 

17nto  whom]  Lit.,  'over  whom.' 
The  '  Arm '  must  be  '  made  bare ' 
in  heaven  (comp.  xxxiv.  5),  and  only 
a  few  have  eyes  to  see  such  supra- 
mundane  sights,  when  nothing  on 
earth  seems  to  suggest  them. 

*  The    explanation    of    this   un- 
belief  For  he  grew  up  ...  ] 

Lit.,  And  .  .  .  ('and'  is  here,  as 
often,  explanatory).     The  tense  is 


Symmachus,   Lowth,  Vitr.,   Ges., 


the  perfect  of  prophetic  certitude  ; 
all    has  been  finished  'before  the 
foundation   of  the    world'    in   the 
Divine   counsels.     The   metaphors 
of  V.  2  are  often  explained  of  the 
pious  kernel  of  the  Jewish  nation, 
called  'the  poor'  and  'the  needy' 
in  the  Book  of  Psalms  (e.g.,  xxxvii. 
14),  and  it  is  clear  enough  from  II. 
Isaiah  (whatever  be  its  date),  that 
the  faithful  were  reduced  to  great 
straits     among    their    unbelieving 
neighbours.    Still  the  prophecy  as  a 
whole  is  far  from  favourable  to  this 
view — it  refers  not  to  the  type  (the 
pious  kernel  of  the  nation),  but  to 
the  antitype  (the  personal  Servant). 
Before  us]  '  We  had  the  evi- 
dence of  our  senses  to  justify  our 
contempt  of  his  person.'     The  tra- 
ditional reading  does  not  at  all  suit 
the  context.     In  vv.  2,  3  we  have 
a  picture  of  the  unfavourable  im- 
pression made  by  the  appearance 
of  the  Servant  upon  his  contempo- 
raries.     The  suggestion  of  a  con- 
trast  between   Jehovah's    constant 
good  pleasure  in  His  representative 
and  the  people's  misapprehension 
of  him  produces  a  strangely  incon- 
sistent feature  in  the  picture,  and 
the  more  so  if  we  understand  '  be- 
fore him '  in  the  sense  which  the 
phrase  usually  has  elsewhere  (see 
Gen.  xvii.  18,  Hos.  vi.  2,  Jer.  xxx. 
20),  viz.,  '  under  the  fostering  and 
prospering   care   of  Jehovah.'     In 
fact,  we   have  only  to  paraphrase 
the  sentence  to  see  how  impossible 
it  is — 'he  grew  up  in  contempt  under 
the    fostering    care    of    Jehovah.' 
Feeling  this  more  or  less  distinctly, 
Lowth,  Henderson,  Alexander,  and 
Hahn    explain    'him'    in    the    re- 
ceived reading,  of  the  Jewish  people 
collectively.     This,  however,  is  ex- 
tremely harsh. As    a    sapling] 


44 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  I. III. 


^  Despised,  and  *^  deserted  of  men/"  a  man  of  pains  and  familiar 
with  sickness  !  and  ^  as  one  from  whom  there  is  a  hiding  of 

'  Ceasing  to  be  of  men,  Symmachus.  Vulg.,  A.  E.,  Kay,  Naeg. 

e  As  one  that  hid  his  face  from  us,  Sept.,  Vulg.,  Kashi,  Lowth,  Hengst. 


For  the  implied  figure,  comp.  Ps. 
Ixxx.  8,  14,  16,  '  Thou  didst  bring 
a  vine  out  of  Egypt  .  .  .  Behold 
and  visit  this  vine  .  .  .  It  is  burned 
with  fire,  it  is  cut  down.'  But  from 
the  root  or  stock  of  this  outraged 
vine  (the  people),  a  slender,  unat- 
tractive plant  grew  up. A  root] 

i.e.,  a  sprout  from  the  root,  as  xi.  10. 
Those  who  understand  the  Servant 
to  be  the  Jewish  nation  compare 
xxvii.  6,  '  Hereafter  Jacob  shall  take 
root ;  Israel  shall  blossom  and 
bud.'  The  same  metaphor  is  used 
of  the  Messiah  in  chap,  xi.,  but  we 
must  not  be  too  hasty  in  our  de- 
ductions from  this  coincidence. 

No  form  nor  majesty]  None  of 
that  winning  grace  or  imposing 
majesty  which  we  should  have  ex- 
pected in  a  representative  of  Jeho- 
vah. The  context  implies  that  the 
Servant   made    claims    which    his 

contemporaries  rejected. And  if 

■we  looked  at  him]  '  If  we  vouch- 
safed him  a  glance,  our  eye  found 
nothing  to  tempt  us  to  cultivate  his 
society.'  For  the  rend.  '  looked  at 
him,'  Dr.  Weir  well  compares  Pro\\ 
xxiii.  31.  (Against  alt.  rend.,  con- 
sider (i)  the  word-play  in  the  Hebr. 
in  nir'chil  and  ina>^ch^  as  if  '  when 
we  sighted  him,  there  was  no 
sightliness,'  and  (2)  the  apt  remark 
of  Hengstenberg,  '  How  could  they 
have  such  views  of  the  condition  of 
the  Servant  of  God,  if  they  over- 
looked him  ?') 

'  A  series  of  short  clauses  in  the 
style  of  exclamations.     Despised] 

See    on     xlix.    7. Deserted    of 

men]  More  literally,  '  one  from 
whom  men  held  themselves  aloof.' 
The  Book  of  Joli  (a  fund  of  paral- 
lels for  II.  Isaiah)  supplies  us  with 
the  best  justification  of  this  render- 
ing. Job,  who  partly  represents  the 
same  conception  as  the  Servant, 
mentions  this  as  the  crown  of  his 
troubles,  '  My  intimates  hold  them- 
selves  aloof    (Job    xix.     14  ;    the 


verbal  root  is  the  same).  See  crit. 
note. — Obs.  Job's  troubles  are  given 
as  those  of  a  historical  person  ;  the 
presumption  is  that  the  similar  suf- 
ferings of  the  Servant  are  described 

with  the  same  intention. A  man 

of  pains]  i.e.,  a  man  of  many  pains 
(comp.  '  a  man  of  reproofs,'  i.e., 
'  one  often  reproved,'  Prov.  xxix.  i). 
Auth.  Vers,  has,  '  a  man  of  sorrows 
and  acquainted  with  grief,'  for 
which  comp.  Ex.  iii.  7  '  For  I 
know  their  sorrows '  (lit.  pains), 
Eccles.  vi.  2  '  this  is  vanity  and 
a  sore  grief  (lit.  sickness).  But 
it  seems  better  here  to  keep  the 
literal  rendering,  on  account  of  the 
next  verse  (and  so,  too,  in  Lam.  i. 
1 3,  where  Jerusalem  exclaims, '  Con- 
sider and  see  if  there  be  pain  like 
my  pain  ').  Our  translators  were 
probably  influenced  by  Jewish  ob- 
jections to  the  received  Christian 
application,  such  as  those  of  Abar- 
banel  (see  Neubauer  and  Driver, 
op.  cit.^  pp.  159,  160).  'Sickness,' 
no  doubt,  includes  '  sorrow,'  but  it 
means  something  more,  viz.,  the 
punishment  of  sin,  just  as  outward 
as  well  as  inward  sufferings  are  im- 
plied in  Ps.  xxxviii.  3-7. Fami- 
liar witb  sickness]  Here,  again, 
the  Book  of  Job  and  a  psalm  of 
cognate  purport  supply  our  best 
commentary  :  '  Lover  and  friend 
hast  thou  put  far  from  me  ;  mine 
acquaintance — (they  arc)  darkness,' 
Ps.  Ixxxviii.  18:  comp.  Job  xvii.  14. 

As  one  from  w^hom  there  is  a 

hiding:  of  the  face]  Men  avoided 
him  with  as  much  disgust  as  if  he 
had  a  disease  like  the  leprosy. 
Comp.  Job's  complaint,  '  They 
abhor  me,  they  flee  far  from  me,' 
Job  XXX.  10  (see  also  xix.  13-19)  ; 
and  the  lamentation  of  the  Jewish 
exiles,  '  Men  cried  unto  them.  Go 
aside  !  unclean  !  go  aside  !  go 
aside!'  (Lam.  iv.  15);  also  the 
allusion  or  parallel  in  Wisdom 
(ii.  1  5).     Against  alt  rend.,  besides 


CHAP.  LIII.] 


ISAIAH. 


45 


the  face  ^  !  despised,  and  we  regarded  him  not  !  '^  But  surely 
our  sicknesses  /le  bore,  and  as  for  our  pains,  he  carried  them, 
and  zi'e  regarded  him  as  stricken,  smitten  of  God,  and  afflicted. 
^  But  /le  was  pierced  because  of  our  rebellions,  crushed  be- 


the  philological  objection  urged  by 
Del.,  consider  that  it  directly  con- 
tradicts a  passage  in  the  parallel 
description    of  the    Servant's  suf- 


ferings   (1.     6d). Despised]     A 

pathetic  repetition  in  the  manner 
of  Isaiah  {D eVitzsch,  Isa/a/i,  ii.  134). 
Comp.  V.  7. 


Vv.  4-6.  '  The  second  subdivision  furnishes  us  with  the  key  to  the 
sufferings  of  the  Servant  of  God  described  previously,  by  pointing  to  their 
vicarious  character '  (Hengstenberg).  Note  the  significant  emphasis  on 
the  pronouns  'he'  and  'we,'  and  the  elegiac  rhythm  in  the  Hebrew. 


^  But  surely]  Hebr.,  'dAiJn  ;  at 
once  affirmative  and  adversative 
(see    xlix.    4). Our    sicknesses 

he  bore]  (The  meaning  of  '  sick- 
nesses '  has  been  explained  above, 
on  '  a  man  of  pains.')  The  mean- 
ing is,  first  of  all,  that  the  conse- 
quences of  the  sins  of  his  people 
fell  upon  him  the  innocent  (comp. 
Lam.  V.  7,  'Our  fathers  have  sinned, 
and  are  not ;  and  we  have  borne 
{sdbhal)  their  iniquities  ')  ;  but  next 
and  chiefly,  that  he  bore  his  unde- 
served sufferings  as  a  sacrifice  on 
behalf  of  his  people  (see  v.  ^b  '  the 
punishment  which  was  for  our  'wel- 
fare ' ;  V.  \ob,  'if  he  were  to  lay 
down  his  soul  as  an  offering  for 
guilt';  V.  12b,  'and  for  the  rebel- 
lious made  intercession ').  The  pro- 
noun '  he  '  is  expressed  not  merely 
to  point  the  contrast  between  the 
Servant's  deserts  and  his  fate,  but 
to  draw  attention  to  his  person,  as 
in  the  cases  of  Jehovah  (xli.  4)  and 
'Branch'  (Zech.  vi.  13). — This  is 
the  first  of  twelve  distinct  assertions 
in  this  one  chapter  of  the  vicarious 
character  of  the  sufferings  of  the 
Servant.  The  verb  {ndsd)  may  also 
be  rendered  '  he  took  away '  (as 
Mic.  ii.  2),  and  Del.  thinks  this 
meaning  is  included  here,  but  the 
parallel  verb  {sabhal),  which  is 
quite  unambiguous,  is  against  this 
view.  That  the  primary  meaning 
is  '  he  took  up,  bore,'  Del.  himself 


admits,  the  verb  ndsd  (but  not  the 
verb  sdblial)  being  a  technical  term 
in  the  Law  for  bearing  the  penalty 
of  sin.  There  is  apparently  an  al- 
lusion to  this  passage  in  John  i.  29, 
where  6  alpaiv  should  probably  be 
rendered  '  that  taketh  up  (and 
expiateth)  the  sin  of  the  world.' ' 
Obs.  too  that  the  Baptist  gives 
the  statement  a  wider  scope  than 
the  prophet — '  the  world's  sin,'  not 

merely  the    people's.- stricken, 

smitten  of  God]  The  phrases 
evidently  allude  to  the  disease  of 
leprosy,  which  was  called  pre- 
eminently a  '  stroke  '  (Auth.  Vers, 
'plague,'  e.g..  Lev.  xiii.  3,  9,  20), 
and  regarded  as  a  punishment  for 
grievoussin  (Num.  xii.  9, 10,  2  Kings 
XV.  5).  An  Arabic  phrase  for  a 
leper  is  mukatal-uUah  'antagonist 
of  Allah.'  (See  Wetzstein's  note 
in  Delitzsch's  Job,  E.  T.,  i.  347.) 
Here  we  are  again  reminded  of 
the  typical  sufiferer  Job  ;  only  the 
account  of  Job's  leprosy  is  meant 
to  be  taken  literally,  whereas  here 
leprosy  is  a  figure  for  the  sufferings 
entailed  by  sin.     In  Ps.  Ii.  7,  leprosy 

is  a  type  of  sin   itself. Of  Ood] 

belongs  logically  to  all  three  par- 
ticiples. 

^  But  he  ...  ]  In  emphatic 
contrast  to  '  and  we '  in  v.  4,  which 
again  is  the  antithesis  to  '  he '  in 
'  he  bare '  : — a  regular  chain  of  con- 
trasts.   Pierced   .    .    .  crushed] 


I  I  am  glad  to  notice  that  Bishop  Lightfoot  has  given  his  high   authority  to  this 
view  {On  Revision,  &c.,  pp.  141-2). 


46 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  LIII. 


cause  of  our  iniquities  ;  the  '"  punishment  of  our  peace  was 
upon  him,  and  through  his  stripes  zue  have  been  healed. 
^  All  we  like  a  flock  did  go  astray,  we  turned  every  one  to 
his  own  way ;  and  Jehovah  made  to  light  upon  him  the 
iniquity  of  us  all. 

h  So  Vitr.,  Hitz.,   Havernick,  Del.,   Naeg.   (note).— Most,  chastisement  ;  Vulg., 
disciplina. 


Both  words  are  passive  participles, 
and  imply  that  the  suflferings  volun- 
tarily undergone  by  the  Servant 
ended  in  death.  Literal  wounds 
are  not  necessarily  referred  to. 
The  same  verbs  are  used  by 
psalmists  in  quite  a  general  sense  : 
Ps.  Ixi.x.  27  (26),  xciv.  5,  comp.  also 
Isa.  i.  5.  The  meaning  of  the 
statement,  '  He  was  pierced  .  .  . 
for  our  transgressions,'  is  perfectly 
clear  if  the  Servant  is  a  person  who 
devoted  his  life  '  for  the  many.'  If, 
however,  he  be  only  a  personifica- 
tion of  the  pious  kernel  of  the 
people  of  Israel,  we  must  make  the 
rather  far-fetched  supposition  that 
the  violent  deaths  of  some  in- 
dividuals were  imputed,  as  it  were, 
to  the  whole  of  the  believing  com- 
munity, and  that  they  operated 
towards  the  conversion  of  the  rest 
of  the  nation.  Whilst,  if  'the 
Servant'  be  interpreted  to  mean 
the  whole  of  the  people  of  Israel, 
no  rational  explanation  of  this  pas- 
sage seems  possible  (see  Don  Isaac 
Abarbanel's  comment  in  Neubauer 
and  Driver,  op.  cif.,  p.  177). — —The 
punisbment]  Alt.  rend,  is  de- 
cidedly to  be  rejected,  for  though 
Hebrew  cannot  distinguish  clearly 
between  Tijicupia  and  KoKa<TLi  (Arist. 
Rhef.,  i.  10),  the  notion  of  punish- 
ment is  the  primary  one  in  this  word 
(trn'tsar)  ;    in    its    synonym    {tokd- 

khath)  it   is  only  secondary. Of 

our  peace]  i.e.,  which  led  to  our 
'  peace '  (or  welfare) ;  comp.  '  a  re- 


proof  of   my   shame  '  =  a    reproof 

putting  me  to  shame. "We  have 

been  bealed]  Jerome  :  '  suo  vul- 
nere  vulnera  nostra  curavit.'  Vit- 
ringa  :  '  venustissimum  d^vficopov.' 

*^  All  we  .  .  .  ]  Consequently 
'  the  Servant 'can  hardly  be  a  mere 
personification  either  of  the  whole 
people  of  Israel,  or  of  its  pious 
kernel,  or  even  of  the  body  of  pro- 
phets.  Did    go    astray]      The 

figure  is  used  by  Ezekiel  of  the 
Babylonian  Exile  (chap,  xxxiv.), 
but  here  (as  in  Ps.  cxix.  176)  it  is 
the  wilderness    of  sin    into  which 

the  whole  nation  has  '  strayed.' 

jVIade  to  ligrbt  upon  bim  .  ■  .  ] 
Symmachus  :  KaravTrfcrai  eTroirfcrfi'. 
As  the  avenger  of  blood  pursues 
the  murderer,  so  punishment  by 
an  inner  necessity  overtakes  the 
sinner  (Ps.  xl.  12,  Num.  xxxii.  23, 
comp.  Deut.  xxvii.  15);  and  inas- 
much as  the  Servant,  by  Jehovah's 
will,  has  made  himself  the  sub- 
stitute of  the  Jewish  nation,  it  fol- 
lows that  the  punishment  of  the 
latter  must  fall  upon  him.  We 
have  no  right,  with  Mr.  Urvvick  (p. 
131),  to  find  a  reference  to  the  im- 
position of  hands  on  the  Sin-ofifer- 

ing. The    Iniquity]       Observe 

the  singular  ;  it  is  the  collective 
iniquity  of  the  people.  We  might 
also  render  the  'punishment,'  since 
the  Hebr.  ^at'on  includes  both  sin 
and  punishment  (see  Lam.  iv.  6, 
Zech.  xiv.  19). 


Vv.  7-9.  The  cruel  treatment  of  the  Servant,  and  his  patient  endurance 
of  it,  form  the  contrast  of  this  paragraph.  Meantime  his  persecutors  'know 
not  what  they  do.'  Comp.  the  striking  parallel  in  1.  5-9,  which  is  like  a 
prelude  of  our  prophecy.— Obs.,  7/.  7  and  v.  9  each  close  with  the  words 
'and  not  ...  in  his  mouth'  ;  it  is  a  mark  of  artistic  composition. 


CHAP.  LIII.] 


ISAIAH. 


47 


^  He  was  treated  rigorously,  but  he  let  himself  be  humbled, 
and  opened  not  his  mouth  :  as  the  sheep  that  is  led  to  the 
slaughter,  and  as  an  ewe  that  before  her  shearers  is  dumb  ; 
and  opened  not  his  mouth.  ^  ^  Through  oppression  and 
through  a  judgment  he  was  taken  away,  and  ''as  for  his  gene- 
ration who  considered  that ''  *  he  was  cut  off  out  of  the  land  of 

■  Out  of,  Vitr.,  Ges.  (in  his  note,  but  not  his  translation),  Ew.,  Hengst.,  Del., 
Naeg. 

^  So  substantially  Ges.,  Ew.,  Del. — Who  considereth  his  life-time,  Calv.,  Vitr., 
Kay,  Weir;  or,  his  dwelling.  Knob. — Who  can  think  out  his  generation,  Hengst., 
Seinecke,  Riehm,  Naeg. 


"^  Treated  rigorously]  Treated 
as  slave-drivers  (Ex.  iii.  7,  Job  iii. 
18),  or  petulant  upstarts  (iii.  12), 
or  hypocritical  religionists  (Iviii.  3), 
treat  those  who  have  the  misfor- 
tune   to    be    under   them. let 

himself  be  humbled]  i.e.,  suffered 

willingly  ;    see    crit.  note. And 

opened  not  his  mouth]  So  in 
two  psalms  of  cognate  purport  it  is 
said  of  one  who,  like  the  Servant, 
sums  up  and  yet  transcends  the 
finest  qualities  of  Israel's  charac- 
ter, '  (I  was)  as  a  dumb  man  that 
openeth  not  his  mouth '  (Ps.  xxxviii. 
14),  'I  opened  not  my  mouth  be- 
cause thou  didst  it'  (Ps.  xxxix.  9). 

As   the    sheep]     '  But   I  was 

like  a  tame  lamb  {agniis  mansuetus, 
Vulg.)  that  is  led  to  the  slaughter.' 
So  Jeremiah  speaks  of  himself  (xi. 
19),  though  he  adds  (which  mili- 
tates against  Saadya's  and  Bunsen's 
view  that  he  is  the  subject  of  Isa. 
liii.),  'and  I  knew  not  that  they  had 
devised  devices  against  me.'  There 
is  nothing  to  indicate  an  allusion 
to  the  paschal  lamb  (a  premature 
introduction  of  the  typical  point 
of  view). — Delitzsch  remarks  that 
'  everything  that  is  said  of  the  Lamb 
of  God  in  the  New  Testament  has 

its  origin  in  this  prophecy.' And 

opened  not  •  .  .  ]  Repetition,  as 
in  V.  3. 

®  A  continuation  of  the  descrip- 
tion of  the  Servant's  sufferings.  He 
drank  his  cup  to  the  dregs.  No 
ignominy  was  spared.  The  forms 
of  justice  were  indeed  observed, 
but  the  judgment  or  sentence  was 

really   an    act    of    oppression. 

Through  oppression  and  through 


a  judgrment]  i.e.,  through  a  judg- 
ment accompanied  with  oppression, 
through  an  oppressive  judgment 
(the  Vdv  is  that  of  association). 
So  Job  iv.  16  '  stillness  and  a  voice ' 
=  a  still  voice,  Jer.  xxix.  1 1  'a  future 
and  a  hope '  =  a  hopeful  future. — 
'  Through '  (as  in  v.  5),  not  '  out  of,' 
which  fails  to  emphasize  the  suffer- 
ings sufficiently.  '  Oppression,'  lit., 
'  restraint ' — the  shutting  up  of  the 
forces  of  life.  The  same  Hebr. 
word  occurs  again  in  Ps.  cvii.  39, 
'And  they  were  diminished  and 
bowed  down  through  the  oppres- 
sion of  calamity  and  (through) 
misery.'  '  Judgment '  =  sentence,  as 
in  'judgment  of  death,'  Deut.  xxi. 

22. He  ■wa.s  taken   away]  i.e., 

by  a  violent  death  ;  parallel  to 
'cut  off'  in  the  second  half-verse. 
Comp.  '  If  the  sword  come,  and 
take  him  away'  (Ezek.  xxxiii.  4). 
Or,  'taken  away'  might  mean 
'released'  (Jerome,  Rashi,  A.  E., 
Kimchi,  Calv.,  Vitr.,  Stier,  Hengst., 
Ges.  Commentary,  but  not  The- 
saurus). But  in  many  of  these 
cases  the  rendering  seems  dictated 
by  a  preconceived  notion  respect- 
ing '  the  Servant.' And  as  for 

his  ireneration  .  .  .  ]  A  difficult 
passage.  First,  with  regard  to  the 
concluding  words,  To  whom  does 
the  pronoun  in  '  my  people '  refer  } 
The  same  pronoun  occurs  thrice 
again  in  this  prophecy,  viz..  Hi.  13, 
liii.  II,  12.  In  these  verses  the 
speaker  is  clearly  Jehovah.  They 
contain  respectively  the  promise 
which  strengthens  the  Servant  for 
his  trying  mission  (Iii.  13),  and  the 
promise  which  rewards  its  success- 


48 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  LIII. 


the  living,  for  the  rebellion  of  my  people  '  he  was  stricken  ? ' ' 
^  And  one  appointed  his  grave  with  the  ungodly,  and  with  the 

1  They  were  stricken,  (virtually)  Targ.,  Ges.,  Hitz.,  Knob. — (And)  for  the  stroke 
due  unto  them,  E\v.,  Kleinert.  — To  whom  a  stroke  was  due,  Martini,  Hengst. — He 
was  led  away  unto  death,  Sept.  (see  crit.  note),  similarly  Houb.,  Lo. 


ful  accomplishment  (liii.  ii,  12). 
The  intermediate  portion  is  the 
soliloquy  either  of  the  people,  or  of 
some  individual  Israelite,  whether 
the  prophet  or  another.  Which  of 
these  is  the  speaker  in  v.  8.?  Ac- 
cording to  some  (e.g.,  Knob,  and 
Naeg.)  the  prophet ;  according  to 
Del.,  any  one  of  the  contemporaries 
of  the  Servant.  The  latter  view 
seems  preferable.  The  absolute- 
.ness  of  the  self-condemnation  of 
the  Israelites  is  confirmed  by  the 
statement  that  not  one  of  the 
Servant's  generation  '  meditated  ' 
on  the  truth  that  that  Divine  envoy's 
thread  of  life  was  cut  short,  and 
that  the  '  stroke '  of  God  came  upon 
him,  for  the  sins  of  'my  people' 
(i.e.,  of  the  people  to  which  the 
supposed  speaker  belongs).  The 
same  frivolous  inconsiderateness  is 
pointed  to  in  a  subsequent  chapter 
(Ivii.  \b,  see  note)  as  marking  the 
height  which  the  national  depravity 
had  reached.  In  each  case,  it  is 
noticed  with  surprise  that,  in  look- 
ing back  upon  the  career  of  the 
early  deceased  righteous,  men  did 
not  perceive  the  lesson  of  these 
premature  removals.  The  lesson, 
it  is  true,  is  different  ;  here  it  is 
this — that  such  a  visitation  (the 
awfulness  of  which  the  Servant's 
contemporaries  do  not  underrate, 
as  they  call  it  'a  stroke'  from 
Jehovah's  hand)  cannot  have  been 
caused  by  the  sins  of  the  Servant 
himself,  but  must  have  had  a 
mystic  reference  to  the  wickedness 
of  the  people.  It  is  one  result  of 
the  general  inconsiderateness  that, 
as  the  next  verse  tells  us,  the  grave 
of  this  benefactor  of  Israel  was 
assigned  among  the  most  profligate 
of  men.  [For  the  rend. '  generation,' 
compare,  with  Del.,  Jer.  ii.  31,  'O 
(men  of)  this  generation  !  observe 
ye  the  word  of  Jehovah.']  The 
latest  explanation — '  Who  can  think 


out  and  declare  the  nature  and  sort 
of  his  posterity?' — is  supported 
(Naeg.)  by  Ps.  xxii.  30  (31),  'A 
seed  (  =  posterity)  shall  serve  him, 
it  shall  be  recounted  of  the  Lord 
to  the  (next)  generation,'  also  by 
a  similar  passage  in  Ps.  Ixxi.  18, 
and  by  Lev.  xxiii.  21,  'throughout 
your  (successive)  generations.'  Obs. 
however,  that  in  all  these  passages 
there  is  something  which  suggests 
the  reference  to  the  following  gene- 
ration. See  further  crit.  note.— — • 
Tor  the  rebellion  of  my  people] 
The  people,  then,  is  distinct  from 
the  suffering  Servant.  The  only 
way  to  avoid  this  inference  is  to 
read  '  peoples  '  for  '  my  people ' 
(comp.  on  xlix.  i),  with  Luzzatto, 
and  render  '  for  the  rebellion  of 
the  peoples  (to  whom  the  stroke 
was  due).'  Four  places,  it  is  true, 
are  mentioned  in  the  Massora  in 
which  the  proposed  substitution  is 
possible,  but  this  passage  is  not  one 
of  them.— He  -was  stricken]  Of 
the  alternative  renderings,  that  of 
Ges.  is  grammatically  the  easiest, 
but  it  is  against  the  context.  It 
may  be  said,  indeed,  that  the  pro- 
phet forgets  himself  for  once,  and 
writes  as  if  the  Servant  were  merely 
an  aggregate  of  individuals,  but  this 
is  not  very  plausible.  Throughout 
this  chapter  the  individuality  of  the 
sufferer  is  rigidly  adhered  to  ;  is  it 
likely  that  there  should  be  one  ex- 
ception to  the  rule.-"  (See  crit.  note.) 
'-'  And  one  appointed  his  grave 
.  .  .  ]  i  e.,  '  and  his  grave  was  ap- 
pointed' (see  Del.'s  note).  Even 
'after  his  death'  (for  these  words 
qualify  both  members  of  the  first 
half-verse)  the  people  pursued  its 
benefactor  with  insults  (comp.  Jer. 
xxvi.  23).  He  was  buried,  not  with 
his  family,  but  with  the  open  de- 
niers  of  God,  and  with  the  rich. 
Wliy  'with  the  rich'?  Dr.  Weir 
points  out  in  reply,  that  the  verse 


CHAP.  Llll.] 


ISAIAH, 


49 


*"  rich  "  after  his  death,"  although  he  had  done  no  injustice, 

"'  Oppressor,  Ew.  (a  slight  emendation),  Rodwell. — Ungodly,  Kr.  (substituting 
'  transgressors  '  for  '  ungodly '  before). 

°  In  (i.e.,  after)  his  deaths.  Text. — His  grave-mound  (lit.,  '  his  mounds  '),  3  Hebr. 
MSS.  .Zwingli,  Lowth,  Martini,  Ges.  (both  in  Thesaurus  and  in  Transl.. of  Isaiah),  Ew., 
Kr. ,  Bottcher,  Rodwell.  (A.  E.  also  mentions  this  rendering.) 


consists  of  four  clauses,  of  which 
the  first  and  third  correspond,  and 
the  second  and  fourth.  It  might 
be  read  thus,  '  And  they  assigned 
him  his  grave  with  the  wicked  | 
though  he  had  done  no  violence 
I  And  with  the  rich  in  his  death  | 
though  there  was  no  guile  in  his 
mouth. !!'  He  concludes,  therefore, 
that  by  '  the  rich '  we  are  to  under- 
stand '  those  who  acquired  wealth 
by  guile  and  other  unlawful  means,' 
and  reminds  us  that  '  the  poor'  and 
'  the  humble '  not  unfrequently  in 
the  Psalms  stand  for  '  the  righteous  ' 
and  '  the  upright.' — This,  in  fact, 
seems  to  have  become  the  tradi- 
tional interpretation  of  the  verse, 
it  being  assumed  that,  according 
to  the  experience  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment writers,  riches  and  wicked- 
ness, poverty  and  piety,  most 
commonly  went  together.  But  the 
interpretation  is  not,  perhaps,  quite 
satisfactory.  The  use  of  '  the  poor' 
synonymously  with  '  the  righteous ' 
is  no  doubt  established  by  passages 
like  Ps.  xiv.  5, 6,  cxl.  12,  13.  But  no 
such  passages  can,  I  think,  be  ad- 
duced to  prove  the  synonymousness 
of  riches  and  wickedness.  In  Job 
xxvii.  13-19,  the  description  of  the 
wicked  man  (as  such)  which  is  clearly 
misplaced  in  our  present  text  has 
a  special  reference  to  Job's  case  ; 
and  the  parallelisni  of  '  the  noble ' 
and  '  the  wicked '  in  Job  xxi.  28  has 
no  doubt  a  similar  ground.  The 
difficulty  may,  it  is  true,  be  re- 
moved by  supposing  that  'the  rich  ' 
here  referred  to  are  the  Baby- 
lonians among  whom  the  personi- 
fied people  of  Israel  dwelt  during 
the  Exile.  '  By  the  rich,'  says 
Yefeth  ben  'Ali  the  Karaite,  '  are 
meant  the  powerful  men  among 
the  Gentiles  who  are  rich,  while 
Israel  in  exile  is  spoken  of  as  poor 
and  needy  '  (Neubauer  and  Driver, 
op.  cil.,  p.  27).     But,  on  the  hypo- 

VOL.    II. 


thesis  adopted  above,  this  account 
of  the  Servant  has  reference  to  his 
treatment  by  his  own  people,  and 
not  by  the  Gentiles,  who,  indeed, 
as  lii.  15  shows,  were  ignorant  of 
him  until  his  exaltation.  I  see  no 
alternative,  but  either  (with  Ewald) 
to  suppose  a  corruption  in  the  text, 
or  to  conclude  that  the  prophet  had 
been  led  to  form  a  more  ascetic 
view  of  life  (if  the  phrase  may  be 
used)  than  the  other  Old  Testa- 
ment writers,  a  view  reminding  us 
of  one  or  two  passages  which  have 
as  peculiar  a  note  in  the  sayings 
of  Christ;  see  Luke  vi.  24,  Matt. 
xix.  23.  (Knobel  thinks  there  is 
an  implied  contrast  between  the 
rich  Babylonians  and  the  poor 
Jewish  exiles  ;  Ibn  Ezra  had  pre- 
ceded him  in  this  suggestion.  This 
implies  the  theory  that  the  Servant 
=  the  pious  kernel  of  the  Jewish 
people,  which  cannot  hold  in  face 
of  7'.  6;  besides,  were  the  Jewish 
exiles  literally  poorl  Gesenius 
points  out  that  there  is  an  assonance 
in  rasha\  ungodly,  and  '■dshir,  rich. 
This  does  not  explain  the  difficulty, 
but  is  at  any  rate  against  Ewald's 

emendation.) After  Ms  deatb] 

Comp.,  for  rendering.  Lev.  xi.  31, 
I  Kings  xiii.  31.  The  plural 'deaths' 
in  text-reading  is  commonly  sup- 
posed to  be  intensive  =  a  violent 
death,  or  to  express  the  state  of 
death,  as  '  lives '  for  '  the  state  of 
life,'  or  to  indicate  that  the  subject 
of  the   description   is  a  collective. 

See   however    crit.    note. Al- 

thougrli  he  had  done  no  injustice] 
So  Job  xvi.  17,  'Although  there  is 
no  injustice  in  my  hands ' ;  Job 
vi.  30  (comp.  xxvii.  4),  'Is  there 
iniquity  in  my  tongue?'  It  is  of 
some  slight  importance  for  ascer- 
taining the  date  of  Isa.  liii.  that 
Job  xvi.  17  contains  (probably)  an 
allusion  to  this  passage,  and  conse- 
quently that  it  was  written  later  ; 


50 


LSAIAII. 


[chap.  Liir. 


and  there  was  no  deceit  in  his  mouth.  '"  But  it  pleased 
Jehovah  to  crush  him — °he  dealt  grievously  ":  p  if  he  were  to 
lay  down  his  soul  p  as  an  offering  for  guilt,  he  would   see  a 

o  So  Bleek,  Hofinann. — Most,  He  made  (him)  sick  ;  or,  To  make  (him)  sick. 

P  So  Viilg.,  Kw.  (changing  one  letter). — Thou  (O  Jehovah!!  wert,  &c.,  Auth.  Vers., 
De  Dicu,  Hitz.  (subslantiilly),  Hofmann,  Naeg. ,  Weir. — Most,  His  soul  were  to  make 
an  offering  for  guilt.     (The  verb  in  received  te.vt  may  be  either  2  masc.  or  3  fern.) 

vv.  10-12.  The  Divine  purpose  in  permitting  these  sufifenngs  of  the  in- 
nocent .Servant,  and  the  Divine  decree  concerning  his  reconipence. — The 
tliree  verses  of  this  paragraph  are  very  skilfully  connected.  First,  each  of 
them  has  the  word  '  his  soul '  in  the  first  half-verse.  Next,  vi>.  10  and  1 1 
have  each  of  them  the  word  '  he  shall  see '  immediately  after  '  his  soul.' 
Finally,  both  v.  1 1  and  v.  12  enforce  the  limitation  implied  in  'the  many.' 
There  is  a  further  connection  both  in  contents  and  in  phraseolog)'  between 
this  and  the  second  paragrai>h,  which  the  student  can  work  out  for 
himself 


at  any  rate  the  words  in  Isa.  liii.  g 
flow  more  easily  and  naturally  than 
in  Job  xvi.  17. 

'"  It  pleased  Jehovah  .  .  .  ] 
This  was  the  thought  with  which 
the  second  paragraph  closed.  It 
was  no  mere  accident,  but  the  de- 
liberate will  of  God  that  the  Servant 
should  suffer  innocently.  (Comp. 
Ps.  xxii.  1 5  '^,  '  Thou  placest  me  in 
the  dust  of  death.')  The  deepest 
w-isdom  underlay  this  apparent 
contradiction.  'If  he  were  thus 
to  suffer  for  the  guilty,  he  would 
become  the  author  of  a  new  and 
better  race.'  v.  10  is  not  a  con- 
tinuation of  the  soliloquy  of  the 
people,  but  a  reflection  of  the  pro- 
phet's.    See  Last  ITon/s,  at  end  of 

this    vol. If  he    were    to    lay 

down  his  soul  .  .  .  ]  (The  phrase 
parallel  to  ndevai  rrjv  ^vxr'ji',  John 
X.  II.;  Tlie  passage  cannot  merely 
mean  that  Jehovah  would  spare  the 
people  of  Israel  for  the  sake  of  its 
few  pious  members  (though  this  is 
in  itself  an  unobjectionable  idea  ; 
comp.  Gen.  xviii.  24,  Jer.  v.  i,  Ezck. 
xxii.  30).  The  Servant  is  a  person, 
not  a  personification  of  the  pious 
kernel  of  Israel.     His  sufferings  are 


vicarious  and  voluntary.  Hence  he 
who  offers  the  Servant's  '  soul,'  or 
'  life,'  as  a  sacrifice,  must  be  the 
Servant  himself,  and  not  Jehovah, 
as  the  comtnon  reading  (see  note"") 
implies.  Jehovah  sends  the  Ser- 
vant, and  the  Servant  joyfully  ac- 
cepts the  mission.  He  smites,  and 
the  Servant  bends  willingly  to  the 
blow,  '  pours  out  his  soul  unto 
death,'  '  lays  it  down  as  an  offering 
for  guilt.'  But  why  is  it  added, '  as 
an  offering  for  guilt '  ?  Dr.  Ritschl, 
in  his  great  work  on  the  doctrine  of 
Justification,'  finds  it  hard  to  say. 
Yet  may  it  not  be  one  object  of  the 
prophet  to  show  that  in  the  death 
of  the  Servant  various  forms  of 
sacrifice  find  their  highest  fulfil- 
ment ?  '  As  in  verse  5  the  Divine 
Servant  is  represented  as  a  s/n- 
offcring,  His  death  being  an  expia- 
tion, so  here  He  is  described  as  a 
i:;iiilt-offeri)ig.  His  death  being  a 
sdtisfaction.'"  Guilt-oft'erings,  or 
trespass-offerings  (as  Auth.  Vers, 
calls  them),  *  were  enjoined  in  all 
cases  where  the  sins  which  had 
been  committed  allowed  of  restitu- 
tion in  kind'-''  ;  in  other  words,  in 
infractions  of  the  rights  of  property. 


'  Die  christliche  Lchre  von  der  Rcchlferligung  und  dcr  Vcysohniaig,  ii.  64. 

*  Ur\vick,  The  Set-van t  of  J ehmah,  p.  151. 

5  Cave,  Scriptural  Doilrine  of  Sacrifice,  p.  478.  (On  the  subject  of  the  'ashiim, 
or  guilt-ofl'ering,  see  especially  Kalisch,  Leviticus,  ii.  272-5  ;  Ewakl,  Antiijuities  of 
Israel,  pp.  55-56;  Richni,  '  L'eiier  das  Sclnildopfer,'  in  Theclog.  Studicn  11.  Kritiken, 
t8^.(,  p.  93  &c.  ;  Oehler,  Old  Testament  Tlieology,  ii.  28-3.1  '<  Wellhausrn,  Ceuhiclite 
Israels,  i.  75-77.) 


CHAP.  LIII.] 


ISAIAH. 


51 


seed,  he  would   prolong  days,   and   the   pleasure  of  Jehovah 
would  prosper  in  his  hand  ;  "  ^  after  the  travail  of  his  soul  he 

1  On  account  of,  Vitr.,  Del.,  Bleek,  Urwick  ;  free  from,  Ges.,  Hitz. 


The  people  of  Israel  was  theoreti- 
cally 'holy,'  i.e.,  dedicated  to  God, 
but  in  fact  was  altogether  unholy. 
It  had  therefore  fallen  under  the 
Divine    displeasure,    and    its    life 
was  legally  forfeited.    But,  in  wrath 
remembering  mercy,  Jehovah  sent 
the  Servant,  who  offered  his  own 
life  as  a  restitution  in  kind,  and  a 
'  satisfaction '  for  the  broken  cove- 
nant of  holiness.     There  is,  how- 
ever, a  difficulty  in  the  statement 
that  the  servant   became  a   guilt- 
offering,  which  ought  to  be  men- 
tioned.    According  to  the  Law,  the 
gTailt-ohering  was   only   an    atone- 
ment for  the  individual  presenting 
it,  never  for  other  people  (Luzzatto): 
the  sin-offering,    of  course,  might 
be  offered  for  others  (on  the  Day  of 
Atonement).     This  can  only  be  met 
by  the  hypothesis  that  the  Servant 
is  in  some  mystic  and  yet  real  sense 
identified  with  Israel ;  that  he  em- 
bodies all  that  is  high  and  noble 
in  the  Israelitish  character,  and  yet 
transcends  it.     The  prophet  him- 
self, too,  gives  us  a  plain  hint  that 
his  language  is  symbolic,  and  that 
more  is  meant  than  meets  the  ear. 
For  he  proceeds  to  tell  us  that  the 
Servant  shall  live  long  and  receive 
a  glorious  reward.     (It  would  be  a 
still  simpler  solution  to  suppose  that 
the   distinction    between  sin-offer- 
ing and  guilt-offeiing  was  not  very 
clearly   drawn   when    tli<-    prophet 
wrote ;  but  this  would  require   us 
to  adopt  the  Grafian  hypothesis  as 
to  the  date  of  the  Levitical  legisla- 
tion.    It  would  be  unfair  to  import 
the  huge   difficulties    which   beset 
this  question  into  the  comparatively 
simple  subject   of  the  exegesis  of 
Isaiah.     Against   Wellhausen,  see 

below,  Lasi  Words) He  would 

see  a  seed  .  .  .  ]      It  is    said  in 


a  psalm  closely  allied  to  our  pro- 
phecy, that,  after  the  deliverance 
of  the  Sufferer,  '  A  seed  shall  serve 
him'  (viz.,  Jehovah),  Ps.  xxii.  30. 
In  this  case,  the  'seed'  means 
the  children  of  the  converts  from 
heathenism  mentioned  in  the  pre- 
ceding verse  (see  Hupfeld  ad  loc). 
Our  prophet  too  evidently  uses 
'seed'  in  a  spiritual  sense  of  those 
who  are  mystically  united  to  the 
Servant  (or,  more  prosaically,  his 
disciples).!  Obs.,  the  Servant  is 
not  merely  to  leave  a  seed  behind 
him,_  but  to  '  see  it,'  which  har- 
moni::es    admiraT^ly  with    the  next 

clause.  He     would     prolong 

days]  i.e.,  he  would  live  long. 
This  again  is  of  course  not  to  be 
taken  quite  literally.  'Length  of 
days '  is  no  doubt  frequently  men- 
tioned as  a  reward  of  piety  (Deut. 
vi.  2,  Ps.  xci.  16,  P)-ov.  iii.  2),  but 
as  the  Servant  has  already  passed 
through  death  once  without  injury 
to  his  personality,  we  may  presume 
that,  like  the  Messiah  in  ix.  6  (see 
note),  'death hath  no  more  dominion 

over   him.' Th'3    pleasure    of 

Jehovah  .  .  .  ]  The  Servant  is 
not  to  retire  henceforth  from  the 
scene  of  his  sufferings  ;  he  has  a 
work  to  do  in  and  for  his  spiritual 
posterity  and  for  mankind  in  gene- 
ral, and  the  appellation  given  to 
it  supplies  a  good  example  of  the 
interlacing  of  the  parts  of  this 
prophecy,  'pleasure'  in  the  sense 
of '  purpose  '  occun  ing  no  less  than 
eight  times  in  II.  Isaiah. 

'!  Alter  the  travail  of  his 
soul]  It  is  not  easy  to  choose  be- 
tween the  different  meanings  of  the 
preposition.  I  have  rendered '  after ' 
on  the  analog)^  of  I's.  Ixxiii.  20,  'As 
a  dream,  after  om;  hath  awaked,' 
but  the  local  meaning  'away  from  ' 


'  David  Kimchi  alludes  to  this  interpretation  as  current  amonr  the  Christians  in 
his  time,  but  rejects  it  because  '  his  (Jesus')  disciples  are  nowhere". spoken  of  as  either 
sons  or  seeds '  (Neubauer  ,ind  Driver,  op.  cit ,  p.  55)  ;  Mosheh  Kchen  [ibid.,  p.  12s) 
with  at  least  an  attempt  at  philology,  on  the  ground  that  '  seed  is  or;'y  used  (in  the  Oid 
Testnment)  in  its  liternl  and  primary  signification.'  But,  as  Dr.  Pi.^ev  remarks  [ibid., 
P   h'iii.),  '  Isaiah  himself  uses  the  word  in  a  bad  =;en';p  '  (ho  quolos  i.  4,  hii.  4). 

E  2 


^ 


52 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  I. III. 


would  sec  satisfyingly  ;  by  ''hi.s  knowledge  ''  would  the  right- 
eous one,  my  servant,  make  the  many  righteous,  and  of  their 

"•  The  knowledge  of  him,  Vilr.,  Hcngst.,  Sticr,  Naeg. 


(Num.  XV.  24),  and  the  causal '  on 
account  of,' '  in  consequence  of  (7'. 
5),  are  both  grammatically  possible. 
To  adopt  the  last,  however,  seems 
to  involve  an  anticipation  of  the 
'  therefore  '  in  v.  12.  '  The  travail 
of  his  soul '  =  the  pain  which  he  felt 
in  his  inmost  soul,  his  spiritual 
agony. He  would  see  satisfy- 
ingly] i.e.,  would  enjoy  a  satis- 
fying, refreshing  view  of  the  pro- 
gress of  the  Divine  work  of  salva- 
tion (Del.).  So  in  Ps.  xvii.  15  we 
find  '  to  see  God's  face  '  and  '  to  be 

satisfied,'  in  parallel    lines. By 

bis  knowledge]  There  is  a  doubt 
(which  Calvin  himself  recognises) 
as  to  whether  this  means  '  by  the 
knowledge  of  him'  or  'by  the 
knowledge  which  he  possesses.' 
Vitr.,  Hengst.,  Stier,  Naeg.,  adopt 
the  former  ;  Ges.,  Ew.,  Hitz.,Bleek, 
Del.,  Kay,  Birks,  Urwick,  the  latter. 
Of  course,  'knowledge'  (in  the 
deep  Biblical  sense  of  the  word) 
was  necessary  for  the  'justified' 
persons  spoken  of  (comp.  Jer.  xxxi. 
34),  but  it  is  more  obvious,  con- 
sidering the  prophetic  functions 
assigned  to  the  Servant  (comp.  xlii. 
I,  xlix.  6,  1.  4),  to  suppose  that 
'  knowledge'  means  his  insight  into 
the  dealings  and  purposes  of  Jeho- 
vah. It  is  clear,  too,  from  other 
passages  (referred  to  by  Del.),  that 
'  knowledge,'  in  this  sense,  was 
reckoned  as  essential  for  the  national 
regeneration  (see  .Mai.  ii.  7,  'The 
priest's  lips  should  keep  knowledge ; ' 
Dan.  xii.  3,  where  faithful  teachers 
are  described  as  '  making  righteous 
(or,  justifying)  the  many'  ;  and  Isa. 
xi.  2,  where  among  the  seven  spirits 
bestowed  on  the  Messiaii  we  find 
'the  spirit  of  knowledge'].  The 
contents  of  the  Servanl'.s  knowledge 
are,  no  doubt,  the  purpose  of  (^od 
to  make  the  many  righteous  by 
his  means.  TIumc  are  two  possiljle 
nieanmgs  of  the  phrase  '  to  make 
ngliteuu;.,'  the  forensic  one  of  ac- 


ciuittal  {v.  23,  Ex.  xxiii.  7),  and  the 
ethical  one  of  imparting  or  pro- 
ducing righteousness.  The  latter 
is  the  less  common  one,  the  only 
other  passage  which  Ges.  quotes 
for  it  being  Dan.  xii.  3.  There, 
however,  the  meaning  is  quite  cer- 
tain, for  the  '  understanding  ones  ' 
who  '  make  the  many  righteous  '  are 
in  Dan.  xi.  33  said  to  '  instruct  the 
many.'  In  the  passage  before  us,  | 
too,  the  sense  of 'making  righteous  ' 
or  'turning  to  righteousness'  (the 
felicitous  rendering  of  Auth.  Vers. 
in  Dan.  xii.  3)  seems  the  only  suit- 
able one,  for  the  Servant  is  not 
himself  a  judge  or  justifier,  but  a 
sin-bearer  and  intercessor  {7>.  12). 
He  is  called '  the  righteous  one,'  as  a 
guarantee  of  his  ability  for  '  making 

righteous.' The    many]  'It    is 

not  absolutely  certain  whether  this 
phrase  (emphatically  repeated  in 
V.  12)  points  to  the  Jews  or  to  the 
heathen.  As  the  foregoing  prophecy 
I'efers  to  the  Jews,  and  as  the  same 
phrase  is  used  of  the  Jews  in  Dan. 
ix.  27,  xi.  33,  39,  xii.  3,  it  is  safer  to 
interpret  it  so  here.  This  will  not 
exclude  the  incorporation  of  more 
or  fewer  of  the  Gentiles  among  the 
true  Israelites  (see  on  xliv.  3-5), 
and  in  fact  an  enlargement  of  the 
limits  of  Israel  seems  required  by 
the  magnificent  language  of  71.  12  a. 
Besides,  was  not  the  Servant  to  be 
'  the  light  of  the  nations  '  as  well  as 
'a  covenant  of  the  people'  (xlii. 
6)  .^The  phrase  '  the  many '  seems 
intended  to  imply  that  not  the  whole 
of  the  community  is  benefited  by 
the  saving  work  of  the  Servant. 
Comp.  the  use  of  'many  '  in  similar 
contexts  in  Matt.  xx.  28,  xxvi.  28, 
Heb.  ix.  28. And  of  their  ini- 
quities .  .  .  ]  This  cannot  mean 
(for  the  explanation  involves  New 
Testament  presuppositions)  that 
the  .Servant  should  continue  to  be 
a  sin-bearer  after  his  sacrifice  of 
himself.     It  is   rather  an  emphatic 


CHAP.  LIV.] 


IS  AT  AH. 


53 


iniquities  he  would  take  up  the  load.  ''^  Therefore  will  I  give 
him  ^a  portion  among  the  great,^  and  with  the  powerful  shall 
he  divide  spoil,  because  he  poured  out  his  soul  unto  death,  and 
let  himself  be  numbered  with  the  rebellious,  but  he  had  borne 
the  sin  of  many,  and  for  the  rebellious  made  intercession. 

•  So  Ew.,  Hitz.,  Del.     As  a  portion  the  many,  Sept.,  Ta^g.,  Vulg.,  Vitr.,  Lowth, 
Hengst.,  Bleek,  Kay,  Naeg.,  Weir,  Urwick,  Rodwell. 


reassertion  of  the  vicarious  atone- 
ment as  the  foundation  of  his  right- 
eous-making work. 

^-  Jehovah  himself  holds  out  the 
victor's  crown  with  the  words — • 
Therefore  ivill  I  give  him  a  por- 
tion among:  the  g-reat]  This  is 
clearly  metaphorical,  and  as  such 
is  not  to  be  pressed  too  far.  For 
who  can  be  '  great '  or  '  powerful ' 
enough  to  share  spoil  with  Jeho- 
vah's Well-beloved  1  It  is  impos- 
sible to  think  of  the  persons  just 
described  as  'made  righteous' 
through  the  Servant,  for  this  '  mak- 
ing righteous,'  together  with  the 
preceding  atonement,  was  the  very  ' 
fight  which  the  Servant  fought  and 
won.  The  idea  is,  no  doubt,  this, 
that,  without  striking  a  blow,  the 
Servant  of  Jehovah  has  reached 
the  same  results  which  others  (e.g., 
Cyrus)  have  reached  by  sword  and 
bow  ;  that,  '  through  his  sacrificial 
death,  the  kingdom  of  God  enters 


into  the  rank  of  world-conquering 
powers'  (Hengst.).  Thus  the  .Ser- 
vant of  Jehovah  becomes  at  last 
practically  identical  with  the  Mes- 
sianic king. — Alt.  rend,  is  opposed 
by  the  parallel  line  ;  otherwise  it 
would  not  be  unacceptable  (comp. 

Hi.  15,  xlix.  7). Poured  out  his 

soul]  i.e.,  his  life-blood  (comp. 
Ps.  cxli.  8).  The  prophet  again 
emphasises  the  voluntary  nature 
of  the  Servant's  sufferings,  ivcadfi 
intercession]  Or,  'kept  making 
intercession  '  (but  as  the  preceding 
and  synchronising  verb  expresses 
a  single  past  act,  the  rend.  '  made 
intercession '  seems  preferable)  ; 
certainly  not  '  shall  make  interces- 
sion '  (Hengst.),  which  is  against 
syntax.  The  participle  of  the  same 
verb  occurs  in  a  different  context 
in  lix.  i6.  Notice  the  emphatic 
repetition  of  'the  rebellious,'  those 
who  had  merited  death  by  their 
apostasy. 


CHAPTER   LIV. 

A  RECENT  critic  (Wellhausen,  Gesch.  Israels,  i-  4'?  note)  has  slated  that 
liv.  i-liv.  8  is  'to  some  extent  a  sermon  on  the  text  lii.  13-liii.  12  ;'  but 
he  obviously  does  so  in  the  interests  of  a  theory — viz.,  that  chap.  liii.  does 
not  refer  to  an  individual.  It  is  more  natural  to  suppose  that  chap.  liii. 
(including  lii.  13-15)  was  inserted  by  an  afterthought,  chap.  liv.  being  the 
natural  seqttel  of  xlix.  17-lii.  12  (just  as  xlix.  13  follows  upon  the  pre- 
diction of  the  return  of  the  exiles  in  xlix.  12).  It  cannot  be  shown  that 
any  of  the  characteristic  ideas  of  chap.  liii.  are  clearly  referred  to  in 
chap.  liv.  The  connection  seems  the  closest  with  chap.  xlix.  (see  xlix.  6, 
8,  18-20,  21,  comp.  also  1.  i),  though  there  is  a  phraseological  parallel  in 
lii.  9,  and  the  use  of  the  term  'righteousness'  in  v.  17  accords  with  its  use 
in  xlv.  24,  25,  1.  8,  but  not  at  all  with  the  sense  of  'righteous'  and  'make 
righteous' in  liii.  ir.— The  person  addressed  is  not  the  ruined  city  of 
Jerusalem,  but  the  ideal  Zion  (see  on  xlix.  14),  who  is  practically  identical 
with  the  ideal  or  spiritual  Israel.     In  v.  17  the  prom.ises  made  to  Zion  are 


54 


ISAIAII. 


[chap.  LI  v. 


expressly  confirmed  to  the  'servants  of  Jehovah,'  just  as  in  chap.  H.  the 
prophet  addresses  aUernately  the  aggregate  of  beHevers  and  the  tran- 
scendental person  called  Zion. 

'  Ring  out,  O  barren,  thou  that  hast  not  borne  ;  burst  forth 
into  a  ringing  shout,  and  cry  aloud,  thou  that  hast  not  travailed; 
for  more  are  the  children  of  the  desolate  than  the  children  of 
the  married  woman,  saith  Jehovah.  ^  Widen  the  place  of  thy 
tent,  and  the  curtains  of  thy  habitation  let  them  stretch  forth 
— hinder  it  not  ;  lengthen  thy  cords,  and  thy  tent-pegs  make 
strong.  ^  For  on  the  right  and  on  the  left  shalt  thou  break 
through;  and  thy  seed  shall  ''take  possession  of'*  nations, 
and  make  desolate  cities  to  be  inhabited.  ^  Fear  not,  for  thou 
needcst  not  be  ashamed  :  neither  be  confounded,  for  thou 
needest  not  blush  ;  nay,  thou  shalt  forget  the  shame  of  thy 
maidenhood,  and  the  reproach  of  thy  widowhood  thou  shalt 

a  Dispossess,  Ges.,  Hitz. 


'  O  barren,  thou  that  hast  not 
borne]  It  is  like  a  continuation  of 
xlix.  21. More  are  the  children 

.  .  .]  Parallel  passage,  i  Sam.  ii.  5. 
The  '  children '  referred  to  are, 
mainly  at  any  rate,  the  restored 
exiles  (as  xlix.  17).  These  were 
at  once  children  of  Zion  and  not 
children.  They  were  physically 
and  to  some  extent  spiritually 
Israelites,  but  as  long  as  they 
were  on  a  foreign  soil,  and  un- 
baptized  with  the  Spirit  (xliv.  3), 
their  union  with  the  ideal  Zion 
could  not  be  regarded  as  com- 
plete. After  their  restoration,  the 
spiritual  and  the  literal  Zion  or 
Israel  became  identical. 

*  The  curtains]  i.e.,  the  tent- 
covering.  Iiengthen  thy  cords .  . .] 
The  same  figure  is  applied  to  the 
literal  Jerusalem,  xxxiii.  20.  The 
point  of  both  passages  is  that  the 
'  tent '  should  no  longer  be  moved 
about,  but  become  a  permanent  ha- 
bitaujn.  Dr.  Weir  well  compares 
Jer.  X.  20, '  My  tent  is  destroyed,  and 
all  my  tent-pins  are  plucked  up  ; 
my  children  are  gone  away  from 
me,  and  are  not ;  and  there  is  none 
to  spread  out  my  tent  any  more,  or 
to  set  up  my  tent-curtains.' 

•'  On  the  right  and  on  the 
loft]     Not  merely  =  ' on  the  south 


and  on  the  north'  (Targ.),  but  'on 
all  hands ' ;  comp.  the  parallel  pas- 
sage in  the  promise  to  Jacob,  Gen. 

xxviii.  14. Take  possession  of 

nations]  i.e.,  take  possession  of 
their  land.  There  is  no  occasion, 
with  Knobel,  to  restrict  the  refer- 
ence to  the  heathen  colonists  who 
had  replaced  the  Israelites.  On  the 
other  hand,  I  doubt  whether  it  is 
equivalent  to  '  inherit  the  earth '  (so 
Del.).  Comparing  xli.x.  19,  20,  I 
suppose  it  to  mean  that  the  area 
covered  by  the  Jewish  race  shall 
be  much  larger  than  of  yore,  and 
that  the  former  lords  of  the  soil  (or 
their  survivors,  see  next  note)  shall 
(of  their  own  free-will — see  Ixi.  4) 
descend  to   the  rank   of  subjects. 

Desolate    cities]       Primarily 

those  of  Palestine,  comp.  xlix.  8, 
Iviii.  12,  Ixi.  4,  but  possibly  includ- 
ing cities  outside  Palestine,  which 
had  suffered  from  the  Babylonian 
invasions  (comp.  x.  7,  Hab.  i.  17), 
and  been  converted  into  '  heaps ' 
(xiv.  21,  corrected  text). 

'  Needest   not]     Or,    '  oughtest 
not.'     It  is  the  potential  imperfect 

in  the   Hebrew. Be  ashamed] 

viz.,  of  thy  faith  in  thy  God  ;  comp. 

xlv.  16,  17. Thy   maidenhood] 

i.e.,  the  lime  before  the  Sinaitic  co- 
venant, by  which  Israel  became  the 


CHAP.  LIV.] 


ISAIAJr. 


55 


remember  no  more.  •'  For  thy  husband  is  thy  maker- 
Jehovah  Sabaoth  is  his  name  ;  and  thy  Goel  is  the  Holy  One  of 
Israel,  God  of  the  whole  earth  is  he  called.  "^  For  as  an  out- 
cast and  downcast  woman  Jehovah  hath  recalled  thee,  and  a 
wife  of  youth—''  can  she  be  rejected  ^  ?  saith  thy  God.  ^  For 
a  little  moment  did  I  cast  thee  out,  but  with  great  compas- 
sion will  I  gather  thee  ;  Mn  a  gush  of  wrath  I  hid  my  face  a 
moment  from  thee,  but  with  everlasting  loving-kindness  will  I 
have  compassion  upon  thee,  saith  thy  Goel,  Jehovah.  ^  °  For 
a  Noah's  flood "  is  this  unto  me  ;  whereas  I  sware  that  Noah's 

i-  So  Kimchi,  Ew.,  Liiz.— When  she  is  (or,  isbeing)  rejected,  Targ.,  Vitr.,  Gcs.,  Del 


As  in  the  days  of  Noah,  Pesh.,  Targ 
(See  crit.  note.) 

'bride'  of  Jehovah,  Jer.  ii.  2.  The 
shame  of  this  period  will  be  the 
Egyptian  bondage  ;  the  reproach 
in  the  next  line,  the  Babylonian 
captivity. 

*  Thy  maker]  The  Hebr.  has 
the  plural  form,  'thy  makers,'  on 
the  analogy  of  Elohim  for  the  one 
God  (similarly  in  x.  15;  comp.  Job 

\xxv.     10,    Ps.    cxlix.    2). Thy 

GoeJ]  i.e.,  the  vindicator  of  thy 
family-rights  (see  on  xli.  14).  Zion 
being  of  the  family  of  Jehovah 
(comp.  Eph.  ii.  19),  her  nearest 
kinsman   (viz.,  her  husband)  must 

interpose   for  her   rescue. The 

Holy  One  of  Israel]  Comp.  on 
xlix.  7.  God  of  the  ■wftole  earth 
.  .  .]  'Jehovah  Sabaoth,'  accord- 
ing to  our  prophet,  means  not  only 
the  God  of  the  heavenly  hosts,  but 
the  God  whose  glory  fills  all  crea- 
tion, including  the  earth  (comp. 
appendix  to  chap.  i.).  Hence  the 
name  is  a  warrant  for  the  restoration 
of  Zion,  Jehovah  Sabaoth's  bride. 

^  Tor  as  an  outcast  and  down- 
cast -woman  .  .  .  ]  (There  is  a 
characteristic  assonance  in  the 
Hebrew.)  Zion  is  not  only  Jeho- 
vah's bride  (Jer.  iii.  14),  but  in  one 
sense  '  a  wife  of  youth  ; '  see  Jer. 
ii.  2.  Even  many  an  earthly  hus- 
band (how  much  more,  then,  Je- 
hovah !)  cannot  bear  to  see  the 
misery  of  his  divorced  wife,  and 
therefore,  at  length  recalls  her; 
'  and  when  his  wife  is  one  who 
has  been  wooed  and  won  in  )'outh 
(comp.  Mai.  ii.  14),  how  impossible 


Vulg.,  Saad.,  some  Hebr.  MSS.,  Lowth. 

is  it  for  her  to  be  absolutely  dis- 
missed 1 '  The  second  line  is  hard, 
but  such  appears  to  be  its  meaning. 
So  interpreted,  it  involves  a  break 
in  the  parallelism,  but  only  form- 
ally, not  logically.  (It  is  equiva- 
lent to  '  cannot  be  rejected,' and  is 
therefore  parallel  to  '  hath  recalled 
thee.')  There  is  a  very  similar 
way  of  expressing  incredulity  with 
regard  to  the  absolute  rejection 
of  Israel  in  Lam.  v.  22,  '  Except 
[which  is  impossible]  thou  hast 
indeed  rejected  us,  and  art  wroth 
against  us  very  exceedingly  ! '  For 
the  idea  of  such  declarations,  see 
note  on  Iv.  2  (end).  Alt.  rend, 
would  be  grammatically  easier,  if 
the  tense  were  the  perfect  (which 
indeed,  the  Targum  substitutes). 

^  For  a  little  moment]  The 
same  phrase  in  xxvi.  20,  comp.  Ps. 

XXX.   5,  and   Isa.  Ixi.  2  (note). 

Gather  tliee]  i.e.,  the  persons  of 
thy  '  storm-tost '  members  (7/.  1 1). 

**  In  a,  g-i55h  of  wrath]  It  was  a 
'  gush,'  not  a  flood,  for  this  takes 
time  to  rise  and  fall  ;  a  momentary 
'gush,' in  contrast  to  the  sea-like 
(Ps.  xxxvi.  6)  righteousness,  one 
side  of  which  is  God's  '  everlasting 
loving-kindness'  for  his  people. 
The  assonance  in  the  Heb.  phrase 
is  here  inimitable. 

°  Tor]  Justifying  the  promise 
just  given.  Yes,  it  is  indeed  true, 
for  the  '  calamity' which  is  'over- 
past '  z's  in  one  sense  a  flood  to  its 
Divine  author,— a  K'oah's  flood, 
inasmuch   as    He    has  sworn  that 


56 


ISAIAII. 


[ClIAP.  1,1V. 


flood  should  no  more  pass  over  the  earth,  so  I  swear  that  I 
will  not  be  wrath  with  thee,  nor  rebuke  thee.  '"  For  though 
the  mountains  should  remove,  and  the  hills  should  totter,  my 
loving-kindness  from  thee  shall  not  remove,  neither  shall  my 
covenant  of  peace  totter,  saith  he  that  hath  compassion  upon 
thee,  Jehovah. 

''  Thou  afflicted,  storm-tost,  comfortless  one !  behold,  I 
will  set  thy  stones  in  antimony,  and  will  found  thee  with 
sapphires ;  ^^  and  I  will  make  thy  battlements  rubies,  and  thy 
gates  to  be  carbuncles,  and   all   thy  border  to  be  precious 


neither  the  type  nor  the  antitype 
shall  be  repeated. — Critics  have 
been  unnecessarily  perplexed  be- 
cause neither  the  Elohistic  nor  the 
Jehovistic  portion  of  the  narrative 
of  the  Flood  mentions  an  oath.' 
But,  as  Del.  on  Ps.  Ixxxix.  31-38 
well  points  out,  there  is  no  oath 
recorded  in  2  Sam.  vii.  12-16,  yet 
no  one  doubts  that  the  oath  men- 
tioned in  ?'.  35  means  the  promises 
therein  contained.  I  conclude 
therefore  that  the  prophet  refers 
either  to  Gen.  viii.  21,  or  to  ix.  il, 
and  not  to  a  lost  portion  of  the 
Jehovistic  record,  as  Kayser  con- 
jectures.^ 

'"  Ttaoug'h  the  mountains  •  •  •  ] 
Mountains  are  elsewhere  the  em- 
blem of  the  unchangeable,  Ps.  xxxvi. 
6,  Ixv.  6.  Job,  however,  knows  of 
the  uncommon  phenomenon  of  a 
mountain  falling  and  crumbling 
away  (Job  xiv.  18),  and  our  prophet 
has  already  applied  a  similar  con- 
tradiction of  ordinary  experience 
to  glorify  the  immutable  love  of 
Gpd  (xlix.  15).  Stier  thinks  there 
is  an  allusion  to  the  final  destruc- 
tion of  the  earth  (li.  6)  ;  but  is 
not  the  image  more  forcible  ^s 
explained  above .''  The  striking 
parallels,  Ps.  xlvi.  3,  Jer.  xxxi.  36, 
37  (quoted  by  Dr.  Weir),  point  in 

the  same  direction. IWy  covep 

nant  of  peace]  '  Peace  '  is  a  very 
comprehensive  expression  (see  on 


liii.  5),  though,  when  in  conjunction 
with  '  covenant,'  its  primary  mean- 
ing seems  to  be  '  friendship' ;  comp. 
Ps,  xli.  9,  '  the  man  of  my  peace ' 
(Auth.  Vers.  '  mine  own  familiar 
friend').  The  phrase  'my  covenant 
of  peace'  occurs  again  in  Num.  xxv. 
12  (comp.  Mai.  ii.  5),  Ezek.  xxxiv. 
25,  xxxvii.  26. Saith  .  .  .  Je- 
hovah] A  fourth  emphatic  asser- 
tion of  the  Divine  origin  of  the 
revelation. 

"  ''^  The  glory  of  the  new  Jeru- 
salem. Comp.  Tobit  xiii.  16,  17, 
Rev.  xxi.  18-21. 

"  Thy  stones  in  antimony]  A 
dark  cement  would  set  off  the  bril- 
liant stones  mentioned  directly 
afterwards.  Antimony  (Hebr.//?^, 
Arab,  l^u/i/  or  Ao///)  supplied  the 
black  mineral  powder  sometimes 
called  alcohol,  with  which  the 
Jewish  v.omen  stained  the  edges 
of  the  eyelids.  See  2  Kings  ix.  30, 
Jer.  iv.  30,  I  Chron.  xxix.  2  (Q.  J'.  />'.), 
and  comp.  Uerenhappiik  (i.e., '  horn 
of  eye-paint '),  Job  xlii.  14.  There 
is  a  puyciku  or  puka  mentioned  in 
Assyrian  and  Egyptian  inscriptions 
as  a  product  of  the  land  of  Canaan. 
M.  Chabas,  it  is  true,  says  it  meant, 
in  the  Egyptian  text,  articles  of 
furniture  made  of  carved  wood  ^  ; 
but  there  is  no  doubt,  I  believe,  of 
its  meaning  antimony  in  Assyrian. ■* 
'*  Border]  i.e.,  either  'domain' 
(Del.),    or    'outer    wall'    (Knob.). 


'  See  Qen.  vi".  8I.  22  (Jehovistic),  and  ix,  11  (Elohistic). 

'  Kaysef,   Das  vcrexiiische  Buck  dcr    Urgeschichte  hraeh   (Strassburg,    187^), 
p.  168. 

3  Chabas,  Etudes  siir  r<iiitiguiU  hi^forigur,  p.  274. 

<  Savcc,  jV.  /-'.,  V,  42  ;  Oi>i)crt,  B^f^ditin  en  Mifopotamit.  ii.  349. 


CHAP.  LIV.] 


ISAIAH. 


57 


stones  ;  '^  and  all  thy  children  shall  be  disciples  of  Jehovah, 
and  great  shall  be  the  peace  of  thy  children.  ''*  Through 
righteousness  shalt  thou  be  established  ;  be  far  from  '^  oppres- 
sion, for  thou  needest  not  fear,  and  from  '^  destruction,  for  it 
shall  not  come  nigh  thee.  '-^Behold,  should  (any)  ^stir  up 
strife,*"  (it  is)  not  of  me,  whosoever  ^  stirreth  up  strife  ^  against 
thee,  shall  ^  fall  because  of'  thee.  "^  Behold,  it  is  I  that 
created  the  smith,  who  bloweth  upon  the  fire  of  coals,  and 
produceth  a  weapon  *  for  its  work  * ;  and  I  that  created  the 
waster  to  destroy.     '^  No  weapon  that  is  formed  against  thee 

■s  Anxiety,  Ges.,  Hitz.,  Evv.,  Del. 

'^  So  virtually,  Knobel. — Terror,  Ges.,  Ew.,  Del.,  &c. 

f  So  Ew.,  Kay  (as  an  alt.  rend.). — Gather  together,  A.  E.,  Kimchi,  Vitr.,  Ges., 
Del.,  Naeg. 

6  Gathereth  together,  A.  E.,  &c. 

•>  So  Knob.,  Del.,  Naeg. — Fall  away  unto  thee,  Sept.,  Vulg. ,  Ges.,  Hitz.,  Ew. 

'  As  his  work,  Ew.,  Weir. — According  to  his  worlc  (or,  craft),  Vitr.,  Ges.,  Hitz., 
Del.,  Naeg. 


The  latter  seems  more  probable, 
as  we  have  had  the  battlements 
and  the  gates  inentioned. 

^^  The  spiritual  glory  of  which 
these     costly     buildings     are    the 

symbol. Disciples  of  Jehovah] 

i.e.,  prophets  in  the  wider  sense 
(comp.  1.  4).  The  same  idea  as  in 
Num.  xi.  29,  Joel  ii.  28,  29. 

'■^  Jerusalem  will  then  be  im- 
pregnable.   Througrh  right- 
eousness] i.e.,  through  fidelity  to 
thy  covenant  with  thy  God  ;  comp. 
i.  27. Shalt  thou  be  estab- 
lished] A  return  to  the  figure  of 
building,  comp.  Prov.  xxiv.  3,  Num. 

xxi.     27     (Weir). Be    far]    i.e., 

either  '  be  far  even  in  thy  thoughts,' 
comp.  xlvi.  12  'ye  who  are  far 
from  (the  thought  of  Jehovah's) 
righteousness';  or  =  ' thou  shalt  be 
far,'  the  imperative  for  the  future 

(see  on  xxxiii.  20). Oppression] 

This  is  the  sense  of  the  word 
'  os/teg  everywhere  else,  and  also 
as  I  believe,  of  the  feminine  form 
'■  dsJCqah''  (xxxvii.  14,  see  note), 
generally  quoted  for  the  sense  of 
'  anxiety.'    It  also  suits  the  parallel 

line    best. Destruction]     The 

well-known  sense  of  nikhittah  in 
Proverbs  (e.g.,  x.  14)  ;  see  also 
Jer.  xvii.  17.  The  ordinary  rend, 
'terror'  does  not  agree  well  with 
'come  to  thee.' 


^^  Should  (any)   stir  up  strife 

.  .  .  ]  '  Should  any  one  presume 
to  molest  God's  people,  he  shall 
be  like  a  blind  traveller,  who  falls 
headlong  over  an  obstacle.'  See 
crit.  note. 

'"  The  secret  of  Israel's  invinci- 
bility ;  all  things  are  the  creatures 
of  Jehovah,  and   dependent    upon 

him. That  created  the  smith] 

Similarly  Sirach  says  (xxxviii.  i)  of 
the    physician,    '  The    Lord    hath 

created    him.' For    its    work] 

viz.,  destruction.  This  rend,  is 
grammatically  as  good  as  any 
other,  and  suits   the   parallel    line 

best  (comp.  'to  destroy'). The 

•waster]  i.e.,  each  of  the  great  con- 
quering kings,  of  Assyria,  Baby- 
lonia, Persia,  &c.  In  the  same 
spirit  of  unreserved  faith,  Job  says 
(xii.  16),  'He  that  erreth  and  he 
that  causeth  to  err  are  Jehovah's.' 

^'  Every  tongue  .  .  .  shalt 
thou  show^  to  be  guilty]  War 
is  here  viewed  as  a  'judgment  of 
God ' ;  comp.  xli.  w  b.  I  doubt  if 
I  Sam.  xiv.  47  is  parallel  ;  we 
should  probably  read,  '  he  was  de- 
livered' (i.e.,  was  victorious),  with 
Sept.,  Ewald,  &c.  (see  Q.  P.  B.). 

This  is  the  inheritance  .   .   .] 

'  This,'  viz.,  all  the  blessings  which 
have  been  assured  to  Zion.  The 
form   of  this    second    half  of  the 


58 


ISAIAH. 


[CHAP.  LV. 


shall  prosper,  and  every  tongue  that  shall  rise  against  thee 
for  the  judgment  shalt  thou  show  to  be  guilty.  This  is  the 
inheritance  of  the  servants  of  Jehovah,  and  their  righteous- 
ness giv^en  by  me  ;  the  oracle  of  Jehovah. 

verse  is  evidently  designed  to  close 

the  prophecy. The  servants  of 

Jetaovab]  The  members  of  the 
spiritual  Israel  have  now  been  fully 
baptized  into  the  Spirit  of  their 
Head.  Each  of  them  is  now  an 
Israel  in  miniature,  and  can  claim 
the  promise-laden  title  of  '  Servant 
of  Jehovah.'     (See  above,  opening 


remarks.) Their    rlgrhteous- 

ness]  i.e.,  primarily,  as  the  context 
shows,  their  justification  in  the  eyes 
of  the  world,  their  success  (comp. 
xlv.  24,  25,  1.  8,  Iviii.  8,  Ixii.  i,  2), 
though  it  is  also  implied  that  this 
outward  success  is  due  to  Jehovah's 
'  righteousness.' 


CHAPTER    LV. 

Contents. — An  affectionate  invitation  to  the  Messianic  blessings 
{vv.  1-5) ;  an  exhortation  to  puiaside  all  inward  obstacles  to  tlieir  enjoy- 
ment {vv.  6,  7) ;  and  a  renewed  confident  assurance  of  the  indescribable 
glory  and  felicity  which  awaits  the  true  Israel  {vv.  8-13). 

'  Ah  !  every  one  that  thirsteth — come  ye  to  the  waters ;  and 
he  that  hath  no  money !  come  ye,  buy  and  eat,  yea,  come,  buy 
wine  and  milk  for  that  which  is  not  money  and  for  that  which 

'  Ah  I  every  one  that  thirsteth 

.  .  .  ]  A  cry  of  pity  (sec  on  xvii. 
12)  wrung  from  Jehovah  by  the 
indifference  of  his  people  to  the 
promised  blessings.  Dry  as  they 
are,  they  are  indisposed  to  conie  to 
the  only  source  from  which  their 
thirst  can  be  c[uenched.  In  this 
respect  they difter from  the  'thirsty 
one '  of  xliv.  3,  who  opposes  no  in- 
ward bar  to  the  relief  of  his  neces- 
sity. The  prophet's  invitation  is 
addressed  to  all  who  are  conscious 

of  their  need. Buy  wine    and 

milk]  'Wine  and  milk'  art-  not  to 
be  understood  merely  in  a  material 
sense,  as  representatives  of  tem- 
poral blessings  ((ies.,  Hitz.,  Knob.); 
this  is  altogether  against  the  con- 
text, as  the  following  notes  will 
show.  At  present  it  may  be  enough 
to  point  out  the  very  peculiar  word 
for  'buy'  {s/iab/iar),  which,  alike 
by  etymology  and  by  usage,  can 
in  strict  propriety  only  be  used  of 


'corn.'  Its  use  here  shows  that 
the  food  referred  to  can  be  called 
ecjuall)'  well  '  bread '  and  '  wine  and 
milk,'  i.e.,  that  it  belongs  to  the 
su])crnatural  order  of  things. — It 
was  this  passage  which  led  to  the 
custom  of  the  Latin  churches  (but 
not  the  African)  of  giving  wine  and 
milk  to  the  newly  baptized  (Jerome, 
(lei  loc).  See  note  on  xxv.  6,  and 
comp.  Jer.  xxi.  12,  Ps.  xxxvi.  8, 
John  vii.  37-39,  1  Pel.  ii.  2,  Rev.  xxi. 

6,  xxii.  17. Por  tliat  which  is 

not  money  .  .  .]  To  guard  against 
a  literalism  similar  to  that  of  the 
disciples  in  Matt.  xvi.  7.  Jehovah 
being  not  merely  (as  some  of  the 
Jews  probably  supposed)  a  mag- 
nified man,  his  blessings  can  only 
be  obtained  for  'that  which  is  not 
(i.e.,  which  is  different  in  kind  from) 
money.'  Comp.  xxxi.  8,  where 
Jehovah  is  called  '  one  who  is  not 
(i.e.,  who  is  specifically  different 
from)  a  man.'     This  '  not-money  ' 


CHAP.  LV.] 


ISAIAIf. 


59 


is  not  a  price.  ^  Why  will  ye  spend  money  for  that  which  is 
not  bread,  and  your  earnings  for  that  which  cannot  satisfy  .? 
Hearken,  hearken  unto  me,  and  eat  ye  that  which  is  good, 
and  let  your  soul  delight  itself  in  fatness.     ^  Incline  your  ear, 


is,  as  V.  3  instructs  us,  the  hearing 
of  the  inner  ear. 

^  Not  bread]  i.e.,  even  less 
satisfying  than  bread.  Among 
other  oxymora,  comp.  Deut.  xxxii. 
21,  where  Auth.  Vers,  rightly  has, 
'  that  which  is  not  God  .  .  .  those 
which  are  not  a  people,'  i.e.,  which 
is  (are)  conspicuously  unworthy  of 

the  name. Eat  ye]  i.e.,  ye  shall 

eat. Beligrixt  itself]  i.e.,  luxu- 
riate ;  comp.  Ixvi.  II,  Ps.  xxxvii.  4, 
1 1  (same  word),  and  see  on  Ivii.  4. 
^  And  X  will  make  an  ever- 
lastingr  covenant  with  you]  The 
new  ' covenant '  between  Jehovah 
and  Israel  is  referred  to  no  less 
than  seven  times  in  II.  Isaiah  :  no- 
where, expressly  at  least,  in  the 
rest  of  the  book,  and  nowhere  in 
the  works  of  Isaiah's  contempo- 
raries, Amos  and  Hosea.  The  idea 
of  the  original  covenant,  broken 
by  Israel,  and  renewed  by  Jehovah, 
is  specially  characteristic  of  Jere- 
miah. In  the  pre-Jeremian  period, 
it  seems  as  if  the  phrase  '  covenant 
of  Jehovah'  had  been  avoided  by 
the  great  author-prophets  on  ac- 
count of  its  associations  with 
heathenism,  for  the  Canaanites 
used  the  phrase  largely  (comp. 
'  Baal-b'rith,'  Judg.  viii.  -},%  ix.  4  ; 
'  El-b'rith,'  Judg.  ix.  46).  The  oc- 
currence of  the  phrase  in  Isa.  xl.- 
Ixvi.  is  certainly  difficult  to  explain 
on  the  assumption  that  Isaiah  was 
the  author  of  these  chapters.  Can 
we  venture  to  suppose  that  Isaiah 
foresaw  that  a  time  would  come 
when  the  phrase  ' the  covenant  of 
Jehovah '  would  lose  its  original 
mythic  flavour  ?  It  would  seem  a 
rather  forced  hypothesis.  —  'An 
everlasting  covenant '  occurs  again 
in  Ixi.  8,  and  in  a  different  sense  in 
:^xiv.  5  ;  also  in  Jer.  xxxii.  40,  1.  5, 
Ezek.  xvi.  60.  It  is  of  course  the 
'new  covenant'  of  Jer.  xxxi.  31-33 
that  is  intended,  that  '  covenant ' 
which  Jehovah   promised   to  'put 


in    Israel's   inward   parts,'    and   to. 

'  write   it   in  their  hearts.' The 

loving-kindnesses  of  David]  Not 

'the  mercies  of  David'  (Auth. 
Vers.),  for  David,  representing  the 
Davidic  race,  is  not  a  'stranger 
and  foreigner,'  but  a  member  of 
Jehovah's  household,  his  own'  son' 
(2  Sam.  vii.  14,  Ps.  ii.  7,  Ixxix.  26). 
'Of  David'  means  'promised  to 
David  ; '  '  the  loving-kindnesses  of 
Jehovah '  is  the  more  natural 
phrase,  comp.  Ixiii.  7,  Ps.  Ixxxix. 
49,  cvii.  43,  Lam.  iii.  22  ('  the  loving- 
kindnesses  of  David '  occurs  else- 
where only  in  2  Chron.  vi.  42).  It 
is  not  necessary  to  suppose  a 
zeugma,  though  a  Pauline  speech 
in  the  Acts  (xiii.  24),  in  c^uoting  the 
passage,  inserts  the  words  —  not 
found  in  Sept. — Scoo-w  V[u.v  (ra  ocria 
Aavf\8  TCI  niard)  ;  the  '  covenant ' 
consists  in  the  '  loving-kindnesses.' 

Of  David]     In  what  sense  can 

Jehovah's  'loving-kindnesses'  be 
said  to  belong  to  David.  Three 
answers  may  be  given  :  (i)  The 
most  obvious  explanation  (Ewald, 
Delitzsch)  is,  to  understand  by 
*  David '  the  founder  of  the  Da- 
vidic family.  The  only  difficulty 
is  that  the  statements  of  the  fol- 
lowing verse  are  incongruous  with 
the  character  of  the  historical 
David.  (2)  Not  a  few  interpreters, 
both  ancient  and  modern  (among 
the  latter  are  Rosenmiiller,  Stier, 
G.  F.  Oehler,  and  Dr.  Kay)  in- 
terpret the  phrase  of  the  Messianic 
king,  who  is  mentioned  in  Jer.  xxx. 
9,  Ezek.  xxxiv.  24,  25  (Hos.  iii.  5?) 
under  the  name  of  David.  This, 
however,  seems  to  be  contradicted 
(a)  by  the  parallel  passage,  Ps. 
Ixxxix.  49  (which  clearly  refers  to 
the  '  oath  '  to  the  historical  David  in 
2  Sam.  vii.),  and  (d)  by  the  perfect 
tenses  in  v.  4,  which  (considering 
that  futures  follow  in  v.  5)  ought 
not  to  be  interpreted  as  '  prophetic 
perfects.'     (3)  According  to  Heng- 


6o 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  lv. 


and  come  unto  mc  ;  hear,  and  your  soul  shall  revive  :  and  I 
will  make  an  everlasting  covenant  with  you,  the  loving-kind- 
nesses of  David^the  unfailing  ones.     ■•  Behold,  for  a  witness 


stenberg    {Christology,     iii.     346), 
David  here   means    the   family  of 
David,  '  who,  in   Ps.  xviii.,  and  in 
a   series   of  other  psahns,   speaks 
in    the  name  of  his  whole  family.' 
Hengstenberg  thus  admits  that  the 
historical  covenant  with  David  is 
primarily  referred  to,  but,  as  the 
covenant  extended  to  David's  seed, 
he  maintains  that  it  only  attained 
complete  fulfilment  in  the  Messiah. 
Our  choice  lies,  I  think,  between 
this  and  the  first  theory-.     Only,  if 
we    adopt    the    view    that    David 
means  the  founder  of  the  Davidic 
family,  we  must  assume  that  it  is 
not  of  the  historical  David  that  the 
prophet  is  thinking,  so  much  as  of 
an  idealized  David  radiant  with  the 
reflected  light  and    spirituality   of 
the  Messianic  age.     This  assump 
tion  (which,  considering  the  phe- 
nomena of  the  Book  of  Psalms,  we 
have  a  perfect  right  to  make)  seems 
to  be  required  by  the  statements 
made   respecting   '  David '  in   the 
next  verse.     The  attempt  of  Del. 
to  apply  themliterally  to  the  David 
of  history  is    most    unsatisfactory. 
On  the   whole,   however,   I    prefer 
Hengstenberg's  view.  There  seems 
to  me  to  be  an  evident  allusion  to 
2  Sam.  vii.   12-16,  where  the  pro- 
mises refer  to  David's  posterity  \v. 
13,  which  interrupts  the  context,  is 
probably  a   later   insertion).     The 
same  point   of  view    is  still  more 
clearly  adopted  in    Ps.    Ixxxix.,  of 
which   Kcister  (ap.    Slier,   p.    548) 
says,  '  Kere  commentarii  instar  est 
ad  locum  nostrum-  similitudotanta 
est,  ut  prophctam  nostrum  psalmi 
hujus      auctorem     esse     cdnjirere 

liceat.' The     un'alliD^  ones] 

See  Ps.  Ixxxix.  28, '  My  loving-kind- 
ness will  1  keep  for  him  for  ever, 
and  my  covenant  shall  be  unfailing 
(or  faithful)  with  him  ;'  and  v.  33, 
Nevertheless  my  loving-kindness 
•  will   I  not  annul  (and  take)  from 

'  Comp.    Riehm,    Afesuanic  Ptophfcy 
denies  the  personal  character  of  the  Scrvan 


him  ;  neither  will  I  be  untrue  to  my 
faithfulness  ; '  and  comp.  in  the 
Hebr.  2  Sam.  vii.  16.  And  why 
thus  faithful,  thus  unfailing?  i. 
Because  Jehovah's  word  cannot 
be  broken  {v.  11),  and  2.  because, 
whereas  vengeance  for  sin  ends  at 
the  fourth  generation,  the  recom- 
pence  of  piety  extends  to  a  man's 
latest  posterity  (Ex.  xx.  5,  6). 

'  For  a  -witness  to  tbe  peoples 
Z  appointed  htm]  '  I  appointed 
him  '  is  a  historical  perfect  ;  we 
have  no  right  (note  the  difference 
of  tense)  to  regard  t'T'.  4,  5,  as 'a 
looking  forward  to  the  enlarge- 
ment and  completion  of  the  Church 
through  [the]  Christ'  (Stier).  Of 
course,  it  was  not  in  any  high  de- 
gree true  of  David  that  he  was 
'  a  witness  to  the  peoples,'  i.e.,  a 
preacher  of  the  true  religion.  Thut 
was  the  proper  work,  first  of  the 
personal  Servant  of  Jehovah,  and 
then  through  him  (liii.  11)  of  Je- 
hovah's national  Servant,  the  re- 
generate Israel  (xliii.  10).  But 
David,  and  far  more  Hezekiah  and 
Josiah,  at  any  rate  made  a  begin- 
ning, even  though  at  the  best  it 
was  a  '  day  of  small  things.'  And 
the  peculiarity  of  II.  Isaiah  is  that 
the  promises, so  imperfectly  realised 
hitherto,  are  transferred  from  the 
Messianic  king  to  what  we  may 
call  the  Messianic  people,  not  in- 
deed to  the  people  working  in  its 
own  strength,  but  in  conjunction 
with  and  in  dependence  on  a  per- 
sonal representative  of  Jehovah, 
who  unites  in  himself  the  leading 
characteristics  of  king,  high  priest, 
and  prophet.'  There  seems  to  be 
an  allusion  to  our  passage  in  Rev. 
i.  5  (comp.  iii.  14),  'from  Jesus 
Christ  the  faithful  witness';  Hengst. 
compares  John  xviii.  37,  where, 
precisely  as  here,  '  witnessing  '  is 
mentioned  as  the  princip.il  function 
of  Israel's  King. A  ruler]  Or, 

(I-ond.  1876),  pp.  130.  131.  who  however 
t  in  the  most  im[>ortanl  passagrs. 


CTIAP.  I.V.] 


ISATAII. 


6t 


to  the  peoples  I  appointed  him,  a  ruler  and  commander  of 
the  peoples.  ^  Behold,  people  that  thou  knowest  not  shalt 
thou  call,  and  people  that  have  not  known  thee  shall  run 
unto  thee,  because  of  Jehovah  thy  God,  and  for  the  Holy  One 
of  Israel,  inasmuch  as  he  hath  glorified  thee. 

^Seek  ye  Jehovah,  while  he  may  be  found  ;  call  ye  upon 
him,  while  he  is  near.  ^  Let  the  ungodly  forsake  his  way 
and  the  man  of  iniquity  his  thoughts  ;  and  let  him  return 
unto  Jehovah,  and  he  will  have  compassion  upon  him  ;  and 
to  our  God,  for  he  will  abundantly  pardon.  ^  For  my  thoughts 
are  not  your  thoughts,  neither  are  your  ways  my  ways,  is 
Jehovah's  oracle.  ^  For  (as)  the  heavens  are  higher  than 
the  earth,  so  are  my  ways  higher  than  your  ways,  and  my 
thoughts  than  your  thoughts.  "^  For  as  the  rain  cometh 
down,  and  the  snow  from  heaven,  and  thither  returneth  not, 
except  it  hath  watered  the  earth,  and  made  it  bring  forth  and 
sprout,  and  given  seed  to  the  sower,  and  bread  to  the  eater  ; 
"  so  shall  my  word  be  that  goeth  forth  out  of  my  mouth  ;  it 
shall  not  return  unto  me  empty,  except  it  hath  accomplished 
that  which  I  please,  and  made  to  prosper  the  thing  for  which 


'  a  prince  '  (^ndgid,  the  same  word 
as  in  2  Sam.  vi.  21,  Dan.  ix.  25). 

^  People  that  tbou  knoAvest 
not  .  .  .  ]  Almost  the  same  words 
are  put  into  the  mouth  of  a  per- 
sonage who  embodies  a  very  simi- 
lar conception  to  the  Servant  of 
Jehovah,  in  Ps.  xviii.  43  (45  Hebr.). 

Because   of  jrehovab    .  .   .   ] 

Repeated  ahnost  word  for  word  in 
Ix.  9. 

"  The  prophet  returns  to  the 
more  neutral-tinted  present,  and 
urges  his  people  to  make  sure  that 

they    are   of  the  true    Israel. 

"Wbile  lie  may  be  found]  Comp. 
I's.  xxxii.  6.  For  the  '  day  of 
Jehovah  '  will  be  a  bitter  one  for 
those  who  are  outwardly  or  in- 
wardly his  foes  (Ixv.  6,  7). Call 

ye  upon  bimj  First  for  parclon", 
and  tTien  for  a  share  m  the  pro- 
mises ;  comp.  jer.  xxix.  12-14. 

■^  His  way]  The  '  way '  and  the 
'  thoughts,'  or  purposes,  of  the  un- 
godly, mean  the  polytheism  and 
immorality  which   maiTced  a  large 


section  of  the  Jewish  exiles.  Such 
'  ways  '  and  '  thoughts  '  tend  only  to 
destruction,  but  those  of  Jehovah 
(as  vv.  8,  9  suggest)  to  a  blessed- 
ness passing  the  finite  understand- 
ing (comp.  Ps.  xxxvi.  5,  6).  '  For  I 
know  the  thoughts  which  I  have  to- 
wards you,  saith  Jehovah,  thoughts 
of  peace,  and  not  of  evil,  to  give 
you  a  future  and  a  hope'  (Jer.  xxix 
II). 

"^  Rut  can  such  a  high  ideal  as 
Jehovah's  be  realised?  Surely.  For 
Cod's  purposes,  whether  for  inani- 
mate nature  or  for  man,  fulfil  them- 
selves. The  new  figure  is  suggested 
by  'the  heavens'  in  v.  9. Thi- 
ther returneth  not]  i.e.,  as  vapour 
(Cen.  ii.  6,  Job  xxxvi.  27  Del.). 
Obs.  rain  and  snow  are  treated  as 
God's  angels  (similarly  Ps.  cxlviii. 
8,  civ.  4),  and  so  Jehovah's  'word' 
in  7'.  1 1  (see  on  ix.  8). 

"  It  shall  not  .  .  .  ]  A  mixture 
of  two  statements— 'it  shall  not 
return  empty,'  and  '  it  shall  not 
return  till  it  has  done  its  work.' 


62  ISAIAH.  [CHAP.  LVI. 

I  sent  it.  '-  For  with  joy  sliall  yc  go  forth,  and  with  peace 
shall  ye  be  led,  the  mountains  and  the  hills  shall  burst  out 
before  you  into  a  ringing  sound,  and  all  the  trees  of  the  field 
shall  clap  the  hand.  '^  Instead  of  the  thorn-bush  shall  come 
up  the  fir-tree,  and  instead  of  the  nettle  shall  come  up  the 
myrtle-tree  :  and  it  shall  be  unto  Jehovah  for  a  monument, 
for  an  everlasting  sign  which  shall  not  be  cut  off. 

12,  13  por]  is  explanatory^  (  =  'in  in  the  midst  of  which   Israel  is  to 

fj^ct'\ Shall  ye  go  forth  •  •   •  ]  walk   'in  solemn  troops  and  sweet 

The  passage  is  generally  taken  as  societies'  (as  in  xxxv.  9).  Who 
a  description  ofthe  Exodus  froni  the  leaders  are  to  be,  is  not  stated, 
liabylon.  But  there  is  no  reason  Perhaps  the  priests,  or  perhaps 
for  so  limiting  the  meaning,  and  the  Jehovah's  angels  (Ps.  xci.  11). 
analogy  of  chap.  XXXV.,  xl.  II,  and  '^  This  sympathy  of  nature 
xli.  18,  points  in  another  direction.  (comp.  xxxv.  i,  2,  xliv.  23)  is  no 
It  is  the  glorious  condition  of  Israel  mere  poetical  figure,  for  the  prophet 
after  the  Return  which  is  here  de-  continues.  And  it  shall  he  unto 
scribed  (see  on  chap,  xxxv.)  The  Jehovah  .  .  .  for  an  everlasting: 
change  is  compared  to  the  transi-  sign  :  all  poetical  figures,  like 
tion  from  the  wilderness  (i.e.,  the  Virgil's  '  Ipsi  tetitia  voces  ad  sidera 
misery  of  the  Exile)  with  its  mo-  jactant  Intonsi  montes,'  are  pre- 
notonous  dwarf-shrubs  to  a  park  of  sentiments  of  the  Messianic  re- 
beautiful  trees  (comp.  xH.    18,   19),  ality. 


CHAPTER   LVI.     1-8. 


These  eight  verses  form  a  prophecy  in  themselves,  directed  against 
the  Jewish  pride  of  race.  They  are  primarily  addressed  to  certain 
foreign  converts  and  (probably)  Israelitish  eunuchs,  who  are  warmly 
commended  for  their  observance  of  the  Sabbath  (comp.  Iviii.  13,  14),  and 
promised  an  appropriate  reward.  Like  chap.  Iviii.,  this  prophecy  stands 
out  by  its  practical  tone  ;  as  a  rule,  II.  Isaiah  confines  itself  to  correcting 
the  general  tone  and  spirit  of  the  Jews.  It  is  moreover  worthy  of  re- 
mark that  the  circumstances  which  it  refers  to  are  those  of  a  period  long 
subsequent  to  the  age  of  Hezekiah.  The  Sabbath  was  not  indeed  (as 
some  have  supposed)  a  late  adoption  from  Babylonia,  but  it  certainly  did 
become  much  more  strictly  observed  in  the  Babylonian  and  Persian 
periods— comp.  Jer.  xvii.  19-27  (with  Grafs  note),  Ezck.  .xx.  11-21,  xxii. 
8  26  Neh.  xiii.  15-22,  and  contrast  the  narrative  in  2  Kings  xi.  1-16, 
with  that  in  I  Mace.  ii.  32-38.  This  growing  strictness  evidently  marks 
a  fresh  stage  in  the  religious  history  of  the  Israelites.  As  the  sense  of 
the  value  of  prayer  increased  (a  lasting  monument  of  which  is  the 
Psalter)  it  was  natural  that  the  Sabbath  should  rise  in  the  estimation  of 
the  pious,  and  that  the  highest  title  they  could  give  to  the  temple  should 
be  '  the  house  of  prayer'  (see  on  v.  7).  The  latter  phrase  is  unique,  and 
reminds  us  of  the  later  proscuchai,  which  existed  wherever  Jews  and 
lewish  proselytes  were  to  be  found  in   the  Roman  empire.     Prayer  in 


CHAP.  LVI.]  ISAIAH.  -  e^ 

faci  took  the  place  of  the  sacrifices,  and  the  Sabbath  (instead  of  being  a 
day  f  ir  sacrificing,  comp.  i.  13)  became  a  day  of  prayer.  In  a  certain 
sense,  Hosea's  anticipation  (ii.  13)  was  verified  ; '  the  old,  popular  Sab- 
bath passed  away,  but  only  to  reappear,  animated  with  a  fresh  spirit.  As 
Shylock's  '  by  our  holy  Sabbath '  attests,  the  Sabbath  became  the  great 
bond  of  the  dispersed  Jewish  people. 

All  this  should  be  duly  considered  in  determining  the  date  of  this 
prophecy  and  that  of  chap.  Iviii.  The  problem  is  a  complicated  one,  and 
a  solution  must  be  sought  elsewhere.  The  same  difficulty  has  been  felt 
by  some  in  admitting  Jeremiah's  authorship  of  Jer.  xvii.  19-27,  which 
'  stands  in  absolutely  no  connection  with  the  preceding  and  the  following 
prophecies.'  - 

Note.  The  remark  made  above  on  the  growing  strictness  of  the 
observance  of  the  Jewish  Sabbath  acquires  special  importance  in  view 
of  the  recent  discovery  of  an  Assyrian  Sabbath— a  '  dies  nefastus,'  on 
which  the  king  at  any  rate  was  closely  restrained  from  almost  every  form 
of  activity.  We  do  not  as  yet  know  how  far  this  severe  rule  extended  in 
Assyria,  but  may  fairly  conjecture  that  the  sacerdotal  influence  was  more 
extensive  there  than  either  in  Israel  or  in  the  Judah  of  the  pre-Babylonian 
periods.  In  the  time  of  the  Prophet  Rosea,  the  Sabbath  was,  at  any 
rate  in  Israel,  a  bright  and  cheerful  day  (Hos.  ii.  11).  On  the  Assyrian 
and  Babylonian  Sabbath,  see  Sayce,  An  Assyrian  Grauwiar  for  Com- 
parative Purposes,  1872,  p.  140,  and  comp.  letter  in  Academy,  Nov.  27, 
1^75,  P-  554;  R.  P;  i.  164,  vii.  157  &c.,  where  Sayce  produces  ample 
authority  for  the  statement  that  the  word  Sabbath  itself,  under  the  form 
sabattu,  was  at  least  not  unknown  to  the  Assyrians  ;  also  F.  Brown,  'The 
Sabbath  in  the  Cuneiform  Records,'  Presbyterian  Review,  Oct.  1882; 
Lotz,  Quastionum  dc  Historid  Sabbati  Libri  Duo,  Lips.  1813. 

•  Thus  saith  Jehovah,  keep  the  law,  and  practise  righteous- 
ness ;  for  my  salvation  is  near  to  come,  and  my  righteousness 

'  Keep  the  law]  '  The  law,' i.e.,  eousness]  Comp.  Ii.  5.  '  This  pas- 
the  objective  rule  of  life,  the  law  of  sage  makes  it  quite  evident  that 
Jehovah  (as  in  xlii.  i  b).  The  other  "  righteousness"  in  connection  with 
possible  rendering,  '  justice,'  seems  "  salvation  "  still  retains  its  proper 
unsuitable  here,  as  the  moral  duties  force  of  righteousness.  God's  sal- 
specified  in  V.  2  have  a  much  wider  vation  is  righteous,  not  indiscrimi- 
range  than  mere  'justice,'  and  in  nate.  And  the  grounds  on  which 
fact  cover  both  the  tables  of  the  he  distinguishes  His  people  from 
Decalogue.  The  verb,  too,  with  His  enemies  are  not  external  but 
which  the  noun  is  here  joined  internal.  It  is  the  Israel  within 
{shimril  mishpdt)  is  usually  fol-  Israel,  the  spiritual  circumcision, 
lowed,  as  Dr.  Weir  remarks,  by  the  "holy  seed,'' that  He  acknow- 
'  statutes,'  '  testimony,'  '  covenant,'  ledges,  vindicates,  rescues,  glorifies 

&c. Righteousness]  i.e.,  objec-  .  .  \  "  There  is    no   peace    to   the 

lively,   whatever   God    commands.  ungodly.'"     (Dr.  Weir.)     See  also 
lay  salvation  .  .  .  my  right-  note  on  xli.  2.     Sept.  here  has  ro 

1  Wellhausen  refers  to  Lam.  ii.  6  as  expressing  the  same  view  as  Hosea,  but  over- 
looks 'in  Zioti.'     Ciesch.  Israels,  i.  118. 

'^  See  note  on  tlii<;  p:issnp;p,  bv  tlie  present  writer,  in  ttie  Puliiit  Commentarv  on 
Jeremiah. 


64 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  lvi. 


to  become  manifest.  "^  Happy  the  mortal  who  practises  this, 
and  the  son  of  man  who  taketh  hold  thereon  ;  who  keepeth 
the  Sabbath  so  as  not  to  pollute  it,  and  keepeth  his  hand, 
that  it  do  no  evil !     ^  And    let   not  the  foreigner,  who  hath 


fXfoi  fiov. To  become  mani- 
fest] God's  gifts  are  'reserved 
in  heaven '  till  at  the  fit  moment 
the  veil  of  partition  is  rent  in  twain. 

The  same  verb  as    in    liii.    i. 

This  .  .  .  thereon]  i.e.,  'the  law,' 
and  'righteousness,'  a  further  ex- 
planation of  which  follows. The 

Sabbath]  Sabbath-keeping  is  the 
representative  of  the  duties  of  '  the 
first  table'  (as  in  Ezek.  .\x.  11-21). 
Contrary  to  etymology  (see  Del.'s 
note),  and  contrary  to  popular  usage 
(who  does  not  remember  Heine's 
Prinzesst'n  Sabbatht),  the  prophet 
treats   '  Sabbath '  as  if  it  were  of 

the  masc.  gender  (so  Iviii.  13). 

Keepeth  his  hand  .  .  .  ]  A  nega- 
tive description,  suggested  by  the 
parallelism  of  the  Sabbath-observ- 
ance. It  reminds  us  of  x.x.xiii.  15, 
only  that  there  a  positive  description 
precedes,  which  has  here  to  be 
supplied  mentally. 

3  The  prophet  now  devotes  him- 
self to  remove  a  misunderstanding. 
He  insists  that  the  beatitude  of  the 
preceding  verse  is  universally  appli- 
cable to  those  who  keep  God's  com- 
mandments.  And  let   not   the 

foreigner  .  .  .  ]  The  anxiety  of 
these  proselytes  seems  rather  un- 
reasonable, if  we  remember  only 
the  moderation  of  the  law  in  Deut. 
xxiii.  4-7.  It  becomes  less  so,  if 
we  take  into  consideration  the  se- 
vere spirit  of  the  restored  exiles 
(comp.  Neh.  xiii.),  which  doubtless 
began  to  show  itself  during  the 
Captivity.  The  foreigners  seem 
to  have  apprehended  (such  is  the 
point  of  view  at  which  the  prophet 
places  himself)  that  in  consequence 
of  this  severity  the  Deuteronomic 
law  would  be  so  altered  as  to  ex- 
clude many  who  were  formerly  ad- 
missible into  the  community.    With 


the  glories  of  the  Messianic  age  in 
prospect,  it  must  have  been  miser- 
able indeed  for  these  earnest  con- 
verts to  feel  themselves  in  danger 

of  exclusion. And  let  not   the 

eunuch  say  •  ■  ■  ]  The  complaint 
of  the  eunuch  is  different  from  that 
of  the  proselyte  ;  it  is  that  he  is  'a 
dry  tree,'  i.e.,  that  he  is  without  that 
hope  of  a  quasi-immortality  in  off- 
spring, which  had,  it  would  seem, 
not  yet  given  way  to  the  brighter 
hope  of  personal  continuance. 
Apparently  he  takes  his  exclusion 
from  the  religious  community  as  a 
matter  of  course  ;  the  law  in  Deut. 
xxiii.  2  was  clear,  and  there  seemed 
no  probability  of  its  being  miti- 
gated. But  an  answer  is  vouchsafed 
to  his  silent  as  well  as  to  his  spoken 
complaint.  (1  infer  from  the  omis- 
sion of  the  clause,  found  in  v.  3, 
respecting  voluntaiy  adhesion  to 
Jehovah  that  the  prophet  alludes 
to  Israelitish  eunuchs,  made  such 
against  their  will  by  heathen  tyrants 
— 'eunuchs  were  generally  foreign- 
ers," as  Dr.  Weir  remarks.)  The 
case  of  the  eunuchs  is  dealt  with 
first.  The  decision  is:  i.  that  they 
shall  be  admitted  to  religious  com- 
munion, and  2.  that,  as  a  compen- 
sation for  their  childlessness,  they 
shall  receive  an  extraordinary 
trophy  and  monument  in  the 
temple  itself.  What  sort  of  dis- 
tinction is  intended  by  this  ?  Some 
(e.g.,  Knobel)  suppose  that  it  is  a 
material  record.  We  might  think 
either  of  a  memorial  column,  or  of 
a  tablet  such  as  in  very  ancient 
synagogues  commemorated  the 
munificence  of  individuals.'-  But 
there  is  a  swing  about  the  passage 
which  rather  commends  the  view 
that  the  memorial  is  a  spiritual  one 
(as  in  Rev.  iii.  12).     The  prophet's 


'  Comp.  xxxix.  7,  Jer.   xxxviii.   7,   Acts  viii.   27   (Dr.  Weir  thinks  the   Ethiopian 
PI  much  in  the  last  passage  may  have  been  a  Jew  ;  comp.  Acts  xi.  20). 

-  See  I-ow's  Heifrdgr  ziir  jndhcheii  Alti-rthumskunde  (I-eipz.  1870-71,  i.  28). 


CHAP.  LVI.] 


ISAIAH. 


65 


joined  himself  to  Jehovah,  speak,  saying.  Surely  Jehovah  will 
separate  me  from  his  people  ;  and  let  not  the  eunuch  say, 
Behold,  I  am  a  dry  tree.  "*  For  thus  saith  Jehovah  of  the 
eunuchs  who  keep  my  Sabbaths,  and  choose  the  things  which 
please  me,  and  take  hold  on  my  covenant, — ^  I  give  unto 
them  in  my  house  and  within  my  walls  a  trophy  and  a  monu- 
ment better  than  sons  and  daughters,  I  will  give  to  each  an 
everlasting  monument,  which  shall  not  be  cut  off.  ^  And  as 
for  the  foreigners  that  have  joined  themselves  unto  Jehovah, 
to  minister  unto  him,  and  to  love  the  name  of  Jehovah,  be- 
coming his  servants,  every  one  that  keepeth  the  Sabbath  so 
as  not  to  pollute  it,  and  taketh  hold  on  my  covenant  :  ^  I  will 
bring  them  to  my  holy  mountain,  and  make  them  joyful  in 
my  house  of  prayer  ;  their  burnt-offerings  and  their  sacrifices 
shall  be  acceptable  upon  mine  altar  ;  for  my  house  shall  be 
called  a  house  of  prayer  for  all  the  peoples.     ^  The  oracle  of 


real  meaning  is  probably  closely 
analogous  to  that  of  another  New 
Testament  passage  (Matt.  xxvi.  13), 
'  Wheresoever  this  gospel  shall  be 
preached  in  the  whole  world,  there 
shall  also  this,  that  this  woman 
hath  done,  be  told  for  a  memorial 
of  her.'" 

*  Take  bold  on  my  covenant] 
Whether  circumcision  or  Sabbath- 
observance  is  the  outward  sign  of 
this  '  taking  hold,'  cannot  be  ab- 
solutely determined.  Here,  as  in 
Ezek.  XX.  1 2,  the  Sabbath  seems  to 
have  stepped  into  the  place  of  cir- 
cumcision ;  yet  in  lii.  i,  Ezek.  xliv.  9, 
circumcision    is    again    referred  to 

with    honour. An    everlasting: 

monument  •  .  •  ]  Closely  parallel 
to  xlv.  13  b. 

^  And  as  for  the  foreig^ners] 
The  proselytes  too  shall  not  be  left 
outside  in  heathendom  ;  the  joy  of 
the  Shekinah  shall  be  theirs.  Comp. 
I  Kings  viii.  41-43,  where  Solomon 
prays  that  God  would  '  do  accord- 
ing to  all  that  the  stranger  calleth 
to  thee  for,'  and  Ps.  cxxxv.  19,  20 
(where,  after  the  house  of  Israel,  of 
Aaron,  and  of  Levi,  '  those  that  fear 
Jehovah' — i.e.,  the  proselytes — are 

called  upon  to  bless  him). To 

minister  unto  bim]  Hitz.  and 
Knobel  think  servile  ministrations 

VOL.    II. 


are  referred  to,  such  as  were  per- 
formed by  the  Nethinim  slaves 
(comp.  Ezra  ii.  43).  Usage,  how- 
ever, confines  the  verb  to  honour- 
able functions,  especially  those  of 
the  priests  and  Levites ;  comp. 
Ixi.  6.  Dr.  Weir  appositely  refers 
to  Ixvi.  21,  where  the  addition  of 
some  of  the  Gentiles  to  the  num- 
ber of  the  priests  is  spoken  of. 

His  seivants]  A  lower  term  than 
'ministers,'  but  joyfully  accepted 
by  the  proselytes  out  of  '  love '  to 
the  'name  of  Jehovah.' 

^  Make  tbem  joyful]  A  hint 
perhaps  of  the  feast  described  in 

XXV.  6.  In  my  bouse  of  prayerj 

Parallel  passage,  i  Kings  viii.  29, 
comp.  43,  60.  Sacrifices  continue, 
but  prayer  takes  the  precedence  of 
them  as  the  distinctive  purpose  of 
the  temple.  Only  the  circumcised 
could  take  part  in  the  sacrifices,  but 
all  who  '  called  upon  the  name  of 
Jehovah,'  of  whatever  nation  or 
country,  could  offer  the  '  spiritual 
sacrifice'  of  prayer.  Thus  in  a 
certain  sense  the  '  court  of  the  Gen- 
tiles '  became  the  holiest  part  of  the 
temple,  and  could  be  called  at  a 
later  period  'Jehovah's  house' 
(John  ii.  16,  comp.  Matt.  xxi.  13). 

*  Tbe  oracle  of  the  Iiord;  Je- 
bovab]     It     is    not     common     to 


66                                                         TSATATI.  [CHAP.  LVI.  9-LVn. 

the  Lord,  Jehovah,  who  gathereth  the  outcasts  of  Israel :  Yet 
more  will  I  gather  unto  him,  besides  his  own  gathered  ones. 

place   such   a    phrase   at   the   be-  seolog^-  reminds  us  of  xi.  1 2.  Comp. 

ginning  of  a  sentence  ;    see,  how-      also  xHx.  5,  6. Vet  more  will  Z 

ever,  i.  24,  Ps.  ex.   i,  Zech.  xii.   i,  grather  .  .  .  ]   Those  who  are  to  be 

where  this  or  an  almost  identical  gathered  are  evidently  Gentiles,  of 

expression  is  used  as  an  introduc-  whom  the  proselytes  mentioned  in 

tion.     The  combination  '  the  Lord  the  preceding  verses  are  the  first- 

(Hebr.  Adonai)  Jehovah'  prepares  fruits- — 'other  sheep  which  are  not  of 

us  to  expect  some  great  and  new  this  flock'  (John  x.  16).    Del.  com- 

revelation.     The  addition  of  Gen-  pares  Ps.  xlvii.  9  (10),  which,  if  the 

tile  members  to  the  community  of  text-reading    be    correct,    is    even 

the  true  Israel  is,  however,  though  strikingly  parallel.     The  reading  of 

a  great,  not  by  any  means  anew  Sept.  and  Pesh.  ('with  the  people'), 

announcement  (see  xliv.   5,  Iv.  5).  however,  strikes  me  as  intrinsically 

This,  along  with  other  peculiarities,  more  probable;    in    this  case  the 

has  to  be  taken  into  consideration  passage  should  be  compared  with 

in  the   discussion  of  the    unity  of       Isa.  xix.  24. Unto  him]  viz.,  unto 

chaps,  xl.  Ixvi. ■Who  gathereth  Israel. 

the  outcasts  of  Israel]  The  phra- 


CHAPTER  LVI.  9— LVII. 

A  SUDDEN  change  in  the  style  warns  us  that  we  are  about  to  enter  on  a 
new  prophecy,  complete  in  itself,  and  with  no  connection  (at  any  rate  in 
the  mind  of  the  original  writer  of  Ivi.  9  &c.)  with  the  preceding  dis- 
course. Hengstenberg,'  indeed,  has  tried  to  evolve  a  connection  ('  gather- 
ing'— see  Ivi.  8 — must,  he  remarks,  be  preceded  by  'scattering'),  but  few 
writers  will  regard  his  attempt  as  satisfactory.  '  It  is  absolutely  in- 
credible,' in  the  opinion  of  Bleek,  '  that  the  prophet,  after  the  promises 
that  no  evil  of  any  kind  should  again  hurt  the  people  (ch.  Iv.),  that  the 
time  of  salvation  was  quite  near,  in  which  even  the  foreigners  among  the 
people  should  partake  (ch.  hi.  i),  should  now  suddenly  summon  up 
foreign  nations  to  devour  his  people.' 

The  new  prophecy  falls  into  two  parts.  In  the  first  half  (Ivi.  9-lvii.  2) 
the  writer  chastises  the  neglect  of  duty  for  profane  and  extravagant 
luxury'  on  the  part  of  Israel's  spiritual  'shepherds,'  while  no  one  observes 
how  the  righteous  are  one  by  one  gathered  in  from  a  generation  fast 
ripening  for  a  Divine  judgment.  In  the  second  half  (Ivii.  3-21)  he  turns 
to  the  mass  of  the  people,  who  mock  at  the  few  servants  of  Jehovah  in 
their  midst.  He  draws  a  vivid  and  appalling  sketch  of  the  sombre  and 
licentious  idolatry'  into  which  they  and  their  fathers,  the  pre-Exile  Israel- 
ites have  fallen  : — on  the  state  of  religion  among  the  exiles  in  Babylon 
he  preserves  a  deep  silence.  At  ?'.  1 1  a  change  in  the  prophet's  tone  is 
observable.  In  the  name  of  Jehovah,  he  remonstrates  with  his  people, 
and  even  partly  excuses  it.  He  promises  a  Divine  interposition  in  its 
behalf;  and  then  it  will  be  seen  whether  the  idols  can  deliver  in  the 
judgment  which  will  overtake  all  but  true  believers.  The  prophecy  closes 
'   Christology  nf  the  Old  Testament,  ii.  176. 


CHAP.  LVI.]  ISAIAH.  67 

with  that  honied  rhetoric  of  which  only  Hosea  and  the  writer  of  II.  Isaiah 
possess  the  secret. 

According  to  Ewald/  Bleek,-  and  Gratz,^  the  whole  of  this  discourse, 
down  to  Ivii.  11  a  (or  13  a,  Gratz),  is  a  quotation  from  an  older  prophet  of 
the  time  of  Manasseh,  or  soon  after.  The  strikingly  Palestinian  cha- 
racter of  the  scenery  in  Ivii.  5,  6,  the  presumed  reference  to  persecution 
in  Ivii.  I,  and  the  correspondence  of  the  sins  imputed  to  the  people  with 
pre-Exile  circumstances,  give  a  strong  plausibility  to  this  hypothesis. 
Even  Luzzatto  *  (who  ascribes  all  the  rest  of  the  book  to  Isaiah)  con- 
siders the  author  of  this  section  to  have  lived  during  the  reign  of 
Manasseh — vv.  i,  2  he  considers  to  be  a  funeral  song  in  memory  of 
Isaiah,  who,  according  to  the  legend,  was  sawn  asunder  by  order  of 
Manasseh. 

In  my  former  work  (/.  C.A.,  p.  201)  I  attempted  to  diminish  the  force 
of  Ewald's  reasoning,  and  I  may  now  add  (i)  that  it  seems  to  me  rather 
doubtful  (see  below)  whether  Ivii.  i  refers  to  a  violent  death  by  persecu- 
tion, (2)  that  the  persecution  of  Manasseh  is  not  directly  affirmed  in 
the  Old  Testament  — it  is  an  inference  from  a  combination  of  passages, 
(3)  that,  even  granting  its  historical  reality,  Manasseh's  is  not  the  only 
persecution  which  might  be  alluded  to— Gesenius  refers  to  the  narratives 
of  Daniel  and  his  three  friends  (Dan.  iii.  vi.).  But  it  does  not  fall  within 
the  scope  of  this  work  to  decide  questions  relative  to  the  higher  criticism  ; 
and  I  merely  mention  these  conjectures  because  they  embody  impressions 
which  have  been  felt  by  most  students  of  Isaiah,  whatever  be  their 
attitude  towards  the  tradition  of  the  Synagogue.  The  style  of  the  former 
part  of  the  prophecy  by  its  '  harshness  and  lapidary  brevity '  reminds 
Delitzsch  of  that  other  most  peculiar  and  isolated  passage,  Hi.  13-liii.  It 
is  doubly  remarkable  following  upon  the  facile  oratoiy  of  chaps.  Iv.  hi. 
1-8,  and  not  less  surprising  is  the  sudden  change  in  the  latter  part  to 
rhythmic  simplicity  and  ease. 

^  All  ye  wild  beasts  of  the  field,  come  to  devour  ;  all  ye 
wild  beasts  in  the  forest !     ^^  His  watchmen   are  blind,  they 

3  AH    ye    wild    beasts]     'My  imitation  in  Rev.  xix.  17,  18. The 

flock  became  food  for  every  wild  'wild  beasts'  are  evidently  the 
beast  of  the  field,  because  there  enemy,  and  Israel  is  the  flock. 
was  no  shepherd'  (Ezek.  xxxiv.  8,  The  prophet  adopts  the  strongest 
comp.  xxxix.  4).  '  Thy  prophets,  O  way  of  expressing  that  Israel,''ut- 
Israel,  are  become  like  the  foxes  terly  bereft  of  his  natural  defend- 
in  the  deserts'  (Ezek.  xiii.  4).  A  ers,  lies  at  the  mercy  of  the  great 
closer  verbal  parallel  is  Jer.  xii.  9  heathen  empire  (Assyria  or  Baby 
(comp.  V.  7)  :  '  Assemble  ye  all  the  Ionia). 

wildbeastsof  the  field;  bring  them  '"    His    watchmen    are    blind 

hither  to  devour.'     Comp.,  too,  the  .  .  .  ]  i.e.,  the  leaders  of  the  people 

1  Die  Propheten,  m.  102,  103;  comp.  Ewald's  account  of  the  persecution  of  Ma- 
nasseh in  History  of  Israel,  iv.  211,  212. 

^  Introduction  to  the  Old  Testament,  ii.  48. 

'  Monatsschrift,  1883,  p.  112.  Gratz  ascribes  the  prophecv  to  Jeremiah,  and 
attaches  it  to  Jer.  xi.  ;  Ewald  too  remarks  upon  its  great  similarity  to  "the  earlier  pro- 
phecies of  leremiah. 

■*  II  prof  eta  Isaia  (Padova    1867),  p.  573. 


68 


ISAIAir. 


[chap,  i.vir. 


are  all  of  them  undiscerning  ;  they  are  all  of  them  dumb 
dogs,  they  cannot  bark,  ^  raving,  l>nng  down,*  loving  to  slum- 
ber. "  But  the  dogs  are  greedy,  they  know  not  how  to  be 
satisfied,  and  these,  ^  the  pastors,^  know  not  understanding  ; 
they  all  of  them  turn  their  own  way,  each  after  his  gain,  with- 
out exception.  '2 'Come  ye,  let  me  fetch  wine,  and  let  us 
carouse  with  strong  drink  ;  and  to-morrow  shall  be  as  this 
day,  beyond  all  measure  great.' 

LVII.  ^  The  righteous  perisheth,  and   no  man  taketh  it  to 
heart,  and  pious  men  are  gathered,  none  considering  that  "^be- 

•  Seers  that  lie  down,  some  MSS.,  Symmachus,  Vulg.   (?),  Kohut  (another  read- 
ing)- 

•>  Shepherds,  Hebr.  text. 

«  Before,  Del.— Out  of  the  way  of,  Kay. 

generally,  but  especially  the  pro- 
phets (Ezek.  iii.  17,  comp.  Isa.  xxi. 
1 1— different  word),  who  are  com- 
pared to  '  dumb  do^s,'  as  opposed 
to  the  faithful  shepherd's  dogs  (Job 
.\x.\.  i).  We  must  suppose  that  the 
prophets  referred  to  were  no  better 
than  the  ancient  soothsayers,  who 
gave  oracles  respecting  the  difficul- 
ties of  every-day  life,  but  were  silent 
on  the  great  moral  questions.  Be- 
sides their  '  dumbness,'  three  other 
points  are  mentioned  to  the  dis- 
credit of  the  writer's  fellow-' watch- 
men':—i,  they  are  not  'seers' 
{khozivi),  but  ' ra\ers '  or  '  dream- 
ers'  {Jiozlm')—\\iQ.y  depend  on  a 
mere  natural,  and  sometimes  fal- 
lacious, faculty  (Jer.  xxiii.  25-28) ; 
2,  they  keep  up  the  old  custom,  re- 
jected by  the  higher  prophets  as  an 
abuse,  of  taking  fees.  Num.  xxii.  7, 
I  Sam.  ix.  7,  Neh.  vi.  12,  comp. 
Mic.  iii.  3,  Ezek.  xiii.  19,  xxii.  25; 
and,  3,  they  spend  their  gains  in 
revelry,  comp.  xxviii.  7,  Mic.  ii.  Ti. 
— Obs.,  no  inference  can  be  safely 
drawn  from  this  passage  as  to  the 
date  of  the  prophecy,  since  prophets 
and  elders  continued  to  exist  during 
the  Exile,  see  Jer.  .xxix.,  Ezek.  viii. 
1,  xiv.  I,  XX.  I,  xxxiii.  1-9. 

"  These,  the  pastors]  Or, 
'  these,  pastors  as  they  are.'  Some, 
rendering  'shepherds,'  think  we 
have  here  a  second  figure  ;  but 
this  would  come  in  limpingly  after 
the  bi|;hly  developed  simile  of  the 


dogs.  It  is  better  to  render  '  pas- 
tors,' and  regard  it  as  an  official 
title  of  the  rulers  of  the  people 
(comp.    Assyrian    ri'-u   '  shepherd,' 

'prince'). "Without  exception] 

On  the  rend.,  see  De  Dieu  on  Ezek. 
xxxiii.  2.  Same  idiom  in  Gen. 
xix.  4. 

'2  Come  ye  ...  ]  A  speech  of 
one  of  the  self-indulgent  '  pastors,' 
who  invites  his  fellows  to  a  two 
days'  banquet.  Comp.  v.  11,  12, 
and  especially  xxviii.  i,  3,  7,  which, 
by  the  similarity  of  its  details, 
soinewhat  confirms  the  theor)'  of 
Ewald  and  Rleek. 

'  The  righteous  perisheth]  A 
concise  and  vigorous  expression, 
fitted  to  stimulate  thought.  That 
the  bad  pastors  should  live  long 
and  see  good  days,  while  the 
righteous  (especially  among  the 
pastors  or  prophets)  are  prema- 
turely cut  off,  is  a  contradiction 
peculiarly  great  from  the  Old 
Testament  point  of  view  (comp. 
Eccles.  vii.  15).  'The  righteous,' 
in  the  singular,  indicates  the  few- 
ness and  isolation  of  these  Abdiels. 
'Perisheth' — whether  by  natural 
or  by  violent  means,  the  word  does 
not  expressly  state.  'To  perish' 
(Hebr.  '(jM^rtV/)  properly  means  'to 
lose  oneself,'  in  other  words,  '  to 
pass  out  of  sight ' ;  every  one  re- 
members Ps.  cxix.  176,  where 'lost ' 
=  Ilcbr.  'ob/inUi.''  The  same  vague 
expression  is  used  in  the   parallel 


CHAP.  LVn.] 


ISAIAH. 


69 


cause  of '^  the  evil  the  righteous  is  gathered.     ^  He  entereth 
into  Peace  ;  they  rest  upon  their  beds,  whosoever  hath  walked 


passage,  Mic.  vii.  2  (comp.  Ps.  xii. 

i). Pious  men]    Lit.,  'men   of 

piety.'  The  Hebr.  word  here  ren- 
dered '  piety'  ikhhedli)  includes  both 
love  to  God  and  love  to  man  ;  the 
context  must  decide  whether  'piety' 
or  'mercy'  is  the  better  English 
equivalent.  Here  the  parallel  word 
'  the  righteous '  is  decisive,  in  spite 
of  the  fact  (which  warns  us  against 
a  mechanical  use  of  the  Concord- 
ance) that  in  the  only  other  place 
where  the  precise  Hebrew  phrase 
occurs  (Prov.  xi.  17,  in  the  singular) 
it  means,  not  '  the  pious,'  but  '  the 

merciful.' Are  g-athered]  Again 

a  vox  media,  which  includes  the 
notions  of  taking  away  (comp.  xvi. 
10)  and  gathering  in  (as  Jacob 
'  was  gathered  to  his  kinsmen,'  Gen. 
xlix.  T,;^).  It  is  difficult  to  decide 
which  of  these  two  notions  is  pre- 
dominant here.  A  comparison  of 
liii.  8  seems  to  suggest  the  former  ; 
it  is  natural  that  the  '  servants  of 
Jehovah'  (liv.  17)  should  suiiferwith 
the  Servant,  the  members  with  the 
Head.  There  might  conceivably 
be  an  allusion  to  a  religious  perse- 
cution, such  as  that  of  Manasseh 
(see  introduction,  above).  But  the 
context  seems  to  me  to  favour  the 
notion  of  'gathering  in.'  How 
could  the  ungodly,  if  the  deaths  of 
the  righteous  were  owing  to  them, 
be  expected  to  '  consider '  the 
Divine  purpose  in  permitting  their 
evil  deeds  .•"  and  does  not  the  ten- 
der, elegiac  tone  of  7'.  2  suit  a 
natural  better  than  a  violent  death.-' 

None  considering  tbat]   The 

form  of  expression  reminds  us  of 
liii.  8.  In  both  passages,  the  rend. 
'  for '  seems  awkward  (see,  however, 

Naeg.). Because  of  the  evil] 

This  premature  removal  of  the 
righteous  seemed  but  an  ill  reward 
for  such  faithful  service  ;  and  yet 
it  was  dictated  by  mercy — as  well 
towards  the  godly  as  towards  the 


wicked.  It  delivered  the  former  (i) 
from  the  sights  of  horror  which 
'vexed'  and  might  have  polluted 
their  'righteous  souls,'  comp.  Wisd. 
iv.  14,  Dante,  Purgat.  xiv.  1 1  i-i  13, 
and  (2)  from  sharing  in  the  retribu- 
tive calamities  impending  over  the 
nation  (comp.  Gen.  xv.  15,  2  Kings 
xxii.  20).  It  warned  the  latter  that 
their  wickedness  was  great  to  be  so 
punished  (for  even  a  few  righteous 
men  can  save  a  city.  Gen.  xviii.  23- 
32),  and  that  a  still  more  severe 
punishment  was  at  the  door.  (Thus 
'evil' has  a  double  meaning.) — For 
the  Hebr.  idiom,  comp.  x.  27,  Jer. 
xlii.  17,  li.  64.^ 

■^  The  prophet  continues  in  a 
lyric  strain.  He  entereth  into 
Peace]  The  grave,  or  rather  the 
Underworld,  is  here  styled  Peace, 
as  elsewhere  Stillness  (Ps.  xciv.  17, 
cxv.  17).  Comp.  Job  iii.  17.  We 
might  also  render  '  into  a  state  of 
peace '(comp.  on  xlv.  16).  There 
is  a  contrast  to  the  awful  troubles 
which  the  survivors  have  to  en- 
counter (Hengst.). Upon  their 

beds]  i.e.,  primarily  their  graves  ; 
comp.  the  Phoenician  inscription 
of  King  Eshmunazar  (ed.  Schlott- 
mann,  iv.  i  &c.),  'the  lid  of  this  bed' 
(i.e.,  sarcophagus)  ;  the  word  is  the 
same  as  here.  See  also  Job  xvii. 
13  (a  different  word  for  bed),  and 
especially  Ezek.  xxxii.  25.  The 
phraseology  of  the  latter  passage 
implies  a  popular  notion  of  a  du- 
plicate grave  in  the  Underworld, 
corresponding  to  the  double  cpasi- 
consciousness  of  the  dead  body 
and  the  soul  or  shade  (respecting 
this  see  note  on  Ixvi.  24).  It 
may  be  the  'beds'  in  the  Under- 
world to  which  the  prophet  refers, 
and  which  (whatever  the  popular 
belief  was)  he,  at  any  rate,  would 
hardly  make  contingent  on  the 
possession  by  these  righteous  con- 
fessors of  separate  graves.     Such 


I  Comp.  Dr.  Land's  discussion  of  this  clause  in  Theolcgisch  Tijdschrift,  1867, 
p.  203.  To  support  the  Isaianic  authorship  of  this  chapter  Dr.  Rutgers  had  rendered 
'  before  the  calamity  '  ;  against  this,  Dr.  Land  refers  to  the  above-mentioned  passages. 


70 


ISAIAII. 


[chap.   LVII. 


Straight  before  him.  ^  But  as  for  you,  approach  hither,  ye 
sons  of  a  sorceress  !  seed  of  an  adulterer  ^  and  of  a  harlot.*^ 
*  Of  whom  do  ye  make  sport  ?  Agafnst  whom  do  ye  draw 
a  wide  mouth,  do  ye  make  a  long  tongue  t  Are  ye  not 
children  of  rebellion,  a  seed  of  falsehood  ?  '"  Ve  who  inflame 
yourselves  *  by  the  terebinths,*^  under  every  green  tree  ;  who 
slay  the  children  in  the  torrent-valleys  under  the  rents  of  the 

d  So  Kr. ,  Gr. — Tkxt,  and  of  her  who  coniniittcth  whoredom  ;  or,  and  thou  who 
(thyself  I  commiitest  whoicdoni. 

•  With  gods,  Sept.,  Posh.,  Targ.,  Viilg.,  Vitr.,  Stier. 


an  honour  was  not  always  granted 
to  faithful  prophets  (Jer.  xwi.  23). 

Straiifbt     before      him]       A 

phrase  quite  in  the  style  of  the 
liook  of  Proverbs  (comp.  Prov.  iv. 

25-27)-  ^    . 

^  Approacb  hitber]  viz.,  to  hear 

your  sentence. Ye    sons   of  a 

sorceress  .  •  •  ]  ie.,  having  an 
innate  inclination  (comp.  Ps.  li.  5) 
to  break  the  mystic  marriage-tie 
between  Jehovah  and  his  people. 
Comp.  Ezek.  xvi.  44,  45,  Matt.  xii. 
39,  xvi.  4. 

■*  Of  Mffbom  do  ye  make  sport? 
.  .  .  ]  'Who  are  they  that  yc 
find  a  luxurious  pleasure  in  tor- 
menting? Men  of  whom  "the 
world  is  not  worthy"  !  Judge  if 
ye  are  not  yourselves  fitter  objects 
of  scorn.'  'Make  sport'  is  an  un- 
exampled rendering  (see  Iv.  2,  Iviii. 

14,  Ixvi.  II),  but  is  required  by  the 
context. 

''  Ye  wbo   inflame    yourselves 

.    .    .    ]     Refciring  to  the  orgiastic 

cults  in  the  sacred  groves  of  Pales- 
tinian heathenism  '  (i.  29,  Ezek.  vi. 

13).     We  must  not,  however,  press 

the  details  of  the  description  which 

follows  too  far ;  there  is  an 'adultery' 

of  the  heart  (sec  on  i.  2 1 ). Tere- 
binths] Comp.  Hos.  iv.  13,  '(They 

sacrifice)  under  oaks  and  poplars 

and  terebinths,  because  the  shade 

thereof  is   good.'      For   the   rend. 

see    Notes  and  Criticisms,   p.  38. 

t  See  (iraf  von  Baudissin,  Studicn  zur  semilinhcn  Religionsgeschichtc,  Ilefi  II., 
Abhandlung  2.  ...    „    ^    .       ,.         ,     „ 

»  .Sc'-  Kalisch's  Leviiicui,  i.  365-7,  and  comp.  \V.  R.  S.  in  Lncycl.  Brit.,  art. 
'  Moloch.'  „  ^ 

*  Payne  Smith,  Prophecy  a   Preparation  for  Christ,  /.    319  ;  comp.  Rutgers,  De 

uhtluid,  cnz.  p.  90. 


Vnder     every     green     tree] 

A  common  formula  in  the  later 
books  (see  i  Kings  xiv.  23,  2  Kings 
xvi.  4,  xvii.  10,  Jer.  ii.  20,  iii.  6,  13, 
Ezek.  vi.  13),  also  once  in  the  dis- 
puted  Book   of  Deuteronomy  (xii. 

2j. "Who     slay    tbe    children] 

'Slay'  here  = 'sacrifice,'   as    Ezek. 

xvi.  21   (in  a  similar  context). 

In     tbe     torrent-valleys]       The 
dry    channels     of     winter-torrents 
(wadys),  especially  that  of  Hinnom, 
were  the  scenes  of  the  child-sacri- 
fices to  the  cruel  god  Moloch  (xxx. 
33)."^      The  wildness  of  the  land- 
scape   perhaps    suited  such    stern 
acts,  and  the  action  of  the  torrents 
produced  an   abundance   of  large 
rounded  stones  (such  as  are  so  often 
in    Ezekiel  contemptuously   called 
gil/i'i/iiii,    '  lumps,'    i.e.,    shapeless 
masses)  for  Moloch's  altars. — Con- 
servative  critics  have   with    much 
reason  pointed  out  that  the  topogra- 
phical references  in  this  verse  sug- 
gest that  the  prophecy  was  written  in 
Palestine  rather  than  in  Babylonia. 
'  1  need  scarcely  say,'  observes  Dr. 
Payne  Smith,  'that  as  there  are  no 
torrents,  but  only  canals,  in  the  flat 
alluvial  soil  of  Babylonia,  so  there 
are  no  torrent-beds  there,  but  that 
these  form   a   common    feature  of 
the  landscape  in  Palestine  and  all 
mountainous  countries.'^  See,  how- 
ever, note  on  xii.  19. 


CHAP.  LVIl.] 


ISAIAH. 


71 


crags  !  *^  In  the  smooth  stones  of  the  valley  are  thy  portion  ; 
they,  they  are  thy  lot  ;  even  to  them  hast  thou  poured  out 
drink-offering-s,  offered  meal-offerings.  Should  I  quiet  my- 
self in  spite  of  these  things  ? 

^  Upon  a  mountain  lofty  and  raised  up  hast  thou  placed 
thy  bed  :  even  thither  hast  thou  gone  up  to  offer  sacrifice. 
•^And   behind   the  door  and  the  post  hast  thou  placed  thy 


®  The    smooth    stones]       The 

large    smooth    stones    referred    to 
above  were  the  fetishes  of  the  pri- 
mitive Semitic  races,  and  anointed 
with    oil,  according    to    a   widely- 
spread  custom  (comp.  XidoL  Xnrapot, 
lapides    uncti,    lubricati).     It    was 
such    a    stone   which    Jacob    took 
for  a  pillow,  and  afterwards  conse- 
crated by  pouring  oil  upon  it  (Gen. 
x.wiii.  II,  18).     The  early  Semites 
and  reactionary,  idolatrous   Israel- 
ites called  such  stones  Bethels  (jiai- 
Tv\oi,   I3(utv'\m,    is    the    Phoenician 
form  of  Bethel  with  a  Greek  termi- 
nation), i.e.,  houses  of  El  (the  early 
Semitic  word  for  God)  ;  the  'Jeho- 
vist '  in  Gen.  /.  c.  implies  that  Jacob 
transferred    the     name     from    the 
stone  to  the  place  where  the  Divine 
being  appeared  to  him.     In  spite 
of  the  efforts  of  the  'Jehovist,'  who 
desired   to   convert   these   ancient 
fetishes    into   memorials   of  patri- 
archal  history   (comp.    Gen.    xxxi. 
45-52),  the  old  heathenish  use  of 
them    seems    to   have    continued, 
especially  in  secluded  places  (comp. 
Kuenen's    fact-full    appendix,   AV- 

ligion    of  Israel,  i.    390-395). 

Thy  portion]  Here  we  begin  to 
meet  with  the  2nd  pers.  fern.,  Israel 
being  regarded  as  the  bride  of  her 
God,  but  at  the  same  time  as 
having  a  right  of  property  over 
him  (it  is  the  idea  of  the  'covenant' 
under  another  form).  With  deep 
irony,  the  speaker  unfolds  how 
Israel  has  exchanged  her  property 
in  the  Almighty  for  smooth,  po- 
lished blocks  of  stone.  '  Portion,' 
see  Jer.  x.  16,  Ps.  xvi.  5,  Ixxiii. 
26,  cxix.  57,  cxlii.  5  (in  all  these 
passages  the  term  is  used  of  Jeho- 


vah), and  comp.  Deut.  xxix.  26  (25), 
'  gods  whom  they  had  not  known, 
and  whom  he  had  not  appot'lioied 

unto  them.' Hast  thou  poured 

out  .  .  ]  Here  begins  a  survey  of 
Jewish    idolatry  before   the  Exile. 

Should  X  quiet  myself  ....'] 

It  is  an  outbreak  of  Jehovah's 
grieved  love  or  'jealousy.'  Comp. 
Jer.  v.  2  (similar  phrase  in  similar 
context). 

'   The   heights    as   well    as    the 
depths  are  profaned   by  debasing 
rites  :  the  country  is  '  wholly  given 
to  idolatry.'     Beware  of  taking  the 
description  too  literally.      It  is  not 
so  much  the  licentious  character  of 
some  of  the  heathen  rites  which  is 
referred  to,  as  the  debased  moral 
and  spiritual  condition  connected 
with  idolatry. Upon    a    moun- 
tain]    Shrines    were    erected    by 
preference    upon    hills  ;    comp.    2 
Kings  xvi.  4,  Hos.  iv.    13,  Jer.  ii. 
20,    Ezek.    vi.    13.     The   extent  of 
the  ancient  hill-religion  may  be  es- 
timated by  the  number  of  mazars 
or   tomb-houses,    which    surmount 
almost   every   conspicuous   hill    in 
Palestine.       They     are     generally 
shaded    by   a    great    tree,    which, 
like  the  mazdr'M^itM,  is  held  sacred ; 
'  rags  and  threads  hang   from  its 
branches  as  votive  offerings,    and 
the  name  of  a  saint   or  prophet  is 
often    connected    with    the    spot.'  ^ 

Thy  bed]     Comp.   Jer.  iii.  2, 

Ezek.  xvi.,  xxiii. 

*  And  behind  the  door  .  .  .  thy 
memorial]  The  expressions  are 
dark.  Most  recent  commentators 
(except  Ewald)  take  '  memorial '  to 
be  the  formula  'Jehovah  is  our 
God,  Jehovah  is  one,'  which,  ac- 


'  Conder,  Quarterly  Statements  nf  Palestine  Exploration  Fund,  1875,  p.  39  ;  Gan- 
neau,  La  Palestine  incpnnue  (Paris,  1876),  pp.  49-52. 


72 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  LVII. 


memorial,  for  apart  from  me  hast  thou  uncovered,  and  gone 
up  ;  thou  hast  enlarged  thy  bed,  and  made  a  contract  ^with 
them  ^ ;  thou  hast  loved  their  bed  ;  « thou  hast  beheld  the 
phallus.^  ^  And  thou  hast  travelled  to  the  king  with  oil,  and 
hast  multiplied  thy  perfumes,  and  hast  sent  thy  messengers 
afar  off,  and  humbled  thyself  even  to  Sheol.  '"  With  the 
length  of  thy  journey  thou  hast  wearied  thyself;  yet  thou  hast 
not  said.  It  is  without  result :  thou  didst  get  ^renewal  of  thy 

<■  So  Gr.  ;  Tkxt,  from  them. 

e  (Wherever)  thou  hast  beheld  an  (idolatrous)  monument,  Vitr.  — Thou  hast  chosen 
a  place,  Pesh.,  Targ.,  Kimchi,  Lowth,  Ges. 

•>  Refreshing  sufficient  for  thee,  Lav,  Klostermann,  Gr. 


cording  to  Deut.  vi.  9,  xi.  20,  was  to 
be  written  on  the  pos*^s  of  the  house 
and  on  the  gates  ;  comp.  the  use  of 
'  memorial'  in  Hos.  xii.  5.  Putting 
this  '  memorial '  behind  tlie  door  is 
thought  to  have  been  a  sign  of 
contempt.  But  surely  this  is  very 
doubtful  :  the  new  position  of  this 
object  would  make  it  all  the  more 
conspicuous  to  the  inmates  of  the 
house.  Besides,  is  it  quite  certain 
that  the  direction  in  Deuteronomy 
was  so  carefully  carried  out,  or  even 
perhaps  intended  to  be  literally 
carried  out.''  (I  waive  questions 
of  date.)  It  is  safer  to  return  to 
the  view  of  the  Targum  and  of 
Jerome,  viz.,  that '  memorial '  =  idol 
(or  rather  idolatrous  symbol — the 
phallus).  So  too  Vitr.,  Lowth, 
Ewald,  Griitz  (comparing  the  Hebr. 

of  Ezek.  xvi.   17). Hast  beheld 

the  phallus]  i.e.,  '  didst  look  at  it 
with  pleasure '  (see  Del.'s  note). 
The  first  alt.  rend,  will  bear  the 
same  meaning  (comp.  '  thy  memo- 
rial '  in  the  first  verse-half). 

-*  And  thou  hast  travelled  to 
the  king]  There  is  the  same  point 
in  dispute  as  in  viii.  21,  xxx.  23, 
viz.,  whether  '  king'  designates  the 
heavenly  or  the  earthly  ruler.  Dr. 
I'ayne  Smith  {Batnpton  Lectures 
for  1S69,  p.  323)  would  settle  the 
question  by  reading  rindlek\  '  to 
Molech  (or  Moloch),'  but  the 
phrase  'travelling  to  Molech  '  has 
no  parallel,  and  a  comparison  of  7/. 


II,  where  it  is  certainly  the  fear  of 
man  which  is  rebuked,  and  of  Ezek. 
xxiii.  40,  where  we  read  of  a  mes- 
senger being  sent  for  men  from 
afar,  favours  the  view  that  'king' 
here  means  king  of  Assyria.  It  is 
that  coquetting  with  heathen  powers 
which  is  here,  as  so  often  elsewhere, 

denounced. "With  oil]  So  Hos. 

xii.  I  (2). Thy  messengers  afar 

off]  Comp.  the  negotiations  with 
Egypt  denounced  by  Isaiah  and 
Hosea,  the  Assyrian  alliance  of 
Ahaz,  and  the  coalition  formed  by 
Azariah    against    Tiglath-Pileser.' 

Hast  humbled  thyself  even 

to  Sheol]  '  No  servility  was  too 
great  for  thee.'  Sheol  is  here  used 
metaphorically,  as  in  vii.  1 1  b  (see 
note).  A  reference  to  the  infernal 
deities  (Ew.)  seems  less  appro- 
priate. 

"'  "With  the  length  of  thy  jour- 
ney] i.e.,  not  merely  '  with  the  long 
journey  to  Assyria,'  but  '  with  thy 
ceaseless  quest  for  help  and  protec- 
tion,' including  of  course  embassies 
to  foreign  kings,  but  also  every 
other    specimen     of    untheocratic 

policy. Xt  is    without    result] 

Lit.,  '  it  is  desperate.'  .Sept.  -nalao- 
fiai.  The  word  is  the  same  as  in 
Jcr.  ii.  25,  xviii.  12,  but  in  a  dif- 
ferent context. Renewal  of  thy 

strength]  \'ulg.,  'vitani  nianiis 
tua.\'  The  Hebr.  idiom  is  similar 
to  that  in  Gen.  xviii.  10,  14,  '  when 
this  season   liveth  (again),'  i.e.,  a 


'  See  Smith  Assyrian  Epoiiym  Canon,  pp.  117-8,  Schrader,  K.  A.  T.,  pp.  217-223, 
ard  especially  the  same  writer  s  Kcilinschri/Un  iiiid  Gcichichtsforschung  (Gicsseii, 
1 870),  pp.  395-421. 


CHAP.  LVII.] 


ISAIAH. 


n 


strength ^\  therefore  thou  feltest  not  weak.  "And  at  whom 
hast  thou  been  alarmed  so  as  to  fear,  that  thou  hast  played  the 
traitor,  and  me  hast  not  remembered,  neither  hast  taken  it  to 
thy  heart  ?  Truly  I  have  been  silent,  yea,  '  from  of  old,'  and 
therefore  thou  fearest  not  me.  '^  /  will  make  Rnown  ^  my 
righteousness,    and    as    for   thy   works — they   cannot    profit 

'  Hidir.g  (mine  eyes),  Sept.,   Vulg.,  some   Hebr.    MSS.,   Lo.,   Kr.  (omitting  one 
letter,  and  pointing  differently). 

k  So  Pesh.,  Lo.,  Weir.— thy.  Text. 


year  hence. Tliou  feltest  not 

weak]  Dathe  (ap.  Stier),' non  sen- 
tis  morbum  tuum.'  So  Jer.  v.  3, 
'  Thou  hast  smitten  them,  and  they 
did  not  feel  weak.' 

''  iind  at  wbom  hast  thou  been 
alarmed  .  .  •  ]  The  verse  is  not 
ironical,  as  De  Dieu  and  others 
(misled  by  the  text-reading  of  v. 
12  d)^  but  contains  a  kindly  remon- 
strance (comp.  li.  12,  13).  '  Who  is 
there  so  strong  and  so  terrible  as  to 
justify  thee  in  thy  infidelity  towards 
Jehovah.''  No  one.  But  is  there 
no  excuse  for  the  behaviour  of  the 
Jews  ?  There  is,  viz.,  Jehovah's 
long  "silence  "  (comp.  xlii.  14),  the 
cessation  of  his  interpositions  in 
behalf  of  his  people.'  This  seems 
to  me  the  easiest  way  to  explain 
the  connection,  which  is  certainly 
rather  loose,  between  the  two  halves 
of  the  verse.  Jehovah  admits,'  in 
other  words,  that  the  calamities  of 
the  Israelites  have  increased  their 
alienation  from  him  (comp.  Ixiii. 
17,  Ixiv.  5).  In  the  next  verse  he 
announces  that  he  will  try  a  new 
argument  with  these  walkers  '  by 
sight'  and  not  'by  faith.' — Ewald 
thinks  the  prophet  here  resumes  in 
his  own  language,  dropping  that  of 
the  more  ancient  writer  to  whom 
he  ascribes  Ivi.  9-lvii.  1 1  a.  There 
is  at  any  rate  a  very  noticeable 
change  in  the  prophet's  tone,  which 
all  at  once  becomes  soft  and  en- 
couraging.  Truly  I  have  been 

silent  .  •  .]  '  Truly  it  is  because 
I  have  been  silent,  that  thou  ac- 
cordest  me  no  fear.'  Notice  the 
prominent  position  of  '  me  '  in  the 


Hebrew,  corresponding  to  the  em- 
phatic (because  otherwise  unneces- 
sary) expression  of  the  pronoun  '  I  ' 
in  this  and  the  next  verse.  '  Truly,' 
lit., '  have  not .  .  .'  (prefixed  to  whole 
sentence  as  xxviii.  25).  'I  have 
been  silent,'  &c.  ;  comp.  xlii.  14 
(note).  The  participial  clause  in 
the  Hebr.  is  causal. 

'-  /  \irill  make  known  .  .  .  ] 
Jehovah  will  try  a  fresh  argument. 
If  '  silence  '  has  taught  no  lessons, 
the  speech  of  mingled  mercy  and 
judgment  may  work  more  effectu- 
ally on  the  heart.  Precisely  so,  in 
xlvi.  13,  the  same  Divine  speaker 
says  to  those  who  are  '  far  from 
righteousness,'  '  I  bring  near  my 
righteousness.'  (Dr.  Weir  com- 
pares Ps.  xxii.  31,  xcviii.  2.) — 
Those  who  retain  the  text-reading 
generally  explain  it  as  a  piece  of 
irony — •'  I  will  show  thy  righteous- 
ness in  its  true  colours — as  "  filthy 
rags'"  (Ixiv.  6,  Auth.  Vers.).  I 
doubt  if  this  can  be  shown  to  suit 
the  context ;  in  the  next  chapter, 
which  expressly  deals  with  the 
self-righteous,  it  might  perhaps 
pass,  but  the  persons  addressed 
here  are  not  even  acknowledged 
as  worshippers  of  Jehovah.  Add 
to  this,  that  the  word  rendered 
'will  make  known'  is  constantly 
used  in  II.  Isaiah  of  the  prophetic 
revelation  of  the  deliverance  of 
Israel.  Rashi,  Hitzig,  and  Knobel 
avoid  a  part  of  the  objections  to  the 
text-reading  by  taking  the  words 
literally — '  I  will  show  thee  how  to 
obtain  righteousness,'  Rashi  sup- 
posing internal  righteousness  to  be 


'  Per  qucito  la  Scritlura  conJisccndc  |  A  vostra  facultate,  ccc.  Dante,  Paradise,  iv, 
43.  44- 


74 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  lvii. 


thee.  '^  When  thou  criest,  let  thy  '  medley  of  gods  '  deliver  thee! 
but  the  whole  of  them  the  wind  shall  carry  off,  a  breath 
shall  take  away,  while  he  that  taketh  refuge  in  me  shall 
inherit  the  land,  and  take  my  holy  mountain  in  possession. 
'*  And  one  said,  Cast  up,  cast  up,  prepare  the  way  ;  take  up 
the  stumbling-block  out  of  the  way  of  my  people. 

'^  For  thus  sai-th  the  high  and  exalted  One,  who  dwelleth 
for  ever,  whose  name  is  Holy  One 

1  Abominations,  Weir  (emendation). 

intended,  the  other  two  external 
righteousness,'  i.e.,  deliverance, 
success  in  the  sight  of  men  (comp. 
liv.  17).  But  Rashi's  view  pre- 
supposes a  misinterpretation  of 
'thy  works'  in  the  second  verse- 
half,  while  Hitzig's  and  Knobel's 
is  not  quite  suitable  in  this  connec- 
tion, for,  as  t/.  13  shows,  there  must 
be  a  great  sifting  of  Israel  before 
Jehovah's  righteousness  can  be- 
come Israel's.  Even  in  liv.  17  (which 
Hitz.,  Knob,  ought  to  have  com- 
pared), it  is  only  of  'the  servants 
of  Jehovah'  that  the  phrase  'their 
righteousness,'  (i.e.,  their  '  outward 
justification  ')  is  used,  and  it  is  im- 
mediately qualified  by  the  addition 

'  (which  is)  of  me.' Thy  works] 

i.e.,  thy  idols  (xli.  29,  comp.  i.  31). 

They  cannot  profit  thee]     A 

phrase  specially  belonging  to  idols 
(see  on  xli  v.  10). 

'^  •Wben  thou  criest]  Under 
the  rod  of  chastisement.  The 
speaker  does  not  mean  to  empha- 
size the  terrors  of  the  judgment, 
but,  assuming  its  near  approach, 
shows  that  no  help  but  Jehovah's 
will  be  of  any  avail. Thy  med- 
ley of  gods]  Lit.,  thy  collections. 
The  idea  is  not  merely  that  of  num- 
ber (comp.  Jer.  ii.  28),  but  of  variety. 
Jehovah  says  ironically  that  the 
Jews  had  set  up  a  kind  of  Pantheon, 
open  to  all  religions.  Comp.  Mic. 
i.  7,  '  she  collected  them  (viz.,  the 
idols)  together  out  of  the  hire  of  a 
harlot.'  The  Hebr.  is  peculiar,  but 
not  so  peculiar  as  to  necessitate  Dr. 

Weir's    ingenious    correction. 

Shall  inherit  the  land]  viz.,  Judah 


I  dwell  in  the  high  and 


(xlix.  8).  The  familiar  promise  at- 
tached sometimes  to  fullilment  of 
the  Law  (Dcut.  iv.  i,  comp.  40,  v. 
23),  sometimes  to  moral  qualities, 
such  as  humility  (Ps.  xxxvii.  11), 
righteousness  (Ps.  xxxvii.  29),  and, 
as  here,  trust  in  Jehovah  (Ps. 
xxxvii.  9).     Comp.  hi.  7. 

'•  And  one  said  .  .  .  ]  Another 
of  those  mysterious  voices  which 
fill  the  air  round  about  the  prophet. 
It  conveys  a  summons  to  prepare 
the  way  for  the  people  of  Jehovah 
(comp.  xl.  3,  Ixii.  10),  and  to  remove 
the  'stumbling-blocks'  which  Jeho- 
vah himself  (Jer.  vi.  21  Weir)  had 
placed  in  Israel's  path.  Comp. 
xxvi.  7. 

'^  Here  a  new  paragraph  begins 
— the  concluding  one  of  the  sec- 
tion. The  ground  of  Israel's  hope 
of  salvation  is  the  combined  high- 
ness and  humbleness  {a/iiriui/i  Ps. 
xviii.  36)  of  Jehovah  (comp.  Ixvi.  2, 
Ps.  cx.\xviii.  6).  As  an  old  Jewish 
writer  says,  '  Wherever  the  Scrip- 
ture bears  witness  to  the  Divine 
mightiness,  it  brings  out  side  by 
side  with  it  the  Divine  humbleness, 
e.g.,  Deut.  x.  17,  comp.  18  ;  Isa. 
lvii.  1 5  a,  comp.  15^;  Ps.  Ixviii.  4, 
5.'  '  Jehovah  cannot  direct  the 
affairs  of  his  people  from  without  ; 
he  desires  to  be  enthroned  in  their 
hearts.  When  they  turn  away 
from  him,  he  punishes  them  ;  but 
by  gentle,  spiritual  means  he  moves 
them  to  return  to  him  as  penitent 

sinners. "W^ho      dwelleth      for 

ever]  i.e.,  the  eternal,  the  un- 
changeable (like  'the  first  and  the 
Last,'  xliv.  6). Whose  name  is 


'  Affgilla,  31  a,  quoted  by  Del.  on  Ps.  -wiii.  36, 


CHAP.  LVII.] 


ISAIAH. 


75 


holy  place,  with  him  also  that  is  crushed  and  lowly  in  spirit, 
to  revive  the  spirit  of  the  lowly,  and  to  revive  the  heart  of  those 
who  are  crushed.  '^  For  I  will  not  contend  for  ever,  nor  will  I 
be  wrathful  continually,  for  the  spirit  would  faint  before  me, 
and  the  souls  which  /  have  made.     ^^  For  his  unjust  gain  I 


Holy  One]  i.e.,  who  reveal  myself 

as  the  Holy  One.   See  on  xl.  25. 

Tlie  big:li  and  holy  place]  i.e.,  the 

heavenly  temple  (vi.   i). "Witli 

bim  also  tbat  is  crushed  .  .  .  ] 
'  With,'  i.e.,  in  close  proximity  to. 
The  prophet  implicitly  contradicts 
the  Epicureans  of  his  day,  who  de- 
nied what  the  psalmist  (above) 
calls  the  '  humbleness '  of  God,  and 
said,  '  Is  not  God  in  the  height  of 
heaven  .''  how  can  he  perceive  ?  ' 
(Job  xxii.  12,  13).  '  Crushed,'  not 
'contrite'  (Auth.  Vers,  after  Vulg.), 
which  is  a  misleading  rendering. 
'  Crushed  in  spirit '  is  almost  syno- 
nymous with  lowly,  hills  being  the 
emblem  of  pride,  and  level  land 
of  humility  ;  it  implies,  in  addition, 
that  the  lowly  state  of  mind  has 
been  produced  by  affliction — in  the 
present  case,  the  affliction  of  Zion  ; 
comp.  Ixi.  1,  2,  Ixv.  14,  Ixvi.  2,  Ps. 
x.xxiv.  18  (19),  cxlvii.  2,  3. 

^^  Jehovah  is  'a  wise  and  faith- 
ful   Creator.' For    I    will    not 

contend  .  .  .  ]  To  '  contend  '  = 
to  send  adversity,  to  punish  (as 
xxvii.  8).  The  idea  of  this  verse  is 
very  characteristic  of  the  tender- 
hearted author  ;  see  xlii.  3,  and 
comp.    Ps.    ciii.    9,    Ixxviii.    38,  39 

(post-Exile  psalms). The  souls 

fvhich  /  have  made]  The  expres- 
sion is  noteworthy,  as  implying  the 
separate  personality  of  man  (comp. 
Zech.  xii.  i,  Jer.  xxxviii.  16) ;  the 
Old  Testament  writers  are  not 
always  equally  explicit  (see  Ps.  civ. 
29,  Job  xxxiv.  14).  The  choice  of 
the  word  for  'soul'  {neshaindh^  lit., 
'  breath  ')  is  itself  significant  ;  it 
means  the  principle  of  life  breathed 
immediately  by  God  into  the  human 
body  (Gen.  ii.  7),  the  self-conscious 
personal  spirit. 

'"  For  his  unjust  gain]  Lit., 
'  for  the  iniquity  of  his  gain.'  Del. 
renders    '  for  the  guilt  of  his  self- 


seeking,'  i.e.,  for  his  desire  for 
worldly  possessions.  I  doubt  if  we 
have  a  right  to  introduce  such  a 
paraphrase  into  the  te.xt ;  the  more 
so,  as  it  is  perhaps  not  strictly  ac- 
curate. The  fact  is,  that  'unjust 
gain  '  is  used  by  the  prophets  and 
psalmists,  precisely  in  the  same 
way  as  '  bloodshed,'  as  a  repre- 
sentative  of  the  besetting  sins  of 
the  Jews.  Jeremiah,  for  instance, 
says  (vi.  13),  '  For  from  the  least 
unto  the  greatest  of  them  every 
one  gaineth  unjust  gain  '  :  else- 
where (v.  i)  he  even  denies  that 
there  is  a  single  man  of  probity 
and  justice  left.  Similarly,  Ezekiel 
says  (xxxiii.  31),  'Their  heart  goeth 
after  their  unjust  gain,'  and  the 
typical  righteous  man  in  Ps.  cxix. 
{v.  36)  prays,  '  Incline  my  heart  to 
thy  testimonies  and  not  to  unjust 
gain,'  and  the  very  prophecy  before 
us  singles  out  the  passion  for  money 
as  the  chief  sin  of  the  spiritual 
shepherds  of  the  Jews.  It  is  just 
the  same  with  the  sin  of  murder 
(including  doubtless  judicial  mur- 
der), which  is  laid  at  the  door  of 
the  Jews  with  a  really  surprising 
persistency  ;  comp.  i.  15,  v.  7, 
xxxiii.  15,  li.x.  3,  Jer.  ii.  34,  Ezek. 
vii.  23,  Hos.  iv.  2,  Mic.  iii.  10,  vii, 
2,  Pro  v.  i.  II.  We  are,  therefore, 
abundantly  justified  in  supposing 
that  where  a  prophet  or  a  psalmist 
seems  to  lay  a  disproportionate 
emphasis  on  a  single  sin,  such  as 
murder  or  unjust  gain,  he  means  to 
include  all  the  other  besetting  sins 
of  the  Jews  under  this  head,  espe- 
cially, of  course,  those  sins  of  vio- 
lence, to  which  the  upper  classes 
(chiefly  addressed  by  the  prophets) 
were  peculiarly  prone.  Only  thus 
can  we  understand  a  passage  like 
the  present,  which  seems  to  ascribe 
the  Exile  to  simple  '  covetousness,' 
and  like  Ps.  Ii.  14,  where  the  typical 


76 


ISAIAH. 


[CHAI'.  LVII. 


was  wrathful  and  smote  him  ;  I  hid  my  face,  and  was  wrath- 
ful, because  he  went  on  perversely  in  the  way  of  his  own 
heart.  '*  His  ways  have  I  seen,  ™and  I  will  heal  him  ;  and  I 
will  lead  him,  and  give  a  requital  of  comfort  to  him  and  to  his 
mournful  ones.  '^"He  crcateth"  the  fruit  of  the  lips  ;  '  Peace, 
peace  to  the  far  off  and  to  the  near,'  saith  Jehovah,  '  for  I 
will  heal  him.'     ^  But  the   ungodly  arc  like  the  sea  that  is 

"•  But   Ges.,  Naeg. 

n  So  Kay. — I  create,  Rashi,  Kimchi,  Calv.,  Vitr. — I  have  created,  Vulg. — He  who 
createth,  Naeg.  ;  or,  created,  Ew. — Creating,  Sept.,  Ges.,  Hitz.,  Del. — 1  who  created, 
Targ.  (connected  with  v.  i8  ;  so  also  Ges.). 


Israelite,  who  makes  no  other  in- 
dividualising reference,  and  else- 
where lays  the  chief  stress  on  his 
sinful  nature,  prays,  '  Deliver  me 
from  (the  guilt  of)  bloodshed  .  .  . 
and  my  tongue  shall  sing  aloud 
of  thy  righteousness.'  I  may  add, 
that  there  is  perhaps  a  special 
reason  here  for  the  selection  of 
'  unjust  gain  '  as  a  representative 
sin  in  the  Divine  law  of  the  corre- 
spondence of  punishment  to  guilt. 
Land  being  the  object  of  a  high- 
born Jew's  covetousness,  expulsion 
from  his  land  was  to  be  his  punish- 
ment ;  see  v.  8,  9,  Jer.  vi.  12,  13. 

"^  His  ways  have  X  seen]  Je- 
hovah has  seen  the  thorny  ways  in 
which  His  people  has  been  wander- 
ing ;  He  will  heal  his  wounds  (xxx. 
26),  and  guide  him  by  an  easier 
path  (Iviii.  1 1),  or,  as  Ew.,  '  I  have 
seen  the  amendmoit  of  his  ways.' 

A.  requital  of  comfort]     As  a 

compensation  for  his  long  suffer- 
ings (comp.  on  xl.   2). And   to 

bis  mournful  ones]  ('  .And  '  = 
namely.)  So  Ixi.  2,  3  ;  comp.  the 
fuller  phrase  in  Ixvi.  10. 

'"  He  createtb  .  .  .  ]  It  is  an  ex- 
clamation of  the  prophet  (Kay)  ;  a 
participial  clause,  as   in   xl.   22,  23. 

The  fruit  of  the  lips]     This 

may  mean  (1)  praise  and  thanks- 
giving (as  Ges.,  Ew.,  Del.,  Kay)  ; 
comp.  Hos.  xiv.  2,  Heb.  xiii.  i  5.  On 
this  view  of  the  passage,  it  contains 
a  second  argument  (the  first  being 
drawn  from  Jehovah's  mercifulness) 
for  the  '  healing  '  or  restoration  of 
Israel,  viz.,  that  praise  is  one  of 
God's  '  creations  '  or  appointments, 


and  that  Israel,  having  been 
'formed'  to  'tell  out  His  praise' 
(xliii.  21),  must  not  be  hindered 
from  his  mission.  Or  (2)  with  Je- 
rome, the  Rabbis,  Calv.,  Hitz., 
Henderson,  we  may  take  'the  fruit 
of  the  lips  '  to  refer  to  the  word  of 
Jehovah  which  follows.  In  any 
case  it  is  not  ordinary  speech 
which  is  thus  described,  but  some 
happy  and  happ)'-making  commu- 
nication, worthy  to  be  called  a 
'fruit'  (as  in  Prov.  x.  31),  comp. 
Mohammed's  saying  of  the  garden 
of  Eden,  '  No  vain  discourse  shall 
they  hear  therein,  but  only  "peace"' 
{Kofdn^  Sur.  xi.\.  63).  But  the 
first  way  is  surely  the  preferable 
one.  Hitherto  the  lips  of  faithful 
Israelites  ('his  mournful  ones')have 
been  sealed  by  sorrow  ;  now  Je- 
hovah, by  his  creative  word,  causes 

them  to  blossom  with  praise. 

Peace,   peace]  i.e.,   perfect   peace 

(as  xxvi.  3). To  the  far  off  and 

to  the  near]  i.e.,  either  '  to  the 
Gentile  and  to  the  Jew'  (Stier, 
Naeg.,  after  Eph.  ii.  17,  comp.  xlii. 
6),  or,  which  suits  the  context 
better,  'to  him  who  is  far  from  Je- 
rusalem and  to  him  who  is  near  to 
it '(Kimchi,  Calv.,  Ew.,  Del.),  see 
Dan.  ix.  7,  and  comp.  xliii.  5-7, 
xlix.  12.  No  degree  of  remoteness 
was  to  disc|ualify  true  Israelites  for 
the  enjoyment  of  the  promise. 

^-'  -'  A  moving  contrast.  The 
ungodly]  those  who  are,  whether 
only  inwardly  or  also  outwardly,  in 
a  state  of  alienation  from  Jehovah, 
shall  never'cnler  into  peace.'  Comp. 
Jcr.  xlix.  23  (O./'.I).},  Jude  13, '  wild 


CHAP.  I.VIII.]  ISAIAH.  ^^ 

"tost  up,"  for  it  cannot  rest,  and  its  waters  toss  up  mire 
and  mud.  ^i  There  is  no  peace,  saith  p  my  God,P  to  the  un- 
godly. 

"  Lit,  driven.     See  crit.  note. 

p  Jehovah,  many  Hebr.    MSS.— God,  Sept.    (Vatican  MS.),   Targ.— Jehovah   my 
God,  a  very  few  Hebr.  MSS.— The  Lord  [JehovahJ  Elohim,  Sept.  (Alex.  MS.),  Vulg. 

waves  of  the  sea,  foaming  out  their  would    thus    put    his    seal    to   the 

own  shame.'    This  closing  sentence  Divine  oracle.     The  phrase  is  self- 

of  the  second   portion  of  prophecy  assertive  ;    the    prophet    magnifies 

agrees  with  xlviii.   22,  except  that  his  office.     Jehovah  is  in  a  special 

'  my  God '  (comp.  vii.  13)  is  substi-  sense  the  God  of  '  his  servants  the 

tuted  for  'Jehovah,'  as  if  the  speaker  prophets  '  (Am.  iii.  7). 


CHAPTER  LVIII. 


The  Jewish  nation  is  first  rebuked  for  its  formal  religion,  and  especially 
for  its  unspiritual  mode  of  fasting,  which  deprives  its  prayers  for  deliver- 
ance of  all  efficacy  {vv.  1-4)  ;  after  this,  the  true  mode  of  fasting  is  held 
up  for  imitation  {vv.  5-12)  ;  and  finally,  the  duty  of  Sabbath-observance 
is  inculcated,  and  a  promise  of '  inheriting  the  land'  attached  to  it.  The 
practical  tone  here  adopted  reminds  us  of  Ivi.  r-8  (see  introduction  there). 
The  priests  are  not  referred  to  ;  only  the  laity— a  point  in  which  this 
prophecy  contrasts  with  the  undoubted  prophecies  of  Isaiah.  The 
Levitical  code  seems  to  be  also  presupposed,  at  any  rate  in  some  form 
(see  on  v.  3),  though  I  would  not  go  so  far  as  Michael  Sachs  and  D. 
Hoffinann,  and  regard  the  prophecy  as  a  discourse  delivered  on  the  Day 
of  Atonement.^ 

'  Call  with  the  throat,  hold  not  back  ;  like  a  trumpet  raise 
thy  voice,  and  declare  unto  my  people  their  rebellion,  and 
unto  the  house  of  Jacob  their  sins.     2  ^^^j  (^^^  ^^  ^j^^^  ^^^^ 

^  Call  with  the  throat]      Not  not  mentioned  in  this  homily  ;  the 

merely    with    the    lips,    i.e.,    softly  laity  alone  are  addressed. 
(I   Sam.  i.  13),  but  'h  plein  gosier,'  «  And    (yet)  .  .  .  ]     Rebellious 

as  Calvm  puts  it.     Comp.  Ps.  c.xlix.  and  sinful  as  they  are.      Or    else 

16,   'Lofty  hymns    divine  in  their  understand,  '  For  they  deem  them- 

throat.' like    a  trumpet]    or,  selves  to  be  righteous,'  and  continue 

'  like  the  trumpet,'  viz.,  that  of  Ju-  '  and  (  =  consequently)  they  consult 

bilee,  which  had   perhaps  just  re-  me,'    &c. l«e     they     consult] 

sounded.  So  D.  Hoffmann,  but  '  Me  '  is  put  emphatically  at  the  be- 
unnecessarily.  Declare    unto  ginning  of  the  verse — '  me,  the  All- 

my  people  .  .  .  ]  A  reminiscence  holy  and  the  All-just.'     '  Consult ' 

of  Mic.  iii.  8.    Obs.,  the  priests  are  is  the  usual  word  for  applying  to 


Hoffmann  in  particular  uses  this  chapter  as  evidence  of  Isaiah's  authorship. 
It  all  that  it  could  be  held  to  prove,  from  his  point  of  view,  would  be  that  the  Tews 
5n  lived  in  their  own  land;  whether  in  Isaiah's,   in   leremiah's,  or  in   Ezra's  time 


But 

then 

would  be  still  undetermined.     See  Sachs.  Kcrem  C/iemed,  vii.  i2'4r&c!  •  Tloffm.inn' 

in  Berliner's  Magnzin,  1876,  pp.  5,  6.  ' 


78 


ISAIAH. 


[chap,  i.viii. 


suit  daily,  and  to  know  my  ways  they  desire  :  as  a  nation  that 
hath  done  righteousness,  and  hath  not  forsaken  the  law  of 
its  God,  they  ask  of  me  judgments  of  righteousness,  *  the 
approach  of  God  they  desire.*  ^  Wherefore  have  we  fasted, 
and  thou  seest  not— humbled  our  soul,  and  thou  takest  no 
notice  ?  Behold,  in  your  fasting  ye  pursue  business,  and  all 
your  ''  tasks  ye  exact.''     ■•  Behold,  it  is  for  strife  and  conten- 

»  So  most  moderns. — In  approaching  to  God  they  delight,  Sept.,  Pesh.,  Targ., 
Vulg.,  Calv.,  Vitr  ,  Kay. 

•>  So  Ges.  (Thesaurus),  Hitz.,  Naeg.,  Weir. — Workmen  ye  drive,  Ges.  (Commen- 
tary), Ew.,  Del. 


an  oracle  or  a  prophet,  and  no  doubt 
consultations  of  the  prophet  are  in- 
cluded (see  Ezek.  xx.  i),  but  direct 
prayer  to  God  is  also  meant  (see  v. 

4  and  comp.  Iv.  6). iviy  ways] 

i.e.,  my  dealings  with  my  people. 

The  law]  Hebr.  viishpat  [stG. 

on     xlii.      l). Judgments     of 

righteousness]  i.e.,  manifestations 
in  act  of  Jehovah's  fidelity  tft  his 
covenant-engagements  with  Israel. 

Comp.  on  lix.  9. The  approach 

of  God]  i.e.,  his  approach  to  judg- 
ment. Alt.  rend,  spoils  the  paral- 
lelism. 

^  "Wherefore  have  we  fasted] 
The  reproofs  in  this  part  of  the 
prophecy  remind  us  of  Zech.  vii.  5, 
6  (comp.  viii.  19),  Joel  ii.  T2,  13. 
Fasting,  both  public  and  private, 
appears  to  have  become  more  and 
more  prevalent  in  and  after  the 
Babylonian  period ;  the  passage  be- 
fore us  may  refer  equally  to  special 
private  fasts  and  to  those  required 
by  the  ecclesiastical  authorities 
(comp.  Matt.  ix.  14,  Luke  xviii.  12). 
The  eflfect  of  the  prophetic  exhorta- 
tions was  peculiar  (see  on  ?'.  7)  ;  it 
was  not  till  after  the  last  siege  of  Je- 
rusalem that  the  evil  of  formal  fast- 
ing began  to  be  at  all  generally  felt. 
That  great  calamity,  however,  did 
open  the  eyes  of  the  Jewish  people. 
The  short  homily  on  the  fasting 
of  the  heart,  which,  according  to 
Taainth,  ii.  I,  was  pronounced  at 
public  fasts,  is  quite  in  the  spirit  of 
the  prophetic  exhortations  ;  comp. 
also  (juotations  from  Talmud  (AV- 
darim  bahli,  p.  10  ^,  Ki (id  11  shin 
jenish.^   end\    in    r.r.itz's    KoJtelct^ 


pp.  33,  34. Humbled  our  soul] 

A  characteristic  phrase  of  the  Le- 
vitical  legislation,  which  almost  (I 
must  not  say  '  entirely,'  for  in  Ps. 
xxxv.  13,  the  two  forms  of  expres- 
sion are  combined)  supplanted  the 
word  'to  fast;'  see  Lev.  xvi.  29,  31, 
xxiii.  27,  32,  Num.  xxix.  7,  xxx.  13. 
It  was  evidently  a  well-known 
technical  phrase  when  our  prophet 
wrote,  for  in  v.  5  he  uses  it  as  such, 

simply  deepening  its  meaning. 

Ve  pursue  business]  (The  rend. 
'  business '  seems  absolutely  neces- 
sary here,  as  also  in  Ecclesiastes, 
where  Sept.  renders  Trpayna.  It  is 
doubtful,  however,  in  spite  of  Ges., 
whether  this  meaning  can  be  es- 
tablished elsewhere.)  Unlike  the 
Sabbath,  the  fast-days  (except  the 
great  Day  of  Atonement)  appear 
not  to  have  involved  the  cessation 
of  business.  Hence  the  prophet 
continues.  All  your  tasks  ye  ex- 
act] Ve  are  specially  anxious  at 
such  times  that  the  service  of  God 
should  not  interfere  with  that  of 
mammon.  Ye  '  exact '  the  full  tale 
of  works,  like  slave-drivers  (the 
participle  of  the  verb  has  this 
meaning,  see  Ex.  v.  6,  Job  iii.  18). 
'  The  prophet  paints  throughout 
from  the  life,'  observes  Dclitzsch 
in  his  first  edition,  'and  we  cannot 
be  persuaded  by  .Sticr's  false  zeal 
for  Isaiah's  authorship  to  give  up 
the  opinion  that  we  have  here  a 
figure  drawn  from  the  experience 
of  the  exiles  in  Babylon.'  That 
the  prophet  paints  from  the  life  is 
certain,  but  no  more  than  this. 

'  Behold,  it  is  for  strife       ■  .  ] 


CHAP.  LVIII.] 


ISAIAH. 


79 


tion  yc  fast,  and  to  smite  with  the  fist  of  wickedness  :  ye  do 
not  so  fast  at  this  time  as  to  make  your  voice  to  be  heard  in 
the  height.  ^  Can  such  be  the  fast  that  I  choose,  the  day 
when  a  man  humbleth  his  soul  ?  Is  it  to  bow  down  one's 
head  like  a  bulrush,  and  to  make  sackcloth  and  ashes  his 
couch  ?  Wilt  thou  call  this  a  fast,  and  a  day  acceptable  to 
Jehovah  ?  "^  Is  not  this  the  fast  that  I  choose — to  loose  the 
bands  of  wickedness,  to  untie  the  thongs  of  the  yoke,  and 
to  set  them  that  are  crushed  at  liberty,  and  that  ye  burst  in 
sunder  every  yoke  ?  ^  Is  it  not  to  break  thy  bread  to  the  hungr>% 
and  that  thou  bring  miserable  outcasts  to  their  home  .'*  When 
thou  seest  the  naked,  that  thou  cover  him,  and  hide  not  thy- 
self from  thine  own  flesh  ?  *  Then  shall  thy  light  break  forth 
as  the  morning,  thy  new  flesh  shall  quickly  shoot  forth,  and 
thy  righteousness  shall  go  before  thee,  and  the  glory  of  Jeho- 


The  only  result  of  this  formal  fast- 
ing   is  strife   and  violence. Ye 

do  not  so  fast  .  .  •  ]  This  glaring 
inconsistency  prevents  your  prayers 
for  a  Divine  interposition  {v.  2) 
from  rising  to  the  pure  '  height,' 
where  Jehovah  dwelleth  (Ivii.  15 
Hebr.).  Comp.  Lam.  iii.  44,  '  Thou 
hast  covered  thyself  with  clouds,  so 
that  prayer  may  not  pass  through.' 

AVhen  a  man  humbleth  his 

soul]  viz.,  according  to  the  inten- 
tion   of  the   legislator. Ziike    a 

bulrush]   '  With  a  merely  physical 

inclination  of  the  head'  (Kay). 

"Wilt  thou  call]  From  this  point 
the  prophet  addresses  personified 
Israel  (see  7'.  14). 

®  To  untie  the  thongs  of  the 
yoke]  Metaphorically,  of  course. 
The  elaborate  and  merciful  legisla- 
tion for  the  protection  of  Hebrew 
slaves  (found  in  Ex.  xxi.  2  &c., 
Deut.  XV.  12  &c.,  no  less  than 
in  Lev.  xxv.  39  &c.)  appears  to 
have  been  long  a  dead  letter  (see 
Jer.  xxxiv.  8-22) — a  warning,  be  it 
observed,  not  to  attach  too  much 
importance  to  the  argicvienticm  e 
silentw  with  regard  to  the  date  of 
Hebrew  laws. — As    to   the  Jewish 

yoke,  see  Uel.'snote  on  x.  27. To 

set  them  that  are  crushed  .  . .  ]  In 
the  spirit  of  him  who  cherishes  the 
'  crushed  reed'  (xlii.  3,  same  word). 


^  The  same  duties  are  enforced 
by  the  great  Exile-prophet  Ezekiel 
(xviii.  7,  16).  These  and  similar 
exhortations  seem  to  have  had 
great  effect  in  the  post-Exile 
period  ;  in  fact,  a  new  formalism 
appears  to  have  arisen  out  of 
them  (Matt.  vi.  1-4).  Comp.  the 
Sept.  rendering  of  i.  27  b,  and  the 
Rabbinic  use  of  '  righteousness ' 
{^''dakaJi)  for  alms-giving — a  fore- 
announcement  of  which  is  found  as 
early  as  Dan.  iv.  27,  '  redeem  thy 
sins  by  beneficence'  (lit.,  'righteous- 
ness,' see  Q.  P.  B.). To  break 

thy  bread]  Alluding  to  the  oval 
cakes   which    formed    the    Jewish 

bread. I^iserable       outcasts] 

Referring  probably  to  Jews  in 
foreign  slavery  ;  comp.  Joel  iii.  2- 

8,  and  especially  Neh.  v.  8. To 

their  home]    i.e.,    to  their  native 

land    (as    xiv.     17). Hide     not 

thyself]  =  turn    not    coldly    away 

(Deut.      xxii.     i). Thine     own 

flesh]  not  merely  thine  own  kindred 
(Gen.  xxix.  14,  xxxvii.  27),  but,  more 
broadly,  thine  own  countrymen  ; 
see  the  close  parallel  in  Neh.  v.  5. 

*"'■'  A  series  of  glorious  pro- 
mises    to    the    obedient. Thy 

rig-hteousness]  i.e.,  thy  justifica- 
tion in  the  eyes  of  all  the  world 
(liv.  17);  or,  perhaps  more  suitably, 
thy  inward,  personal  righteousness 


8o 


ISA  I A II. 


[chap,  i.viii. 


vah  shall  be  thy  rearward.  ^  Then  shalt  thou  call,  and  Jehovah 
shall  answer;  thou  shalt  cry,  and  he  shall  say,  Here  I  am. 
If  thou  remove  from  the  midst  of  thee  the  yoke,  the  stretching 
out  of  the  finger,  and  speaking  wickedness,  '"and  minister  thy 
sustenance  to  the  hungry,  and  satisfy  the  humbled  soul  ;  then 
shall  thy  light  rise  in  darkness,  and  thy  thick  darkness  be  as 
the  noon,  "  and  Jehovah  shall  lead  thee  continually,  and 
satisfy  thy  soul  in  dry  places,  and  thy  bones  shall  he  make 
supple  ;  and  thou  shalt  be  like  a  well-watered  garden,  and 
like  a  fountain  whose  waters  disappoint  not.  '-And  "^  thy 
children  shall  build  up  "^  the  ancient  ruins  ;  thou  shalt  raise 
up  the  foundations  of  past  generations,  and  men  shall  call 
thee  Repairer  of  the  breach.  Restorer  of  roads  for  habi- 
tation. 

<=  So  Weir  (emendation). — Through  thee  shall  be  built  up,  Sept.,  Vulg.,  E\v. , 
Bottcher  (so  too  nonuulli,  mentioned  by  Calvin). — (_They  that  shall  spring)  from  thee 
shall  build  up,  Hebr.  text,  according  to  most. 


(i.  27,  xxxiii.  5,  6). The  erlory  of 

Jebovab  .  .  •  ]  Almost  word  for 
word  as  in  lii.  12. 

^  Tben  staalt  tbou  call  ■  •  ■  ] 
A  contrast  to  the  unacceptable  and 
unanswered    prayers   of    the    past 

{tt.  2,  4). Tbe  stretcblng  out 

of  tbe  finger]  The  middle  finger, 
the  '  infamis  digitus,'  Pers.  ii.  33. 
The  objects  of  contempt  are  not 
mentioned,  but  can  be  easily  sup- 
plied from  the  context.  I  doubt  if 
we  have  a  right  to  compare  Ivii.  4, 
Ixvi.  5  -.—there  is  no  mention  in  this 
chapter  of  a  party  entirely  hostile 

to  belief  in  Jehovah. Speaking 

wickedness]  or  '  naughtiness  '  (a 
more  complete  ec(uivalent),  i.e.,  as 
the  context  shows,  plotting  evil 
against  others. 

'^'  And  minister  tby  suste- 
nance .  .  ■  ]  Surely  not  '  thy  dain- 
ties '  (as  Knob.).  The  noun  lite- 
rally means  '  thy  soul,'  i.e.,  that  in 
which  thy  life  consisteth  (I)eut. 
xxiv.  6),  not  '  dainties,'  but  bread. 
[This  verse  shows  how  unsafe  is 
the  common  argument  that  such 
and  such  a  Hebrew  word  must 
have  a  particular  meaning,  because 
it  has  this  meaning  somewhere  else 
in  the  same  section.     Here  is  '  soul ' 


used  in  two  senses  close  together.] 
Tbe  humbled  soul]  '  Hum- 
bled,' not  by  formal  fasting,  but  by 
misery. 

' '  Shall  lead  thee  continually] 
For  it  was  not  enough  to  be  guided 
(or  to  have  been  guided)  back  to 

Palestine:    see   on    xl.     11. Xn 

dry  places]  The  Messianic  age 
seems  to  have  receded  for  a  time 
into  the  dim  distance.  There  are 
still  'dr)f  places  '  to  apprehend,  but 
a  foretaste  of  the  expected  blessings 

shall  be  granted  to  the  faithful. 

liike  a  well-watered  garden]  So 
Jer.  xxxi.  12  (nowhere  else) ;  for  the 
idea,  comp.  xliv.  3,  4. 

'^  Shall  build  up  ...  ]  Closely 

parallel  with  Ixi.  4. Tbe  ancient 

ruins]  Lit.,  the  ruins  of  an  aon 
{'■ol(ini),  referring  to  the  long 
period  of  the  Exile  (comp.  on  xlii. 

14). The  breach]  i.e.,  the  broken 

down  walls. Roads  for  habita- 
tion] We  should  have  expected 
'roads  for  travelling,'  but  Job  xxiv. 
13  proves  that  'to  inhabit  roads' 
is  an  idiomatic  Hebrew  phrase.  It 
seems  to  have  come  from  a  time 
when  a  large  part  of  the  country 
was  uninhabitable,  because  devoid 
of  roads. 


CHAP.  LIX.] 


ISAIAH. 


8i 


'^  If  thou  turn  thy  foot  from  the  Sabbath,  so  as  not  to  do 
thy  business  on  my  holy  day,  and  call  the  Sabbath  a  delight, 
the  holy  thing  of  Jehovah  honourable,  and  honour  it,  so  as 
not  to  do  after  thy  wont,  nor  pursue  thy  business,  nor  speak 
words  ;  ^*  then  shalt  thou  delight  thyself  in  Jehovah,  and  I 
will  make  thee  to  ride  over  the  heights  of  the  land,  and  to  eat 
the  inheritance  of  Jacob  thy  father  ;  for  the  mouth  of  Jehovah 
hath  spoken  it. 


13,  14  The  prophet  evidently  re- 
gards the  fast-days  as  mere  forms 
without  authority  or  significance. 
All  the  more  strict  is  his  view  of 
the  claims  of  the  Sabbath  (comp. 

hi.  1-8). Turn  thy  foot   from 

the  Sabbath]   As  if  it   were   holy 

ground  (Ex.  iii.   5). A  delig;ht] 

The  delight  would  consist  partly  in 
sympathy  with  the  tired  labourers, 
enjoying  their  weekly  rest  (Sabbath 
means  '  rest ').  The  prophet  is  far 
from  anticipating  the  Sabbath-law 
of  later  times,  which  was  no  '  de- 
light.' He  would  be  more  in  sym- 
pathy with  an  e.xplanation  of  the 
Assyrian  sabattii^  found  in  a  list  of 
synonyms — 'day  of  rest  of  heart  ' 
(//;;//  niih  lihbi). — — Thy  wont]  Lit., 
thy  ways,  i.e.,  thy  wonted  round  of 

occupations. Nor  speakwords] 

Not  that  either  now  or  at  any  later 
time  absolute  silence  was  a  part  of 
the  unwritten  Sabbath-law  (see 
Del.'s  note),  but  that  '  in  the  mul- 
titude of  words  there  wantcth  not 


transgression'  (Prov.  x.  19,  comp. 
Eccles.  V.  3).  So  'a  man  of 
tongue '  =  a  malicious  speaker,  Ps. 
cxl.  II  (comp.  V.  9  above).  The 
phrase  will  also  cover  false  or  un- 
founded statements  (Hos.  x.  4,  Job 
XV.  13?),  'words  of  the  lips'  (xxxvi. 
S).  Observe  the  emphasis  laid  on 
words,  both  human  and  divine,  as 
well  in  the  Old  as  in  the  New  Test, 
(comp.  on  ix.  8). 

^*  Then  shalt  thou  deligrht  thy- 
self .  .  .  ]  The  condition  being, 
'  If  thou  call  the  Sabbath  a  delight,' 
we  should  expect  the  apodosis  to 
run,  '  Then  shall  Jehovah  delight 
himself  in  thee,'  and  this  is  evi- 
dently  the   meaning. To    ride 

over  .  .  .  ]  i.e.,  to  take  triumphal 
possession  of  Palestine  with  its 
hills  and  fortresses  (Deut.  xxxii.  13, 
comp.  xxxiii.  29).  Comp.  for  the 
idea  Ixv.  9;  also  Ezek.  xxxiv.  13,  14, 
xxxvi.  I -12  (obs.  Ezekiel's  passion 
for  '  the  mountains  of  Israel '). 


CHAPTER    LIX. 

Co7itents. — This  chapter  continues  the  subject  of  chap.  Iviii.  With  all  its 
observance  of  the  outward  forms  of  religion,  the  prophet's  contemporaries 
(unless  we  suppose  his  point  of  view  to  be  ideal,  that  is,  prophetically 
imaginative,  and  not  historical)  are  guilty  of  open  violations  of  the  moral 
law  {vv.  1-8).  But  soon  the  prophet  assumes  that  his  admonitions  have 
borne  fruit.  The  Jews  penitently  confess  their  sins,  and  their  breach  of 
the  covenant  with  Jehovah  ;  they  lament  their  unhappy  state,  and  own 
that  they  have  no  claim  upon  their  God  for  assistance  {vv.  9-15  a).  Then 
follows  a  splendid  theophany.  As  there  is  no  other  champion,  Jehovah 
interposes.  The  last  verse  communicates  a  special  word  of  promise  to 
the  true  Israel.— The  first  part  of  the  chapter  presents  affinities  to 
VOL.    II.  G 


82 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  lix. 


Proverbs  (see  especially  on  vv.  7,  8),  and  to  Ps.  Iviii.  (see  Kay,  T/ic  Book 
0/  Psalvis,  p.  181). 

'  Behold,  the  hand  of  Jehovah  is  not  too  short  to  deliver, 
nor  his  ear  too  heavy  to  hear ;  ^  but  your  iniquities  have  been 
separating  between  you  and  your  God,  and  your  sins  have 
hidden  the  Face  from  you,  so  that  he  heareth  not.  ^  For  your 
hands  are  defiled  with  blood,  and  your  fingers  with  iniquity  ; 
your  lips  speak  lies,  and  your  tongue  muttereth  depravity. 
^  None  *  preferrcth  his  suit  ^  with  truthfulness,  and  none 
pleadeth  with  honesty  ;  they  trust  in  chaos,  and  speak  empti- 
ness ;  they  conceive  trouble,  and  bring  forth  iniquity.  ^  Eggs 
of  the  great  viper  do  they  hatch,  and  spiders'  webs  do  they 

»  Similarly   Lowth,  Ges.,    Knob.,  Naeg.,   Weir. — Speaketh  in  public,  Hitz.,  E\v., 
Del. 


^  The  prophet  meets  some  im- 
plied  objections  of  the  Jews. 

The  band  of  Jehovah  .  .  .  ] 
Comp.  1.  2,  Num.  xi.  23. 

^  Your  Iniquities  .  .  .  ]  '  For  a 
long  tiniQ  past  your  acts  have  been 
belying  your  professions,  and  pre- 
cluding an  ans'.ver  to  your  prayers ' 

(Iviii.    2-4). Have   bidden    the 

race  .  .  .  ]  'The  Face'  means 
much  the  same  as  '  the  Name  of 
Jehovah,'  i.e.,  the  self-manifesting 
side  of  the  Divine  nature  (see  on 
Ixiii.  9,  i.  12,  xl.  10).  Notice  the 
absence  both  of  article  and  of 
suffix  (in  the  Hebrew).  'Face' 
{panim)  has  almost  become  a 
proper  name.  ^ 

•''  Your  hands]  '  The  very  hands 
ye  stretch  out  in  prayer,  i.  15  '  (Dr. 

Weir). Are  defiled  with  blood] 

On  this  accusation,  the  strangeness 
of  which  is  only  not  felt  because 
of  its  frecjuency,  see  notes  on  i.  1 5, 
Ivii.  17.  I  entirely  coincide  with 
Dr.  Weir,  that  '  the  description  in 
this  and  the  following  verses  can 
scarcely  [cannot  possibly]  apply  to 
Israel  in  exile.' 

■•  None  preferreth  his  suit]  In 
vv.  13  grace  was  seeking  and 
pleading ;  hence  the  second  per- 
son.  At  this  point  the  remonstrance 


passes  into  a  denunciation — The 
sense  '  to  prefer  a  suit '  (  =  in  jus 
vocare.,  Kokiiv  fVi  diKrjv)  is  justified 
by  Job  ix.  16,  xiii.  22  ;  it  accords 
well  with  7/v.  14,  15.  Dr.  Weir 
remarks, '  Perhaps  gore  is  here  the 
person  who  appeals  to  the  judge 
for  vindication  and  assistance.  If 
so,  he  will  be  gorJ  in  relation  to  the 
judge,  7iis]ipdt  in  relation  to  his 
adversary.'      A  different  view  was 

taken  in  /.  C.  A.  p.  210. They 

trust  in  chaos]  The  basis  of 
society  (if  it  can  be  said  to  have 
one)  is,  not  faith  in  God  and  good- 
ness, but  falsehood  and  deceit,  in 
other  words,  a  lifeless,  unproduc- 
tive   chaos    (see   on    xl.     17). 

Emptiness]  That  which  has  no 
moral  content. Conceive  trou- 
ble •  .  .  ]  The  same  image  in 
Job  XV.  35,  Ps.  vii.  14  (15);  comp. 
Isa.  xxxiii.  11. 

^  Eergrs  of  the  ^reat  viper  do 
they  hatch]  The  large  yellow 
viper  is  perhaps  thought  of  (xi.  8). 
They  brood  over  purposes  as  deadly 
as  such  vipers'  eggs  (comp.  Job 
XX.  14,  16),  as  ingeniously  malicious 
as  spiders'  webs  (contrast  Job  viii. 

14).  He     that     eateth  .   •   •  ] 

When  any  of  their  plans  are  op- 
posed,   they   take   a   cunning   and 


'  The  only  other  passages  in  which  hi  stir  ('  to  hide")  and  paiiini  ('face')  without  a 
suffi.\  occur  together  are,  according  to  Dr.  Weir,  liii.  3,  Job  xxxiv.  29.  In  the  fornu-r 
p;iss;i,tje  there  is  no  occasion  for  a  suflTix  ;  in  the  latter,  it  is  '  the  Face'  of  Jehovah,  as 
here,  which  is  spoken  of. 


CHAP.  LIX.] 


ISAIAH. 


^3 


weave  ;  he  that  eateth  of  their  eggs  will  die,  and,  if  one  be 
crushed,  it  breaketh  out  into  a  viper.  ^  Their  webs  will  not 
serve  for  clothing,  neither  can  men  cover  themselves  with 
their  works  ;  their  works  are  works  of  mischief,  and  the  deed 
of  violence  is  in  their  hands,  ^  Their  feet  run  to  evil,  and 
make  haste  to  shed  innocent  blood  ;  their  thoughts  are 
thoughts  of  iniquity  ;  desolation  and  destruction  are  in  their 
highways.  ^  The  way  of  peace  they  know  not,  and  there  is 
no  justice  in  their  tracks  ;  their  paths  they  have  made  for 
themselves  crooked  ;  whosoever  treadeth  thereon  knoweth 
not  peace. 

^  Therefore  hath  justice  been   far  from  us,  and  righteous- 
ness doth  not  overtake  us  ;  we  wait  for  light,  but  behold  dark- 

the  name  of  his  penitent  people. 
Contrast  the  self-righteous  language 
of  Iviii.  3. Therefore]  i.e.,  be- 
cause of  our  sins  ;  not  because 
Jehovah  cannot  or  will  not  help  us 

(comp.    V.     12). Hath    Justice 

been  far  from  us]  'Justice'  or 
'  Judgment  '—either  rendering  is 
admissible.  '  Judgment '  would 
mean  a  judicial  interposition  of 
Jehovah  on  behalf  of  his  people  ; 
this  ^yould  suit  the  immediate  con- 
text, including  ?'.  11,  but  would  not 
fit  7/.  14,  and  hardly  v.  15.  Jus- 
tice' or  'right'  will  suit  all  the 
passages  ;  only  we  must  distin- 
guish (with  Naeg.)  between  theo- 
cratic and  civil  'justice.'  The 
theocratic  covenant  entitled  Israel 
to  expect  the  help  of  Jehovah  in 
time  of  need.  Israel,  however, 
complained  (as  xl.  27),  or  at  least 
lamented  (as  here),  that  its  '  right ' 
was  withheld,  and  the  claims  of 
'justice'  disallowed.  There  is  no 
essential  difference  between  the 
two  renderings  ;  it  is  on  account 
of  7/.  15  that  I  prefer  'justice.'  In 
V.  14  it  is  of  course  civil  'justice' 
which  is  meant ;  it  is  implied  that 
the  absence  of  theocratic  is  con- 
ditioned by  that  of  civil  'justice. 
The  former  is  called,  in  the  parallel 
line,  'righteousness,'  still  alluding 
to  the  covenant  between  Jehovah 
and  Israel. — Knobel  suggests  that 
the  despondency  of  the  Jews  may 
ha\e  arisen  from  Cj'rus's  temporary 
c.  2 


a  cruel  revenge.  For  the  mixture 
of  images  in  the  last  clause,  comp. 
Deut.  xxxii.  32,  22- 

^'  "^  They  are  not  always  content 
with  subtle  schemes  for  the  ruin  of 
their  neighbours  :  coarser  '  webs ' 
— deeds  of  violence  and  blood — 
are    equally    congenial    to    them. 

Their  feet  run  ...  in  their 

highways]  The  first  half  of  the 
verse,  with  the  omission  of  '  in- 
nocent,' occurs  again  as  Prov.  i.  16 
(a  verse  v.'anting  in  Sept.)  ;  the 
second  reminds  us  of  Prov.  xvi.  17, 
'  The  highway  of  the  upright  is  to 
avoid  evil '  (i.e.,  he  bestows  as 
much  care  on  avoiding  evil  as  the 
pioneer  does  on  constructing  a 
road).  These  demoralised  Jews, 
however,  build  up  their  highways 
with  '  desolation  and  destruction  ' 
(an  assonance  in  the  original). 

^  Note  the  four  words  for  '  way ' 
in  this  and  the  preceding  verse, 
all  found  in  the  Book  of  Proverbs. 
In  V.  7  we  have  the  laboriously 
constructed  'highway':  in  v.  8, 
first,  the  most  general  word  for 
'way,'  next,  the  waggon-track,  and 
lastly,  the  path  made  by  the  con- 
stant treading  of  wayfarers. Por 

themselves]  i.e.,  in  their  interest. 

Crooked]  reminds  us  of  Prov. 

X.  9,  xxviii.  18,  ii.  15. Knoweth 

not  peace]  Note  the  suggestive 
variation  on  the  opening  clause  of 
the  verse. 

w-K.  u  H&re  the  propbet  speaks  in 


H 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  LIX. 


ncss,  for  gleams  of  light,  but  we  walk  in  thick  darkness, 
10  We  grope  like  blind  men  along  the  wall  ;  and  as  eyeless 
men  we  grope  ;  we  have  stumbled  at  noonday  as  in  the 
twilight  ;  amidst  ''those  full  of  life  (?)''  as  dead  men.  ''  We 
growl,  all  of  us,  like  bears,  and  mourn  sore  like  doves  ;  we 
wait  for  justice,  but  there  is  none,  for  deliverance,  but  it  is  far 
from  us.  '^  For  our  rebellions  are  manifold  before  thee,  and 
our  sins  each  testify  against  us  ;  for  our  rebellions  are  with  us, 
and  as  for  our  iniquities,  we  know  them, — '^  treason  and  un- 
faithfulness to  Jehovah,  and  drawing  back  from  after  our 
God,  speaking  "^  perverseness  and  transgression,  conceiving 
and  uttering  from  the  heart  lying  words.     '*  And  justice  hath 

^  So  Ew.,  Del.,  Naeg. — Dark  places,  Targ.,  Vulg..,  D.  Kimchi,  Rodiger,  Knob. 
"  So  Graetz  (see  on  xxx.  12). — Oppression,  Text. 


transference  of  the  seat  of  war 
from  Babylonia  to  Asia  Minor  (he 
quotes  Xen.  Cyrop.  vi.  2,  9,  Justin 
i.  7)  :  and  Delitzsch  too  thinks  that 
this  is  conceivably  right.  I  doubt 
it  greatly  :  it  is  Jehovah,  and  not 
Cyrus,  or  any  human  champion,  of 
whom  the  Jews  here  complain.  All 
that  is  certain  is  that  the  prophet 
is  painting  from  the  life  ;  it  is  no 
rhetorical  phrasemonger  that  we 
have  before  us.  But  the  historical 
reference  of  the  section  is  wrapt  in 
obscurity. 

"^  We  grope  like  blind  men 
.  .  .  ]  Comp.  Deut.  xxviii.  29  :  it 
is  not  clear  at  first  sight  which  pas- 
sage is  the  original,  and  which  the 

imitation. Amidst  those  full  of 

life]  On  KnobeFs  theory,  this  will 
refer  to  the  arrogance  of  the  Baby- 
lonians, who,  according  to  the  story, 
ventured  to  hold  a  revel  at  the 
very  height  of  the  siege  of  Babylon. 
But  reading,  rendering,  and  inter- 
pretation are  perhaps  all  rather 
doubtful. 

"  Xiike  Ijears  .  .  .  like  doves] 
The  'dove'  is  a  well-known  symbol 
of  lamentation  (comp.  xxxviii.  14, 
Ezek.  vii.  16,  Nah.  ii.  7)  ;  Horace 
and  Ovid  (quoted  by  Bochart),  but 
no  other  Biblical  writer,  speak  of 
the  bear  as  'groaning'  {gemcre, 
gintiti/s). 

'■^  Before  thee]  implying  that 
they  are  well  known  to  Jehovah  : 


comp.    Ps.  xc.  8,  Prov.  xv.  11. 

"With  us]  i.e.,  in  our  consciousness  ; 
so,  in  the  Hebr.,  Job  xii.  3  (V///), 
XV.  9  ('////). 

'^  A     threefold     description    of 

apostasy     opens     the      verse • 

Treason(lit., '  diruptio'  JT.  foederis), 
unfaithfulness  (lit.,  '  belying,'  i.e., 
atheism,  Jer.  v.  12),  and  drawing- 
back  (i.e.,  the  overt  act  of  apos- 
tasy). Evidently  the  prophet  refers 
to  a  paganising  movement  of  special 
intensity,  of  which  we  would  gladly 
have  received  more  ample  informa- 
tion.— Then  follow  sins  of  the  lips 
(comp.  on  vi.  5). Transgres- 
sion] Lit.,  '  deviation  '  (Hebr. 
sarah).  Naeg.  remarks  that  this 
phrase  ('  speaking  deviation  ')  is 
elsewhere  used  only  of  the  false 
teachingof '  pseudo-prophets'  (Deut. 
xiii.  5  =  Hebr.  6,  Jer.  xxviii.  16,  xxix. 
32),  and  that  the  writer  is  probably 
alluding  to  the  seductive  discourses 
of  such  persons.  This  is  possible 
indeed,  but  far  from  certain,  as 
sins  of  the  lips  are  ascribed  to  the 
whole  nation  in  7/.  3,  and  '  devia- 
tion '  from  moral  and  spiritual 
truth  was  not  peculiar  to  prophets 
(comp.  i.  5.  Hebr.). 

"  The  confession  passes  on  to 
public  sins,    especially  the    crying 

Jewish  sin  of  injustice. Justice 

hath  been  driven  back]  If  tins 
passage  refers  to  the  l>abylonian 
exiles  (^which  is  in  my  opinion  very 


CHAP.  LIX.] 


ISAIAH. 


85 


been  driven  back,  and  righteousness  standeth  afar  off;  for 
truth  hath  stumbled  in  the  broad  place,  and  rectitude  cannot 
enter  ;  ^^  and  truth  hath  been  left  behind,  and  he  that  avoid- 
eth  evil,  maketh  himself  a  prey. 


doubtful),  it  supplies  a  valuable 
confirmation  of  the  continuance  of 
Jewish  institutions  during  the  Cap- 
tivity (comp.  Ezek.  viii.  i,  &c). 

Hath  stumbled  in  tbe  broad 
place]  '  Broad  places '  was  a  name 
specially  given  to  the  recesses  on 
each  side  of  the  city-gate  '  used  as 
places  of  assembly  during  the  day, 
and  as  places  of  rest  for  guests 
[say  rather  for  strangers,  Judg.  xix. 
20]  during  the  night.'  '  Here,  during 
the  continuance  of  the  Jewish  state, 
the  'elders'  and  'princes'  sat  and 
judged  (comp.  Jer.  v.  i,  Zech.  viii. 
16,  2  Chron.  xxxii.  6).  The  question 
cannot  be  avoided.  Has  the  pro- 
phet in  view  the  circumstances  of 
the  pre-Exile  period  ?  or  may  we 
venture  to  conjecture  that  the  Baby- 
lonian cities,  like  those  of  mediaeval 
Europe,  contained  separate  '  Jew- 
ries '  or  Jewish  quarters,  each  with 
its  own  '  broad  place '  or  '  forum '  ? 

ror   trutb  .  .  .  ]    Justice  has 

perished,  because  truth  and  recti- 
tude, its  essential  presuppositions, 
have  previously  been  overthrown. 

Cannot  enter]  i  e.,  cannot  find 

admittance  to  the  tribunal,  to  give 

evidence   for    the    right. Hath 

been  left  behind]  Or  (for  the 
phrase  leaves  it  open  whether  the 
absence  spoken  of  is  self-caused 
or  due  to  others),  '  hath  become  an 
absentee' — 'terras  Astra^a  t'eliquit.^ 

nxaketh  himself  a  prey]   So 

excellently  Auth.  Vers.  ;  '  muss  Je- 
dermanns  Raub  sem,'  Luther.  The 
word  sums  up  V7>.  3-7.  Comp.  Ps. 
Ixxvi.  6  a  (same  verb  in  Hebr.). 

^^  '  Here  a  new  verse  ought  to 
begin.  This  mistake  of  our  present 
arrangement  of  the  verses  is  spe- 
cially unfortunate,  as  the  words 
which  follow  evidently  introduce  a 
new  stanza  or  strophe  of  the  pro- 
phecy. For  other  instances  of 
faulty  and  confusing  verse-divisions, 


see  i.  16  ;  Ixiii.  19,  Hebr.  :  Ixvi.  3  ; 
Gen.  xlix.  24  ;  i  Kings  ii.  46 — iii. 
I;  iii. 4,    5;   Jer.  ii.  23;  Neh.  vii. 

73;     xii.     23. And    Jehovah 

saw  it  ...  ]     But    had    not    Je- 
hovah seen  it  from  the  first  1     Yes 
(comp.    xviii.    4,    Ps.    x.    14) ;    but 
he  had  not  shown  this  in  act.     It 
was    Israel's    penitent    confession 
which  drew  forth  the  Divine  love- 
tokens.     It   was   a  genuine    '  fast ' 
(contrast  Iviii.  2-4),  '  a   rending  of 
the  heart  and  not  [merely]  the  gar- 
ments' (Joel  ii.  13),  the  germs  of  a 
new  life. — The  tenses  in  vv.   1 5  b- 
17  are  at  first  sight  difficult  to  ex- 
plain.    Del.    thinks    that   they  are 
historical    perfects  ;   that    Jehovah 
has   already   equipped  himself  for 
judgment,  and  seen  with   surprise 
that  no  man  takes  his  side,  but  not 
as  yet  obtained  satisfaction  for  his 
dishonoured   holiness.     To    me    it 
appears  that  to  divide  the  descrip- 
tion of  the  theophany  between  the 
past  and  the  future  seriously  injures 
its  poetical  effect,  nor  can  1  see  that 
it   is  necessary  to   do.     The    case 
seems  tome  to  be  analogous  to  that 
of  Joel  ii.  18,  19.     The  Jews  in  the 
time  of  Joel  were  in  great   trouble, 
and  had  been  called  to  repentance. 
The  prophet  foresees  that  Jehovah 
will  pity  and  grant  relief,  and  de- 
scribes   this   in   prophetic  perfects 
('  Then   was  Jehovah  jealous  .  .  . 
pitied  .  .  .  answered    and    said'). 
Precisely  so  here.    All  is  still  future, 
though    described   as  past   in    the 

language  of  prophetic  certitude. ■ 

That  there  was  no  man]  The  ap- 
parent parellelism  of  Jer.  v.  i  is  de- 
lusive ;  'no  man'  does  not  here  mean 
'  no  man  of  honesty  and  integrity,' 
but  'no  champion.'  It  corresponds 
to  the  phrase  in  the  next  line, '  none 
to  interpose.'  Comp.  Ezek.  xxii. 
30,  'And  I  sought  for  a  man  among 
them  who    should    make    up    the 


1  Lavard,  Nineveh  and  Babylon,  p.  57. 


86 


ISAIAH. 


[chap,  lix. 


And  Jehovah  saw  it,  and  it  was  evil  in  his  eyes  that  there 
was  no  justice  ;  '^and  he  saw  that  there  was  no  man,  and  was 
stupefied  that  there  was  none  to  interpose  ;  therefore  his  own 
arm  wrought  salvation  for  him,  and  his  own  righteousness 
upheld  him.  '^And  he  put  on  righteousness  as  a  coat  of 
mail,  and  the  helmet  of  deliverance  upon  his  head  ;  and  he 
put  on  garments  of  vengeance  for  clothing,  and  clad  himself 
with  jealousy  as  a  mantle.  '®  According  to  their  deserts,  ac- 
cordingly he  will  repay,  wrath  to  his  adversaries,  retribution 
to  his  enemies  ;  to  the  countries  he  will  repay  retribution. 
'^  And  they  shall   fear  the  Name  of  Jehovah  from  the  sun's 


fence  .  .  .  but  I  found  none.'  In 
the  parallel  passage,  Ixiii.  5,  we  find 
'none  to  help,' and  'none  to  up- 
hold.' It  is  only  the  necessities  of 
parallelism  which  have  separated 
the  substantive  from  its  participial 

adjective.  "Was       stupefied] 

'  Durior  est  metaphora  de  Deo 
usurpata,  quae,  nisi  fallor,  alibi  non 
occurrit.  Sed  Jesaias  passim  valde 
est  evepyrjs  in  omni  sua  dictione,  et 
figuras  orationis  ex  alto  petit.  In 
re  ipsa  significat  summum  ejus  rei 
de  qua  agitur  TrapaSo^oj/.  A  parte 
Dei  ipsius  docet  metaphora,  Deum 
instar  stupentis  aliquamdiu  taciturn 
exspectasse,  hoc  est,  moram  aliquam 
traxisse  antequam  ecclesiae  labo- 
ranti  succurreret.'  Vitringa  com- 
paring Ps.  1.  21,  'These  things  thou 
doest,  and  I  am  silent.'  If  the 
precise  word  '  was  stupefied '  is  not 
again  applied  to  Jehovah  (except 
in  Ixiii.  5),  an  equally  forcible  one 
is  in  Jer.  xiv.  9,  '  Why  shouldst 
thou  be  as  a  man  in  consternation 
{tttd/uini),  as  a  mighty  man  that 
cannot  deliver.'"  The  painful  as- 
tonishment spoken  of  here  is  appa- 
rently inconsistent  with  other  pas- 
sages, in  which  deliverance  from 
trouble  is  ascribed  to  God  alone. 
But  we  have  no  right  to  strain  a 
bold,  poetical  phrase  in  a  dogmatic 

interest. None    to    interpose] 

viz.,  in  battle  ;  elsewhere  in  prayer 

(liii.    12). Therefore    his    own 

arm  .  .  .  ]  Sword  and  l)ow  are  un- 
necessary ;  'with  battles  of  swing- 
ing will  he  fight  against  them' 
(xxx.  32).— Thewords  recur  in  Ixiii. 


5,  with  the  changes  of  '  my '  and 
'  me '  for '  his '  and  '  him,'  and  '  fury' 
for  '  righteousness '  ;  comp.  Job  xl. 

14,  Ps.   xcviii.    I. Deliverance] 

Here  and  in  v.  17  in  the  common 
sense  of  victory  (as  i  Sam.  xiv.  45). 

13  To  the  countries  he  will 
repay  retribution]  The  fate  of 
the  rebel  Israelites  is  merged  in 
that  of  the  heathen.  By  '  the  coun- 
tries,'theprophet  means,  not  merely 
the  peoples  of  Asia  Minor  who, 
under  the  leadership  of  Croesus, 
had  helped  the  Babylonians  against 
Cyrus  (Knob.),  but  all  the  nations 
of  the  heathen  world,  banded  to- 
gether for  a  final  struggle  against 
Jehovah.  It  is  as  an  act  in  the 
great  drama  of  the  world  judg- 
ment that  the  prophet  regards  the 
impending  deliverance  of  the  Jews 
(comp.  on  chap.  xxiv.). 

^'■'  Those  Gentiles  who  are  spared 
are  imagined  as  hastening  from 
their  distant  abodes  in  tremulous 

anxiety  to  meet  Jehovah. Pear 

the  name  of  Jehovah]  A  striking 
amplification  of  the  common  phrase 
'  fear  Jehovah,'  found  also  in  Dent, 
x.wiii.  58,  Mic.  vi.  9  (probably  :  see 
(2-  P.  />'.),  Neh.  i.  II,  Ps.  Ixxxvi.  11, 
and  especially  cii.  15  (which  is 
clearly  a  quotation  from  our  pas- 
sage).    'Name';    see  on  xxx.  27, 

Ixiii.    9. He  shall  come]     i.e., 

Jehovah,  or,  more  correctly,  the 
Name  of  Jehovah.  Comp.  '  (the 
Face)  heareth,'^lix.  2  ;  '  the  Name 

of  Jehovah  cometh,'   xxx.    27. 

Xiike  a  rushing-  stream  .  .  .  dri- 
vcth]  So,  in|xx.  27,  28,  after  men- 


CHAP.  LIX.] 


ISAIAH. 


87 


I 


setting,  and  his  glory  from  the  sun's  rising ;  ^  for  he  shall 
come  like  a  rushing  stream,*^  ^  which  the  breath  of  Jehovah 
driveth,*'  ^^but  as  a  Goel  shall  he  come  to  Zion,  and  unto 
those  that  have  turned  from  rebellion  in  Jacob  :  the  oracle 
of  Jehovah.  ^'  And  I — this  is  my  covenant  with  them,  saith 
Jehovah,  My  spirit  which  is  ^upon  thee,  and  my  words  which 

<*  So  Sept. ,  Vulg.,  Symmachus,  Saadya,  Ew.,  Knob. — For  ,  .  .  like  a  straitened 
(i.e.,  dammed-up)  stream,  Lowth,  Ges.,  Del.,  Naeg. — For  adversity  shall  come  in  like 
a  stream,  Hitz. — When  the  adversary  (or,  adversity,  Targ. )  shall  come  in  like  the  (or 
a)  river,  Hebr.  accents,  Targ.,  Pesh.,  Calv.,  Vitr.,  Hend.,  Kay. 

e  So  Vulg.,  Lowth,  Ges.,  Hitz.,  Ew.,  Knob.,  Del.,  Naeg. — The  spirit  of  Jehovah 
shall  lift  up  a  banner  against  him,  Targ.,  Vitr.,  Hend.,  Kay. 


tioning  the  coming  of  the  Name 
of  Jehovah,  the  prophet  continues, 
'  And  his  breath  is  as  an  overflow- 
ing stream.'  Alt.  rend  is  in  itself 
noble  and  poetical ;  comp.  Jer. 
xlvi.  7,  8,  where  the  hostile  move- 
ment of  Egypt  is  compared  to  a 
flood.  It  has  been  vigorously  sup- 
ported by  Dr.  Kay,  but  is  contrary 
to  the  connection,  which  requires  a 
continuous  description  of  the  theo- 
phany.  I  feel  uncertain,  however, 
whether  the  words  rendered  '  rush- 
ing '  and  '  driveth  '  are  not  corrupt. 

^°  But  as  a  Goel  shall  he  come] 
This  prediction  differs  rather  in 
tone  from  xli.  14,  xliii.  i,  and  similar 
passages  in  which  Jehovah  is  re- 
ferred to  as  Israel's  Goel.  It  wants 
the  usual  setting  of  kindly  en- 
couragement, and  reminds  us  rather 
of  less  evangelical  prophecies,  such 

as  chap.  i. To  sion]  i.e.,  to  the 

remnant  of  Israel — 'those  that  have 
turned  from  rebellion  '  (comp.  i.  27), 
as  the  parallel  line  tells  us.  This 
limitation  is  one  which  English 
students  of  the  prophecies  would 
do  well  to  remember :  it  shows 
that  the  Messianic  promises  to 
Israel  are  only  meant  for  a  con- 
verted and  regenerate  people. 

^^  And  I — this  is  my  covenant 
with  them]  There  are  several  re- 
markable points  about  this  closing 
verse,  (i)its  change  of  number  and 
person  ('with  them  .  .  .upon  thee'); 
(2)  its  tone  of  promise  and  en- 
couragement ;  (3)  the  difliculty  of 
connecting  it  with   the   preceding 

1   Klosterniann  supposes  the  author  of  this  verse  to  be  a  student  of  Isaiah  who  has 
assumed  his  master's  mantle  (Ztv At /^r.  /  lutho:  Thcologic,  1876,  p.  46). 


verses.  The  first  point  is  slight ; 
changes  almost  as  striking  occur 
elsewhere.  The  plural  probably 
refers,  not  to  the  converts  spoken 
of  in  V.  20  (as  V.  F.  Oehler),  but  to 
the  person  addressed  in  the  second 
person  together  with  his  descend- 
ants. The  second  and  third  points 
seem  to  me  to  indicate  that  the 
verse  has  been  removed  hither 
from  some  other  position.  The 
recipient  of  the  '  covenant '  (or, 
appointment,  see  footnote  on  xlii. 
7)  is  the  spiritual  Israel,  to  whom 
a  similar  promise  has  already  been 
given  in  xliv.  3.  Klosterniann  in- 
deed has  a  strange  theory  that  the 
recipient  is  the  prophetic  writer, 
and  that  his  prophetic  gifts  are  to 
descend  to  his  soris  and  grand- 
sons. But  the  promise  is  too  high 
for  an  ordinary  man,  and  its  validity 
is  not  confined  to  '  sons  and  grand- 
sons ' ;  it  is  to  last  '  from  hence- 
forth even  for  ever.' '  To  whom 
can  such  words  apply,  but  to  the 
imperishable  people  of  Jehovah  ? 
Israel,  according  to  II.  Isaiah,  is 
destined  to  be  the  religious  centre, 
from    which    the    words    of  truth 

radiate    in   all    directions. »Sy 

words  ...  in  thy  mouth]  The 
'  words '  referred  to  are  not  the 
message  of  the  true  God  which 
Israel  is  to  carry  to  the  Gentiles 
(Knob.),  but  all  God's  revelations, 
whether  declaratory  of  his  character 
or  predictive  of  the  future  of  the 
world,  of  all  which  Israel  is  the 
depository  (comp.  li.  16?). 


88  ISAIAH.  [CHAP.  LX. 

I  have  put  in  thy  mouth,  shall  not  withdraw  from  thy  mouth, 
nor  from  the  mouth  of  thy  seed,  nor  from  the  mouth  of  thy 
seed's  seed,  saith  Jehovah,  from  henceforth  even  for  ever. 


CHAPTER   LX. 

Contents. — Song  upon  glorified  Zion,  in  five  stanzas — l.  vv.  1-4  ;  ll.  vv. 
5-9;  III.  V7K  10-14;  IV.  VV.  15-18;  v.  VV.  19-22.  The  leading  idea  of 
the  first  stanza  is  the  return  of  the  exiles  ;  of  the  second,  the  rebuilding 
of  the  temple  ;  of  the  third,  the  glory  of  the  new  Jerusalem  ;  of  the 
fourth,  the  prosperity  of  the  state  ;  while  the  fifth  and  last  exhausts  the 
powers  of  language  in  describing  the  favour  which  Jehovah  will  extend  to 
his  righteous  people. 

The  song  looks  as  if  it  were  a  designed  counterpart  to  the  magnificent 
ode  in  chap,  xlvii.  The  one  described  Babylon's  fall  ;  the  other  glorifies 
Jerusalem's  rising  again.  It  further  resembles  its  lyric  predecessor  in  the 
looseness  of  its  connection  with  the  prophecies  among  which  it  is  inserted, 
and  it  is  not  an  unreasonable  conjecture  that  both  songs  originally  existed 
in  a  separate  form. 

'  Arise,  be  lightsome,  for  thy  light  hath  come,  and  the 
glory  of  Jehovah  hath  dawned  upon  thee.  ^  For,  behold,  the 
darkness  shall  cover  the  earth,  and  a  deep  gloom  the  nations, 
but  upon  thee  shall  Jehovah  dawn,  and  his  glory  shall  appear 
upon  thee  ;  ^  and  nations  shall  set  forth  unto  thy  light,  and 
kings  to  the  brilliance  of  thy  dawning.  "  Lift  up  thine  eyes 
round  about  and  see  :  they  are  all  gathered  together  and 
come  unto  thee  :  thy  sons  come  from  far,  and  thy  daughters 

',^  The  ideal  Zion  (see  on  xl.  9)  bidden  to  arise  and  drink  in  the 
is  personified  as  a  woman  lying  on  transfiguring  brightness.  Contrast 
the  ground  in  mental  and  bodily  the  summons  to  Babylon  in  xlvii.  i. 
prostration— it  is  the  same  figure  as  '  The  grlory  of  Jehovah]  Jeho- 
in  li.  23,  lii.  i.  Thick  darkness  en-  vah  is  a  '  sun  '  as  well  as  a  '  shield  ' 
folds  the  earth,  the  darkness  which  (Ps.  Ixxxiv.  1 1),  the  '  sun  of  right- 
typifies  alienation  from  God.  But  eousness' (Mai.  iv.  2).  The  same 
Jehovah  has  begun  to  reveal  him-  figure  is  implied  in  Ps.  xviii.  12 
self  anew— not  as  yet  to  the  whole  (13),  Hab.  iii.  4,  where  the  same 
earth,  but  to  its  central,  one  may  word  {fiogah,  'brilliance')  is  used 
almost  say  its  mediatorial  people,  for  the  appearance  of  the  Divine 
Israel.  As  'the  children  of  Israel  glory  as  in  v.  3. 
had  light  in  their  dwellings,'  when  '  XAft  up  .  .  .  and  come  unto 

there  was  '  thick  darkness  in  all  the      thee]  Repealed  from  xlix.   18. 

land  of  Egypt,'  so  now  there  are  Thy    sons    .  .  .    thy    daughters] 

beaming  over  Israel  the  first  rays       See  on  xlix.  22. Supported  on 

of  a  newly  risen  sun  (comp.  ix.  2).  the  side]  i.e.,  on  the  hip  (so  Ixvi. 
Zion,  however,  is  still  held  by  the  12),  the  arm  of  the  mother  '  sup- 
stupor  of  captivity  ;  she  is  therefore  polling'  ihc  child's  back,  a  custom 


CHAP.  LX.] 


ISAIAH. 


89 


are  supported  on  the  side.  ^  Then  shalt  thou  *  see  and  be 
radiant ;  and  thy  heart  shall  ^  throb  and  be  enlarged  ;  for  the 
abundance  of  the  sea  shall  turn  unto  thee,  the  riches  of  the 
nations  shall  come  unto  thee.  ^A  swarm  of  camels  shall 
cover  thee— young  camels  of  Midian  and  Ephah,  from  Sheba 
shall  they  all  come,  bearing  gold  and  incense,  and  heralding 
the  praises  of  Jehovah.  ^  All  the  flocks  of  Kedar  shall  gather 
unto  thee,  the  rams  of  Nebaioth  shall  minister  unto  thee : 
they  shall  go  up  mine  altar  acceptably,  and  my  glorious  house 
will  I  glorify.     «Who  are  these  that  fly  as  the  clouds,  and 

a  Fear.     Many  Hebr.  MSS.,  Lo.,  Vitr.,  Ges.  (another  reading), 
b  Tremble.     Some  MSS.,  Sept.  (another  reading). 


Still  kept  up  both  in  the  Semitic 
and  the  non-Semitic  East.  Older 
children  would  be  carried  on  the 
shoulder  (xlix.  22). 

^  Tben  shalt  thou  see]  If  the 
former  summons  has  been  neg- 
lected, then  (when  the  prophecy 
has  been  fulfilled)  thou  shalt  per- 
force take  notice.     Ah.  reading  in- 

volves  a  tautology. Be  radiant] 

viz.,  with  joy  ;  the  same  word  oc- 
curs in   Ps.  xxxiv.  6  (5). Shall 

throb]  '  As  a  man  shudders  at  an 
unexpected  deliverance '(Ibn  Ezra). 
Comp.  Jer.  xxxiii.  9,  '  They  shall 
fear  and  shudder  (the  same  word  as 

here)  for  all  the  goodness,'  &c. 

Be  enlarged]  i.e.,  have  a  sense  of 
freedom  and  happiness  (so  Ps.  cxix. 
32).  The  opposite  is  '  to  be  strait- 
ened' (so  Lam.  i.  20,  comp.  Jer.  iv. 

19,  Q,.  P.  B.). The   abundance 

of  the  sea]  i.e.,  the  wealth  of  the 
maritime  countries  of  the  West  (in 
Hebrew,  'the  sea'). 

*'.  "^  This  passage  has  perhaps  a 
bearing  on  the  question  as  to  the 
date  of  II.  Isaiah.  As  Prof.  A.  S. 
Wilkins  remarks,  '  the  country  with 
which  the  historic  Isaiah  was  espe- 
cially familiar  would  lie  somewhat 
out  of  the  direct  line  of  this  com- 
merce.' '  Still,  the  tradition  con- 
nectingthese  nations  with  Abraham 
(comp.  Gen.  xxv.  2-4,  13)  can 
hardly  have  been  unknown  to 
Isaiah,  and  this  would  sufficiently 


account  for  his  giving  them  so 
honourable  a  mention.  On  the 
other  hand,  it  is  extremely  doubtful 
whether  the  names  Kedar  and 
Nebaioth  (in  v.  7)  were  still  tribal 
appellations  in  the  time  of  the 
Exile.  If,  therefore,  we  assigri  a 
Babylonian  origin  to  II.  Isaiah, 
we  must  probably  assume  that  the 
names  in  question  are  used  with 
poetical  liberty. — On  the  commerce 
of  Arabia,  see  Alexander's  notes, 
and  comp.  Movers,  Die  Phonisier, 
ii.  3,  p.  293. 

«  Bphah]  A  '  son  '  of  Midian 
(Gen.  xxv.  4)  ;  mentioned  (under 
the  form  Khayappa)  in  an  inscrip- 
tion of  Tiglath-Pileser  II.  in  com- 
pany with  Massa  and  Tema,  tribes 

of    N.    Arabia.'^ Sheba]    The 

caravans  of  the  Midianites,  espe- 
cially those  of  Ephah  (Gen.  xxv.  4), 
appear  to  have  gone  to  Sheba  (or 

Yemen)    for  gold  and   spices. 

The  praises]  i.e.,  the  praiseworthy 
deeds  (as  Ixiii.  7). 

'  Kedar  .  .  .  Iffebaioth]  The 
Kidrai  (see  on  xxii.  16)  and  the 
Nabaitai  are  mentioned  in  the  Ass. 
inscriptions  side  by  side.  These 
Arabian  Nabaitai  are  distinct  from 
the  Aramaean  Nabatu  of  the  in- 
scriptions {K.  A.  T.,  p.  147)- 

^  Who  are  these  .  .  .  ]  The 
predictive  tone  gives  place  for  a 
moment  to  the  descriptive.  It  is  a 
vision  of  the  sea  which  we  have  be- 


'  Wilkins,  Phcenicia  and  Israel  ["LovlA.  1871),  p.  110.  ,       r,       j- 

2  Schrader,  K.  G.  F.,  pp.  261-2;  comp.  Fricdr.  Delitzsch,    Wo  lag  das  Paradus 

p.  304- 


90 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  lx. 


as  doves  to  their  lattices  ?  ^  Yea,  "^  for  me  the  countries  wait  "^ 
and  the  ships  of  Tarshish  are  the  foremost,  to  bring  thy  sons 
from  far,  their  silver  and  their  gold  with  them,  to  the  name 
of  Jehovah  thy  God,  and  to  the  Holy  One  of  Israel,  inasmuch 
as  he  hath  glorified  thee. 

'°  And  strangers  shall  build  thy  walls,  and  their  kings 
shall  minister  unto  thee,  for  in  my  wrath  I  smote  thee,  and 
in  my  favour  I  will  have  compassion  upon  thee :  "  and  thy 
gates  shall  stand  open  continually,  day  and  night  they  shall 
not  be  shut,  that  men  may  bring  unto  thee  the  riches  of  the 
nations,  and  their  kings  led  along :  '^  for  the  nation  and  king- 
dom that  will  not  serve  thee  shall  perish,  and  those  nations 
shall  surely  be  laid  waste.     '^  The  glory  of  Lebanon  shall  come 

<=  Unto  me  the  countries  shall  assemble,  Luz.,  Geigcr  (changing  vowel-points). 


fore  us — of  the  sea  covered  by  ships, 
which  with  their  outspread  sails 
resemble  the  clouds,  or  flights  of 
home-sickdovcs(comp.  Hos.  xi.  1 1). 

"  The  countries  wait]  The 
'  countries'  (i.e., the  '  far-off  peoples,' 
xlix.  i)  'wait'  in  believing  expect- 
ancy for  the  blessings  which  be- 
long to  them  too,  at  least  in  the 
second  rank.  This  is  one  motive 
for  their  haste.  Another  is  regard 
for  the  children  of  Zion,  who  are 
impatient  to    be    restored  to  their 

home. Sbips  of  Tarshish]  Or, 

'Tarshish-ships'  (ships  of  the  fust 
class,    suitable    for    long   voyages, 

comp.     I    Kings    x.    22). Their 

silver]  i.e.,  the  silver  of  the  Gen- 
tiles {"i'v.  6,  1 1 ),  not  of  the  Israelites. 

To     the    name]    i.e.,    to    the 

place  of  the  name  (xviii.  7).  The 
clause  is  almost  a  verbal  repetition 
of  Iv.  5  b. 

'°  And  strangers  •  •  .  ]  '  The 
walls  of  Zion  arc  raised  with  the 
willing  co-operation  of  converted 
foreigners  (Ivi.  6,  7),'  thinks  I)e- 
litzsch.  But  does  not  the  context 
(see  7/7/.  II,  12,  14)  point  rather  to 
the  mass  of  the  heathen  world  than 
to  willing  proselytes?  Is  not  the 
submission  of  these  foreigners 
rather  a  consequence  of  the  recent 
judgment  (com[).  lix.  \i)ii)  than  the 
result  of  spiritual  affinities  ?  See 
Ixi.  5,  6,  where   ihc  assignment    of 


menial  services  to  'strangers'  is 
evidently  intended  as  a  retribution 
(comp.  xiv.  2).  This  passage  illus- 
trates Ixi.  4  (see  note). 

"  Thy  grates  shall  stand  open] 
Because  there  will  be  'no  niglu 
there'  (comp.  v.  20,  Rev.  xxi.  25), 
and  no  foes  seeking  entrance,  but 

an  endless  stream  of  caravans. 

And  their  kin'^s  led  along:]  i.e., 
not  '  accompanied  by  a  large  re- 
tinue' (Kimchi,  Vitr.,  Lo.,  Cies.  in 
Commentary),  but  (as  the  verb 
always  means)  'led  captive'  (same 
word  in  xx.  4),  or  at  least  '  led 
against  their  will.'  All  eager  to 
minister  to  Israel,  the  'far-off  na- 
tions '  force  their  reluctant  chiefs  to 
join  them.  The  reason  is  given  in 
the  next  verse. 

'-'  The  prosperity  of  Gentile  na- 
tions shall  depend  on  their  relations 
to  Israel  (comp.  Zech.  xiv.  17,  iSt. 

Nations     .     .     .     laid   v^aste] 

'Nation'  and  'territory'  being  con- 
vertible terms  in  Hebrew,  whatever 
is  predicted  of  the  one  may  also 
be  predicted  of  the  other  (comp. 
xxxvii.  18,  2  Kings  iii.  23,  Ilebr.). 

'■'  The  barren  hills  of  Jerusalem 
shall  henceforth  be  decked  with  the 
most  beautiful  forcst-trces  (sec  on 

xli.     19  b).  The  place  of  my 

sanctuary]  What  sanctuary.''  It  is 
naluial  to  think  first  of  the  lemi)lc. 
'I  lie  trees  wlii<  h   have  been   men- 


CHAP.  LX.] 


ISAIAH. 


91 


unto  thee,  the  pine  and  the  plane  and  the  sherbin  together,  that 
I  may  glorify  the  place  of  my  sanctuary,  and  make  the  place 
of  my  feet  honourable.  ^*  And  the  sons  of  them  that  afflicted 
thee  shall  go  unto  thee  crouching,  and  all  they  that  spurned 
thee  shall  bow  down  to  the  soles  of  thy  feet,  and  they  shall 
call  thee.  City  of  Jehovah,  Zion  of  the  Holy  One  of  Israel. 

'^  Instead  of  thy  being  forsaken  and  hated,  and  with  none 
passing  through,  I  will  make  thee  an  everlasting  pride,  the 
delight  of  successive  generations.  "^  And  thou  shalt  suck  the 
milk  of  nations,  and  the  breast  of  kings  shalt  thou  suck,  and 
thou  shalt  know  that  I  Jehovah  am  thy  saviour,  and  that  thy 
Goel  is  the  Hero  of  Jacob.  '''  Instead  of  copper  I  will  bring 
gold,  and  instead  of  iron  I  will  bring  silver,  and  instead  of 
wood  copper,  and  instead  of  stones  iron  ;  and  I  will  make 
^  peace  thy  government,  and   righteousness  thy  magistrates.'^ 

••  Thy  government  peace  (i.e.,   peace-loving)  .   .  .   Sept.,    Saad.,    Hitz.,  Knob., 
Henderson. 


tioned  might  be  required,  either,  if 
felled,  for  the  temple-buildings  (so 
Vitr.),  or,  if  unfelled,  for  decorating 
the  temple-courts,  comp.  Ps.  Hi.  8, 
xcii.  13  (so  Del.).  But  the  Shekinah 
is  no  longer  confined  to  a  single 
house  :  all  Jerusalem  has  become 
the  '  sanctuary '  of  Jehovah  (so  too, 
perhaps,  iv.  5). 

'■^  The  sons  of  tbem  that  af- 
flicted thee]  '  The  sons,'  appa- 
rently because  the  '  afilicters ' 
themselves  will    have    perished  in 

the  Divine   judgment. Zion  of 

the  Holy  One  .  .  .  ]  A  combination 
like  '  Bethlehem  (of)  Judah.' 

'^  Forsaken  and  hated]  Zion  is 
again  imagined  as  Jehovah's  bride 
(comp.  1.  I,  liv.  6).  But  the  figure 
is  not  carried  out  consistently. — 
The  word  '  hated '  is  used  in  Gen. 
xxix.  31,  Deut.  xxi.  15,  of  a  less  be- 
loved wife. 

'*^  And  thou  shalt  suck  •  •  •  ] 
Perhaps  a  reminiscence  of  Deut. 
xxxiii.    19,    '  They  shall    suck    the 

abundance    of    the    seas.' The 

breast  of  king-s]  '  Of  kings  ; ' 
perhaps  to  exclude  a  realistic  inter- 
pretation. The  phrase  strikingly 
indicates  the  new  feeling  of  ten- 
derness towards  Zion  which  shall 
animate    the    kings    of    the    earth 


(comp.  xlix.  23). Tliat  S  Jeho- 
vah .  .  .  ]  Repeated  from  xlix.  26 

"  Instead    of    copper    .    .    .    ] 

Evidently  an  allusion  to  the  ac- 
count of  Solomon  in  i  Kings  x.  21, 
27.  The  language  is  of  course 
figurative,  and  means  that  the  new 
Jerusalem  shall  be  at  the  height  of 
splendour  and  security  (metal  tak- 
ing the    place  of  stone). "Will 

make  peace  thy  government] 
For  the  prosopopoiia,  comp.  xxxii. 
16,  17,  lix.  14.— It  has  been 
questioned  whether  '  peace '  and 
'  righteousness '  are  accusatives  of 
the  object  or  of  the  predicate. 
But,  as  Naeg.  well  remarks,  it 
would  be  comparatively  little  to 
say  that  Jerusalem's  governors 
should  be  men  of  peace  and 
righteousness,  for  this  would  not 
exclude  much  unhappiness  and  un- 
righteousness among  the  governed. 
But  if  Peace  and  Righteousness 
themselves  are  the  governors,  it  is 
as  much  as  to  say  that  government 
in  the  ordinary  sense  has  become 
superfluous.  —  This  passage  evi- 
dently implies  that  those  for  whom 
our  prophet  wrote  only  had  the 
Messianic  belief  in  its  wider  sense, 
Jehovah  alone  being  Israel's  king. 


92  ISAIAH.  [CHAP.  LXI. 

'*  Violence  shall  no  more  be  heard  of  in  thy  land,  desolation 
nor  destruction  in  thy  borders  ;  and  thou  shalt  call  thy  walls 
Salvation,  and  thy  orates  Renown. 

•^  No  more  shalt  thou  have  the  sun  for  a  light  by  day, 
and  as  for  brightness,  the  moon  shall  not  enlighten  thee  ;  but 
thou  shalt  have  Jehovah  for  an  everlasting  light,  and  thy  God 
for  thy  glory.  '^°  No  more  shall  thy  sun  go  down,  and  thy 
moon  shall  not  withdraw  itself,  for  thou  shalt  have  Jehovah 
for  an  everlasting  light,  and  thy  days  of  mourning  are  ful- 
filled. "^^  And  thy  people  shall  be  all  righteous,  they  shall 
possess  the  land  for  ever  ;  the  shoots  of  my  plantation,  the 
work  of  my  hands,  for  showing  myself  glorious.  "  The  smallest 
shall  become  a  thousand,  and  the  least  a  great  nation  ;  I 
Jehovah  in  its  time  will  hasten  it. 

***  Shalt  call  thy  walls   Salva-  ''*  The  sun  for  a  light]  See  note 

tlon  .  •  •  ]  There  is  the  same  doubt  on  xxx.  26. 

as  to  whether  the  abstract  nouns  ^'^  Go  down]    Lit.,  'go  in,'    viz., 

are  objects  or  predicates  as  in  v.       into  his  cliamber  (Ps.  xix.   5). 

17.     Such    names   as    'Salvation'  Itself]     Lit.  'himself.'     Both    sun 

and  '  Renown  '  would  not  be  impos-  and  moon  are  masc.  in  the  Semitic 

sible  ;  Naeg.  (on  xxvi.  i)  reminds  languages,  and  have  male  divinities 

us  that  the  walls  of  Babylon  were  corresponding  to  them, 

named.'     But  it  is  more  forcible  to  ''='  Thy   people    .  .  .    for   ever] 

take  '  Salvation  '  and  '  Renown  '  as  Now  that  Israel  is  righteous,  there 

accusatives    of    the   object.      The  will  be  no  reason  for  the  stern  dis- 

meaning  of  the  passage  will  then  cipline  of  exile  ;  comp.  lix.    13,  14. 

be  '  Thou  shalt  need  no  walls  nor       The  shoots  of  my  plantation] 

gates,  for  Jehovah   shall  be  a  con-  and    therefore    flourishing  ;    comp. 

slant  source  of  salvation,  and  of  a  Ps.  Ixxx.  9,  10. 

renown  which  shall  keep  all  foes  at  '^^  The  smallest]  i.e.,  he  who  has 

a  distance.'     Comp.  xxvi.    i,xxxiii.       few  or  no  children. .a,  thousand, 

21.  We  need  not  mind  the  obvious  i.e.,  probably,  a  chiliad,  or  part  of 
inconsistency  with  z'7/.  10,  11,  for  a  tribe  (so  Del.);  comp.  Mic.  v.  2 
we  are  in  the  region  of  symbol  and  (Hebr.  i),  which  makes  a  fme  con- 
metaphor,  trast  with  '  nation  '  in  the  next  line. 


CHAPTER  LXI. 


A  SOLILOQUY  of  the  Servant  -  concerning  the  message  of  grace,  com- 
fort, and  prosperity  committed  to  him  for  Zion  by  Jehovah. — But  is  it  really 
*the  Servant'  who  is  the  speaker.'  The  title  itself  does  not  occur  once 
throughout  the  soliloquy.  Hence  it  is  not  surprising  that  several  modern 
critics   (Hitz.,  Ew.,  Knob.,  Diestel)  question  this  view,  and  assign  the 

•  See  /?.  P.,  V.  124  ;  Schrader,  A'.  A.   T.,  p.  185  (on  i  Kings  vii.  21). 

'  .So  Henjjst.,  Slier,  Del..  Seinecke,  Kay.  N.ieg. .  .ind  so  /.  C.  A.,  p.  216.  De- 
litzsch,  therefore,  is  not  so  coniparalively  isolated  as  he  supposes.  (Jesaia,  3le  Ausg. 
p.  620. ) 


CHAP.  LXI.]  ISAIAH.  93 

speech  to  the  prophet  who  writes  these  chapters  ;  the  Targum,  too,  dog- 
matically asserts,  '  (Thus)  saith  the  prophet.'    Our  conclusion  will  depend 
mainly  on  that  which  we  have  adopted  with  regard  to  1.   4-9— a  passage 
in  some  respects  closely  parallel  to  the  present.     There,  as  well  as  here, 
the  title  of  the   speaker  is  withheld  ;  there,  as  well  as  here,  the  opening 
verse  declares   the  mission  of  the    speaker  to  be  pre-eminently  one  of 
consolation.     It  is  true  that  in  1.  5  the  speaker   suddenly  turns  aside  to 
describe  his  patience  under  persecution  ;  but  this  is  all  the  more  reason 
why  in  the  present  chapter  he  should  compensate  us  for  our  disappoint- 
ment by  resuming  the  strain  so  abruptly  cut  short.     Diestel  >  urges  two 
objections  against  assigning  this  soliloquy  to  the  Servant,  viz.,  i.  that  the 
personification  of  the  Servant  ceases  with  chap,  liii.,  and  2.  that  as  the 
prophet  is  himself  a  member  of  the  organism  of  the  Servant,  whatever 
can  be  predicated  of  the  one  both  can  and  must  be  true  of  the  other. 
The  answer  to  i.  is,  that  it  is  an  assumption  based  on  a  too  exclusive 
view  of  chaps,  liv.,  Iv.,  and  the  very  loosely  connected  discourses  which 
follow ;  to  2.,  that  precisely  as  in  xliv.  26  we  find  the  prophetic  writer 
described   as    '  his  (Jehovah's)  servant,'  without   precluding  the   higher 
acceptation  of  the  term  in  Hi.  13,  so  the  occurrence  of  the  phrase'  the 
servants  of  Jehovah'  in  liv.   17  does   not  destroy  the   superior  right  of 
Him  who  is  pre-eminently  the  Servant  of  Jehovah.     True,  the  speaker  in 
chap.  Ixi.  does  not  expressly  assume  the  title  ;  but  is  it  necessary  that  he 
should?     Having  been  introduced  as  the  Servant  in  xlii.  1-4,  why  should 
he  not  sometimes  speak  in  his  own  name  ?     It  may  safely  be  affirmed 
that,  but  for  the  absence  of  the  title  '  the  Servant,'  no  one  could  fail  to 
be  struck  by  the  appropriateness  of  vv.   1-3  (especially)  to  the  personal 
Servant  of  Jehovah  : — the  great  things  which  the  speaker  volunteers  to 
do  are  so  far  beyond  the  range  of  a  mere  prophet  like  our  author.     This 
need  not,  however,  hinder  us  from  admitting  that  vv.  4-9  have  nothing 
to  mark  them  out  as  belonging  to  the  Servant.     Just  as  here  and  there 
in  St.  John's  Gospel  the  speeches  of  our  Lord  suddenly  pass  into  re- 
flexions of  the  Evangelist,  so  it  may  here  be  that  the  prophet  for  a  time 
takes  the  place  of  the  Servant  ;  comp.  1.  10,  11. 

'  The  Spirit  of''  [the  Lord]''  Jehovah  is  upon  me,  because 
Jehovah  hath  anointed  me  to  bring  good  tidings  to  the 
afflicted,  hath  sent  me  to  bind  up  the  broken-hearted,  to  pro- 

»  Omitted  in  Sept.,  Vulg.,  one  MS.  (Kennicott),  two  early  editions. 

^  The  Spirit  .  .  .  is  upon  me]  used  metaphorically  for 'to  appoint 

Precisely    the    same    statement    is  to  a  sacred  office.'  Thus  in  i  Kings 

made   respecting    the    Servant    in  xix.  16  Elijah  is  directed  to  anoint ' 

xlii.      I. Hatb   anointed  me]  Elisha,  though,  as  the  sequel  shows, 

Anointino-  was  the  rite  with  which  Elisha  was  never  actually  anointed, 

both  priests  (Ex.  xxix.  7,  Lev.  vii.  So,  too,   in  xlv.   i    Cyrus  is  called 

36)  and  kings  (i    Sam.  ix.  16,  x.  i,  'Jehovah's  Anointed  One,'  i.e..  His 

xvi.  13)  were  consecrated.     But  the  chosen  instrument ;  and  in  i    John 

phrase  '  to  anoint '  seems  to  be  also  ii.  20   (comp.    v.  27)  the  '  unction 

1  Der  Prophet  Jt-sai a,  erkliirt  von  Dr.  A.  Knobel.     Vicrte  Auflage,  herausgeg.  von 
Dr.  L.  Di.  stel,  p-  487- 


94 


ISAIAIT. 


[chap.  i.xi. 


claim  liberty  to  the  captives,  and  ^  opening  (of  the  prison)  ^ 
to  the  bound  ;  ^  to  proclaim  an  acceptable  year  of  Jehovah, 
and  a  day  of  vengeance  of  our  God  ;  ^  "^  to  comfort  ^  the 
mournful  ones  of  Zion,  to  give  them  a  coronet  instead  of 
ashes,  oil  of  joy  '^  for  the  raiment  of  mourning,  a  song  of 
praise*  for  a  failing  spirit,  so  that  men  shall  call  them  oaks 
of    righteousness,    the   plantation    of  Jehovah    for    showing 

b  Opening  (of  the  eyes),  Text  (see  crit.  note). 

<=  So  Bi.  ;  to  comfort  all  mournful  ones, — to  set  upon.  Text. 

^  So  Bi.  ;  for  mourning,  a  garment  of  praise  (or,  renown),  Text. 


from  the  Holy  One'  is  also  clearly 

metaphorical. To    bring  good 

tidings]  Hebr.  Pd/iassi'r,  happily 
rendered  by  Sept.  evayytXlaaaOai 
(similarly  throughout  II.  Isaiah, 
where   verb   and   participle   occur 

five  times,  except  xli.   27). To 

proclaim  liberty  .  .  .  ]  The 
speaker  feels  impelled  to  preach  a 
deliverance  on  a  grander  scale  than 
that  of  the  year  of  Jubilee.  He 
probably  copies  the  phraseology  of 
the  law  of  Jubilee  (comp.  Jcr. 
xxxiv.  8,  Ezek.  xlvi.  17,  Lev.  xxv. 
10),  but  applies  it  with  poetical 
freedom  ;  the  law  of  Jubilee  says 
nothing  about  the  release  of  prison- 
ers or  the  remission  of  debts.' — 
To  the  captives]  See  on  xlii.  7. 

'^  An  acceptable  year]  Obs. 
the  antithesis  between  the  '  year ' 
of  grace  and  the  '  day  of  vengeance ' 
(so  Ixiii.  4,  whereas  xxxiv.  8  is  only 
partly  parallel).  It  reminds  us  of 
the  contrast  in  Ex.  xx.  5,  6  (comp. 
Ucut.  vii.  9),  where  retribution  is 
declared  to  descend  to  the  third 
and  fourth  generation,  but  mercy 
to  the  thousandth  ;  comp.  also  liv. 
8  (note).  '  Year '  is  of  course  used 
rhetorically,  though,  strange  to  saj', 
this  passage  gave  rise  to  the  theory 
of  some  of  the  Christian  Fathers 
that  the  public  ministry  of  our 
Lord  lasted  but  a  single  year.— - 
All  snourniul  ones]  Zion  occupies 
the  foreground  of  the  speaker's 
thoughts  (comp.  next  verse  and 
Ivii.  18  <J),  but  the  marks  of  suscep- 
tibility of  the  Divine  promises  are 
in  the  two  opening  verses  perhaps 
designedly  left  free   from  national 


limitations  (comp.  Ivii.  15).  See 
above,  on  '  to  the  captives,'  and 
below  on  'a  failing  spirit.' 

^  The  prophet,   as    it   were,   re- 
verses the  sad    picture  in    iii.  24. 

On   the  text,  see  crit.  note. A 

coronet  instead  of  ashes]  In  7'. 
10  we  read  of  the  bridegroom's 
'coronet'  ;  by  using  the  same  word 
here  the  prophet  may  imply  that 
the  penitents  were  newly  espoused 
to  their  Divine  Lord.  The  Hebrew 
expresses  the  change  in  their  state 
by  a  striking  assonance  {pc''er  ia- 
khatJi  '•cfer),  which  Ewald  stri\es 
to  represent  by  '  schmuck  statt 
schmutz.'  '  Ashes,'  i.e.,  ashes  strewn 
upon  the  head,  were  a  sign  of  mourn- 
ing ;  comp.  2  Sam.  xiii.  19. Oil  of 

Joy]  The  phrase  only  occurs  again 
in  Ps.  xlv.  {v.  7  =  Hebr.  8),  the  royal 

nuptial  song. A  failing  spirit] 

The  word  is  the  same  as  in  xlii.  3, 
'  a  dimly  burning  wick '  (comp.  xlii. 
4,  and  Ezck.  xxi,  7  =  Hebr.  12),  a 
phrase  which,  be  it  remarked,  refers, 
at  any  rate,  partly  to  the  Gentiles. 

Oaks  of  righteousness]  i.e., 

strong  and  enduring,  because 
'  rooted  and  grounded  '  in  right- 
eousness. Whose  righteousness .'' 
we  may  ask ;  that  of  man  or  of  God  ? 
The  former,  is  certainly  the  most 
natijral  reply  :  '  righteousness '  in 
a  phrase  of  this  construction  ought 
to  mean  an  intrinsic  quality  of  the 
'oaks';  comp.  liv.  14.  It  is  no 
counter-argument  that  in  v.  10 
'  righteousness  '  means  God's  right- 
eousness as  exhibited  in  the  pros- 
perity of  his  own,  for  we  have  the 
two  senses  of  righteousness  equally 


'   Mr.  Fenton  lias  explained  the  institution  of  the  Jubilee  as  a  relic  of  the  '  Village 
CommuiNty  '  sy-iem  of  land  irnun-  (llctrnv  Stxi.i/  Life,  1880). 


CHAP.  LXl.] 


ISAIAH. 


95 


himself  glorious.  ■*  And  they  shall  build  up  the  ruins  of 
antiquity,  the  desolations  of  the  forefathers  shall  they  raise 
up,  and  shall  renew  the  ruined  cities,  the  desolations  of  past 
generations.  ^  And  strangers  shall  stand  and  feed  your 
flocks,  and  aliens  shall  be  your  ploughmen  and  your  vine- 
dressers, ^but  ye — the  priests  of  Jehovah  shall  ye  be 
called  ;  men  shall  name  you  the  ministers  of  our  God  ;  the 
riches  of  the  nation  shall  ye  eat,  and  ^  of  their  glory  shall  ye 
make  your  boast."^      ^  [*"  Instead  of  your  shame  ye  shall  have 

e  To  their  glory  shall  ye  succeed,  Saadya,  Rashi,  Ges.  (Thesaurus),  Hitz.,Ew.,  Knob. 
^  The  text  is  tautological,  and  may  be  incorrect.     At  any  rate  this  verse  falls  much 
below  the  rest. 


close  together  in  liv.  14,  17.  The 
next     words,    the    plantation    of 

JTeliovah,  &c.,  are  repeated  ahnost 
verbally  from  Ix.  21  b. 

^  And  tbey  shall  build  up  ...  ] 

The  implied  subject  is  '  strangers  ' 
(see  V.  5).  We  have  thus  a  varia- 
tion from  the  parallel  passage,  Iviii. 
12.  Obs.,  the  speaker's  attention 
is  concentrated  on  the  first  act  of 
the  great  drama  of  Israel's  regene- 
ration. He  presently  passes  on 
to  the  more  splendid  second  act, 
which  he  describes  as  if  it  syn- 
chronised with  the  first.  The  first 
act  is  the  return  of  the  exiles  and 
the  rebuilding  of  the  desolate  cities 
of  Judah  ;  the  second,  the  union 
of  Jews  and  Gentiles  in  one  great 
and  glorious  religious  community. 

^  Shall  stand  and  feed]  The 
description  is  still  true  to  life. 
(Thomson,    The     Lattd    and   the 

Book,    p.    599). Your   plougrh- 

men  .  .  .  ]  No  brilliant  prospect 
for  the  '  aliens,'  if  the  peasants  of 
the  Messianic  period  were  to  be 
as  miserable  and  downtrodden  a 
race  as  the  Fellahs  of  Palestine 
are  now  !  But  we  must  evidently 
suppose  that  all  classes  in  the 
'  coming  age '  were  to  partake  in 
their  several  degrees  of  the  Mes- 
sianic blessing.  A  relative  differ- 
ence between  classes  would  remain, 
but  it  would  be  accepted  thankfully 
even  by  those  lowest  in  the  scale 
(comp.  xlv.  14).     The  highest  place 


would  naturally  be  reserved  for 
the  Israelites.  These  would  be 
called  the  priests  of  JTehovah,  for 

they  would  have  realised  the  ideal 
set  forth  in  Ex.  xix.  6,  and  be  able 
to  dispense  with  a  separate  sacer- 
dotal order  (see,  however,  Ixvi.  21). 
The  priests,  as  Hermann  Schultz 
justly  remarks,^  were  only  an  official 
representation  of  Israels  national 
idea,  viz.,  that  those,  with  whom 
their  God  had  entered  into  cove- 
nant-relations, should  be  both  out- 
wardly and  inwardly  worthy  of  their 
high  position.  The  existence  of 
the  priesthood  did  not  by  any  means 
imply  that  the  rest  of  the  people 
were  profane  ;  it  was  only  provi- 
sional. But  when  the  Israelites 
had  become  a  '  kingdom  of  priests ' 
(Ex.  /.  c),  who  were  to  occupy  the 
place  out  of  which  the  faithful  por- 
tion of  the  people  had  just  been 
raised  }  The  Gentile  world  (comp. 
Zech.  viii.  23).  This  '  natural  and 
surely  not  unlovely  touch  of  national 
complacency  '  was  never  quite  lost 
by  any  of  the  Old  Testament  writers. 

Shall  ye  make   your  boast] 

It  is  a  strong  argument  for  this 
reading  that  the  same  verb  in  the 
same  conjugation  occurs  in  this 
sense  in  Ps.  xciv.  4,  which  forms 
part  of  the  deutero-Isaianic  section 
of  the  Psalter  (Ps.  xci.-c).- 

'  Ye  shall  have  double]  i.e., 
double  compensation.  Comp.  Zech. 
ix.    12,  'Yea,  to-day  do  I  foretell 


1  Alttesiametiflicke  Theologie,  ist  ed. ,  i.  183-4. 

'  See  Canon  Elliott's  comparative   list  of  passages  in  the  Speaker's    Comvientary, 
iv.  506,  &c. 


96 


ISAIATI. 


[chap.  lxi. 


double,  and  (instead  of)  reproach  they  shall  exult  for  their 
portion  ;  therefore  in  their  land  they  shall  possess  double, 
everlasting  joy  shall  be  unto  them.*]  ®  For  I  Jehovah  love 
justice,  I  hate  unjust  rapine,  and  I  will  give  them  their  recom- 
pence  faithfully,  and  an  everlasting  covenant  will  I  make 
with  them  ;  ^  so  that  their  seed  shall  be  known  among  the 
nations,  and  their  offspring  in  the  midst  of  the  peoples — all 
that  see  them  shall  acknowledge  them,  that  they  are  a  seed 
which  Jehovah  hath  blessed. 

*°  I  will  greatly  rejoice  in  Jehovah  ;  let  my  soul  exult  in 
my  God,  for  he  hath  clothed  me  with  garments  of  salvation, 
in  a  robe  of  righteousness  hath  he  arrayed  me,  like  a  bride- 

that  I  will  recompense  double  unto 
thee' ;  also  Jer.  xvi.  14-18,  'where 
the  unparalleled  grandeur  of  the 
second  restoration  of  the  Jews  is 
justified  by  the  extreme  severity 
of  their  previous  chastisement.' '  It 
is  not,  however,  double  compensa- 
tion in  honour  which  is  intended 
(Naeg.,  and  partly  Knob.),  for  this 
would  not  be  concrete  enough  for 
the  prophets.  '  The  land  '  was  the 
one  blessing  which  included  all 
others.  Hence  the  prophecy  con- 
tinues, therefore  (i.e.,  the  result 
will  be  that — see  on  xxvi.  14^  in 
tbeir  land  tbey  sball  possess 
double,  i.e.,  their  ancient  land 
(  = '  their  portion '  in  the  former 
half  of  the  verse)  shall  be  restored 
in  more  than  its  old  fertility  and 
with  extended  boundaries.  Thus 
the  idea  of  this  passage  is  the 
counterpart  of  that  in  xl.  2  ;  the 
peculiarity  of  Jer.  xvi.  14-18  is  that 
it  unites  both  ideas  (see  above). 

^  For  Z  Tebovab  love  justice 
.  .  .  ]  The  speaker  quotes  a  con- 
firmatory utterance  of  Jehovah. 
The  'right'  of  the  Israelites  has 
been  violently  '  torn  away '  (comp. 
X.  2,  same  word) :  Jehovah,  who 
hates  injustice,  will  compensate 
them  for  their  sufferings.  Kloster- 
mann's interpretation  (now  adopted 
by  Del.)  is  over-subtle  :  '  the 
Israelites  shall  not  return  as  con- 
querors, as  their  ancestors  entered 
Canaan,  by  the  right  of  the  strong- 

«  /.  C.  A.,  p  14; 


est,  but  with  the  free-will  of  their 

former  enemies.' Tbeir  recom- 

pence]  i.e.,  compensation  for  their 

sufferings    (comp.    on    ?'.    7). 

FaitbfuUy]  i.e.,  without  curtail- 
ment, in  exact  accordance  with  his 
promise. An  everlastings  cove- 
nant] See  on  Iv.  3. 

'■'  Known]  i.e.,  renowned. 

^■^  Z  will  neatly  rejoice  •  .  •  ] 
According  to  the  Targum,  Jeru- 
salem is  here  the  speaker,  appro- 
priating and  rejoicing  in  the  fore- 
going promises.  This  is  certainly 
plausible,  for  the  speaker  clearly 
implies  that  he  looks  forward  to 
a  share  in  the  promised  blessings, 
and  how  can  the  Servant,  himself 
the  mediator  of  these  blessings,  feci 
this  longing.''— How  ?  by  his  sym- 
pathy ;  for  though  he  has  not  literally 
shared  in  the  sin  of  his  people,  he 
has  'taken  it  upon  him'  (liii.  4»  ") 
out  of  sympathy,  and  must  be  both 
able  and  desirous,  through  the 
same  fellow-feeling,  to  share  in  the 
coming  blessedness.  It  is  the  .Ser- 
vant of  Jehovah,  then,  who  con- 
tinues to  speak. Carments    of 

salvation]  The  figure  reminds  us 

of  lix.  17. Sigbteousness]  i.e., 

the  prosperity  which  a  righteous 
God  will  give  (comp.  on  liv.    17). 

Ziike  a  bridegroom  •  .  .  ]  The 

simile  is  very  loosely  attached,  but 
it  is  evidently  the  Servant,  and  not 
Jehovah,  who  is  the  subject  of  com- 
parison. The  Israelitishbridegroom 


CHAP.  I.XII.] 


ISAIAH. 


groom  that  maketh  his  coronet  priestly,  and  like  a  bride  that 
putteth  on  her  jewels.  "  For  like  the  earth  which  bringeth 
forth  its  sprouting,  and  like  a  garden  which  causeth  the  things 
sown  in  it  to  sprout,  so  [the  Lord]  Jehovah  shall  cause  right- 
eousness to  sprout,  even  renown  before  all  the  nations. 

appears,  from  Cant.  iii.  1 1,  to  have 
been  crowned  '  on  the  day  of  his 
espousals,'  and  so,  at  least  in  later 
times,  was  the  bride.  A  well-known 
passage  in  the  Mishna  {Sofa,  ix.  14) 
states  that  during  the  war  of  \'es- 
pasian  bridegrooms  were  forbidden 
to  wear  crowns  {'atdrotli^,  and  that 
during  that  of  Titus  (Gratz  corrects 
'  Quietus  ')  the  prohibition  was  ex- 
tended to  brides— a  sign  of  the 
passionate  grief  of  the  Jesvs  at  the 
ruin  of  the  nation.  The  promise  of 
Jehovah,  realised  by  faith,  is  com- 
pared by  the  Servant  to  such  a 
headdress.  From  the  expression 
'  maketh  priestly,'   it  would    seem 


that  the  style  of  this  headdress 
resembled  that  of  the  priests'  tiara 
(Ex.  xxix.  9,  comp.  Jos.  Ant.  iii.  7, 
3).  To  suppose  that  this  resem- 
blance was  symbolical  of  the  priestly 
character  of  the  head  of  the  house- 
hold, seems  to  me  farfetched.  It 
is  well  known  that  archaic  forms 
and  fashions  linger  longest  in  ritual 
and  ceremonial  obser\-ances. 

"  Cause  ...  to  sprout]  Another 
allusion  (comp.  xlii.  9,  xliii.  19.  Iviii. 
8)  to  the  self-fultilling  power  of  the 

Divine     word. Renown]     Lit., 

'  praise.'  The  prophet  means  events 
stirring  up  men  to  praise  Israel  and 
Israel's  God. 


CHAPTER   LXII. 

Contents.— A  continuation  of  the  bright  promises  of  the  last  chapter, 
concluding  with  the  welcome  summons  to  depart  from  Babylon. — Most 
modern  critics  regard  this  chapter  as  the  soliloquy  of  the  prophet  ;  Vitr. 
alone  gives  it  to  a  chorus  of  prophets  and  other  servants  of  God,  while 
Henderson,  Stier,  Kay,  Naeg.,  assign  it  to  the  Servant  of  Jehovah,  or  the 
Messiah.  If  there  is  nothing  in  the  chapter  specially  suggestive  of  the 
Servant,  and  as  the  opening  words  '  I  will  not  be  silent '  are  elsewhere 
uttered  by  Jehovah,  it  is  safer  to  follow  Targ.,  Ibn  Ezra,  Kimchi, 
Luzzatto,  Del.,  and  suppose  Jehovah  himself  to  be  the  speaker.  See 
also  note  on  7'.  6. 

'  For  Zion's  sake  I  will  not  be  silent,  and  for  Jerusalem's 
sake  I  will  not  rest,  until  her  righteousness  go  forth  as  the 
shining    light,    even   her  salvation  as   a  torch  that  burneth. 


'  But  will  these  great  promises 
be  realised  ?  Will  Jehovah  indeed 
'  cause  righteousness  to  sprout ' .' 
The  '  deep  gloom '  with  which  Zion 
as  well  as  the  other  nations  is  still 
oppressed  may  well  excuse  a  mo- 
ment of  despondency.  But  Jeho- 
vah will  not  let  such  despondency 

VOL.    II. 


pass  unchecked. X  will  not  be 

silent,  he  says,  I  will  not  for  ever 
hold  back  that  restoring  and  re- 
viving word  for  which  my  people 
are  longing.    Comp.  xlii.  14,  Ivii.  n, 

Ixiv.    12,    Ixv.  6. The    shining: 

ligrht]  Lit.,  '  the  brilliance  "  ;  Ewald 
has  '  der  Sonnenstrahl."     The  word 

H 


98 


ISATAII. 


[chap.  lxii. 


2  And  the  nations  shall  sec  thy  righteousness,  and  all  kings 
thy  glory,  and  men  shall  call  thee  by  a  new  name  which  the 
mouth  of  Jehovah  shall  appoint  ;  'and  thou  shalt  be  a  crown 
of  adorning  in  the  hand  of  Jehovah,  and  a  diadem  of  royalty 
in  the  open  hand  of  thy  God.  ■*  No  more  shalt  thou  be  named 
Forsaken,  neither  shall  thy  land  any  more  be  named  Desola- 
tion ;  for  thou  shalt  be  called  "  Well-pleasing,  and  thy  land 
Married  ;  for  Jehovah  delighteth  in  thee,  and  thy  land  shall 
be  married.  ^  For  (as)  a  young  man  marrieth  a  virgin,  thy 
sons  shall  marry  thee,  and  with  the  joy  of  the  bridegroom 
over  the  bride  shall  thy  God  joy  over  thee. 

•  Most  renler,  My  delight  (is)  in  her  ;  comp. ,  however,  Oholibah,   '  there  is  a  tent 
in  her,'  Ezek.  xxiii.  4,  and  Smend,  ad  loc. 


is  used  of  the  dawn  (the  Eastern 
dawn)  in  ix.  2,  Ix.  3,  Dan.  vi.  20,  and 
especially  Prov.  iv.  18.  Liizzatto  is 
alone  in  thinking  of  the  planet 
Venus. 

*  By  a  new  name]  So  in  Ixv. 
15,  'he  shall  call  his  servants  by 
another  name.'  It  is  a  title  of 
honour  which  is  meant,  such  for 
instance  as  that  in  Jer.  xxxiii.  16, 
'Jehovah  (is)  our  righteousness.' 
This  prophet  however  goes  beyond 
Jeremiah,  for  he  speaks  of  a  '  new 
name.'  one  past  human  imagining, 
and  which,  like  the  new  heaven 
and  the  new  earth,  depends  upon 
the  appointment  of  the  Creator  ; 
compare  Rev.  ii.  17,  iii.  12  (in  the 
Greek). 

^  £l  crown  of  adorning^]  Not 
'the  crown  ; '  Jehovah  has  'many 
crowns.'  The  regeneration  of  Israel 
constitutes  a  fresh  claim  on  the 
part  of  Jehovah  to  the  reverence 
and  admiration  of  the  universe 
(comp.  7'.  2  a) ;  this  appears  to  be 
the  meaning  of  the  prophecy. 
Knobel,  indeed,  supposes  the  ex- 
pression to  be  a  figurative  descrip- 
tion of  the  situation  of  Jerusalem 
(comp.  on  xxviii.  i),  and  the  fol- 
lowing phrase,  '  in  the  hand,'  to 
be  a  metaphor  = 'under  the  Divine 
protection '  (coinp.  xlix.  2).  But 
this  is  farfetched,  nor  is  there  any 
allusion  in  the  context  to  the 
dangers  of  the  new  Jerusalem. 
Jehovah    is    pictured    as    holding 


the  crown  in  his  hand  to  exhibit 
it    to    the    admiring    world    (Ew., 

Del.). In     the     open     band] 

Comp.  Bonomi,  jXiftere/t,  p.  191, 
where  the  guests  at  a  banquet  hold 
their  drinking-vessels  in  the  deeply 
hollowed  palms  of  their  hands. 

■*  P^or  the  present  Jehovah  re- 
serves the  mystic  name  of  the 
new  Jerusalem  to  himself.  But  the 
prophet  is  allowed  to  mention  two 
inferior,  everj'-day  names  which 
may  appropriately  be  used,  the  one 
for  Jerusalem,  the  other  for  the  land 
of  Israel.  By  an  odd  coincidence, 
the  name  which  is  now  repudiated 
for  Jerusalem— Forsaken  (Hcbr. 
Azubah)—\s  also  the  name  of  tiie 
mother  of  the  pious  Jehoshaphat 
(i  Kings  xxii.  42),  while  that  which 
is  adopted  in  its  place — '^Vell- 
pleasing:  (Hebr.  Hcphzibah) — is 
that  of  the  mother  of  the  idolatrous 
Manasseh  (2  Kings  xxi.  i). 

^  For  as  a  young:  man  .  .  .  ] 
An  explanation  of  the  new  names 
in  7'.  4.  As  a  young  man  marries  a 
virgin,  so  shall  the  restored  Jewish 
exiles  take  possession  of  their  terri- 
tory ;  and  as  a  bridegroom  rejoices 
over  his  bride,  so  shall  Jehovah 
rejoice  over  his  erring  but  repent- 
ant people  (comp.  1.  i).  The  ex- 
pression tby  sons  shall  marry 
thee,  is  less  strange  in  Hebrew 
than  in  English,  the  word  for  '  to 
marry  '  being  properly  '  to  be  lord 
over.' 


CHAP.  LXII.] 


ISAIAH. 


99 


^  Upon  thy  walls,  O  Jerusalem,  I  have  set  watchers  ;  all 
day  and  all  night  they  are  never  silent :  ye  that  are  Jehovah's 
remembrancers,  take  ye  no  rest;  ^and  give  no  rest  to  him, 
until  he  establish  and  until  he  make  Jerusalem  a  renown  in 
the  earth.  ^  Sworn  hath  Jehovah  by  his  right  hand,  and  by 
his  strong  arm,  Surely  I  will  no  more  give  thy  corn  for  food 
to  thy  enemies,  and  strangers  shall  not  drink  thy  grapes,  for 
which  thou  hast  laboured  ;  ^  for  they  who  have  garnered  it 
shall  eat  it  and  praise  Jehovah,  and  they  that  gathered  it 
together  shall  drink  it  in  my  holy  courts. 

'"  Pass  ye,  pass  ye  through  the  gates  ;  clear  ye  the  way  of 

®  Vpon  thy  walls]  The  walls  are 
those  of  which  we  have  heard  in 
xlix.  i6  as  being  'continually  be- 
fore' Jehovah  ;  the  Jerusalem  is 
the  ideal  or  supersensible  one  (not 
the  less  real  because  ideal)— see 
on  xl.  9.  The  '  watchers '  therefore 
are  not  prophets  (Knob.,  Del.),  but 
angelic  beings  (Targ.,  Ew.,  Hahn, 
Semecke).  Their  function  is  to 
'remind'  Jehovah,  not  of  human 
sin  (i  Kings  xvii.  18)  and  infirmity 
(Job  i.  1 1,  ii.  5),  but  of  his  covenant- 
promise  to  protect  his  people,  and 
vve  have  perhaps  a  sample  of  their 
intercession  in  Ii.  9,  10  (see  note  on 
'  Awake,  awake ').  They  are  thus 
analogous  to  that  '  angel  of  Jeho- 
vah' in  Zech.  i.  12,  who  intercedes 
for  mercy  for  Jerusalem  and  the 
cities  of  Judah,  and  perhaps  to 
the  friendly  angel-mediator  in  Job 
xxxiii.  23.  We  have  met  with  these 
*  watchers  '  before  (a  synonymous 
word  is  used)  in  lii.  8  (see  note), 
where  they  give  notice  of  the  ap- 
proach of  Jehovah  with  the  return- 
ing exiles.  In  Daniel,  too  (e.g.,  iv. 
13),  and  in  Enoch  (e.g.,  i.  5),  the 
angels  are  called  'watchers'  (Hebr. 
'irlm,  ^thiop.  fgithan,  i.e.  vigiles), 
and  there  is  a  special  class  of 
angels  called  f'ypijyopoi  in  the 
Testaments  of  the  Ttuelve  Patri- 
archs. More  distant,  but  not  the 
less  genuine,  is  the  relation  of  the 
phrase  to  the  TrapdKXrjros  of  the 
Johannine  Gospel.— But  who  is  it 
that  declares,  1  have  set  watchersT 
Surely  not  the  prophet,  even  grant- 
ing that  the  '  watchers  '  themselves 


are  prophets  (Knob.).  Who  but 
Jehovah  could  commission  either 
angelic  or  prophetic  watchers? 
(So  Del.) 

*'^  Perhaps  Jehovah's  reply  to 
the  intercession  of  the '  remembran- 
cers '  ;  at  the  same  time  a  special 
supplement  to  the  promise  in  vv. 
2-5.  The  prophet  is  thinking  of 
those  many  disturbed  periods  in 
Israel's  history,  from  the  times  of 
the  Judges  onwards,  when  the 
harvest  and  the  vintage  were  pil- 
laged by  foreign  hordes  (comp. 
Judg.  vi.  4,  II,  Isa.  i.  7,  xvi.  9). 

"  In  my  holy  courts]  Lowth 
and  Ges.  see  here  a  reference  to 
the  rules  about  the  tithes  and 
firstfruits,  which  were  to  be  eaten 
'before  Jehovah'  (Deut.  xii.  17,  18, 
xiv.  23-26).  But  the  whole  of  the 
harvest  could  not  be  eaten  in  the 
courts  of  the  temple  !  The  expres- 
sion is  figurative,  like  '  to  dwell,  to 
worship,  in  Jehovah's  house'  (Ps. 
V.  7,  XV.  I,  &;c.),  for  'to  hold  com- 
munion with  Jehovah,'  aixd  simply 
means  '  shall  eat  and  drink  praising 
Jehovah,'  which  indeed  is  the  very 
phrase  used  in  the  parallel  line. 
(So  Diestel.) 

J°"'-  The  prophet  returns  to  the 
exiles  in  Babylon,  and  urges  them 
not  to  delay  their  homeward  march. 
It  is  the  same  call  which  sounded  in 
the  two  former  divisions  of  the  pro- 
phecy (xlviii.  20,  lii.   11). clear 

ye  the  way]  An  imaginative  direc- 
tion to  Jehovah's  invisible  servants 
(so  xl.  3,  Ivii.  14).     It  is  tantamount 

to  a  prophecy  such  as  xi.  16. 

H  2 


lOO 


ISAIAH. 


[chap,  i.xiii. 


the  people  ;  cast  ye  up,  cast  ye  up  the  highway  ;  take  ye 
out  the  stones  ;  lift  ye  up  a  banner  over  the  peoples.  "  Be- 
hold, Jehovah  causeth  it  to  be  heard  unto  the  end  of  the 
earth  ;  say  ye  unto  the  daughter  of  Zion,  Behold,  thy  Salva- 
tion cometh  ;  behold,  his  wage  is  with  him,  and  his  recom- 
pence  before  him.  '^And  men  shall  call  them,  The  holy 
people,  Jehovah's  released  ones  ;  and  thou  shalt  be  called 
Sought  out,  City  not  forsaken. 

Over  the  peoples]  i.e.,  high  above 
them,  so  as  to  be  seen  far  and  wide. 
The  '  peoples '  are  the  Gentiles  who 
are  to  escort  the  Jewish  exiles; 
comp.  xlix.  22,  xi.  lo,  12. 

"  Causetb  it  to  be  heard]  viz., 
as  appears  from  the  sequel,  the 
news  of  the  imminent  deliverance 

of  Israel  (as  xlviii.  20). Say  ye 

.  .  .  ]  This  is  a  fresh  summons, 
and  IS  not  to  be  included  in  the 
utterance  to  '  the  end  of  the  earth ' 
— for  what  object  could  there  be  in 
enlisting  the  most  remote  nations 
in  the  service  of  Zion  ?  No;  the 
'daughter  of  Zion'  is  in  captivity 
in    Babylonia.       Her   heralds    are 


either  supersensible  beings  (comp. 
Hi.  7,  8)  or  the  prophets  addressed 
in  xl.  I.  The  misunderstanding  of 
the  critics  is  caused  by  the  crowd- 
ing of   thoughts    in    the  prophet's 

joyfully  excited  mind. Behold, 

his  wag-e  •   •  •  ]  Repeated  from  xl. 

10. The  holy  (i.e.,  consecrated) 

people]  Such  they  were  destined 
to  be  (Ex.  xix.  6),  though  the  ideal 
was  but  most  imperfectly  realised. 
But  now  the  real  and  the  ideal  are 

one. Sought  out]    i.e.,  eagerly 

cared  for.  A  contrast  to  Jer.  xxx. 
17,  '  She  is  Zion  ;  no  man  seeketh 
her  out.' 


CHAPTER   LXIII.    1-6. 

These  six  verses  are  entirely  detached  both  from  the  foregoing  and 
from  the  following  prophecy,  and  ought  to  have  formed  a  chapter  by 
themselves.  They  contain  a  lyrico-dramatic  dialogue  (which  reminds  us 
of  that  in  Ps.  xxiv.  7-10)  between  the  prophet  as  a  bystander  and  a 
victorious  warrior  (i.e.  Jehovah)  returning  from  the  field  of  battle  in 
Idumtea. 

'  This  highly  dramatic  description,'  according  to  Ewald,'  '  unites  depth 
of  emotion  with  artistic  perfection,  and  reproduces  a  genuine  prophetic 
vision.'  Certainly  there  is  a  wonderful  forcefulness  of  phrase,  and  pic- 
torial power,  in  this  brief  prophecy,  though  it  is  impossible  to  read  it 
without  shuddering  (with  reverence  be  it  said)  at  the  vehement  indigna- 
tion which  it  expresses.  No  wonder  that  it  drew  the  attention  of  the 
seer  of  Patmos,  who  interwove  some  of  its  striking  phrases  in  one  of 
the  sublimest  but  most  awful  passages  of  the  Apocalypse  (xix.  13,  15). 
Ewald  then  goes  on  to  state  one  of  his  bold  critical  conjectures,  viz.,  that 
Ixiii.  1-6,  together  with  chap.  Iviii.  and  lix.  i  20,  is  the  work  of  a  fresh 
writer,  distinct  from  the  prophet  who  composed  the  greater  part  of 
II.  Isaiah.  I  do  not  here  discuss  this  view  as  a  critical  hypothesis,  and 
»   Die  Frophelcii,  iii.  119. 


CHAP.  LXIII.]  ISAIAH.  lOI 

merely  mention  it  as  a  symbol  of  the  striking  impression  made  upon 
Ewald  by  the  literary  affinities  of  these  prophecies,  especially  Ixiii.  i-6 
and  the  imaginative  description  in  lix.  i5<^-2o.'  These  affinities  exist, 
and  are  of  some  importance  to  exegesis,  as  it  follows  from  them — i.  that 
at  any  rate  chap.  lix.  and  Ixiii.  i-6  were  occasioned  by  the  same  contem- 
porary circumstances,  and  2.  that  the  subject  of  the  latter  prophecy  is 
the  same  as  that  of  the  description  in  lix.  15  ^-20,  viz.,  a  theophany,  i.e.,  a 
divinely  ordained  turn  in  the  fortunes  of  Israel.  When,  therefore,  Mr.  Row 
(refining  upon  the  well-known  patristic  interpretation)  supposes  ^  that  the 
mysterious  warrior  in  Ixiii.  1-6  is  Israel— not  indeed  Israel  as  he  is,  but 
idealised  into  a  being  of  a  nature  chiefly  divine  but  partly  human,  he  can 
be  at  once  refuted  by  pointing  to  lix.  15,  where  the  warrior  is  expressly 
affirmed  to  be  Jehovah.  Mr.  Row's  mistake  is  probably  caused  by  his 
unquestioning  acceptance  of  the  division  into  chapters.  For  in  the  first 
six  verses  Israel  is  completely  in  the  background  ;  it  is  only  at  v.  7  that 
the  hopes  and  fears  of  God's  covenant-people  begin  to  find  expression. 
It  may  not  be  superfluous  to  add,  that  there  is  this  marked  difference 
between  Jehovah,  as  described  in  the  prophecies,  and  Jehovah's  Servant, 
that  the  one  can  employ  violent  means,  when  he  thinks  it  necessary  or 
expedient,  while  the  other  is  throughout  represented  as  employing  moral 
means,  and  as  being  rewarded  by  Jehovah  for  his  self-sacrifice. 

Modern  critics  in  general,  both  Roman  Catholic  ^  and  Protestant, 
deny  at  any  rate  that  the  primary  reference  of  the  prophecy  is  to  the 
personal  Servant  of  Jehovah.  Calvin  long  ago  put  this  view  with  a  clear- 
ness and  a  force  which  leave  nothing  to  be  desired  ;  he  calls  the  tradi- 
tional Christian  interpretation  a  violent  wresting  of  the  prophecy,  which 
simply  declares  in  figurative  terms  that  God  will  interpose  for  His  people. 
The  only  doubt  is  whether  Edom  is  to  be  taken  literally  or  symbolically  ; 
whether,  that  is,  the  calamity  described  means  only  the  general  judgment 
upon  the  world,  or  (which  is  equally  probable,  comp.  Mai.  i.  3)  a  special 
visitation  of  Edom  ;  or  whether,  again,  we  may  combine  these  views. 
Our  conclusion  upon  this  point  will  depend  on  the  opinion  we  have 
formed  of  the  parallel  prophecy  in  chap,  xxxiv. 

It  is  certainly  a  strange  phenomenon,  this  reference  to  a  great  battle- 
field in  Edom,  when  the  grand  object  of  II.  Isaiah  is  to  help  the  Jews 
to  realise  their  coming  deliverance  from  Babylon.  It  creates  a  serious 
difficulty  for  those  who  maintain  that  II.  Isaiah  was  written  at  one  time 
and  under  one  set  of  impressions.  The  complications  of  the  problems  of 
Biblical  criticism  are  only  beginning  to  be  adequately  realised. 

' '  Who  is  this  that  cometh  from  Edom,  in  bright-red  gar- 
ments from  Bozrah  ?  this  that  is  splendid  in  his  raiment,  that 

'  Tbat  cometb  from  Edom]  battle  which  chiefly  excites  the 
From  this  it  would  appear  that  the      writer's  interest  has  been  in  Edom. 

1  Observe  that  one  verse  is  almost  identical  in  both  prophecies  (comp.  Ixiii.  5  with 
lix.  16). 

^   The  Jesus  of  the  Evangelists,  p.  163. 

'  E.g.,  the  two  recent  Rom.  Cath.  commentators,  Rohling  and  Xeteler(see  Naeg.'s 
introduction  to  Ixiii.  1-6). 


I02 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  Lxni. 


*  marcheth  along "  in  the  fulness  of  his  strength  ? '  '  I  am 
one  that  speak  in  righteousness,  that  am  mighty  to  save.' 
2'  Why  is  there  red  on  thy  raiment,  and  thy  garments  like  his 
that  treadeth  in  the  wine-press  ?'     ^ '  The  wine-trough  I  have 

»  So  Vulg..  Lo.,  Kr.,  Gr.   (easy  emendation).  -Text,  Tossins^  (his  head),    Ges., 
Naeg.  ;  or,  bend  ng  to  and  fro,  Del.  ;  or,  stretching  himseh  out.  Ew. 


In  vv.  3,  6,  however,  a  subsequent 
encounter  is  referred  to,  in  which 
'  the  peoples  '  (or  '  peoples,'  for  the 
article  is  not  e.xpressed),  i.e.,  the 
mass  of  the  Gentile  world,  feel  the 
weight  of  the  mighty  warrior's 
hand.  They  are  cursed,  like  Meroz 
(Judg.  V.  23),  because  '  they  came 
not  to  the  help  of  Jehovah.'  Thus 
the  national  judgment  upon  Edom 
is  presented  as  an  earlier  stage 
of  the  great  world-judgment  (see 

introd.  to  chaps,  xxiv.-xxvii.). 

In  bright-red  garments]  There 
is  a  doubt  whether  red  is  mentioned 
as  the  proper  colour  of  a  soldier's 
dress  (comp.  Nah.  ii.  3),  or  as  indi- 
cating the  slaughter  in  which  the 
hero  has  been  engaged  (t.  3).  Some 
have  felt  that  there  would  be  an 
incongruity  in  the  description  if  a 
blood-stained  robe  were  called 
'  splendid.'  Yet  the  second  is  the 
more  natural  view  (comp.  Rev.  xix. 
13).  It  represents  the  warrior  as 
'con  segno  di  vittoria  incoronato,' 
as  Dante  has  it  in  a  partly  parallel 
passage  ;  ^  and  the  stress  laid  upon 
the  shedding  of  blood  in  7/.  3  sug- 
gests that  the  writer  himself  saw 
nothing  discreditable  in  the  cir- 
cumstances.   That     marcheth 

along]  I  cannot  agree  with  Dr. 
Weir  that  Del.'s  explanation  is 
absurd  ;  the  emotional  expressions 
of  more  primitive  races  may  appear 
strange,  but  we  ought  to  take  ac- 
count of  them  in  interpreting  ancient 
writers.  The  rend,  of  Gesenius, 
however,  is  preferable,  if  we  do  not 
accept  the  emendation.  The  tone 
of  this  passage  reminds  us  of  xlii. 
13,  14  ;  comp.  also  Ps.  Ixxiv.  3, 
Lift  up  thy  steps  (O  Jehovah  !) 
to  the  everlasting  ruins,'  i.e.,  ad- 
vance in  long,  swift  steps. Jam 

one  that  speak  .  .  .  ]    The  warrior 


himself  answers  with  far-echoing 
voice  (for  he  is  seen  at  a  distance, 
as  Del.  subtly  remarks).  '  .Speak- 
ing' is  mentioned,  to  recall  the 
numerous  prophecies  which  had 
announced  this  great  display  of 
righteous  wrath  and  equally  right- 
eous love  :  Jehovah  is  as  mighty  in 
word  as  in  act.  'Righteousness' 
is  not  synonymous  with  '  truth,' 
'veracity,'  but,  as  so  often  in  II. 
Isaiah,  the  fidelity  of  God  to  His 

revealed   principles  of  action. 

■«7hy  is  there  red  .  .  .  ]  The 
speaker  is  evidently  surprised  at 
this  red  appearance  ;  it  is  acci- 
dental, and  not  the  proper  colour  of 
the  dress  (see  above).  The  Hebr. 
word  for  '  red  '  i^ddom)  suggests  the 
thought  of  Edom,  and  from  the 
sequel  we  may  infer  that  the  name 
of  Bozrah  suggested  the  figure  of 
the  vintage  {hd^tr),  the  names  of 
countries  or  cities  being  regarded 
as  emblematic  of  their  fortunes. 
The  wine-press,  too,  as  De  Saulcy 
shows,  appears  as  an  emblem  on 
the  coins  of  Bostra  during  the 
Roman  rule.  Seir  was  a  vine- 
countiy. 

'^  The  Deine  -  trough  Z  have 
trodden]  The  warrior  accepts  the 
metajjlior,  which  indeed  is  a  stand- 
ing equivalent  for  the  carnage  of 
battle  (Joel  iii.  13,  Lam.  i.  15,  Rev. 

xiv.     lS-20). Of     the    peoples 

there  vras  no  man  .  .  .  ]  The 
nations  of  the  world  (at  any  rate, 
those  in  the  neighbourhood  of 
Israel)  are  regarded  as  a  single 
body  ;  they  are  in  fact  united  by  a 
common  fear  and  hatred  of  Jeho- 
vah (Ps.  ii.  2).     Hence  'no  man.' 

So  Z  trode  them  •   •  .  ]     1  he 

'  wine-trough  '  was  meant  for  Jeho- 
vah's enemies  and  those  of  his 
faithful  people  ;  but  there  was  no 


'   Inferno,  iv.  54. 


CHAP.  LXIII.] 


ISAIAH. 


103 


trodden  alone,  and  of  the  peoples  there  was  no  man  with 
me;  so  I  ^trode  them  in  mine  anger,  and  trampled  them  in 
my  fury  ;  and  their  life-stream  besprinkled  ^  my  garments, 
and  all  my  raiment  have  I  defiled.  *  For  a  day  of  vengeance 
was  in  my  heart,  and  °  my  year  of  release  °  was  come.  *  And 
I  looked,  but  there  was  no  helper,  and  was  stupefied,  but 
there  was  no  supporter  ;  therefore  mine  arm  wrought  salva- 
tion for  me,  and  my  fury — it  supported  me  ;  ^and  I  '^stamped 
upon  the  peoples  in  mine  anger,  and  ®  broke  them  to  pieces  ® 
in  my  fury,  and  ^spilled  their  life-stream  on  the  ground.' 

*>  Will  tread  .  .  .  will  trample  .  .  .  shall  besprinkle,  Vowel-points,  Targ.,  Calv., 
Auth.  Vers. ,  Kay,  Naeg.  (see  crit.  note). 

'  So  Sejjt.  (omitting  'my'),  Pesh.,  Vulg.,  Ges.,   Hitz.,   Del,   Naeg. — The  year  of 
my  released  ones,  Ew. ,  &c.     (But  see  Ixi.  2.) 
'  d  Will  stamp,  Vowel-points,  Targ.,  Calv.,  &c. — Stamp,  Ew. 

"  So  Cappul,  Lowth,  Hitz.,  Knob. — Will  break  them  in  pieces,  Many  Hebr.  MSS. , 
Targ.  — Break  them  in  pieces,  Ew. — Will  make  them  drunk.  Received  text,  Calv.,  &c. — 
Made  them  drunk,  Sept.,  Vulg.,  Vitr.,  Ges.,  Luzatto,  Del.  (The  letters,  which  alone 
properly  form  the  text,  leave  the  tense  of  the  rendering  open. 

f  Will  spill,  Vowel-points,  Targ.,  Calv.,  &c. 


fatal  decree  binding  the  Gentile 
nations  to  persist  in  their  hostility. 
Any  one  of  them  might  have  sepa- 
rated itself  from  the  rest.  But,  as 
no  such  separation  occurred,  the 
Divine  warrior  took  summary  ven- 
geance upon  them  all.  Tbelr 
life-stream]  Lit.,  'their  juice' 
(Kimchi,  less  suitably,  'their 
vigour').  Comp.  Ps.  xxxii.  4, 
'  my  sap  (a  synonymous  word)  was 
turned  into  the  drought  of  summer.' 
— Obs.,  it  is  his  enemies'  blood,  and 
not  his  own,  with  which  the  dress 
of  the  hero  is  stained.  For  it  is  '  a 
more  than  man '  {/o'fs/i,  xxxi.  8)  who 
goes  to  war,  and  a  heavenly  sword 
(xxxiv.  5)  which  cuts  down  the 
foe. 

■*  A  day  of  vengeance  .  .  .  my 
year  of  release]  Comp.  on  Ixi.  2. 
'Vengeance';  as    lix.   17,  xxxv.   4. 

V^as   in  my   heart]   i.e.,   was 

in  my  intention  (as  x.  7). — Obs., 
7'.  4  places  us  at  the  moment  pre- 
ceding the  act  of  vengeance ;  v.  5 
describes   the    internal    debate   of 


the  hero  ;  v.  6,  the  deed  which  fol- 
lowed, contemporaneous  evidently 
with  V.  3.  '  Release  '  suggests  the 
object  of  the  Divine  intervention  ; 
it  was  to  procure  the  release  of 
Jehovah's  people.  Alt.  rend,  is 
equally  admissible,  and  in  fact 
more  obvious,  but  does  not  make 
such  a  good  parallel  to  '  a  year  of 
vengeance.' 

*  And  I  looked  .  .  .  ]  See  note 
on  1.  2.  The  first  part  of  the  verse 
is  a  free  variation  on  lix.  16  a,  Ezek. 
xxii.  30  ;  the  second  is  a  repetition 
of  lix.  16  d,  with  the  change  of 
'  righteousness  '  into  '  fury,'  and  the 
third  into  the  first  person. 

*^  I  stamped]  Auth.  Vers.,  '  I  will 
tread  down.'  But  the  verb  is  dif- 
ferent from  either  of  those  used 
in  V.  2.  There  is  the  less  wonder, 
then,  that  in  the  next  verb,  broke 
ttaem  to  pieces,  the  figure  of 
the  vintage  is  altogether  deserted. 
The  common  reading,  '  will  make 
(or  made)  drunk,'  is  against  the 
parallelism. 


104  ISAIAH.  [CHAP.  LXIII. 


CHAPTERS   LXIII.    7-LXIV. 

Contents. — A  thanksgiving,  confession  of  sin,  and  supplication,  which 
'  the  prophet  puts  into  the  mouth  of  the  Church  of  the  Exile,  or  rather 
prays  out  of  their  heart'  (Del.),  for  he  thoroughly  identifies  himself  with  his 
people. — The  chapter  (for  such  it  virtually  is— see  on  Ixiv.  i)  falls  naturally 
into  a  number  of  short  paragraphs.  In  the  first  (Ixiii.  7~9),  the  tone  is 
that  of  thanksgiving,  in  accordance  with  the  beautiful  custom  of  the 
Psalmists  to  interlace  supplication  and  praise  ;  in  the  second  {yv.  10-14) 
the  prophet  turns  to  Israel's  ingratitude  and  rebellion,  but  forgets  not  to 
record  his  people's  'remembrance'  of  Jehovah's  past  mercies,  a  remem- 
brance which  is  the  first  step  to  the  recovery  of  prosperity  (on  this 
characteristic  retrospect  see  note  on  v.  11)  ;  in  the  third  {vv.  15-19)  the 
Church  supplicates  Jehovah,  as  being  still  the  'father'  of  his  people,  to 
'look  upon'  its  distress  ;  in  the  fourth  (Ixiv.  1-5  a)  it  ventures  further,  and 
utters  a  deep  longing  for  a  theophany,  nothing  short  of  which  will  touch 
the  root  of  its  misery  ;  in  the  fifth  and  last  {vv.  5/J-11)  it  puts  forth  a 
humble  confession  of  its  utter  unworthiness,  and  again  bases  its  plea  for 
help  on  the  fatherly  relation  of  Jehovah,  and  on  the  desolate  condition  of 
his  chosen  land  and  habitation.  The  manner  is  that  of  a  liturgical 
psalm  ;  the  prophet,  as  it  were,  leads  the  devotions  of  the  assembled 
Church.  The  tone  reminds  us  strongly  of  the  Lamentations  ;  the  deso- 
lation of  the  temple  and  of  the  Jewish  cities  (Ixiii.  18,  Ixiv.  10,  11)  are 
described  with  all  the  emotion  of  a  contemporary.  Shall  we  refer  this 
to  the  mighty  force  of  an  ecstatic  vision  ?  Or  is  the  prophet  a  contem- 
porary of  the  Jewish  exiles  ?  And  if  so,  when  and  where  did  he  write  .'' 
Such  are  the  difficult  questions  which  meet  the  interpreter,  but  which,  as 
interpreter,  it  is  not  his  function  to  answer.  He  has  indeed  difficulties 
enough  of  his  own  in  this  chapter,  the  style  of  which  is  unusually  abrupt, 
and  the  text  not  always  handed  down  with  perfect  accuracy. 

^  Jehovah's  loving-kindnesses  will  I  celebrate,  Jehovah's 
deeds  of  renown,  according  to  that  which  is  due  for  all  that 
Jehovah  hath  bestowed  upon  us,  and  the  abundant  goodness 
toward  the  house  of  Israel,  which  he  hath  bestowed  upon 
them,  according  to  his  compassion  and  according  to  his 
abundant  loving-kindnesses.  *  He  said,  Surely  they  are  my 
people,  sons  that  will  not  play  the  liar,  and  he  became  unto 

'  Xioving-klndnesses]  See  on  Iv.  of  the  prophet  or  the  Church  begins 

3. Deeds  of  renown]  Lit.,  're-  with  the  original  covenant  between 

nowns';   as   in  v.    15,    '  mights '=  Jehovah  and   Israel,  and   the  first 

'acts    of  might    (or,   of  heroism),'  greatdeliverance  from  Egypt  (comp. 

and,  in  Ixiv.  6  '  righteousnesses  '  =  Ex.  ii.  24,  iii.  7). Sons]  Remind- 

'  righteous  deeds.'  ing  us  of  i.  2,  4. 

"  Ho  said  .  .  .  ]  The  retrospect 


CHAP.  LXIII.] 


ISAIAH. 


105 


them  a  saviour.  ^  In  all  their  distress  *  he  was  distressed  % 
and  the  angel  of  his  Face  saved  them  ;  in  his  love  and  in  his 
clemency  he  himself  released  them  ;  and  he  took  them  up 
and  carried  them  all  the  days  of  old.  '°  But  they  defied  and 
grieved  his  Spirit  of  holiness  ;  so  he  changed  for  them  into 

a  So  Hebr.  marg.  and  most  moderns. — There  was  no  (real)  affliction.  Ges. ;  he 
was  not  an  adversary,  De  Dieu,  Dathe.  Kay  (both  possible  renderings  of  the  text- 
reading).— The  versions  agree  with  the  Hebr.  text  in  reading  the  negative  particle. 


®  In    all    their    distress]    The 

wanderings  in  the  desert  are  re- 
ferred   to. He  \7as    distressed 

i.e.,  he  himself  sympathised  with 
them.  Comp.  Judg.  x.  16,  '  His 
(Jehovah's)  soul  was  impatient  for 
the  misery  of  Israel.  Against  the  al- 
ternative reading  (which  is  difficult 
to  construe),  see  Ps.  cvi.  44,  '  He 
regarded  (thetn)  in  their  distress.' 
Occurring  as  this  does  in  a  context 
closely  related  to  II.  Isaiah,  it  may 
not  unfairly  be  viewed  in  the  light 
of  an  interpretation.  The  early  cri- 
tics stumbled  (but  see  St.  Jerome's 
note)  at  the  somewhat  unusual 
position  of  Id  (regarded  as  a  pre- 
position and  suffix). The  ang-el 

of  his  race]  No  doubt  this  is  a 
synonymous  phrase  for  '  the  angel 
of  Jehovah,'  and  there  may  be  an 
allusion  to  the  promise  in  Ex.  xxiii. 
20-23,  '  Behold,  I  send  an  angel 
before  thee,'  &c.  But  the  novelty 
of  the  phrase  invites  further  inquiry. 
Ewald '  considers  it  to  be  a  meta- 
phorical equivalent  for  the  angel 
constantly  in  waiting  for  the  com- 
mands of  the  heavenly  King.  But 
it  seems  to  be  certain  that  the  ex- 
pression '  the  Face  (or,  the  Name) 
of  God'  is  not  merely  metaphorical, 
but  a  common  mythic  phrase  of  the 
early  Semites  for  the  self-manifest- 
ing aspect  of  the  Divine  nature 
(comp.  on  xxx.  27,  lix.  19),  and  that 
when  the  later  Old  Testament 
writers  discarded  mythic  phraseo- 
logy, they  gave  a  similar  content  to 
the  term  'angel.'  In  the  phrase, 
'  the  angel  of  his  Face,'  we  seem  to 
have  a  confusion  of  two  forms  of 
expression  incident  to  a  midway 
stage  of  revelation. His  clem- 
ency] Indicating  that  Jehovah  had 


much  to  forgive. He  took  them 

up]  Comp.  xl.  II,  xlvi.  3,  4  (note). 
"^  But  they  defied  and  grieved 

.  .  .  ]  The  contrast  involved  in  the 
pronouns  '  he  '  and  '  they  '  reminds 
us  of  the  similar  antithesis  in  chap, 
liii.- — It  is  probably  the  religious 
and  political  decline  of  Israel,  as 
represented  in  the  Book  of  Judges, 
to  which  the  prophet  refers  in  this 
clause  : — comp.  the  familiar  phrase, 
'And  the  children  of  Israel  again 
did  evil  in  the  eyes  of  Jehovah' 
(Judg.  ii.  II,  iii.  7,  &c.).  The  same 
combination  of  verbs  f  defied  '  and 
'  grieved  '  occurs  again  in  Ps.  Ixxviii. 
40  ;  and  the  former  of  these  verbs, 
in  conjunction  with  '  his  Spirit'  (i.e., 
the  Spirit  of  Jehovah,  not  that  of 
Moses),  in  Ps.  cvi.  "i,},  (comp.  v.  43). 

His     Spirit    of    holiness]     It 

would  be  dangerous  to  attempt  a 
'Theology  of  II.  Isaiah,'  but  there 
is  evidently  a  tendency  in  this  book 
to  hypostatise  the  Divine  Spirit 
(which  it  mentions  no  less  than 
seven  times)  with  special  distinct- 
ness. The  author  has  already 
claimed  to  have  been  sent  in 
personal  union  with  the  Spirit  of 
Jehovah  (see  on  xlviii.  16) ;  he  now 
employs  another  phrase  (comp.  v. 
14)  which  could  not  have  been 
used,  except  of  a  person.  From  the 
connection  of  this  verse  with  the 
preceding  we  may,  I  think,  infer 
that  '  his  Spirit  (of  holiness) '  is 
virtually  equivalent  to  '  the  Angel ' 
or  '  the  Face  '  of  Jehovah  ;  and  the 
same  conclusion  may  be  reached 
(see  below)  by  comparing  the  last 
clause  of  the  next  verse  with  Ex. 
xxxiii.  14.  Another  slight  coinci- 
dence may  confirm  this  view.  The 
word  in  Ex.  xxiii.  21    rendered  in 


1  Die  Li-hrc  der  Bibel  von  Gott,  ii.  28 


io6 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  LXIII. 


an  enemy,  he  himself  fought  against  them.  "Then  ^he 
remembered  the  days  of  old  '' ;  '  Where  is  he  that  ''brought 
them   up  out  of  the  sea  with  the  shepherds  '^  of  his  flock  ? 

•>  His  people  remembered  the  ancient  days  of  Moses,  Saadya,  Rashi,  Ges.,  Hitz., 
Ew.,  Del.,  N:ieg. — He  (Israel)  rememljered  the  days  of  old  (and)  the  deliverer  of  his 
people  (viz.  Jehovah),  Horst,  Stier.  (This  rend,  is  mentioned  by  A.  E.,  and  approved, 
though  not  adopted,  by  Ges.) 

'  So,  many  Hebr.  MSS.  (including  two  of  great  value  at  St.  Petersburg  and  two 
at  Erfurt)  and  editions,  Vulg. ,  Kimchi,  Vitr. ,  Del. — Brought  them  up  .  .  .  with  the 
shepherd.  Received  text. —Brought  up  out  of  the  sea  the  shepherd,  Sept.,  I'esh., 
Targ.,  three  Hebr.  MSS.  (two  of  some  importance),  Naeg. 

Auth.  Vers.  '  provoke '  is  cognate 
with  the  word  here  rendered  '  de- 
fied,' and  the  accusative  to  the  verb 
in  Ex.  /.  c.  is  the  '  Angel '  of  whom 
it  is  said,  'My  Name  (  =  Face)  is 
in  him.'  Comp.  also  iii.  8  '  to  defy 
the  eyes  of  his  glory'  (  =  'to  defy 
his  Face '). — The  phrase  '  Spirit  of 
holiness'  is  particularly  appropriate 
here,  as  the  'defiance'  of  the  Jews 
consisted  in  their  transgressing  that 
religious  covenant,  fidelity  to  which 
constituted  Israel's  'holiness.'  In 
fact,  the  phrase  was  not  improbably 
coined  for  7n'.  lo,  ii,  as  it  only 
occurs  again  in  Ps.  li.  (see  v.  ii,  or 
in  the  Hebr.  12),  a  psalm  probably 
written  by  one  already  acquainted 

with  II.  Isaiah. So  he  changred 

.  .  .  ]  For  'his  name  is  Jealous,' 

Ex.     xxxiv.     14. He     himself] 

Although  their  Father,  full  of  '  love 
and  clemency.' 

"  The  pressure  of  a  calamity 
excites  a  longing  for  the  return  of 
the  good  old  days. He  remem- 
bered] viz.,  the  people  ;  comp. 
'within him.'  This  'remembering' 
is  a  characteristic  feature  of  the 
later  Psalms  ;  see  Ps.  Ixxviii.  35, 
Ixxvii.  II,  cv.  5,  cxliii.  5  (and  so 
Deut.  xxxii.  7).  When  man  '  re- 
members,' a  corresponding  '  change 
of  mind  '  seems,  to  human  expe- 
rience, to  be  wrought  in  God  ; 
comp.  Ps.  Ixxviii.  39,  cvi.  45  (and 
the  parallel  in  Lev.  xxvi.  45).  It 
may  also  be  remarked  that  the 
point  of  view  of  edification  pre- 
dominates in  Hebrew  historical 
literature  from  the  time  of  the  Cap- 
tivity onwards  ;  in  their  studies  as 
well  as  in  their  prayers  these  earnest 
Jewish  believers  '  remembered.' — 
Of  //le  tcxl-rcading  it  seems  lo  me 


impossible  to  give  a  natural  transla- 
tion. I  must  still,  however,  agree 
with  Gesenius  (in  a  note  appended 
to  his  translation  of  Isaiah,  and 
very  generally  overlooked)  that  '  if 
the  text  is  correct,  the  explanation 
of  Horst  (1S23)  deserves  particular 
attention,  according  to  which  ino- 
sheh  is  taken  appellatively '  (see 
above).  In  this  case  there  is  per- 
haps an  allusion  to  the  Hebrew 
etymology  of  Moses  (Ex.  ii.  10), 
and  we  might  render  (as  in  /.  C.  A., 
p.  221),  'the  (true)  Moses  of  his 
people.'  I  confess,  Jiowever,  that 
this  now  appears  to  me  too  abstruse 
an  expression  and  too  subtle  a 
thought  for  such  a  context.  In  his 
Commentary,  Gesenius  suggests 
that  '  Moses '  {inockeh)  is  a  marginal 
gloss  which  has  intruded  into  the 
text.  But  this  is  not  an  adequate 
remedy  ;  we  have  still  to  account 
for  the  unnatural  position  of  '  his 
people'  i^ainmo).  The  Sept.  omits 
both  words,  and  Dr.  Weir  remarks, 
'  It  would  almost  seem  as  if  they 
were  a  marginal  gloss,  afterwards 
introduced  into  the  text,  "Moses" 
perhaps  explanatory  of  "  shepherd 
of  his  flock,"  and  "  his  people  "  of 
"his  flock  "  or  "within  him'"  [or, 
perhaps    still    better,  as  a   subject 

to    the    verb    'remembered']. • 

"Where  is  he  ...  ]  Here  begins 
a  series  of  questions,  reminding  us 

of  those   in  li.  9,  10. "With  the 

shepherds  of  his  flock]  ('  With  ' 
=  ' under  the  conduct  of ').  Tiiese 
additional  words  seem  to  follow 
rather  awkwardly,  and  I  can  under- 
stand Naeg.'s  preference  for  a  sim- 
pler reading  (see  above).  Still  the 
parallel  of  Ps.  Ixxvii.  20,  '  who  led- 
dest  thy  people   like  sheep  by  the 


CHAP.  LXIII.] 


ISAIAH. 


107 


where  is  he  that  placed  within  him  his  Spirit  of  holiness  ? 
•^  He  that  caused  his  Arm  of  splendour  to  go  forward  at  the 
right  hand  of  Moses,  that  cleft  the  waters  before  them,  to 
make  unto  himself  an  everlasting  monument  ?  ^^  He  that 
made  them  to  go  through  the  deeps,  like  horses  through  the 
wilderness,  without  stumbling  ?  ''*  Like  the  beast  that  goeth 
down  into  the  highland  plain,  the  Spirit  of  Jehovah  ^  brought 
them  to  rest  '^ ;  thus  didst  thou  guide  thy  people,  to  make 
unto  thyself  a  monument  of  splendour.     '^  Look  from  heaven 

^  Led  them,  Sept.,  Pesh.,  Vulg.,  Targ. ,  Lo.,  Ew.  (another  reading). 


hand  of  Moses  and  Aaron,'  seems 
to  justify  an  adherence  to  the  re- 
ceived text  (comp.  also  Num.  xxxiii. 
i).  From  Mic.  vi.  4  it  may  perhaps 
be  inferred  that  popular  tradition 
gave  a  place  to  Miriam  (called 
'  the  prophetess,'  Ex.  xv.  20)  among 

the  divinely  appointed  chiefs. 

"VThere  is  be  tbat  placed  .  .  .  his 
Spirit  .  .  .  ]  That  the  Spirit  of  Je- 
hovah was  specially  present  among 
the  Israelites  in  their  wanderings, 
was  the  constant  belief  of  the  Bib- 
lical writers.  But  what  is  more  par- 
ticularly involved  in  this  belief?  A 
Levitical  prayer  in  Neh.  i.x.  (see  v. 
20)  represents  the  operations  of  the 
Spirit  as  didactic,  but  the  aim  of 
the  speaker  or  writer  is  here  evi- 
dently, not  truthfulness  of  historic 
colouring,  but  edification.  Provi- 
dential guidance  and  sagacious 
government  seem  to  be  the  benefits 
primarily  associated  with  the  pre- 
sence of  the  Spirit,  or,  as  we  may 
also  say  (see  above),  the  Face  of 
Jehovah.  Hence  we  read  in  v.  14 
'  the  Spirit  of  Jehovah  brought  them 
to  rest,'  followed  by  '  so  didst  thou 
lead  thy  people';  hence  Jehovah 
declares  to  Moses,  '  My  Face  shall 
go  (with  thee),  and  I  will  give  thee 
rest'  (Ex.  xxxiii.  14,  comp.  Hag.  ii. 
4,  5,  Q.  P.  B.)  ;  and  hence  the 
narrative  in  Num.  xi.  10-30  ascribes 
the  endowment  of  the  seventy 
elders  with  the  Spirit  of  Jehovah 
to  the  inadequate  provision  for 
the  functions  of  government.  The 
qualifying  term  'of  holiness'  is 
neither  otiose  nor  vague.  It  recalls 
to  mind  (see  on  the  same  phrase  in 


V.  10)  that  the  external  prosperity 
of  the  Israelites  was  due  to  the 
fidelity  of  their  God,  and  implies  a 

rebuke  for  their  own  infidelity. 

"Within  him]  viz.,  Israel,  not  merely 
Moses  (as  Ges.),  see  last  note. 

^'  His  i^rm  of  splendour]  An- 
other symbolic  phrase  nearly  equi- 
valent to    'the    Face  of  Jehovah' 

(see  on  xl.  10). To  g-o  tor-ward 

at  the  right  hand  of  IVIoses] 
Ready    to    grasp    him    when    he 

stumbled,  xli.   13    (Dr.  Weir). 

"Who  cleft  the  waters  .  .  .  ]  Refer- 
ring still,  not  to  the  Jordan,  nor  to 
the  rock  in  Horeb,  but  to  the  Red 
Sea;  comp.  Ps.  cvi.  9,  Ixxvii.  16(17), 
where  '  the  deeps  '  are  mentioned, 

as  in  V.    13. The    wilderness] 

i.e.,  the  uncultivated  pasture-land. 

'^  That  ffoeth  down]  viz., from  the 

bare    mountain-side. Brought 

them  to  rest]  '  Rest '  is  a  favourite 
phrase  for  the  state  of  the  Israel- 
ites in  the  land  of  Canaan  after 
their  weary  wanderings  ;  comp.  Ex, 
xxxiii.  14,  Deut.  iii.  20,  xii.  9,  Josh, 
i.  13,  xxii.  4,  Ps.  xcv.  II,  and  the 
applications  in  Jer.  xxxi.  2  {Q.P.B.), 
Heb.  iv.  I,  3,  9. Thus]  Sum- 
ming up  the  several  stages  of  the 
history. 

^*  Here,  strictly  speaking,  chap. 
Ixiv.  ought  to  begin  :  vv.  15-19  are 
parallel  to  Ixiv.  1-3. — It  is  difficult 
to  overrate  the  spiritual  beauty  of 
the  prayer  contained  in  the  former 
passage.  We  may  admit  that  the 
most  prominent  motive  urged  by 
the  speaker  has  a  nationalistic  air, 
but  behind  this,  and  strengthening 
it,  is  his  sense  of  the  infiniteness  of 


io8 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  LXllI. 


and  behold,  from  thy  height  of  holiness  and  splendour. 
Where  are  thy  jealousy  and  thine  acts  of  might?  the  sound- 
ing of  thy  heart  and  thy  compassions — '^  are  they  restrained 
towards  us  ^  ?■    '"^  For  thou  art  our  Father,  for  Abraham  taketh 

•  So  Lo.,  Gr.  ;  Sept.,  Pesh.,  also  have  (me). — Text,  are  restrained  towards  me. 


the  Divine  mercy,  and  of  the  strong 
vitality  of  the  union  between  Jeho- 
vah and  his  people. Iiook  from 

beaven]  As  if  Jehovah  had  given 
up  caring  for  his  people,  and  with- 
drawn into  his  heavenly  palace. 
This  bold  apostrophe  reminds  us 
of  a  similar  outburst  of  the  prophet- 
poet  of  the  middle  ages  : — 

E  se  licito  m'  h,  o  sommo  Giove, 
Che  fosti  in  terra  per  noi  crucifisso. 
Son  li  giusii  occhi  tuoi  rivolti  aUrove? 

The  peculiar  Hebr.  original  occurs 
again  in  Ps.  Ixxx.  15  (A.  V.  14),  and 
nowhere  else.  Dr.  Weir  adds,  that 
the  whole  of  the  psalm  may  be 
compared  with  this   section  of  the 

prophecy. From  tby  beigrbt] 

It  is  not  mdrof/!,  the  usual  word  for 
'  height,'  but  z  bhtll.  The  render- 
ing seems  to  be  established  from 
Assyrian  (see  crit.  note).— — -"Wbere 
(is)  tby  jealousy]  Jehovah  seems 
to  have  become  callous  to  his 
people's  need  ;  his  'jealousy'  (see 
on  ix.  7  b)  slumbers,  and  needs  to 
be  '  stirred  up  '  (xlii.  13,  where,  as  in 
this  passage,  it  is  combined  with  the 
expression  '  heroism  '  or  '  manifes- 
tation of  might '). The   sound- 

Ingr  of  tby  beart  .  .  .  ]    A  figure 
for    '  sympathy  '  ;    comp.    xvi.     1 1 
(note),  Jer.  xxxi.  20,  xlviii.  36. 
'®  The  Church's  warrant  for  her 

appeal. For    tbou    (only)    art 

our  Father]  '  Our  father,'  as  in 
Ixiv.  8,  and  perhaps  i  Chron. 
xxix.  10. — Not  in  the  wide,  spiritual 
sense  of  the  New  Testament,  but 
as  the  founder  and  preserver  of 
the  Israelitish  nation  (see  Deut. 
xxxii.  6),  which  henceforth  (car- 
rying out    primitive    legal  concep- 


tions) is  under  the  patria  potestas. 
This  is  the  constant  meaning  of 
the  title  'Father'  as  applied  to 
Jehovah  ;  see  e.g.  Ex.  iv.  22,  Hos. 
xi.  I,  Isa.  i.  2,  Jer.  iii.  4,  19,  xxxi. 
9,  20,  Mai.  i.  6,  ii.  10.  The  first 
example  of  the  individualising  use 
of  the  term  is  in  Sirach  xxiii.  1-4, 
'  O  Lord,  Father  and  Governor 
of   my    whole    life  ...  O     Lord, 

P^ather  and  God  of  my  life.' ') 

For  Abraham  taketh  no  notice 
of  us  ...  ]  Two  explanations  are 
open  to  us  :  i.  '  Abraham  and 
Jacob,  fathers  according  to  the 
flesh,  are  long  since  dead,  and 
know  us  no  more,  and  cannot  help 
us.  But  Jehovah  is  the  everlasting 
Father  and  Redeemer  of  his  people.' 
So  Dr.  Weir,  expressing  (I  believe) 
the  general  view  of  commentators. 
But  let  the  reader  ask  himself, 
Does  this  really  explain  the  pas- 
sage? Why  should  Abraham  and 
Israel  be  introduced  in  this  con- 
nection.'' Is  it  not  a  platitude  to 
say  that  the  remote  ancestors  of 
the  Jews  cannot  help  them,  unless 
—  and  this  is  the  second  of  our 
theories — there  was  some  chance, 
from  the  popular  point  of  view 
(and  obs.,  the  prophet  is  speaking 
in  the  name  of  the  people),  that  they 
might  both  sympathise  and  power- 
fully co-operate  with  their  descend- 
ants— unless,  in  short,  they  were 
regarded  somewhat  as  demigods 
(comp.  the  Homeric  poems),  or 
patron-saints,  or  the  angelic  '  holy 
ones '  in  a  speech  of  Eliphaz  the 
Temanite  (Job  v.  i)"?  It  was 
Ewald  who  first  pointed  out  some 
traces  of  such  a  popular  belief  in 
the  Old  Testament  writings,  though 


'  Comp.  Wittichen,  Die  Idee  Gotten  als  des  Vaters,  Gottingen,  1865  ;  Westcott, 
The  Epistles  of  St.  John  (add.  no'e  on  i  John  i.  2). 

^  (if  course  it  was  only  the  patriari  hs  and  great  men  who  were  expected  thus  to 
sympathise  across  the  gulf  of  death.  The  popular  belief  as  to  the  n-lation  of  the 
common  dead  to  their  descendants  is  shown  m  Job.  .\iv.  21,  22  (see  Uillmann  s  note). 


CHAP.  LXIII.] 


IS  AT  AH. 


109 


no  notice  of  us,  and  Israel  doth  not  recognise  us  ;  thou,  O 
Jehovah,  art  our  Father  ;  '  our  Goel  '  hath  been  thy  name 
from  of  old.     '^  Why  dost  thou  make  us  to  stray,  O  Jehovah, 


he  does  not  call  attention  to  it  in 
the  present  passage.  The  instances 
which  he  quotes  (not  all  of  them, 
I  think,  of  equal  value)  are  Jer. 
xxxi.  15  ('Rachel  weeping  for  her 
children '),  Hos.  xii.  4,  5  (A.  V.  3, 
4),  Isa.  xxix.  22,  23,  Luke  i.  54,  55, 
73,  xvi.  22.^  Of  these  the  first  and 
the  last  are  the  most  striking  ;  the 
passage  from  Hosea  seems  merely 
to  embody  a  typical  interpretation 
of  the  history  of  Jacob,  and  instead 
of  '  with  us '  we  should,  with  some 
ancient  versions,  read  '  with  him ' ; 
on  Isa.  xxix.  22,  23,  I  may  refer  to 
my  own  note  ;  Luke  i.  54  probably 
alludes  to  Isa.  xliv.  2,  while  vv. 
55)  73)  expressly  refer  to  the  past. 
But  if  there  are  only  a  few  passages 
alluding  to  this  popular  belief,  we 
need  hardly  be  surprised  ;  it  was 
not  the  object  of  the  sacred  writers 
to  preserve  material  for  archaeolo- 
gists. These  few  passages,  however, 
seem  to  me  sufficiently  conclusive. 
They  enable  us  moreover  to  account 
for  some  remarkable  statements  in 
later  Jewish  writings — statements, 
be  it  said  in  passing,  which  render 
it  a  priori  probable  that  germs  of 
the  belief  expressed  in  them  would 
be  found  in  the  earlier  literature. 
Among  these  may  be  mentioned 
the  vision  of  Jereiniah  '  who  prayeth 
much  for  the  dead '  (2  Mace.  xv. 
13,  14),  and  the  Talmudic  assump- 
tion that  the  Messianic  redemption 
would  be  the  recompence  of  the 
merits  of  the  patriarchs  (especially 
Jacob  and  Joseph),  or  of  the 
prayers  of  '  ancient  Rachel.'  ^  I 
trust  no  reader  will  suppose  that 
there  is  anything  derogatory  to  the 
prophet  in  this  view  of  his  meaning. 
The  fearless  security  with  which 
the  sacred  writers  employ  popular 
language  is  only  adverse  to  a  me- 
chanical theory  of  inspiration,  and 
adds  greatly  to  the  interest  of  Bib- 


lical studies.  [The  above  stands, 
with  slight  alterations,  as  it  was 
written  several  years  ago.  Since 
then  Dr.  Goldziher  has  arrived 
independently  at  a  similar  view.^ 
His  opinion,  however,  is  that  the 
prophet  aims  at  overthrowing  the 
popular  belief.  This  seems  to  me  an 
arbitrary  conjecture.  No  evidence 
in  support  of  it  can  be  gained  from 
the  passage  itself.  The  prophet 
speaks  in  the  name  of  the  people, 
and  the  analogy  of  passages  (see 
above)  in  which  a  controversial 
intention  cannot  be  supposed, 
seems  to  me  to  be  unfavourable 
to  Dr.  Cioldzihei-'s  view.  Indeed, 
on  reconsidering  my  note,  it  ap- 
pears to  me  that  the  prophet  is  not 
merely  speaking  dramatically  for 
the  people,  but  expressing  his  own 
beliefs.     See  Last   Words  on  this 

passage.] Israel]     Sometimes 

used  as  a  synonym  for  '  Jacob  '  in 
the  more  solemn  style  ;  see  i  Kings 
xviii.  36  'God  of  Abraham,  Isaac, 

and  Israel.' OurCoel  .  .  .  from 

of  old]  The  history  of  Israel  pre- 
sented a  continual  succession  of 
'  captivities  '  and  deliverances  (see 
on  xli.  14). 

"  "Wby  dost  thou  make  us  to 
stray  .  .  .  ]  (Comp.  Ixiv.  5,  7.) 
It  is  as  if  the  Jews  would  throw  the 
responsibility  of  their  errors  upon 
Jehovah  ;  and  this  in  spite  of  the 
encouraging  invitations  contained 
in  this  very  book.  They  speak  as 
if  it  is  not  they  who  need  to  return 
to  Jehovah  (Iv.  7), but  Jehovah  who 
is  reluctant  to  return  to  them  ; 
as  if,  instead  of  '  feeding  his  flock 
like  a  shepherd'  (xl.  11),  he  has 
driven  it  out  of  the  safe  fold  into 
the  'howling  wilderness.'  But  it 
is  only  a  temporary  gloom  which 
has  settled  upon  the  Jewish  be- 
lievers. Depressed  by  melancholy, 
they  give  way  for  the  moment  to 


1  History  of  Israel,  i.  296.     We  might  add  Mic.  vii.  20. 

*  See  Rashi  on  Ixii.  6  and  comp.  Castelli,  //  Messia  secondo  gli  Ebrei,  pp.  184-5. 
See  also  below,  on  v.  17  b,  and  quotntion  from  Targum,  at  end  of  note  on  Ixiv.  5. 
^  Hebreiv  Mythology,  translated  by  Russell  Martineaii,  p.  229. 


1  lO 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  LXIII, 


from  thy  ways,  and  harden  our  hearts  so  as  not  to  fear  thee  ? 
Return,  for  thy  servants'  sake,  the  tribes  of  thine  inheritance. 
^^  ^  For  (but)  a  Httle  while  have  they  had  possession  of  thy 
holy  mountain  ^ :  our  adversaries  have  trampled  upon  thy 
sanctuary.     '^*''We  are  become  (like)  those  over  whom  thou 

f  ('Mountain'  is  the  reading  of  Sept.,  T.owth,  Klostermann.)  For  a  little  while 
have  thv  holy  p.-ople  possessed  (the  land,  Vitr.,  Del.,  &c.,  or,  thy  sanctuary,  Hitz., 
Knob.),  Hebr.  text,  according  to  most. — They  have  been  within  a  httle  (?)  of  dis- 
po^-sessing  thy  holy  people,  Hebr.  text,  according  to  Luther,  Lu. ,  Kr. ,  Seinecke, 
Riehm.  —  For  a  little  while  have  they  (viz.,  thy  servants,  or,  the  enemies  of  Israel)  had 
possession  of  thy  holy  city,  Weir  (emendation). 

8  We  are  become  as  of  old,  when  thou  ruledst  not  over  us,  neither  was  thy  name 
cal'ed  upon  us,  Sept.,  Vulg. — We  wi  re  of  old,  before  thou  ruledst  over  them,  &c. 
Pesh. — We  are  thy  people  from  of  old,  &c.,  Targ.  (Dr.  Weir  doubtfully  suggests 
that  these  renderings  approach  the  truth.) 


those  human  'thoughts'  which  are 
not  as  '  My  thoughts  '  (Iv.  8). 
Their  question  is  a  bold  one,  and 
in  other  hps  would  be  even  blas- 
phemous. But  an  ardent  affection 
to  their  God  underlies  it.  It  is  be- 
cause the  Divine  power  and  help- 
fulness has  been  so  often  proved 
of  old  (z'.  1 6),  that  Israel's  present 
degradation  seems  so  unintelligible. 
The  sense  of  sin,  too,  has  deepened 
during  the  Exile,  and  with  it  has 
arisen  a  painful  feeling  of  the  in- 
consistency of  evil  with  the  be- 
neficent character  of  the  Deity.^ 
Fundamentally  opposed  to  Dualism, 
the  Jewish  believers  are  involved 
in  a  speculative  problem  which, 
from  the  side  of  the  intellect,  they 
are  utterly  powerless  to  explain 
(comp.  Rom.  ix.  17-22).  How  can 
Jehovah  have  rejected  his  people? 
— this  was  their  first  difficulty,  and 
that  which  beset  even  the  less  re- 
ligious minds  among  the  exiles. 
How  can  God  be  the  author  of  sin  .'' 
this  is  the  added  sting  to  true 
believers.- — ■ — rromthy  -ways]  i.e., 
from    thy    righteous    rules  of  life 

(Ixiv.     5). AnA     harden     our 

hearts]  See  on  vi.  10. Return] 

Jehovah  had  turned  away  in  dis- 
pleasure ;      comp.     Ps.    l.xxx.      14 

(quoted  by  Dr.  WeirV Tot  thy 

servants'  sake]  '  Thy  servants  ' 
are  not  Israel's  'fathers'  or  fore- 
fathers   (Ibn     Ezra    and    Kimchi, 


following  the  Targum,^  in  the  face 
of  V.  16),  but  those  Jews  who  are 
still  worthy  of  the  title  of  'Jeho- 
vah's servants '  and  are  therefore 
competent  to  receive  the  promised 
blessings.  In  the  parallel  line  they 
are  called  the  tribes  of  thine 
inheritance.  This  is  not  merely 
a  consecrated  phrase,  but  the  lan- 
guage of  faith.  Jehovah  knows  his 
own,  however  widely  the  tribes  of 
Israel  may  be  dispersed. 

'*  Tot  (but)  a  little  while]  It  is 
a  '  pathetic  fallacy.'  The  tedious- 
ness  of  the  Exile  (see  on  xlii.  14) 
made  the  preceding  period  of 
national  independence  seem  but 
too  short. Thy  holy  moun- 
tain] (Same  phrase  in  Ivii.  13.) 
This  phrase  considerably  dimi- 
nishes the  harshness  of  the  re- 
ceived text,  as  it  provides  the  verb 
in  the  first  line  with  an  accusative. 
(The  subject  of  the  verb  is,  of 
course,  'thy  servants,'  v.  17.)  Alt. 
rend.,  it  is  true,  does  even  more 
than  this,  for  it  brings  the  verb  in 
the  first  line  into  parallelism  with 
that  in  the  second.  But  the  rend, 
'within  a  little'  has  no  analogy, 
and  besides  it  is  difficult  to  think  of 
the  pre-Exile  Israelites  as  a  '  holy 
people,'  which  would  seem  to  be  a 
title  specially  reserved  for  the  re- 
generate Israel  (Ixii.  12,  comp.  iv.  3). 

''•*  "We  have  become  (like) 
those  .  .  .  ]     The  meaning  of  this 


'  Comp.  /.  C.  A.,  p.  224. 

'  It  is  a  favourite  idea  of  the  Tarqimi  (see  Ps.  Ix.  6,   7,  Ixxxiv.    11),  and  of  the 
Talmud,  that  the  redemption  of  Israel  will  be  accorded  to  the  merits  of  '  the  fathers' 


CHAP.  LXIV.] 


ISAIAH. 


II  I 


hast    never    ruled,  upon  whom   thy  name  hath  never  been 
called.^ 

LXIV.  '  Oh  that  thou  didst  rend  the  heavens,  that  thou 
didst  come  down,  that  the  mountains  ^  shook  at  thy  presence, 
^  as  when  a  fire  of  brushwood  kindleth,^  to  make  thy  name 
known  to  thine  adversaries,. so  that  nations  trembled  before 
thee,  ^  while  thou  didst  terrible  things  which  we  hoped  not 
for :  [that  thou  didst  come  down,  that  the  mountains  ^  shook 

•"  Flowed,  Sept.,  Vulg.,  Ew.,  Stier,  W^eir,  Naeg. 

•  Text  inserts,  (as  when)  fire  causeth  water  to  boil.     (Evidently  a  gloss.) 


half-verse  is  very  uncertain.  The 
omission  of  'like'  constitutes  a 
serious  difficulty    in    the    ordinary 

rendering. Thcu     bast    never 

ruled]  (Comp.  the  complaint  of 
the  Church  in  xxvi.  13  a.)  The 
theocratic  covenant  was  regarded 
as  a  pledge  of  the  indestructibility 
of  the  Jewish  state.  Other  nations 
may  have  Baal,  Chemosh,  Asshur, 
for  their  king ;  Israel  alone  can 
say  'Jehovah  is  our  King'  (xxxiii. 
22).  The  prophets  admit  the  jus- 
tice of  the  popular  belief  ;  only  they 
emphasise  the  moral  conditions  on 
which  alone  security  and  deliver- 
ance   can    be     enjoyed. Thy 

name]  The 'calling' of  the 'name' 
of  Jehovah  upon  Israel  gave  a  mys- 
tic union  to  the  two  parties  ;  comp. 
xliii.  7,  Ixv.  I,  Deut.  xxviii.  10,  Jer. 
xiv.  9. 

^'^  These  verses  are  parallel  to 
Ixiii.  15,  but  grander  and  bolder. 
There  the  prophet  in  the  name  of 
the  Church  petitioned  that  Jehovah 
would  look  down  on  the  misery  of 
his  people.  Here,  a  look  is  felt  to 
be  sufficient,  so  widely  yawns  the 
gulf  between  Israel  and  his  God. 
A  revelation  on  the  largest  possi- 
ble scale  is  necessary  to  smite  down 
unbelief  and  annihilate  opposition  ; 
God  Himself  must  appear  (Naeg.). 
— In  the  modern  editions  of  the 
Hebrew  Bible,  the  verse  which,  in 
the  printed  editions  of  the  ancient 
as  well  as  in  the  modern  versions, 
stands  as  Ixiv.  i,  forms  the  second 
half  of  Ixiii.  19.  The  context  is 
obviously  against    separating    this 


verse  from  the  two  following  (our 
Ixiv.  2,  3),  but  the  arrangement  in 
the  Hebrew  Bible  may  also  perhaps 
be  taken  as  an  unconscious  protest 
against  the  interruption  of  a  pro- 
phecy which  is  really  a  connected 

whole    (Ixiii.    7-lxiv.   12). That 

tliou  didst  rend  the  heavens] 
God  seems,  in  time  of  trouble,  to 
be  separated  by  thick  clouds  (Job 
xxii.  13,  14).  But  the  Church 
firmly  believes  that  he  will  show 
Himself  again,  and  only  wishes 
that  this  most  certain  event  had 
already  taken  place.  Hence  the 
perfect  tense,  '  O  that  thou  hadst 
rent  .  .  .  hadst   come    down '    (so 

literally). Mountains       shook] 

A  frequent  feature  in  the  Biblical 
theophanies  ;  comp.  Judg.  v.  5, 
Mic.  i.  4,  Hab.  iii.  6,  and  especially 

Ex.  xix.  18. As  when  fire  .  .  .] 

To  emphasise  the  foregoing  state- 
ment. Solid  as  the  mountains 
seem,  they  shall  be  as  powerless 
as  so  much  brushwood  or  water  to 
resist  the  destructive  influences  of 

Jehovah. To  make  thy  name 

known  .  .  .]  Name  is  not  merely 
character,  but  one  special  aspect  of 
the  Deity  (see  on  xxx.  27). 

^  Terrihle  thing's]  A  standing 
phrase  (see  Deut.  x,  21,  2  Sam.  vii. 
23,  Ps.  cvi.  22)  for  the  wonders  of 
the  Exodus,  to  which  later  deliver- 
ances   are     compared. "WThich 

vr&  hoped  not  for]  Exceeding  our 
wildest  dreams,  although,  as  the 
next  verse  says,  we  had  a  right  to 
expect  great  things,  on  account  of 
the  mighty  exploits  of  Jehovah  in 


(see  above,  on  v.  16).     Vitringa  compares  the  first  of  the  eighteen  Benedictions,  but 
khasdt  there  means,  not  '  pious  deeds '  (of  the  fathers),  but  '  promises '  (as  Iv.  3  b). 


I  12 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  lxiv. 


at  thy  presence  ;]  *  yea,  from  of  old  men  have  not  heard,  nor 
perceived  with  the  ear,  (and)  eye  hath  not  seen,  a  God  beside 
thee,  who  doeth  (so  great  things)  for  him  that  waiteth  for 
him  !  *''Thou  meetest**  him  who  joyfully  worketh  righteous- 
ness ;  in  thy  ways  they  remember  thee.  Behold,  thou  wast 
wroth,  '  and  we  sinned '  |  m  *  *  *  m  n  ^^^^  ^^^  went  astray  ". 
^And  we  all  became  as  one  who  is  unclean,  and  all  our 
righteous  deeds  as  a  menstruous  garment,  and  we  all  faded 
away  as  the  leaves,  and  our  iniquities  like  the  wind  have 
carried  us  away  :  "^  and  there  is  none  that  calleth  on  thy  name, 

k  O  that  thou  wouldst  meet,  Ew.  (similarly  Stier). 

'  So  Hitz.,  Ew.,  Knob.,  Naeg.— And  we  stood  forth  as  sinners,  Del. 

">  Therein  (i.e.,  in  our  sins,  or,  in  the  tokens  of  thine  anger)  [have  we  been]  a 
long  time,  Ges.,  Del. — (Thou  wast  wroth)  with  them  (i.e.,  the  people)  a  long  time, 
Vitr. .  Ew. 

">  So  Ew. — We  fell  away,  Lowth  (both  Ew.  and  Lowth  follow  Sept.). — Hebr.  text, 
And  shall  we  be  delivered?  Hitz.,  Del.,  Naeg. 


the  past.  The  concluding  words 
are  probably,  as  Prof.  Robertson 
Smith  has  pointed  out,  repeated  by 
accident  from  v.  i  ;  the  passage 
gains  greatly  by  their  removal. 

'*  From  of  old  men  bave  not 
beard  .  •  .  ]  The  only  living  God 
who,  from  the  beginning  of  the 
world,  has   proved    himself  to    be 

such  by  acts,  is  Jehovah. "Who 

doetb]  The  construction,  '  the 
things  which  he  prepareth'  (comp. 

1  Cor.  ii.  9)  is  too  elliptical,  and 
the  sense  thus  obtained  does  not 
fit  in  well  with  the  context,  which 
points  to  the  present  and  not  to  any 
future  age,  i.e.  to  God's  'doings  '  in 
history.  That  these  'doings'  are 
great,  is  understood  of  itself  (see  on 
xliv.  23). 

^  Tbou  meetest]  Comp.  Ps.  ci. 

2  a.  '  Meetest '  in  such  a  way  as  to 
leave  no  doubt  of  a  Divine  visit 
(etymologically,     strikest    against). 

Bebold,    tbou    vrast    Mrrotb 

.  .  .]  Instead  of  this  desired  har- 
mony, Jehovah  has  manifested  his 
displeasure,  and  the  only  conse- 
quence has  been  (comp.  v.  7  end, 
and  l.xiii.  17  a)  that  we  sinned  (or, 
perhaps,  went  on  sinning).  For 
Del.'s  rend.,  comp.  Gen.  xhii.  9 
Hebr.  ;  'and'  =  'so  that,'  the  '  vav 
consecutive'  here  expressing  the 
sequence  of  fact,  and  not  of  logic. 
.   .   .   and  we  went  astray]    This 


portion  of  the  verse  is  difficult  in 
the  extreme  (see  crit.  note)  ;  Del.'s 
rend,  is  grammatically  the  safest, 
but  it  is  harsh,  and  interrupts  the 
parallelism.  The  paraphrase  of 
the  Targum  is  interesting,  as  illus- 
trative of  the  Jewish  doctrine  ot 
merit,  referred  to  on  Ixiii.  16.  It 
runs,  *  because  of  the  works  of  our 
righteous  fathers  which  have  been 
from  of  old,  we  are  delivered.' 

^  And  we  all  became]  With 
an  emphasis  on  '  all,'  even  more 
marked  in  the  Hebr.  than  in  liii.  6. 

As  one  w^bo  is  unclean]  Like 

the  leper,  who  is  excluded  from 
society  (Lev.  xiii.  44-46).  The 
people  is  personified  as  one  man 

(as  i.  6). Our  Iniquities]     The 

word  {'■dTon)  includes  the  idea  of 

punishment    (see  on   liii.  6  d). 

Have  carried  us  a\^ay]  Into  a 
region  where  Jehovah's  presence  is 
not  felt. 

^  "Wbo  stirretb  up  bimself] 
From  the  lethargy  of  the  con- 
science (same  word  in  li.  17). 

Hast  delivered  us]  The  low  ebb 
of  religion  being  ascribed  (comp.  v. 
5  and  xliii.  17)  to  Jehovah's  with- 
drawal   of    his   felt    presence. 

Hand]  i.e.,  'power,'  'sins'  being 
personified  as  a  tyrant  seeking  to 
destroy.  Comp.  the  whole  passage 
with  Ezek.  xxxiii.  10,  '  Thus  ye 
speak,  saying.  If  our  transgressions 


CHAP.  LXIV.] 


ISAIAH. 


1  I 


that  stirreth  up  himself  to  take  hold  of  thee  ;  for  thou  hast 
hid  thy  face  from  us,  and  hast  °  delivered  us  "  into  the  hand 
of  our  iniquities. 

^  And  now,  Jehovah,  thou  art  our  father  ;  we  are  the  clay, 
and  thou  our  fashioner,  and  the  work  of  thy  hands  are  we  all. 
^  Be  not  wroth,  Jehovah,  to  the  uttermost,  and  remember  not 
iniquity  for  ever :  lo,  do  but  look,  we  are  all  thy  people. 
'"  Thy  holy  cities  have  become  a  desert  ;  Zion  hath  become 
a  desert,  Jerusalem  a  desolation.  "  Our  house  of  holiness 
and  splendour,  where  our  fathers  praised  thee,  is  burned  up 
with  fire,  and  all  our  delectable  things  are  laid  waste.  '^  Wilt 
thou,  in  spite  of  these  things,  restrain  thyself,  Jehovah,  keep- 
ing silence,  and  afflicting  us  to  the  uttermost .'' 

<•  So  Sept.,  Pesh.,  Targ.,  Lowth,  Ew., 
of,  or,  into  the  hand  of),  Hebr.  text,  Vug. 

and  our  sins  be  upon  us,  and  we 
pine  in  them,  how  should  we  then 
live.?' 

**  The  Church,  in  the  boldness 
of  faith,  has  held  up  the  mirror  to 
Jehovah.  She  has  pointed  out  the 
disastrous  consequences  of  his  pre- 
sent inactivity,  and  sums  up  all  her 
longings  in  the  pleading  ejaculation, 
And  now  (bad  as  our  state  is), 
Jehovah,  thou  art  our  father ; 
this  is  the  hope,  which  will  bear 
the  full  weight  of  our  reliance. 
The  Church  had  indeed  already 
expressed  this  great  truth  (Ixiii.  i6). 
She  now  couples  with  it  an  appeal 
to  Jehovah's  reasonableness.  Will 
the  potter  lightly  break  a  vessel  on 
which  he  has  lavished  his  utmost 
skill  ? — The    same  combination  of 

figures  occurs  in  xlv.  9  (note). 

"We  all]  Unworthy  as  we  are  (see 
vv.  6,  9). 

^"^  Another  motive  for  Jehovah's 

interference. Thy  holy  cities] 

The  phrase  is  remarkable  ;  else- 
where Jerusalem  is  'the  holy  city' 
(xlviii.  2,  lii.  i)  :  Sept.  and  Vulg. 
read  '  thy  holy  city.'  We  find  how- 
ever 'his  holy  border'  (Ps.  Ixxviii. 
54),  and  '  the  holy  land  '  (Zech.  ii. 
12,  Hebr.  16). 


Knob.  —  Ma'ie  us  to  melt  away  (by  means 
,  &c.  (unusual  transitive  use  of  the  verb). 

"  Our  house  of  holiness  .  .  .  ] 

'  Our  house,'  i.e.,  that  of  which  we 
are  so  proud  (comp.  Matt,  xxiii.  38). 
Not  'the  house  of  our  holiness,'  &c., 
for  the  '  holiness '  and  the  '  splen- 
dour' are  Jehovah's  (Ivii.  15,  Ix.  7, 
comp.  Ixiii.  15).  Obs.  the  emphasis 
on  praise  ;  comp.  '  who  inhabitest 
(not  the  cherubim,  but)  the  praises 
of  Israel'  (Ps.  xxii.  3).  Praise  in- 
deed includes  prayer,  Ps.  Ixv.  i,  2. 

All  our    delectable     things] 

The  parallelism  shows  that  this  is 
to  be  taken  in  a  religious  sense 
(comp.  xliv.  9),  and  the  phrase 
'  are  laid  waste,'  or  '  are  laid  low  in 
ruin '  {Pkhorbah,  elsewhere  only  in 
Jer.,  Ezek.,  and  Lev.  xxvi.  31,  33), 
suggests  that  buildings  are  meant 
—probably  the  temple  and  its  con- 
tents (hence  'all  .  .  .').  This  is 
confirmed  by  Joel  iii.  5  ('  my  goodly 
delectable  things'  parallel  to  'my 
silver  and  my  gold').  In  2  Chron. 
xxxvi.  19  the  phrase  is  used,  in  con- 
nection with  the  destruction  of  Je- 
rusalem, of  all  artistic  or  precious 
objects,  sacred  or  otherwise. — To 
illustrate  this  verse  see  introd.  to 
chap.  Ixvi. 

^■'  Restrain  thyself]      See  Ixiii. 
15,  xlii.  14  (note). 


VOL.    II. 


IT4  ISATAII.  [chap.  LXV. 


CHAPTER    LXV. 

Contents. — Alternate  threatening  and  promise,  the  one  addressed  to  a 
polytheistic  party,  the  other  to  true  believers. 

Most  commentators  regard  this  prophecy  as  the  answer  of  Jehovah 
to  the  foregoing  prayer  of  the  Church.  This  view  is  certainly  plausible  ; 
such  deep  penitence  and  such  earnest  though  struggling  faith  ought  surely 
to  strike  a  responsive  chord  in  the  divine-human  heart.  Unfortunately, 
it  will  not  stand  a  critical  examination  ;  at  least,  there  are  objections  to 
it,  which  have  not  yet  been  answered.  The  most  serious  one  is  this — that 
the  Divine  speaker  not  only  makes  no  recognition  of  the  advances  of  his 
penitent  servants,  but  passes  by  without  notice  the  grave  religious  pro- 
blem by  which  they  were  harassed.  The  Church  had  complained  that 
Israel's  continuance  in  sin  was  itself  a  consequence  of  the  withdrawal  of 
the  Divine  favour  (see  on  Ixiv.  5).  It  is  difficult  to  understand  that  the 
only  reply  of  Jehovah  should  be  that  he  had  always  been  ready  to  renew 
his  intercourse  with  his  people  (Ixv.  i).  It  would  appear  to  follow  from 
this  inconsistency  that  chap.  Ixv.  was  not  originally  intended  to  be  the 
sequel  of  chaps.  Ixiii.,  Ixiv.  There  are  also  some  other  difficulties  in  the 
way  of  admitting  the  ordinary  view  of  commentators,  though  they  touch 
too  closely  on  the  domain  of  '  the  higher  criticism '  to  receive  a  thorough 
treatment  here.  They  are  such  as  these — that,  while  some  passages 
appear  to  presuppose  the  Exile  as  past,  others  refer  to  circumstances 
characteristic  of  Jewish  life  in  Canaan.  The  former  are  to  be  found  in 
vv.  11-25,  'But  as  for  you  .  .  .  that  forsake  my  holy  mountain'  {v.  11), 
and  'They  shall  not  build,  and  another  inhabit,'  &c.  {v.  22);  the  latter 
in  7ni.  3-5,  II,  where  some  at  least  of  the  sins  referred  to  belong  dis- 
tinctly to  Palestinian  idolatry,  and  in  v.  8,  which  appears  to  contain  a 
quotation  from  a  vintage-song.  It  is  for  criticism  to  say  how  these  appa- 
rently conflicting  phenomena  are  to  be  accounted  for ;  but  exegesis  has 
a  right  to  point  out  that  a  chapter  with  such  pronounced  Palestinian 
features  can  hardly  have  been  intended  as  the  sequel  of  Ixiii.  7-lxiv.,  of 
which  the  real  or  assumed  standing-point  is  in  the  Babylonian  exile. 

'  I  have  offered  an.s\vers  to  tliosc  who  have  not  asked  ;   I 
have  been  at  hand  to  those  who  have  not  sought  ine  :  I  ha\e 

'   I  have  offered  answers]    Lit.,  cond  half  of  the  verse  imply  that 

'  I  allowed  myself  to  be  consulted '  the  Gentiles  are  the  people  referred 

(same  idiom  as  in  liii.  7,  on  which  to,  and    consequently    favour    the 

see  crit.  note).     The  expression  is  former  view  of  the  meaning.      St. 

vague,  and  may  mean  either  that  Paul,   too,    following    perhaps   the 

Jehovah  was  actually  consulted  (it  tradition  of  Gamaliel,  applies  the 

is  the  word  for  consulting  an  oracle),  passage  to  the    conversion    of  the 

or  merely  that  He  might  have  been.  Gentiles   (Rom.   x.    20),    and  most 

The   vowel-points    (which    are    no  Christian  commentators  have  done 

part  of  the    text,    but    embody  an  the  same.     The  context,  however, 

ancient  interpretation)    in    the  se-  is  very   decidedly  against    such    a 


CHAP.  LXV.] 


ISAIAH. 


11^ 


said,  Here  I  am,  here  I  am,  unto  a  nation  which  hath  not 
*  called  upon  ""  my  name.  '^  I  have  spread  out  my  hands  all 
the  day  unto  an  unruly  people,  who  walk  in  a  way  which  is 
not  good,  after  their  own  thoughts.  ^  Xhe  people  who  irritate 
me  to  my  face  continually,  who  sacrifice  ^  in  the  gardens  ^ 
and  burn  incense  upon  the  bricks  ;  ^  who  tarry  in  the  graves 

»  So  Sept.,  Pesh.,  Targ.,  Vulg.,  Lowth,   E\v.,   Diestel.— Been  called  by,  Vowel- 
points,  Ges.,  Del.,  &c.  (unusual  use  of  the  conjugation). 
^  On  (?)  the  roofs,  Ew. 


reference.  There  is  no  indication 
that  the  prospects  of  the  Gentiles 
occupied  the  mind  of  the  prophet 
at  this  time.  The  sins  of  the  Jews, 
committed  against  light  and  know- 
ledge, must  bring  down  upon  them 
a  proportionately  heavy  punishment 
— this  is  the  burden  of  the  section. 

Hatb  not    called    upon    my 

name]  Comp.  Ixiv.  7,  xliii.  22.  The 
difficulties  of  alt.  rend,  are  well 
brought  out  by  Del.  (who  however 
adheres  to  it.) 

^  I  have  spread  out  my  bands] 
The  gesture  of  prayer — what  a  con- 
descension ! "WTio  walk]     The 

nation  is  not  here  personified — it  is 
the  plural  number  in  the  Hebrew. 

^  "Who  sacrifice  in  the  grar- 
dens]  This  was  a  characteristic 
sin  of  the  pre-Exile  period  (Ivii.  5, 
i.  29).  Ew.'s  correction  {l>aggag- 
gotk  for  baggannoth),  anticipated 
but  rejected  by  Vitr.,  is  against 
Hebr.    usage,  which    requires   the 

preposition      'a/. Upon      the 

bricks]  i.e.,  upon  the  tilings  of  the 
houses  (2  Kings  xxiii.  12,  Zeph.  i.  5, 
Jer.  xix.  13).  Or,  upon  altars  made 
of  bricks,  which  were  contrary  to 
the  Law  (Ex.  xx.  24,  25)  ;  but  this 
seems  rather  less  probable,  i.  be- 
cause it  implies  an  ellipsis,  and  2. 
because  it  points  to  Babylonia  or 
Egypt  as  the  scene  of  the  trans- 
gression. The  former  view,  imply- 
ing Palestine  as  the  locality,  is 
more  in  harmony  with  the  con- 
text. 

*  In  the  graves]  The  rock-graves 
of  Palestine  with  their  distinct 
chambers,  supplied,  and  still  sup- 
ply,' a  comfortable  resting-place  on 


emergencies.  Of  course,  to  lodge 
in  the  houses  of  the  dead  involved 
ceremonial  impurity,  but  the  con- 
text shows  that  the  persons  spoken 
of  had  cut  themselves  adrift  from 
the  religion  of  Jehovah.— What 
was  the  object  of  these  visits  to  the 
graves  ?  Vitr.  and  Ges.  think  of 
propitiatory  sacrifices  to  the  dead, 
but  the  parallel  passages  (viii.  19, 
xxix.  4)  rather  suggest  necromancy. 
Sept.  already  adopts  this  view,  in- 
serting the  words  Sm  ivvnvia  (the 
revelations  being  expected  in 
dreams).  But  the  graves  were,  in 
popular  estimation,  not  only  the 
abodes  of  the  dead,  but  those  of 
demons,  or  infernal  deities  or  demi- 
gods (comp.  Matt.  viii.  28,  Mark  v. 
3).  The  revelations  might  therefore 
be  looked  for  from  these,  and  the 
offence  against  Jehovah  would  be 
the  greater.  So  Jerome,  who  ren- 
ders the  next  line,  'et  in  delubris  (.?) 
idolorum  dormiunt,'  commenting 
thus, '  ubi  stratis  pellibus  hostiarum 
incubare  soliti  erant,  ut  somniis 
futura  cognoscerent.  Quod  in  fano 
^sculapii  usque  hodie  error  celebrat 
ethnicorum  multorumque  aliorum.' 

Comp.  Virg.  ^n.  vii.  87,  &c. 

In  secret  places]  i.e.,  either  in  any 
remote  corner  (Del.,  Naeg.),  or  in 
the  graves  already  spoken  of,  comp. 
Job  xl.  13,  where  'in  the  hidden 
(place) '  is  parallel  to  '  in  the  dust 

(of   Sheol).' \«rho  eat  swine's 

flesh]  That  is,  in  sacrificial  meals, 
as  the  context  shows  (comp.  Ixvi. 
17).  The  flesh  of  the  swine  was 
forbidden  by  the  Law  (Deut.  xiv. 
8,  Lev.  xi.  7),  not  merely  for  die- 
tetic    reasons,     but     presumably 


'   E.  von  Orelli,  Di/r^h's  Heilige  Land  (Basel,  1879),  p,  178. 


ii6 


ISAIAH. 


[CHAP.  LXV 


and  ^  in  secret  places ''  take  up  their  lodging,  who  eat  swine's 
flesh,  and  broth  of  abominations  is  in  their  vessels  ;  '^  who  say. 
Keep  by  thyself,  do  not  come  near  me,  for  I  ^  am  holy  unto 
thee*^ !  These  are  a  smoke  in  my  nose,  a  fire  burning  all  the 
day  long.     *^  Behold,  it  is  written  before  me  ;  I  will  not  keep 

«  In  the  caves,  Sept. 

^  Make  thee  holy,  Geiger. 


from  its  connection  with  the  myth 
of  Adonis,  who  was  said  to  have 
been  killed  by  a  wild  boar  in  the 
forests  of  Lebanon  ;  an  additional 
reason  for  the  prophet's  indignation 
is  mentioned  in  the  note  on  Ixvi.  3. 
How  loathsome  swine's  flesh  was 
to  pious  Jews  may  be  seen  from  the 
narratives  in  2  Mace,  vi.,  vii.  The 
charge  of  eating  it  points  on  the 
whole  to  Palestine  rather  than  to 
Babylonia  as  the  country  of  the 
offenders,  for  not  even  an  allusion 
to  the  swine  has  yet  been  found  in 
the  cuneiform  inscriptions.  It  is 
true  that,  as  Bochart  remarks,' 
'  there  were  no  swine  in  Jud;ea,  as 
long  as  the  commonwealth  of  the 
Jews  stood:'  it  was  in  a  'far 
country '  that  the  prodigal  son  was 
sent  into  the  fields  to  feed  swine 
(Luke  XV.  13-15).  Ikit  we  know 
that  there  were  swine  in  Galilee  in 
our  Lord's  time  (Matt.  viii.  30),  and 
that  some  at  least  ot  the  Phoenicians 
sacrificed  swine  (Lucian,  de  dcd 
Syria,  c.  54).  Ewald  points  to  the 
mention  of  eating  swine  as  con- 
firming his  view  that  these  chapters 
were  written  in  Egypt  ;  but  though 
the  swine  does  appear  to  have  been 
sacrificed  in  Egypt  (Herod,  ii.  47, 
48),  its  flesh  was  '  forbidden  to  all 
initiated  in  the  mysteries,  and  only 
allowed  to  others   once    a   year.'* 

Broth  of  abominations]  i.e., 

broth  made  of  the  unclean  animals 
offered  to  heathen  deities.  'Abomi- 
nations '  {sJtiijqil^i'n)  occurs  only  in 
this  and  the  next  chapter  (Ixvi.  3, 
comp.  V.  17)  in  Isaiah  ;  it  is  spe- 
cially characteristic  of  Jeremiah  and 
the  writers  who  followed  him.  XVe 
find  it,  however,  once  in  Ilosea  (ix. 


10),  once  in  the  disputed  Book  of 
Deuteronomy  (xxix.  17,  Hebr.  iC), 
and  often  in  the  disputed  ISook  of 
Levnticus.  For  the  construction  of 
the  phrase  of  which  these  words 
form  part,  comp.  v.  1 2  a. 

*  "WTio  say,  Keep  by  thyself) 
An  allusion  to  some  heathen  myste- 
rieSyinto  which  the  Jewish  renegades 
had  been  initiated  (comp.  Ixvi.  17). 
Idclatry  was  bad  enough  itself, 
but  that  idolaters  should  assume 
a  superiority  over  Jehovah's  'holy- 
ones'     (comp.    Ixvl     5)    was    sli  I 

worse. X  am  holy  unto  thee] 

i.e.,  by  implication,  unapproachable, 
tabooed,  sacrflsaiicfus  (comp.  on  iv. 
3).  So  of  the  priests  it  is  said, 
'  Thou  shah  sanctify  him  therefore, 
f  r  the  food  of  thy  God  doth  he 
present  :  he  shall  be  holy  unto 
thee '  (Lev.  xxi.  8,  quoted  by  Bau- 
dissin).  Geiger's  reading  is  plau- 
sible (comp.  Ezek.  xliv.  19  end. 
Hag.  ii.  12,  13).-^  But  a  warning 
not  to  run  the  risk  of  becoming 
'  sanctified  '  (and  therefore  disc[uali- 
fied  for  ordinary  work)  by  contact, 
does  not  sufficiently  bring  out  the 
pride  of  these  pagan    '  Pharisees.' 

These  are]  i.e.,  these  supply 

the  material  of.  A  smoke  in  my 
nose]  The  indignation  of  the 
speaker  makes  his  breath  issue 
forth  like  smoke.  Comp.  nastispro- 
fldt  iras. 

'"  It  is  •written  before  me]  The 
subject  may  be  either  the  sin  of 
the  Jews  (Calv.,  Hitz.,  Knob.,  Del.), 
which  is  '  written,'  as  Jeremiah  says 
(xvii.  i),  '  with  a  pen  of  iron,'  or  the 
l)ivine  decree  for  its  punishment 
(V'itr.,  Ges.,  Stier,  Naeg.,  Kay). 
The  fortunes  of  men,  past,  present, 


1   Hierotpicnn,  i.  696. 

=*  Sir  Gardner  Wilkinson,  note  on  Herod,  ii.  47  (Rawlinson). 

5  See  Geiger,  Urschrift  und  Uchcrsctzutigeii  der  lUicl,  pp.  56,  172,  493. 


CHAP.  LXV.] 


ISAIAH. 


117 


silence,  except  I  have  requited,  and  requited  into  their  bosom. 
^  Your  iniquities,  and  the  iniquities  of  your  fathers  together, 
saith  Jehovah,  who  burned  incense  upon  the  mountains,  and 
reproached  me  upon  the  hills !  And  I  will  measure  their  re- 
compence  first  into  their  bosom. 

^  Thus  saith  Jehovah,  As  when  grapes  are  found  in  the 
cluster,  and  one  saith,  '  Destroy  it  not,  for  a  blessing  is  in  it,' 
so  will  I  do  for  my  servants'  sake,  that  I  destroy  not  the 
whole :  ^  and  I  will  bring  out  from  Jacob  a  seed,  and  from 
Judah  possessors  of  my  mountains,  and  my  chosen  ones  shall 
take  it  in  possession,  and  my  servants  shall  dwell  there. 
"^  And  Sharon  shall  become  a  pasture  for  flocks,  and  the 
valley  of  Achor  a  place  for  oxen  to  lie  down  in,  for  my  peo- 
ple who  have  enquired  of  me. 

"  And  as  for  you  that  forsake  Jehovah,  that   forget  my 


and  future,  are  all  noted  in  the 
heavenly  books  or  registers  (iv.  3, 
Ps.  Ivi.  8,  Dan.  vii.  10),  but  in  this 
passage  it  is  rather  the  past  than 
the  future  which  is  recorded,  as 
appears  from  the  emphatic  '  before 
ine.'  Comp.  Mai.  iii.  16,  'Jehovah 
hearkened  and  heard  it,  and  a 
book  of  remembrance  was  writteti 
before  him.'' 

''  Your  iniquities  •  .  .  ]  Some 
take  this  as  the  accusative  to  the 
verb  at  the  end  of  the  last  verse. 
But  the  change  of  pronoun  is  harsh 
in  the  extreme,  and  it  is  more  natu- 
ral to  suppose  that  7/.  7  a  has  been 
left  imperfect  (the  verb  '  I  will  re- 
ciuite'  bei'.ig  omitted),  owing  to  the 
excitement  of  the  speaker — that  it 

is,  in  fact, an  exclamation. Vpon 

the  mountains]  Again  a  Palesti- 
nian feature  ;    comp.  Ivii.  7,  Hos. 

iv.  13. And  I  wlllmeasure  .  .  .] 

The  most  pressing  act  which  Jeho- 
vah as  Judge  has  to  perform  is  to 
punish  these  evil-doers,  both  fathers 
and  sons.  See  the  parallel,  Jer. 
xvi.  18  (which  passage  is  the  origi- 
nal ?). 

**  Transition  from  threatening  to 
promise  marked  by  a  figure  from 
the  vintage.  Jehovah  will  not  re- 
ject all  Israel  because  of  its  many 
bad  members.  His  dealings  will 
be  like  those  of  vintagers,  who,   if 


they  find  even  a  few  good  grapes 
on  a  cluster,  say  to  each  other,  De- 
stroy it  not,  for  a  blessingr  is  in  it] 

('  A  blessing '  =  a  source  of  blessing, 
as  xix.  24,  Gen.  xii.  2).  Probably, 
as  the  swing  of  the  rhythm  has  led 
several  to  infer,  these  are  the  open- 
ing words  of  a  vintage-song,  though 
it  is  unwise  to  speculate  as  to  their 
connexion  with  the  words  '  Destroy 
not'  {A I  tasJikhctli)  at  the  head  of 
certain  psalms. 

®  My  mountains]  This  is  one 
of  Isaiah's  striking  phrases,  though 
not  confined  to  him  (see  on  xiv.  24), 

Sharon    .   .   .   ilchor]  i.e.,  the 

whole  land  from  east  to  west  ;  see 
on  xxxiii.  9,  and  Josh.  vii.  24-  26. 
The  same  prominence  is  given  to 
agriculture  in  an  earlier  ideal  pic- 
ture of  the  future  (xxx.  23,  24). 

"  The   tone    of    threatening    is 

resumed    (as    so    often). That 

forgret  my  holy  mountain]  This 
need  not,  as  most  commentators 
suppose,  imply  that  the  persons 
addressed  are  the  Jewish  exiles  in 
Babylon.  It  may  simply  mean, 
'that  keep  aloof  from  the  rites  and 
ceremonies  of  the  temple.'  A  si- 
milar phrase,  '  to  forget  Jerusalem,' 
occurs  in  Ps.  cxxxvii.,  which  all 
will  probably  admit  to  be  a  post- 
Exile  work. That  set  in  order 

a  table]  Alluding  to  the  '  lectister- 


ii8 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  lxv. 


holy  mountain,  that  set  in  order  a  table  for  Gad,  and  fill  up 
mixed  drink  for  M'ni — '^  I  destine  you  for  the  sword,  and 
ye  all  to  the  slaughter  shall  bow  down,  because  I  called  and 

build  monasteries,  instead  of  Beith- 
gade'  i^^adt',  the  plural  of  gad  in 
Syriac,  means  generally  both  '  the 
good  fortunes',  viz.  Jupiter  and 
Venus,  though  in  the  Teshito  ver- 
sion of  our  passage  it  is  the  equiva- 
lent of  Gad  and  M'ni  conjointly). 
[It  is  possible,  however,  that  Gad 
has  a  Babylonian  origin.  'Jupi- 
ter,' according  to  Mr.  Saycc,'  '  was 
properly  termed  Lubat-Guttav;  pos- 
sibly this  Gad  (in  Isa.  lxv.  ii)is 
derived  from  Gultav,  with  a  change 
of  the  dental  to  assimilate  the  word 
to  the  Semitic^^i^/,  luck.'  Of  course, 
the  e.\istence  of  a  Babylonian  ana- 
logue would  not  prove  that  the 
worshippers  spoken  of  lived  in 
Babylonia.  The  analogy  might  go 
back  (as  in  other  cases)  to  a  remote 

antiquity.] Tot  M'ni]    i.e.,   for 

Destiny  ;  Sept.  tij  rvxj)-  M'ni  is 
probably  Venus,  called  in  Arabic 
'  the  lesser  fortune.'  M'ni,  like 
Gad,  was  a  Syrian  deity,  though  the 
evidence  for  this  only  belongs  to 
the  post-E.xile  period.  De  Luynes 
and  Levy  have  found  the  name 
in  compound  proper  names  on 
Aramaean  coins  of  the  Acha^meni- 
dae  ;  the  latter  has  also  found  it  on 
a  Sinaitic  inscription.*  Delitzsch 
remarks  that  there  is  no  Babylo- 
nian analogue  for  M'ni.  Finzi  and 
Lenormant,  however,  have  both 
found  a  Babylonian  god  of  the 
second  order  called  'great  Manu.'* 
M'ni  may  very  possibly  be  a  Semi- 
tised  form  of  .Manu. —  M'ni  appears 
to  be  a  masculine  form  ;  we  know 
that  among  the  Babylonians  at 
least  there  was  a  masculine  as  well 
as  a  feminine  Venus  (see  on  xiv.  12). 
It  seems  probable  that  the  Arabic 


nia,'  or  meals  prepared  for  divine 
beings.  This  feature  will  suit  Ba- 
bylonia as  well  as  (probably)  Pales- 
tine. See  the  second  calendar 
translated  by  Sayce  in  Records  of 
the  Fosf,  vii.  159-168  (every  day  of 
the  month  Ebul  is  marked  by  a 
royal  offering)  ;  and  comp.  Herod, 
i.  181,  Bel  and  Drag.  v.  11,  Ep.  of 
Jer.  t'7'.  26,  27.  The  only  other 
allusions  to  '  lectisternia '  in  the 
canonical  books  are  Jer.  vii.  18,  li. 
44.  It  is  a  remarkable  fact  that  a 
similar  practice  in  honour  of  Gad 
survived  in  certain  Jewish  families 
even  down    to  the  time   of  Rashi 

(nth  cent.).' For  Cad]  i.e.,  for 

Good  Fortune  ;  Sept.,  tw  hiii\xoviu>. 
Gad  is  probably  the  star-god  Jupi- 
ter (called  by  the  Arabs '  the  greater 
fortune').  His  cultus  exemplifies  the 
closeness  with  which  polytheistic 
rites  cling  to  their  native  soil.  Its 
origin  (see,  however,  below)  was 
Canaanitish  ;  comp.  Baal-gad  (i.e., 
Baal  in  the  character  of  the  god 
of  good  fortune),  the  name  of  a 
place  to  the  south  of  Hermon, 
mentioned  in  Josh.  xi.  17,  xii.  7. 
Some  have  also  traced  the  name 
of  Gad  in  the  proper  name  Azgad 
(which  occurs  four  times  in  Ezra 
and  Nehcmiah),  but  this  is  rather 
the  Aramaic  izoad  '  a  messenger.' 
In  Phoenician  inscriptions  we  find 
the  names  Gad-astoreth  and  Gad- 
moloch  (de  Vogiic).  The  preva- 
lence of  the  worship  of  the  deity 
called  Gad  in  Syria  has  been  abun- 
dantly shown  by  Mordtmann,"  who 
ciuotes  inter  alia  a  remarkable  pas- 
sage from  the  Christian  writer, 
Jacob  of  Serug  :  'Henceforth,  on 
the  summit  of  the  mountains,  they 


'  See  the  Talmudic  and  Rabbinic  authorities  in  Chwolson,  Die  SsaHer,  li.  226. 
The  Arabic  writer  en-Nadini  also  mentions  lectisternia  in  honour  of  '  the  lord  of  for- 
tune' (i.e.,  Jupiter) ;  tliese  were  given  by  the  heathen  population  of  Harran  (Chwolson, 
(>p.  cil.  32). 

■''  Zeitsc/ir.  d.  deutsch.  morg.  Get,,  xxxi.  99-101. 

^   Trmnactions  of  Soc.  of  bibl.  ArchcEology,  iii.  170-1. 

*•  Levy,  Zeitsihr.  d.  deutsch.  morg.  Ges.,  xiv.  410;  Rodiger,  in  Addenda  to  Gcse- 
nius'  Thesaurus,  p.  97. 

'•"  They  refer  to  the  Brit.  Mus.  collection  of  cuneiform  inscriptions,  ifl.  66. 


CHAP.  LXV.] 


ISAIAH. 


119 


ye  did  not  answer,  I  spoke,  and  ye  did  not  hearken,  but  did 
that  which  was  evil  in  mine  eyes,  and  that  in  which  I  had  no 
pleasure  ye  chose.  '^Therefore  thus  saith  the  Lord,  Jehovah  : 
Behold,  my  servants  shall  eat,  but  ye  shall  hunger  ;  behold 
my  servants  shall  drink,  but  ye  shall  thirst  ;  behold,  my  ser- 
vants shall  rejoice,  but  ye  shall  be  ashamed  ;  '■*  behold,  my 
servants  shall  sing  aloud  for  gladness  of  heart,  but  ye  shall 
cry  out  for  anguish  of  heart,  and  for  breaking  of  spirit  shall 
ye  howl.  ^^  And  ye  shall  leave  your  name  for  a  curse  unto 
my  chosen  ones — *^ '  Then  may  the  Lord  Jehovah  slay  thee*^', 
but  his  servants  shall  he  call  by  another  name,  '^  so  that  he 
who  blesseth  himself  on  earth  shall  bless  himself  by  the  God 
of  ^  the  Amen  ^ ;  and  he  who  sweareth  on  earth  shall  swear 
by  the  God  of  ^  the  Amen  ^ ;  because  the  former  distresses 
are  forgotten,  and  because  they  are  hidden  from  mine  ej'es, 

<=  So  Ew. — Most,  And  the  Lord  Jehovah  shall  slay  thee. 
*■  Faithfulness,  Weir  (see  below). 

name]  It  is  implied  that  the  name 
'Israel'  has  become  debased  by 
the  lapse  of  so  many  of  the  Israel- 
ites. Comp.  the  '  new  name '  in 
Ixxii.  2  d. 

"^  Sball  bless  bimself  by]  i.e., 
shall  wish  himself  the  blessings 
which  proceed  from.  So  Gen.  xxii. 
18,  xxvi.  4,   Jer.  iv.  2,   Ps.  Ixxii.  17. 

Tbe  God  of  tbe  Amen]  Comp. 

Rev.  iii.  14,  'The  Amen,  the  faith- 
ful and  truthful  witness.'  The  ex- 
pression is  generally  derived  from 
the  custom  of  saying  Amen  (i.e., 
'  It  is  sure')  in  a  solemn  covenant 
(comp.  Ueut.  xxvii.  15  &c.)  :  Targ. 
renders  '  the  God  of  the  oath  ' — at 
any  rate  a  plausible  paraphrase.  I 
confess,  however,  that  I  can  hardly 
believe  that  our  prophet  would  have 
coined  such  a  phrase,  which  seems 
to  me  to  belong  to  a  more  liturgical 
age,  when  '  Amen '  had  become  a 
common  formula  in  the  temple- 
services.  One  is  tempted  to  alter 
the  vowel  points,  and  read  ^Cnneii 
or  ''emiin  'faithfulness'  (xxv.  i)  in- 
stead of  \imcn  ;  comp.  Sept.,  tov 
6e6v  TOV  aki]Bivor.  [A  similar  sugges- 
tion by  Dr. Weir.] Hidden  from 

mine  eyes]     One  chapter  of   the 


Manat  represents  a  collateral  femi- 
nine form  of  the  name.^  If  so,  we 
have  an  interesting  link  between 
Syrian  and  pre-Mohammedan  Ara- 
bian religion,  Manat  being  the 
name  of  one  of  the  three  chief 
deities  of  Arabia^  who  were  re- 
cognised for  a  time  by  Mohammed 
as  mediators  with  Allah  {Koran, 
Sur.  liii.  19-23). 

'^  For  a  curse]  i.e.,  as  the  cen- 
tre of  a  formula  of  imprecation. 
Comp.  Num.  v.  21,  Zech.  viii.  13, 
Ps.  cii.  8  {Q.  P.  B.),  and  especially 
Jer.  xxix.  22,  '  And  from  thee  shall 
be  taken  a  curse  .  ...  saying,  Je- 
hovah make  thee  like  Zedekiah  and 
like  Ahab,  whom  the  king  of  Baby- 
lon wasted  in  the  fire.'  The  for- 
mula is  quoted  imperfectly,  like  the 
first  words  of  a  song.  Alt.  rend, 
seems  to  me  to  interrupt  the  flow 
of  the  sentence,  and  involves  a 
harsh  change  of  number.  Del., 
who,  on  supposed  grammatical 
grounds  (see  crit.  note),  adopts  it, 
yet  assumes  that  '  the  prophet  has 
in  his  mind  the  words  of  this  im- 
precatory formula  (hence  the  singu- 
lar "...  kill  //we"),  though  he  does 
not  express  them.' By  anotber 


'   Comp.  Spivngcr,  Lctcn  ^fohjmmads,  ii.   to. 


I20 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  LXV, 


'^  For  behold,  I  create  new  heavens  and  a  new  earth  ;  and 
the  former  things  shall  not  be  remembered,  nor  come  up  into 
the  mind.  ^^  Rejoice  ye  rather,  and  exult  for  ever  on  account 
of  that  which  I  create  ;  for  behold,  I  create  Jerusalem  (anew) 
as  exultation  and  her  people  as  joy  ;  '^  and  I  will  exult  in 
Jerusalem,  and  rejoice  in  my  people,  and  no  more  shall  there 
be  heard  in  her  the  sound  of  weeping,  nor  the  sound  of  a  cry. 
^°  And   no  more  shall   there   proceed   thence    an    infant  of 


heavenly  book  (see  on  7'.  6)  is  can- 
celled ;  its  contents  are  as  though 
they  had  never  been.  The  con- 
tinuity of  Israel's  development  is 
restored. 

17-25  'Yhe  new  creation  (as 
Ixvi.  22).  Justin  INIartyr  {Dial.  c. 
Tryph.  c.  8i)  quotes  these  verses 
as  a  prediction  of  the  millennium. 
In  fact,  our  prophet  combines  the 
conceptions  of  the  millennium  and 
the  cosmos,  which  in  the  Apo- 
calypse are  held  asunder.  As  a 
consequence,  the  descriptions  in 
our  prophecy  may  be  interpreted 
more  materialistically  than  those 
in  Rev.  xxi. 

^^  Z  create  neiv  beavens  and  a 
new  earth  •  •  •  ]  This  is  no  mere 
poetical  figure  for  the  return  of 
prosperity  (as,  e.g.,  Albert  Barnes 
would  have  it).  The  prophet  does 
his  utmost  to  exclude  this  view  by 
his  twofold  emphatic  statement. — 
'  new  heavens  shall  be  created.,  and 
the  old  shall  pass  away.'  The 
fundamental  idea  is  that  nature 
itself  must  be  transformed  to  be  in 
harmony  with  regenerate  Israel; 
we  have  met  with  it  in  more  than 
the  germ  already  (see  xi.  6-9  with 
note  XXX.  26,  xliii.  19,  li.  16).  The 
supposition  of  Dr.  Kohut,'  that  we 
have  here  a  loan  from  Zoroastrian- 
ism  is  altogether  gratuitous,  i.  be- 
cause such  a  conception  arises 
naturally  out  of  the  fundamental 
IJiblical  idea  of  the  perpetual  crea- 
torship  of  C}od  (comp.  John  v.  17), 
and  2.  because  the  regeneration 
of  nature  expected  by  the  proi)hct 
dilTcrs  from  that  taught  in  the 
Bundehesh    in     several     essential 


particulars — e.g.,  he  looks  forward 
to  the  continuance  of  births  and 
deaths  {vv.  20,  22)  and  of  the  ordi- 
nary process  of  nourishment  (?'.  21), 
and  he  makes  no  mention  of  the 
resurrection  of  the  dead  (comp.  on 

xxvi.  19).- The  former  thlngrs] 

Some  understand  by  this  phrase 
'the  former  troubles'  (comp.  liv.  4) ; 
others  '  the  former  heaven  and 
earth'  (comp.  Jer.  iii.  16).  But 
why  may  we  not,  as  Naeg.  suggests, 
combine  both  references  ? 

"*  On  account  of  ...  ]  Lit.,  in 
respect  of  .  .  .  (comp.  xxxi.  6  Hebr.). 

1  create  Jerusalem]  The  '  new 

creation'  will  still  have  its  Jerusa- 
lem !  It  is  not  a  creation  de  Jii/n/o., 
but  a  transformation. As  ex- 
ultation] i.e  ,  with  an  abounding 
sense  of  joy  as  the  basis  of  the 
new  nature  (like  '  I  am  prayer,'  Ps. 
cix.  4). 

^<^  The  youth  shall  die  .  .  .  ] 
i.e.,  he  who  dies  at  the  age  of  a 
hundred  shall  be  regarded  as  early 
lost,  and  even  the  wicked,  suppos- 
ing such  to  exist,  shall  not  be  cut 
off  by  the  curse  which  pursues 
them  before  their  hundredth  year. 
Our  prophet  has  not  so  glorious  a 
view  of  the  future  as  that  which  is 
embodied  in  xxv.  8.  It  is  not  eter- 
nal life  which  he  here  antici])atcs, 
but  patriarchal  longevity  (as  Zech. 
viii.  4).  Comp.  the  picture  in  the 
apocryphal  Book  of  Enoch  (v.  9), 
'And  they  shall  not  be  punished  all 
their  life  long,  neither  shall  they 
die  by  plagues  and  judgments  ;  but 
the  number  of  their  days  shall  they 
complete,  and  they  shall  grow  old 
in  peace,  and  the    years   of  their 


'   Zeitschr.  d.  deittuh.  tnori^.  Gcs.,  xxx.  716,  717. 
»  Maithes,  Thculogiich  Tijdschrijt,  1877,  p.  585. 


CHAP.  LXV.] 


ISAIAH. 


121 


(a  few)  days,  nor  an  old  man  who  cannot  fill  up  his  days  ;  for 
the  youth  shall  die  when  a  hundred  years  old,  and  the  sinner, 
when  a  hundred  years  old,  shall  come  under  the  curse.  -'  And 
they  shall  build  houses,  and  inhabit  them,  and  shall  plant 
vineyards,  and  eat  their  fruit :  "  they  shall  not  build,  and 
another  inhabit ;  they  shall  not  plant,  and  another  eat ;  for  as 
the  days  of  ^  a  tree  ^  shall  be  the  days  of  my  people,  and  the 
work  of  their  hands  mine  elect  shall  use  to  the  full.  ^^  They 
shall  not  labour  for  vanity,  nor  bring  forth  for  sudden  trouble, 
for  they  are  a  seed  of  the  blessed  of  Jehovah,  and  their  off- 
spring (shall  remain)  with  them.  ^^  And  it  shall  come  to  pass 
that  before  they  call,  I  will  answer :  while  they  arc  yet  speak- 
ing, I  will  hear.  ^^  The  wolf  and  the  lamb  shall  graze  to- 
gether, and  the  lion  shall  eat  straw  like  the  ox  ;  and  the  ser- 
pent— dust  shall  be  his  food  :  they  shall  not  harm  nor  destroy 
in  all  my  holy  mountain,  hath  Jehovah  said. 

B  The  tree  of  Life,  Sept.,  Targ.     (Gloss.) 


happiness  shall  be  many,  in  ever- 
lasting bliss  and  peace,  their  whole 
life  long.'  (This  reminds  us  of  the 
Paradise  of  the  Avesta,  in  which  a 
year  was  equal  to  a  day,  Vendidad, 

ii-J33-) 

*'  And  they  sliall  build  houses 

.  .  .  ]  Alluding  perhaps  to  the 
curse  in  Deut.  xxviii.  30,  the  exact 
opposite  of  which  forms  the  basis 
of  the  promise.  Comp.  also  Ixii. 
8,  9,  Am.  ix.  14. 

'^''  As  the  days  of  a  tree]  In- 
stances enough  of  long-lived  trees 
can  be  found  in  Palestine,  without 
referring  to  the  boabab-tree  of 
Senegal  !  Comp.  in  Ixi.  3  '  oaks 
of  righteousness,'  and  Ps.  xcii.  14, 
'  They  shall  still  shoot  forth  in  old 

age.' Shall  use  to  the  full]  Lit., 

wear  out.  Comp.  Job  xxi.  13, '  They 
wear  out  their  days  (i.e.,  live  out 
their  full  term)  in  prosperity.' 

^^  Nor  bring:  forth  •  •  •  ]  ie., 
their  children  shall  not  perish  by 
any  of  God's  '  four  sore  judgments.' 
Comp.  Ps.  Ixxviii.  33,  '  and  (he 
consumed)  their  years  by  a  sudden 

trouble.' (Shall    remain)    with 

them]   It  is  a  part  of  the  '  blessing  ' 


that  their  children  grow  up  and 
enjoy  life  with  them.  Comp.  Job 
xxi.  8. 

^^  The  picture  of  the  new  crea- 
tion is  completed  by  a  reference 
to  the  animal  world.  It  would  be 
inconsistent  to  leave  the  lower 
animals  with  untransformed  na- 
tures. But  it  is  only  a  single  fea- 
ture which  is  given,  and  that  in 
the  form,  mainly,  of  a  condensed 
quotation  from  xi.  6-9.  One  origi- 
nal clause,  however,  is  added,  And 
the  serpent — dust  shall  be  his 
food]  i.e.,  the  serpent  shall  content 
himself  with  the  food  assigned  him 
in  the  primeval  Divine  decree  (there 
is  a  manifest  allusion  to  Gen.  iii.  14). 
This,  if  I  am  not  mistaken,  is  meant 
literally  ;  '  much  dust '  is  the  food 
of    the    shades    in    the     Assyrio- 

Babylonian  Hades.' They  shall 

not  harm  •  •  .  ]  The  subject  is,  of 
course,  the  wild  animals  mentioned 
in  the  original  passage,  xi.  6,  7. 
Hence  a  strong  presumption 
(whatever  be  the  date  of  chap.  Ixv.) 
in  favour  of  interpreting  xi.  9  (see 
note)  literally,  and  not  allegori- 
cally. 


1  Legend  of  Ishtar,  line  8  (back  side)  : — all  the  translations  agree.     Comp.  Ps. 
xxii.  15,  '  and  thou  laycbt  nie  in  the  dust  of  Death  '  (i.e.,  of  Sheol). 


122  ISAIAH.  [chap.  LXVI. 


CHAPTER    LXVI. 

Contents. —  A  declaration  by  Jehovah  that  he  requires  no  earthly 
habitation,  and  is  displeased  with  the  service  of  unspiritual  worshippers  ; 
this  is  followed  by  a  solemn  antithesis  between  the  fate  of  the  perse- 
cutors and  the  persecuted  {vv.  1-5).  Next,  a  renewal  of  the  alternate 
threats  and  promises  of  chap.  Ixv.  {vv.  6-24).  The  former  are  mainly 
addressed  to  the  hostile  Gentiles,  but  partly  also  to  the  idolatrous  Jews, 
and  the  idolatrous  practices  denounced  {v.  17)  are  the  same  as  those 
mentioned  in  Ixv.  4,  5,  viz.,  initiation  into  heathen  mysteries,  and  eating 
'  unclean  '  food.  The  prophecy  closes  gloomily  with  an  awful  glance  at 
the  punishment  of  the  guilty  souls  {v.  24). 

In  deference  to  custom,  I  have  treated  these  two  parts  as  rightly 
united  in  a  single  chapter,  though  not  entirely  convinced  that  this  view 
is  correct.  The  most  obvious  interpretation  of  vv.  1-3  is  that,  at  the 
real  or  assumed  standing-point  of  the  writer,  the  temple  was  no  longer 
standing,  and  that  the  Divine  speaker  reprobates  any  attempt  to  rebuild 
it  and  to  restore  the  sacrificial  system.  On  the  other  hand,  v.  6,  and 
perhaps  also  vv.  20,  21,  seem  at  least  as  clearly  to  imply  that  the  temple 
is  in  existence.  I  have  endeavoured  to  remove  this  apparent  inconsis- 
tency in  my  note  on  v.  \  b  ;  still  I  cannot  think  it  (^i  ^r/ci;-/ probable  that 
passages  apparently  so  inconsistent  should  have  been  intended  to  form 
part  of  one  and  the  same  chapter. 

'  Thus  saith  Jehovah,  The  heavens  are  my  throne,  and  the 
earth  is  my  footstool  ;  what  manner  of  house  would  ye  build 

^  The  heavens  are  my  throne  houses  made  with  hands.'     It  may, 

.  .  .  ]  For  parallels,  see   Ps.  xi.  4,  in    fact,     be    another    example    of 

ciii.  19;  comp.  also  the  words  of  '  the  Gospel  before  the  Gospel '  (see 

Jesus  in  Matt.  v.  34,  xxiii.  22. Acts  vii.  48,  xvii.  24),  for  a  similar 

TVhat  manner  of  house  .  .  .  ]  statement  of  equal  distinctness  will 
Many  consider  this  to  be  a  repro-  be  looked  for  in  vain  in  the  Old 
bation  of  a  plan  for  rebuilding  the  Testament.  The  'Light  which 
temple,  whether,  with  Hitzig,  we  lighteth  every  rnan '  in  this  in- 
suppose  this  to  have  proceeded  stance  shone  earlier  on  the  banks 
from  the  Jews  who  remained  be-  of  the  Nile.  An  Egyptian  hymn 
hind  in  ChakLxa  (the  reprobation  to  the  Nile,  dating  from  the  19th 
applying,  according  to  him,  to  a  dynasty  (14th  cent.  B.C.),  contains 
Chaldicanand  notto  ajud;i:an  tern-  these  words,  'His  abode  is  not 
pie),  or  whether,  with  Lowih  and  known  :  no  shrine  is  found  with 
Vitringa,  we  assume  a  reference  painted  figures  :  there  is  no  build- 
to  the  temple  of  Herod  the  Great.  ing  that  can  contain  him.' ^  It  is 
The  words  need  not,  however,  be  also  a  Persian  sentiment  ;  comp. 
more  than  an  emphatic  declara-  Herod,  i.  131,  'They  have  no 
tion  that  Jehovah  '  dwellcth  not  in  images  of  the  gods,  no  temples,' &c. 

1  Canon  Cook's  translation,  R.  P.,  iv.  109.     The  hymn  lias  also  been  tiansiated 
by  M.  Maspero  (1868). 


CHAP.  LXVl.] 


ISAIAH. 


123 


for  me  ?  and  what  manner  of  place  for  my  rest  ?  ^  For  all 
these  things  did  my  hand  make  ;  [^  I  spoke  *,]  and  all  these 
came  into  being  (the  oracle  of  Jehovah)  ;  but  this  is  the  man 
upon  whom  I  look,  even  he  who  is  afflicted,  and  crushed  in 
spirit,  and   trembleth   on  account  of   my  word.      ^  He  that 

»  So  Gratz,  Monatschrift,  1878,  p.  293. 

expression  from  the  uncleanness 
and  despicableness  of  this  animal 
among  the  Jews.  Taking  this  pas- 
sage, however,  in  connection  with 
V.  17,  and  with  Ixv.  4,  one  feels 
that  some  \Q.xy  peculiar  sin  of  the 
contemporaries  of  the  prophet  is 
referred  to,  and  the  researches  of 
a  Scottish  scholar  have  thrown  an 
unexpected  light  upon  it.  In  short, 
it  is  totem-worship  (see  above,  on 
XV.  6)  against  which  the  prophet 
lifts  up  his  voice ;  the  unclean 
animals  referred  to  were,  most  pro- 
bably, the  totems,  or  animal-fetishes, 
of  certain  Jewish  families.  The 
survival  of  this  low  form  of  religion 
(if  the  word  may  be  used  in  this 
connection),  is  presupposed  even 
more  certainly  by  a  passage  in 
Ezekiel  (viii.  10,  11),  hitherto  wrapt 
in  obscurity,  'where  we  find  seventy 
of  the  elders  of  Israel — that  is,  the 
heads  of  houses — worshipping  in  a 
chamber  which  had  on  its  walls 
the  figures  of  all  manner  of  unclean 
creeping  things  and  quadrupeds, 
"  even  all  the  idols  of  the  house  of 
Israel^y  and  in  the  midst  of  the 
worshippers  Jaazaniah,  the  son  of 
Shaphan,  i.e.,  the  son  of  the  rock- 
badger  (the  '  coney '  of  Auth. 
Vers.),  which  is  one  of  the  unclean 
quadrupeds,  according  to  Deut.  xiv. 
7,  Lev.  xi.  5.  In  fact,  the  proper 
names  of  the  Israelites  give  evi- 
dence which  is,  I  think,  conclusive 
to  a  philological  eye,  in  favour  of 
the  survival  of  this  archaic  worship. 
In  Isa.  Ixv.,  Ixvi.,  the  swine,  the 
dog,  and  the  mouse  are  specially 
mentioned  in  connection  with  an 
illegal  cultus,  and  all  of  them  are 
found  m  the  Old  Testament  as  names 
of  persons — the  swine  (Auth.  Vers., 
Hezer,  rather  khezlr)  in  i  Chron. 
xxiv.  15,  Neh.  x.  21  ;  the  dog 
(Caleb  =  knlib  -^  Arab  kalb  or  Ilebr. 


"^  £l.\\  these  tliingrs]  viz.,  heaven 
and  earth,  and  all  things  therein  ; 

comp.  xl.  26,  Job  xii.  9. 1  spoke] 

These  words  seem  necessary  to 
complete  the  clause  ;  comp.  Ps. 
xxxiii.  6,  '  By  a  word  of  Jehovah 
were  the  heavens  made,'  and  v.  9, 
'  He  spake  and  it  came  into  being' 

(also    Gen.    i.    3). Tbis  is  the 

man  upon  \(rhoni  .  .  .  ]  Comp. 
\\\\.  15. — —  Trembleth  on  ac- 
count ol'my  word]  Not  in  alarm, 
but  in  a  filial  awe,  which  does  not 
exclude  the  transports  of  delight 
(comp.  Ps.  cxix.  161  with  v.  iii). 
The  '  word  '  is  that  delivered  in  the 
name  of  Jehovah  by  the  prophets. 
The  phrase  is  only  found  again  in 
Ezra  (ix.  4,  x.  3). 

^  He  that  slau^htereth  .  .  .  ] 
i.e.,  he  that  would  slaughter  .  .  . 
The  sacrifice  (contemptuously  called 
the  slaughter)  of  an  ox,  when 
offered  by  unspiritual  worshippers, 
is  as  displeasing  to  God  as  the  sin 
of  murder  (comp.  i.  11-15).  So  at 
least  we  must  interpret,  if  this 
paragraph  comes  from  the  same 
writer  as  the  next  ;  and  in  any 
case,  such  must  have  been  the 
exegesis  of  the  editor  of  the  chap- 
ter in  its  present  form. —  It  is 
tempting  to  compare  Ixv.  3-5,  but 
though  the  several  parts  of  the 
prophetic  book  beginning  at  chap. 
xl.  have  many  points  of  connection, 
we  must  be  on  our  guard  against 
illusory  affinities.  The  persons 
spoken  of  here  are  evidently  wor- 
shippers of  Jehovah, and  are  there- 
fore distinct  from  those  in  Ixv.  3-5. 

Breaketb  a  dogr's  neck]  Why 

this  feature.''  It  seems  farfetched 
to  suppose  a  covert  polemical  re- 
ference to  the  religious  reverence 
for  the  dog  in  Persia  and  Egypt 
(comp.  Bochart,  Hierosoicon,  i. 
691  2),  and    better   to  explain  the 


124 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  lxvi. 


slaughtereth  an  ox  is  a  man-slayer  ;  he  that  sacrificeth  a 
sheep,  breaketh  a  dog's  neck  ;  he  that  bringeth  a  meal-offering 
— (it  is)  swine's  blood  ;  he  that  maketh  a  memorial  of  incense, 
blesseth  an  idol.  As  tJiey  have  chosen  their  own  ways,  and 
their  soul  hath  pleasure  in  their  abominations,  •*  so  will  / 
choose  freaks  of  fortune  for  them,  and  their  terrors  will  I 
bring  unto  them,  because  I  called,  and  there  was  none  that 
answered,  I  spoke,  and  they  did  not  hearken,  but  did  that 
which  was  evil  in  mine  eyes,  and  that  in  which  1  had  no 
pleasure  they  chose.  ''  Hear  the  word  of  Jehovah,  ye  that 
tremble  at  his  word  :  Your  brethren  that  hate  you,  that  put 
you  away  for  my  name's  sake,  say,  '  Let  Jehovah  show  him- 
self glorious,  that  we  may  look  upon  your  joy,'  but  they 
themselves  shall  be  ashamed. 


kclcb)  in  Num.  xiii.  6,  &c. — hence 
the  dog-tribe  (Hebr.  kdlibbi)  to 
which  Nabal  belonged,  i  Sam.  xxv. 
3 ;  the  mouse  (Achbor)  in  Gen. 
xxxvi.  38,  2  Kings  xxii.  12,  14, 
Jer.  xxvi.  22,  xxxvi.  12.  (A  panther- 
totem  is  presupposed  in  Isa.  xv.  6  ; 
see  above.)  Of  course  the  prophet 
regarded  this  worship  as  a  super- 
stition dishonouring  to  the  one  true 
God.  The  tenacity  with  which  a 
section  (probably  a  large  section) 
of  the  Israelites  clung  to  it  throws 
a  bright  light  on  the  repealed  asser- 
tions of  the  prophets  that  their 
people  was  not  chosen  by  Jeho- 
vah for  any  merits  of  its  own. 
On  this  whole  subject,  see  '  Ani- 
mal Worship  and  Animal  Tribes 
among  the  Arabs  and  in  the  Old 
Testament,'  by  Prof.  Robertson 
Smith,  in  Journal  of  P/ii/ohi^y, 
where  abundant  parallels  to  tlie 
totemism  of  the  Israelites  are  ad- 
duced   from    Arabia. Swine's 

blood]     Sec    on    l\v.    4. That 

maketh  a  memorial  .  .  .  ]  '  Me- 
morial '  is  a  technical  term  in  the 
sacrificial  ritual  for  the  burning  of 
a  part  of  the  i/iiii/c/uih  or  meal- 
offering  with  incense  upon  the  altar 
(see  Lev.  ii.  2,  (J.  />'.  P.). Bles- 
seth] i.e.,  worship])eth. 

'  So  will  /  choose  .  .  .  ]  '  The 
Orientals  are  fond  of  such  anti- 
theses,' remarks   Gescniub.     ll   is, 


however,  more  than  a  verbal  anti- 
thesis which  we  have  here  ;  it  is 
Jehovah's  fundamental  law  of  re- 
tribution (see  on  v.  8).  So  in  the 
Kordn  (as  Gesenius  points  out), 
'  .  .  .  they  say,  We  are  with  you, 
we  have  only  mocked  at  them  : 
God  shall  mock  at  them  '  (Sur.  ii. 
13,  14);  'The  hypocrites  would 
deceive   God,  but  he  will  deceive 

them'  (Sur.  iv.  141). Freaks  of 

fortune]  The  word  is  very  pecu- 
liar :  it  represents  calamity  under 
the  figure  of  a  petulant  child  (comp. 
iii.  4  Hebr.). 

^  The  prophet  turns  abruptly  to 
those  who  in  holy  reverence  wait 
upon  Jehovah.  They  have  suffered 
for    Jehovah,    and     He    will    work 

mightily    for    them. That  put 

you  away]  i.e.,  that  refuse  to 
associate  with  you  (comp.  Ixv.  5). 
In  later  Hebr.  the  word  {itiddah)  is 
used  of  '  putting  out  of  the  syna- 
gogue '  (comp.  the  use  of  (ic/xipi^oj  in 
Luke  vi.  22)  ;  niddily  is  the  lightest 
of  the  three  grades  of  excommuni- 
cation.   let     Jehovah    show^ 

himself  g-lori.  us  •  •  •  ]  An  ironical 
speech,  reminding  us  of  v.  19.  Dr. 
Kay  renders  the  verb  '  ...  be 
glorious  ' ;  but  '  become  glorious ' 
seems  better,  or  the  eciuivalcnt 
given  above.  (Kal  is  used,  as  in 
Mai.  i.  5,  though  we  should  expect 
Nifal.) 


HAP.  LXVI.] 


ISAIAH. 


125 


^  A  sound  of  uproar  from  the  city,  a  sound  from  the  tem- 
ple ;  the  sound  of  Jehovah  who  rendereth  their  deserts  to  his 
enemies  !  ^ '  Before  she  travailed,  she  brought  forth  ;  before 
pangs  came  unto  her,  she  was  delivered  of  a  man-child.  ^  Who 
hath  heard  such  a  thing  .?  Who  hath  seen  things  like  these  ? 
Can  a  country  be  travailed  with  in  a  day,  or  a  nation  be 
brou"-ht  forth  at  once  ?  for  Zion  hath  travailed,  and  also 
brought  forth  her  sons.'  ^  Should  I  bring  to  the  birth,  and 
not  cause  to  bring  forth,  saith  Jehovah  ?  or  should  I,  who 
cause  to  bring  forth,  restrain  it  ?  saith  thy  God. 


6-21  Alternate  threats  and  pro- 
mises ;  the  glorious  return  of  the 
believing  Jews  contrasting  with  the 
terrible  "and  endless  punishment  of 
their  enemies. 

^  A  sound  of  uproar  .  .  •  ] 
The  form  of  the  verse  reminds 
us  of  xiii.  4.  There,  however,  the 
'  uproar  is  caused  by  the  assem- 
bling of  Jehovah's  human  agents  ; 
here  it  is  that  symbolic  thunder 
which  marks  a  theophany.  There 
the  primary  object  is  the  destruc- 
tion of  Babylon  ;  here  the  sole  end 
is  the  last  act  of  the  drama  of  the 
judgment,  in  which  all  Jehovah's 
enemies  bear  a  passive  part.  The 
catastrophe  is  to  take  place  before 
Jerusalem  (as  in  Joel  and  Zecha- 
riah) ;  hence  it  is  added,  Prom  the 
city  .  .  .  from  the  temple]  No 
doubt  the  latter  words  come  in 
rather  strangely  after  the  seeming 
disparagement  of  temples  in  7/.  i. 
But  the  inconsistency  is  probably 
merely  superficial  (see  above). 
The  precise  meaning,  however,  of 
the  words  'from  the  temple'  will 
depend  on  our  view  of  the  origin 
of  this  prophecy.  If  written  from 
the  point  of  view  of  the  Babylonian 
Exile,  we  must  suppose  Jehovah  to 
have  (in  a  sense)  taken  up  his 
abode  again  on  the  site  of  the  de- 
stroyed and  for  a  long  time  God- 
forsaken temple.  If  from  the 
point  of  view  of  the  restored  exiles, 
then  we  may  suppose  that  the 
temple  has  been  rebuilt,  and  that 
Jehovah  (in  a  sense)  issues  from  it 
to  take  vengeance  on  his  own  and 
Israel's    enemies.       However   this 


may  be,  w.  7,  8  are  written  from  a 
new  point  of  view.  They  represent 
the  other  side  of  the  doctrine  of  the 
judgment  (comp.  a  similar  transition 
in  Ixv.  8).  Israel  has  been  restored 
and  an  imaginary  spectator  bursts 
out  into  a  wondering  exclamation. 
The  subject  of  v.  6  is  resumed  in 
V.  15. 

^  Before  she  travailed  .  .  .  ] 
The  same  figure  has  been  used 
before  (see  xlix,  17-21,  liv.  i),  but 
with  less  drastic  energy.  A  child  is 
born,  a  man-child,  but  swiftly  and 
without  pain.  The  'child'  is  the 
Israel  of  the  latter  days,  the  con- 
cluding stages  of  Israel's  history 
being  fused  in  the  dim  prophetic 
light.  Grotius  (who  had  philolo- 
gical instincts)  explained  of  the 
achievements  of  Judas  Maccabeus. 
He  rightly  felt  that  the  age  of  Ze- 
rubbabel  presented  no  fulfilment  of 
the  prophet's  burning  words. — The 
mention  of  a  '  man-child  '  is  signifi- 
cant. '  Sweeter  than  the  birth  of  a 
boy,'  says  an  Arabic  proverb  quoted 
by  Gesenius.  Till  Mohammed  in- 
terfered, the  Arabs  had  a  cruel 
custom  of  burying  female  infants 
alive. 

^  Should  I  brlngr  to  the  birth 
.  .  .  ]  '  Should  I  arrange  all  the  pre- 
liminary circumstances  for  the  re- 
storation of  my  people,  and  stop 
there  ? '  '  Restrain  it '  implies  that 
the  expansiveness  of  Zion  is  such 
that  naught  but  Omnipotence  will 
be  able  to  check  it,  and  as  Omni- 
potence has  no  motive  for  checking 
it,  Zion  has  nothing  to  fear  either 
in  heaven  or  on  earth. 


126 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  LXVI. 


'°  Rejoice  ye  with  Jerusalem,  and  dance  for  joy  because  of 
her,  all  ye  who  love  her  ;  exult  together  with  her,  all  ye  who 
mourned  inwardly  over  her  ;  '^  that  ye  may  suck,  and  be  satis- 
fied, from  the  breast  of  her  consolations  ;  that  ye  may  press 
out,  and  delight  yourselves,  from  the  ^  bosom  of  her  glory. 
^^  For  thus  saith  Jehovah,  Behold,  I  will  direct  peace  unto  her 
like  a  river,  and  the  glory  of  the  nations  like  an  overflowing 
torrent,  and  ye  shall  suck  therefrom  ;  upon  the  side  shall  ye 
be  borne,  and  upon  the  knees  shall  ye  be  caressed.  ^^  As  a 
man  whom  his  mother  comforteth,  so  will  I  comfort  you  ;  yea, 
in  Jerusalem  shall  ye  be  comforted.  '''  And  ye  shall  behold, 
and  your  heart  shall  exult,  and  your  bones  shall  spring  up 
like  young  grass,  and  the  hand  of  Jehovah  shall  make  him- 
self known  towards  his  servants,  but  he  shall  deal  indigna- 
tion to  his  enemies. 

^^  For  behold,  Jehovah  shall  come  in  fire,  and  his  chariots 
are  like  the  whirlwind,  to  return  his  anger  in  fury,  and  his 
rebuke  in  flames  of  fire.  '^  For  by  fire  will  Jehovah  hold 
judgment,  and  by  his  sword  with  all  flesh,  and  many  shall  be 
the  slain  of  Jehovah.     '^  Those  that  consecrate  and  purify 

i"  So  (lit.  udder)  Luz.  ;  most  moderns,  abundance.     See  crit.  note. 


^°. "  The  prospect  is  so  near  that 
the  friends  of  Jerusalem  should  at 
once  give  expression  to  their  joy, 
if  they  wish  to  be  rewarded  by  a 
share  in  her  bliss. IVIourned  in- 
wardly] For  the  rend.,  see  i  Sam. 
XV.  35  Hebr. 

1'  Tl^at  ye  may  suck  •  .  •  ]  The 
blessings  which  Jerusalem  has  re- 
ceived are  compared  to  a  mother's 
milk.  Comp.  a  different  use  of  the 
figure  in  7a  I2  and  Ix.  i6. 

'*  Z  will  direct  peace]  So  Gen. 
xxxix.  2  1  '  (Jehovah)  directed  kind- 
ness unto  him.' Vpon  the  side] 

See  on  Ix.  4.  Obs.,  those  who  '  bear ' 
and  '  caress  '  are  the  Gentiles. 

'^  As  a  man  .  .  .  ]  As  a  mother 
comforts,  not  merely  her  child,  but 
her  grown-up  son. 

'"^  Your  bones  sball  spring*  up 
.  .  .  ]  The  body  is  likened  to  a  tree 
of  which  the  bon^^s  are  the  branches 
(Job  xviii.  13  Hebr.).  During  the 
anger  of  Jehovah,  the  latter  had 
been  dried  up  '  -"d  s.ijiless  (comp. 


Ps.    xxxii.    4). The    hand    of 

Jehovah]  No  mere  figure  of  speech 
(Ges.  renders,  '  Jehovah's  might'), 
but  God  under  His  self-revealing 
aspect  (see  on  viii.  11). 

^^  The  theophany.  There  is  no 
occasion,  with  Dr.  Kohut,  to  con- 
nect this  with  the  Zoroastrian  doc- 
trine of  the  end  of  the  world  by 
fire,  even  if  this  doctrine  be  really 
ancient,  and  not  rather  due  to  Se- 
mitic influences.  '  Hecomcth  with 
fire '  is  the  natural  description  of 
a  theophany  in  Biblical  language  ; 
comp.   xxix.   6  (note),  xxx.  27,  28. 

His  chariots]   In  Ps.  xviii.  10 

Jehovah  rides  upon  '  a  cherub '  ; 
here,  as  in  Hab.  iii.  8,  the  single 
chariot  is  multiplied,  to  symbolise 
the  'hosts'  of  natural  and  super- 
natural forces  at  his  command. 

'"  His  sword]  See  on  xxxiv.  5,6. 
All  flesh]  See  on  7/.  18. 

"  A  fresh  denunciation  of  the 
sins  mentioned  in  Ixv.  3,  4  (see 
notesV    Those  Jews  who  are  guilty 


\. 


CHAP.  LXVI.] 


ISAIAH. 


12' 


themselves  for  the  gardens  ["  after  One  in  the  midst  °],  that 
eat  swine's  flesh,  and  the  abominations,  and  the  mouse,  to- 

<:  So  Hebr.  text  ('  One'  is  masc). — Behind  one  (viz.,  one  image  of  a  goddess, 
'one'  being  fem.),  Hebr.  marg.,  Vulg.  (^ee  Del.'s  note). — One  after  the  other,  Pesh., 
Targ.,  Symmachus,  Theodotion.     Sept.  omits  the  words. 


of  them  will  share  the  punishment 

of    the   hostile    Gentiles. That 

consecrate     and     purify    tbem- 

selves]  As  a  preparation  for  the 
heathen  mysteries  in  the  gardens 

(i.  29,  Ixv.  3). Alter  One  in  tlie 

midst]  An  obscure,  enigmatical 
phrase,  and  possibly  corrupt.  The 
prevalent  explanation  (a)  is  (Ges., 
Hitz.,  Knob.,  Del.,  Naeg.,  Baudis- 
sin)  that  it  describes  the  way  in 
which  the  rites  of  the  mysteries 
were  performed,  viz.,  standing  be- 
hind, or  perhaps  rather  with  close 
adherence  to  (' after '  = 'according 
to')  the  directions  of  the  hiero- 
phant  or  leader  (who  would  natu- 
rally stand  in  the  centre  of  the  ring 
of  celebrants).  This  is  no  doubt 
plausible,  but  requires  a  great  deal 
to  be  supplied,  unless  (per  impossi- 
bile)  we  suppose  that  the  initial  rite 
of  purification  was  so  complicated 
that  it  needed  a  special  superin- 
tendent even  more  than  the  mys- 
teries themselves.  It  is  surprising 
that  those  critics  who,  one  after 
another,  have  adopted  it,  have 
not  felt  obliged  to  go  further,  and 
put  a  blank  space  in  their  transla- 
tion between  the  words  '  garden ' 
and  '  after,'  to  indicate  that  some 
words  have  fallen  out.  This  is  at 
any  rate  a  possible  solution,  {b)  An- 
other view  of  the  meaning  is  em- 
bodied in  alt.  read.,  but  is  adaptable 


to  the  ordinary  reading.  Early 
Jewish  critics  felt  that  some  refer- 
ence was  required  to  the  deity  in 
whose  honour  the  mysteries  were 
celebrated,  and  appear  to  have 
thought  of  the  Syrian  goddess 
Asherah,  whose  licentious  rites  were 
doubtless  performed  in  groves. 
Hence  their  conjectural  emendation 
(for  such  alt.  read,  most  certainly 
is),  ''akhatJi  for  ''ekhddh  (the  feminine 
for  the  masculine).  Their  general 
view  seems  confirmed  by  the  com- 
mon use  of  '  after '  in  technical 
religious  phrases,  e.g.,  '  to  walk 
after  other  gods '  (Jer.  vii.  9),  '  to 
walk  after  Jehovah'  (Hos.  xi.  10), 
'to  lament  after  Jehovah'  (i  Sam. 
vii.  2),  'to  fulfil  after  (  =  wholly  to 
follow)  Jehovah '  (Deut.  i.  36).  But 
the  mention  of  swine's  flesh  just 
afterwards  suggests  the  worship  of 
Tammuz  or  Adonis  (see  below, 
Last  Words,  ad  loc.)  rather  than 
of  Asherah,  and  the  reference  to 
'the  gardens'  suits  this  equally 
well  (see  on  xvii.  10).  This  view 
was  the  prevalent  one  among  the 
post-Reformation  scholars,^  and 
has  been  advocated  with  much 
force  by  Prof,  de  Lagarde  (in  spite 
of  a  faulty  inference  from  a  passage 
in  Macrobius).-  It  may  now  be 
confirmed  from  the  cuneiform  ac- 
count of  the  Assyrian  or  Babylo- 
nian festival  of  I  star  and  Tammuz 


1  '  Scaliger.  Seldenus,  Drusius,  Vossius,  Grotius,  Bochartus,  Marshamus,  magna 
in  literis  nomina  et  appellari  digna,  huic  conjecturas  faverunt  ;  estque  summe  probab- 
ilis.'     Vitringa. 

^  HieroiiymiqucEstiones hebraiccr,  &c.,  ed.  Lagarde,  p.  121.  The  words  of  Macro- 
bius referred  to  are — '  (Assyrii)  deo  quern  suramum  maximumque  venerantur  Adad 
nomen  dederunt '  {Saturn,  i.  23).  Lagarde  conjectures  that  Macrobius  found  in  his 
Greek  authority  AAA  miswritten  for  a  A  A  (  =  Hebr.  'ekhddh).  But  no  such  name  of 
a  deity  as  'ekhddh  has  yet  been  found.  Macrobius  evidently  uses  'Assyrians'  synony- 
mously with  '  Syrians,'  and  wrongly  derives  the  Syrian  divine  name  Hadad  (he  calls  it 
Adad)  from  the  Syriac  khadkhad  (lit.,  '  unus  unus,'  but  in  usage  '  unusquisque '). 
Lagarde's  appeal  to  the  Old  Test,  phrase,  '  mourning  for  an  (or,  the)  only-begotten 
son '  (Am.  viii.  10,  Jer.  vi.  26,  Zech.  xii.  10)  is  more  plausible  (see  the  writer's  obser- 
vations in  Academy,  x.  524  note),  but  our  text  reads  'ekhddh  'one,'  no\.  yd  khidh  'only- 
begotten.'  See  further  \'itringa's  Com  men  f.,  ii.  941,  no'e  A;  E.  Meyer,  Zeitschr. 
d.  deutsch.  morg.  Ges.,  1877,  p.  734  ;  and  Baudis<;in.  S'udien  c  sefnif.  ReUgions- 
geschichte,  i.  315. 

-obci.,      ...iia,  um-d  >,u 


128 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  lxvi. 


gether  shall  they  be  consumed — the  oracle  of  Jehovah.  ''^  But 
^l  [will  punish '^J  their  words  and  their  thoughts  ;  [behold  the 
time]  is  come  that  I  gather  all  nations  and  tongues,  and  they 

d  So  Maurer,  Del. — I  know,  Pesh.,  Targ. ,  some  MSS.  and  early  editions  of  Sept., 
Saadya,  Auth.  Vers.,  Vitr.,  Ges.— I  have  seen,  Gratz. 

The  abominations]  A  tech- 
nical expression  in  Leviticus,  used 
synonymously  with  '  swarming 
things.'  Among  'the  uncleanest '  of 
these  animals  are  mentioned  (Lev. 
xi.  29)  the  lizard,  the  snail,  and 
the  mouse,  or  rather,  perhaps,  the 
jerboa,  which  is  still  eaten  by  the 
Arabs. 

'**  In  this  verse  the  prophet  re- 
sumes the  subject  opened  in  7>.  6, 
viz.,  the  overthrow  of  Jehovah's 
enemies.  Comp.  the  striking  pa- 
rallels in  Joel  iii.  2,  Zeph.  iii.  8, 
Zech.  xiv.  2. But  Z  (will  pun- 
ish)] Some  word  or  words  have 
evidently  dropped  out  of  the  text  ; 
an  aposiopesis  is  not  at  all  probable, 
as  there  is  no  trace  of  passion  or 
excitement  in  the  context,  and  a 
parallel  to  the  Virgilian  Oi/os 
ego — *  is  not  adducible  in  Hebrew. 
Maurei-'s       suggestion,        adopted 

above,  is  at  any  rate  forcible. 

(Behold,  the  time)  is  come]  It  is 
not  absolutely  necessary  to  sup- 
pose that  the  bracketed  words  have 
dropped  out  of  the  text  (see  Ezek. 
xxxix.  8),  but  the  lacuna  in  the  open- 
ing words  makes  it  a  not  unreason- 
able conjecture.  Otherwise,  we  must 

assume  an  ellipsis. All  nations] 

This    must    be  understood  with  a 

limitation  (see  next  verse). And 

tongrues]  This  supplement  is  re- 
markable. Though  not  inconsis- 
tent with  the  authorship  of  Isaiah, 
it  agrees  still  better  with  a  Cap- 
tivity date,  and  reminds  us  for- 
cibly of  the  frequent  references  in 
Daniel  to  '  peoples,  nations,  and 
tongues '  (Dan.  iii.  4,  7,  29,  iv.  i,  v. 
19,  vi.  25,  vii._  14).  The  same  use 
of  the   word  *  tonsrue  '    occurs    in 


(strictly,  Dum-zi  or  Tam-zi),  on 
which  occasion  we  are  told  that 
'  the  figure  of  the  goddess  is  carried 
in  procession,  adorned  with  jewels 
and  robes  of  rich  material,  attend- 
ed by  her  maids  of  honour,  Sam- 
khai  or  Pleasure,  and  Harimatu  or 
Lust  ;  and  they  go  in  procession 
to  meet  the  mourners  bearing  the 
body  of  the  dead  Tammuz.' '  But 
why  should  Adonis  be  called '  One'.? 
Prof  de  Legarde  would  apparently 
take  'ekhddh  (here  rendered  'One') 
in  the  sense  oi  yakludh  'unique' 
(as  Job  xxiii.  13),  for  he  coinpares 
the  remarkable  phrase,  '  mourning 
for  an  only-begotten  son'  i^cbhel 
yakJadJi).  But  this  seems  hazard- 
ous (see  note  -).  The  only  alterna- 
tive is  to  take  the  word  in  question 
as  a  contemptuous  or  evasive  ap- 
pellation. Maurer  comments  thus  : 
♦  Hebr.  Vkhadh,  nescio  quis,  per 
contemptum.'  It  is  rather  more 
natural  to  regard  it  as  a  piously 
evasive  phrase,  somewhat  like  that 
employed  by  the  Rajah  of  Burdwan, 
in  speaking  to  Weitbrecht  the  mis- 
sionary, '  O  yes,  I  have  no  objec- 
tion, if  you  do  not  mention  o)!e 
;'zaw^' (meaning  the  name  of  Jesus).'^ 
{c)  And  yet,  plausible  as  both  the 
above  views  are,  especially  the  lat- 
ter, the  combination  of  letters  which 
the  received  text  presents,  impresses 
me  by  a  family-likeness  to  other 
passages  of  indubitable  corrupt- 
ness. May  it  not  be  a  mutilated 
fragment  of  a  clause  parallel  to, 
though  somewhat  shorter  than, 
'  those  that  consecrate  themselves,' 
&c.  ?  The  conjecture  seems  to  be 
confirmed  by  the  evident  defective- 
ness of  a  part  of   the  next  verse. 


I  St.  Chad  Boscawen,  in  Academy,  xiv.  91  (July  27,  1878).  The  basis  of  the 
festival  is  demonstrably  a  nature-myth,  leading  up  to  the  union  of  the  new  moon  (Istar) 
and  the  summer  sun  (Tam-zi  or  Tammuz). 

-   Memoir  of  the  Rev.  John  James  W'eilhrechf,  p.  543. 

s  Quoted  by  Del.  in  his  first  and  second  editions  but  not  in  liis  third.  lie  now 
agrees  witli  Na'eg.  that  tlie  passage  is  proi)ably  corrupt. 


CHAP.  LXVI.] 


ISAIAH. 


129 


shall  come  and  see  my  glory.  '^  And  I  will  work  a  sign  upon 
them,  and  will  send  the  escaped  of  them  unto  the  nations, 
to  Tarshish,  ^  Put  and  Lud,  ^that  draw  the  bow*",  to  Tubal 
and  Javan,  to  the  distant  countries  which  have  not  heard  the 

•^  So  Sept. ,  Knob,,  Gratz,  Stade.     (Del.  inclines  to  this  reading  ;  as  to  Hitz.  and 
Ew.,  see  note  below.) — Pun,  Wetzstein. — Pul,  Hebr.  te.xt. 

''  To  Meshech,  Sept.,  Stade.     (Lowth  approves  in  his  note.) 


Zech.  viii.  23  (of  post-Captivity 
origin),  and  in  vv.  5,  20,  31  of  Gen. 
X.  (based  probably  on  a  Phoenician 
document). My  g-lory]  as  dis- 
played in  judicial  rewards  and 
punishments. 

^^  "Work  a  sign  upon  them]  viz., 
upon  the  assembled  Gentile  hosts. 
The  precise  meaning  of  '  work  a 
sign '  is  obscure.  It  is  an  emphatic 
phrase  {stlm — not  ndt/iatt  or  Uisdh 
^oth)  ;  a  strict  rendering  would  be 
'■set  a  sign,'  i.e.,  as  a  permanent 
memorial.  Elsewhere  we  find  it 
used  of  wonders  which,  by  a  mo- 
dern distinction,  we  call  superna- 
tural (E.x.  X.  2,  Ps.  Ixxviii.  43,  cv. 
27),  but  '  sign  '  has  a  wide  meaning 
in  the  Old  Test.,  and  can  be  used 
of  any  markedly  providential  oc- 
currence (see  I  Sam.  x.  7  with  the 
context).  Hence  it  may  here  mean 
the  wonderful  escape  of  some  of 
the  Gentile  host  (Ew.,  Del.),  or  the 
all  but  total  destruction  of  Jehovah's 
enemies  ('  it  is  a  vague  but  sug- 
gestive expression,  and  well  cal- 
culated to  prepare  the  mind  of  the 
reader  for  the  awful  description 
with  which  the  prophetic  volume 
closes').'  The  latter  was  my  first 
view,  but  the  eschatological  paral- 
lel in  Zech.  xiv.  seems  to  me  now 
to  suggest  some  mysterious  event, 
which  the  prophet  leaves  his  awe- 
struck readers  to  imagine. Un- 
to the  nations]  The  nations  which 
have  had  no  relation  to  Israel,  nor, 
consciously  at  least,  to  Jehovah, 
form  a  kind  of  outer  world,  with 
which  Jehovah  has  no  controversy. 

Put   and  Iiud]    Put   is   either 

the  Egyptian  Put  (nasalised  into 
Punt),  i.e.,  according  to  Brugsch, 


the  Somali  country  on  the  east 
coast  of  Africa,  opposite  to  Arabia, 
or  it  comes  from  the  Eg}'ptian 
Puti,  another  name  for  the  people 
commonly  called  1  hehennu,  i.e., 
the  Marmarid^e,  v/ho  lived  west  of 
the  Delta.*  Pul,  the  reading  of  the 
received  text,  occurs  Jiowhere  else 
as  an  ethnic  name ;  Put,  however, 
occurs  in  combination  with  Lud  in 
Ezek.  xxvii.  10,  xxx.  5  (comp.  Jer. 
xlvi.  9).  Hence  Hitz.  and  Ew. 
suppose  Pul  to  be  a  collateral  form 
of  Put,  but  the  interchange  of  teth 
and  lamedh  does  not  seem  to  be 
established.  It  is  better  therefore 
to  adopt  the  read,  of  Sept.  Wetz- 
stein's  correction,  however,  is  on 
several  accounts  plausible.  The 
letters  /  and  71  {Jamedh  and  turn) 
might  be  easily  confounded  in  the 
Hebrew  writing.  Pun  and  Lud, 
Punians  (Carthaginians)  and  Lydi- 
ans,  might  naturally  be  mentioned 
together  in  '  the  period  subsequent 
to  the  conquest  of  Babylon  by 
Cyrus,  in  which  this  part  of  Isaiah 
places  us.'  ^  The  Lydians,  too,  are 
actually  called  Ludi  in  Assyrian 
inscriptions  of  the  reign  of  Assur- 
banipal.  The  objection,  raised  in 
my  first  edition,  '  that  the  Lydians 
had  already  learned  by  experience 
the  might  of  Jehovah,'  is  only  of 
weight  if  chaps.  Ixv.,  l.xvi.  were 
written  with  an  eye  to  the  same 
circumstances  as  chap.  xl.  &c. 
Lud  (as  is  shown  by  the  reference 
to  it  in  Ezek.  xxx.,  comp.  Gen.  x. 
13)  must  be  a  N. -African  people, 
though  one  may  hesitate  to  adopt 
Ebers'  precarious  combination  of 
Lud  and  Rut  (the  name  for  the 
native-born  Egyptians  in  the  hiero- 


1  /.  C.  A.,  p.  234. 

2  J50  Brugsch-Bey,  History  of  Egypt,  second  ed.,  ii.  404. 

5  Wetzstein,  as  reported  by  Deliizsch,  Jesuia,  third  ed.,  p.  720. 

VOL.    II.  K 


130 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  LXVI. 


report  of  me,  nor  seen  my  glory,  and  they  shall  make  known 
my  glory  among  the  nations.  ^^And  they  shall  bring  all 
your  brethren  out  of  all  the  nations  as  an  offering  unto  Je- 
hovah upon  horses  and  in  chariots  and  in  litters,  and  upon 
mules  and  dromedaries,  to  my  holy  mountain,  to  Jerusalem, 
saith  Jehovah,  as  the  children  of  Israel  bring  [or,  used  to 
bring]  the  meal-offering  in    a  clean   vessel   to   the   house  of 


glyphic  inscriptions).'     See  further 

Last    Words. That    draw   the 

bow]  A  similar  characterisation  of 
the  Ludim  in  Jer.  xlvi.  9.  The 
reading  of  Sept.  has  the  air  of  a 
conjectural  emendation,  and  is  un- 
necessary, but  certainly  plausible. 
Meshech  and  Tubal  are  several 
times  mentioned  together  ;  the 
Muskai  of  the  Assyrian  inscriptions 
lived  to  the  north-east  of  the  Tab- 

lai. Tubal]  The  Tablai  of  the 

inscriptions  dwelt  to  the  west  of 
the  northern  arm  of  the  Euphrates, 
in  a  part  of  Armenia  Minor.^ 
They  are  mentioned  in  the  table  of 
nations  (Gen.  x.  2),  also  in  Ezekiel 

(three    times). 'Javan]    Javan, 

like  Tubal  and  Meshech,  was 
famous  for  its  traffic  in  slaves 
(Ezek.  xxvii.  13).  It  is  obviously 
the  same  as  'Ia/oi/-e?,  and  was 
successively  applied  to  the  coun- 
tries where  Ionian  Greeks  dwelt, 
as  they  became  known  to  the 
Phoenicians,  and  even  (Zech.  ix.  13, 
Dan.  viii.  21,  x.  20)  to  Greece  in 
general.  Here,  however,  it  cer- 
tainly designates  some  particular 
nation,  and  most  probably  the 
lonians  on  the  west  coast  of  Asia 
Minor,  though  Mr.  Sayce  prefers 
to  identify  it  with  Cyprus,  which 
he  thinks  suits  the  geographical 
order  better.  Cyprus  certainly 
bears  a  name  in  the  Assyrian  in- 
scriptions which  is  simply  Javan 
without  the  '  digamma.'  Most 
cuneiform  scholars  have  read  this 
name  Yatnan,  but  it  is  rather  Yanan 
(one  of  the  Assyrian  characters 
having  the  value  a  as  well  as  at  or 
ad).     The   distant  countries]  i.e., 


the  coast-lands  and  islands  of  the 
Mediterranean  Sea. 

^°  And   they  shall  brlngr  •   •   •  ] 

Not  only  shall  the  Gentiles  'stream' 
to  the  holy  city  themselves  (ii.  2, 
Ix.  4),  but  they  shall  escort  the 
Israelitish  exiles  to  Jerusalem  with 
the  tender  care  and  reverence  be- 
longing to  holy  things  and  persons 
(comp.  Zeph.  iii.  10  with  Keil's 
note).     Note  the  emphasis  on  '■all 

your  brethren,' &c. As  an  offer- 

Ingr]  Or,  '  as  a  present '  (comp. 
xxxix.  i).  Probably,  however,  the 
Hebr.  word  (viinkJidli)  is  here  used 
in  its  technical  sense.  Without  ab- 
solutely denying  the  acceptableness 
of  the  ordinary  meal-offering,  the 
prophet  asserts  that  the  honour 
thus  shown  to  the  chosen  people 
will  be  fully  equal  to  that  paid  to  the 
traditional  nii)ikliah.  Comp.  Rom. 
XV.  16,  17  Trpo(T(p()pa  Tcbv  iBvoiv,  where 
the   genitive  is  that  of  apposition. 

Upon  horses  .   .   .  mules  and 

dromedaries]  The  variety  in  the 
mode  of  transport  corresponds 
to  the  wide  extent  of  the  Jewish 
dispersion.  A  similar  catalogue  is 
given  in  Zech.  xiv.  15,  to  indicate 
the  multitude  of  hostile  nations  as- 
sembled round  Jerusalem. Iiit- 

ters]  The  word  only  occurs  else- 
where in  Num.  vii.  3  (in  Lev.  xi. 
29  it  is  the  name   of  an  animal). 

Brlngr]     Whether    we    render 

in  the  present  or  the  imperfect 
tense  (to  keep  the  familiar  terms) 
depends  on  our  view  of  the  date  of 
the  prophecy.  If  we  think  that  it 
was  written  during  the  Babylonian 
Exile,  we  shall  adopt  the  latter 
tense  ;  if  otherwise,  the  former. 


'  Aegypten  und  die  Biuher  Mosis,   i.   96-98  ;  comp.    Schrader,  A".  A.   T.,  ed.  2, 
p.  114. 

'  Schra.ler,  A'.  (;.  /•'.,  p.  156. 


CHAP.  LXVl.] 


ISAIAII. 


i^r 


Jehovah  ;  '^'  and  some  of  them  also  will  I  take  unto  the  priests 
8  and  unto  the  Levites  ^,  saith  Jehovah.  ^'^  For  like  as  the  new 
heavens  and  the  new  earth,  which  I  make,  stand  perpetually 
before  me  (the  oracle  of  Jehovah),  so  shall  your  seed  and 
your  name  stand.  ^^ And  it  shall  come  to  pass:  from  new 
moon  to  new  moon,  and  from  sabbath   to  sabbath,  all  flesh 

K  So  many  Hebr.  MSS.  (including  almost  all  the  oldest),  and  all  the  versions  (see 
Curtiss,  The  Levitical  Priests,  pp.  205-213,  and  comp.  Del.'s  note,  Jesaia,  3rd  ed., 
p.  684). — Unto  the  Levites,  Received  Hebr.  text. 


'^^  And  some  of  them  also  .  .  .  ] 

The  language  used  leaves  it  quite 
uncertain  whether  the  Gentiles  are 
referred  to  (so  Vitr.,  Ges.,  Ew., 
Alexander,  Del.,  Kay,  Naeg.),  or 
the  Jews  of  the  dispersion  (so 
Ibn  Ezra,  Kimchi,  Hitz.,  Herzfeld, 
Knob.,  Henderson,  Seinecke,  H. 
Schultz).  The  advocates  of  the 
latter  view  refer  to  Ivi.  6,  7  as  show- 
ing the  utmost  hopes  held  out  to 
the  Gentile  proselytes ;  to  Ixi.  6, 
where  the  restored  Jews  are  dis- 
tinguished from  the  Gentiles  by  the 
title  'priests  of  Jehovah;'  and  to 
Ixvi.  22,  where  the  permanence  of 
the  Jewish  race  appears  to  be 
guaranteed.  On  the  other  hand, 
it  may  fairly  be  urged  that  a  special 
privilege  granted  to  a  select  few 
does  not  affect  the  general  inferi- 
ority of  the  Gentile  to  the  Jew. 
^he  spirit  of  the  context  points 
decidedly  to   a   throwing   open  of 

f  I    the   gates    as  widely   as   possible. 

.'  I  When  the  Gentiles  are  converted, 
\  I  a  larger  number  of  temple -officers 
/  will  become  necessary,  and  the 
same  divine  mercy  which  accepted 
the  converts  will  select  those  of 
them  who  are  suitable  to  minister 
in  holy  things,  even  at  the  cost  of 
breaking  through  the  exclusive  Le- 
vitical system.  This  seems  to  be 
confirmed  by  the  parallel  passage  at 
the  end  of  ZecharialjuJ  See  also  on 

Ixi.  6. And  unto  tlie  levites] 

Both  this  and  alt.  read,  presuppose 
that  a  distinction  in  rank  between 
the  Aaronite  priests  and  the  or- 
dinary Levites  continues  ;  this  is 
marked  by  the  repeated  preposition 
in  the  Hebr.  (comp.  Deut.  xviii.  i, 


Jer.  xxxiii.  18,  where  the  preposition 
is  not  repeated).  The  prophet  in 
this  respect  occupies  the  point  of 
view  of  the  Levitical  legislation.  It 
is  important  therefore  to  determine 
the  time  when  he  lived. 

^'-  I    make]      Strictly,     '  I     am 

about  to  make.' Your    name] 

Perhaps  alluding  to  the  '  new  name ' 
which  was  to  supersede  Israel  (Ixii. 
2,  Ixv.  15). 

^^  rrom  new  moon  to  new 
moon]  The  old  forms  of  worship 
have  been  reduced  to  the  utmost ; 
new  moons  and  sabbaths  alone  re- 
main. 'All  flesh'  attends  in  the 
temple  on  these  hallowed  occasions 
(comp.  the  similar  anticipation  in 
Zech.  xiv.  16).— Is  all  this  to  be 
taken  literally  1  Does  the  prophet 
rnean  that  the  old  conditions  of 
time  and  space  will  have  ceased  t 
Or  is  the  language  figurative  .?  The 
latter  view  is  certainly  nearer  the 
truth  than  the  former.  '  It  is 
already  the  revelation  which  our 
Lord  makes  to  the  Samaritan 
woman  (John  iv.  21).  The  literal 
meaning  was  physically  impossible  ; 
and  so  it  was  plain  that  he  (Isaiah) 
spoke  of  a  worship  other  than  that 
at  any  given  place'  (Dr.  Pusey '). 
Still  the  prophet  has  but  a  confused 
vision  of  this  great  spiritual  change. 
He  cannot  give  up  the  idea  of  the 
religious  supremacy  of  Jerusalem  ; 
at  the  same  time,  he  cannot  ex- 
clude any  from  communion  with 
God  merely  on  the  ground  of  their 
local  distance  from  the  temple. 
Hence  the  strange  inconsistencies 
in  his  picture. 


1  Prophecy  of  Jesus,  &c.,  a  sermon  (1879),  p.  39. 


K  2 


I  ^2 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  lxvi. 


shall  come  to  worship  before  me,  saith  Jehovah,    ^^  And  they 
shall  go  out  and   look  upon   the  carcases  of  the  men   who 

-*  And  they  shall  go  out 


VIZ., 

to  the  hills  and  valleys  around 
Jerusalem,  where  the  Divine  judg- 
ment has  taken  place.  It  is,  of 
course,  the  old  and  not  the  new 
Jerusalem  of  which  the  prophet  is 

thinking. And  look  upon]  i.e., 

look  with  awful  interest  upon. 
(Comp.  Ps.  xci.  8,  and  for  the  idiom, 

Isa.  lxvi.  5,Gen.xxi.  i6,  xliv.  34.) 

For  their  \(rorni  shall  not  die, 
and  their  fire  shall  not  bs 
quenched]  Three  questions  arise 
in  considering  this  passage  :  i.  Is 
it  the  world  of  men  or  of  souls 
which  is  the  scene  of  the  torments  ? 
2.  if  the  latter,  how  far  are  we  to 
interpret  the  description  in  a  mar 
terial  sense .''  and  3.  in  what  sense 
is  everlastingness  here  predicated 
of  the  fire  and  the  worm?  i.  As 
to  the  scene  of  the  torments.  The 
context  naturally  leads  us  to  sup- 
pose that  the  reference  is  to  the 
bodies  of  the  slain,  lying  unburied 
upon  the  ground  ;  and  this  view  is 
partly  confirmed  by  the  parallel 
passage  in  Zechariah  (xiv.  12).  On 
the  other  hand,  the  details  of  the 
description  suggest,  by  their  ob- 
vious inconsistency,  that  the  terms 
are  symbolic  of  the  tortures  of  the 
souls  in  Fades.  This  is  the  view 
embodied  in  the  Targum,  which 
renders  the  second  half  of  the  verse 
thus ;  '  Because  their  souls  shall  not 
die,  and  their  lire  shall  not  be 
quenched,  and  the  ungodly  shall  be 
judged  in  Gehenna,  until  the  righte- 
ous say  concerning  them,  'We  have 
seen  enough  ;'  it  also  underlies  the 
solemn  warning  of  Jesus,  '  It  is 
better  for  thee  to  enter  into  Life 
.  maimed,  than  having  two  hands  to 
go  into  Gehenna,  into  the  fire  that 
never  shall  be  quenched  ;  where 
their  worm  dieth  not,  and  the  fire 
is  not  quenched'  (Mark  ix.  43,  44, 
comp.  45-48).'  Both  views  being 
so  strongly  supported,  we  must,  I 


think,  endeavour  to  combine  them, 
and  the  study  of  primitive  beliefs 
may  suggest  a  way.  The  eschato- 
log)'  of  the  Bible  is  symbelic,  and 
its  symbols  are  borrowed  (with  that 
large-hearted  tolerance  which  we 
have  so  olten  had  to  notice)  from 
the  popular  forms  of  belief  respect- 
ing the  unseen  world.  Now  it  is 
one  of  the  most  primitive  and  most 
tenacious  of  these  forms  of  belief 
that  the  soul  itself  has  a  kind  of 
body,  without  which  indeed  those 
phantom-visions  in  which  all  races 
have  believed  would  be  impossi- 
bilities. As  soon  as  men  begin  to 
reflect,  however  rudely,  upon  this 
belief,  the  theory  arises  that  there 
are  different  kinds  of  spirit,  or  soul. 
Some  primitive  races  say  that  man 
has  three  souls  ;  some,  that  he  has 
four  ;  but  a  simpler  and  more 
natural  idea  is  that  he  has  two. 
This  is  said  to  be  the  belief  of  the 
Algonquins,  a  tribe  of  North  Ameri- 
can Indians;-  it  also  appears  to 
have  been  current  upon  the  banks 
of  the  Nileandof  the  Jordan.  The 
Egyptian  priests,  who  were  never 
ashamed  of  the  archaic  basis  of 
their  theology,  taught  this  doctrine 
— that  after  the  separation  of  soul 
and  body  in  death,  the  soul  went 
through  a  series  of  trials  in  Amenti 
or  Hades,  not  however  as  a  pure 
spirit,  but  accompanied  by  an 
eidolon  of  the  cast-off  body  ;  mean- 
time the  body  remained  in  the 
upper  world,  seemingly  inanimate, 
but  really  still  possessing  a  kind  of 
soul,  the  pale  reflection  of  the  soul 
in  Amenti.  The  Book  of  Job,  so 
full  of  references  to  popular  beliefs, 
and  so  abundant  in  illustrations  of 
II.  Isaiah, contains  a  passage  which 
presupposes  a  closely  analogous 
belief  among  the  Jews.  After  ex- 
pressing an  earnest  desire  for  a 
second  life  upon  earth,  the  suffering 
patriarch  falls  back  into  despond- 


1  Gehenna,  according  to  Jesus  (see  Matt.  x.  28)  as  well  as  according  to  the  Tnr- 
gum,  is  a  place  where  both  soul  and  body  undergo  punishment.  Comp.  Luke 
xvi.  24. 

*  Tylor,  Primifive  Culture,  i.  392. 


CHAP.  LXVl.] 


ISAIAH. 


^35 


rebelled  arainst  me,  for  their  worm  shall  not  die,  and  their  fire 


ency,  as  he  recalls  to  mind  the 
melancholy  consequences  of  death. 
'  Thou  overpowerest  him  for  ever, 
and  he  goeth  ;  changing  his  face, 
and  thou  sendest  him  away.  His 
sons  come  to  honour,  and  he 
knoweth  it  not  ;  they  become  mean, 
and  he  observeth  them  not.  Never- 
theless, his  flesh  upon  him  feeleth 
pain,  and  his  soul  upon  him  mourn- 
eth '  (xiv.  22).  In  the  Book  of 
Isaiah  itself  we  have  met  with  one 
doubtful  trace  of  the  belief  m  a 
duplicate  body  (see  on  Ivii.  2),  and 
the  Book  of  Ezekiel  has,  in  a  highly 
imaginative  passage,  a  sufficiently 
distinct  reference  to  it  (Ezek. 
xxxii.  25).  A  kindred  belief  is  pre- 
supposed in  the  passage  before  us. 
The  delivered  Israelites  are  repre- 
sented as  going  out  to  behold  a 
signal  instance  of  righteous  retri- 
bution. What  they  see  can  be 
only  the  corpses  of  their  enemies. 
But  the  prophet  continues  in  terms 
which  properly  can  only  belong  to 
the  souls  in  Hades.  How  is  this? 
It  is  because  of  the  supposed  double 
consciousness  of  soul  and  body.^ 
Just  as,  according  to  primitive  be- 
lief, '  the  mutilation  of  the  body  will 
have  a  corresponding  effect  upon 
the  soul,'  '^  so  the  tortures  of  the 
soul  in  Hades  will  be  felt  in  some 
degree  by  the  corpse  on  earth. 
The  emphasis  in  the  prophetic 
statement  is  of  course  not  on 
the  sympathy  of  soul  and  body, 
but  on  the  sense  of  punishment 
which  the  personalities  of  the  guilty 
ones  shall  never  lose  (comp.  1.  1 1 
end).  2.  As  to  the  materiality  of 
the  torments  of  the  guilty  souls. 
By  the  inconsistency  of  the  de- 
scription, the  prophet  clearly  warns 
us  not  to  understand  it  literally. 
The  Egyptian  authors  of  the  Book 
of  the    Dead  would   have  equally 


deprecated  a  literal  interpretation 
of  the  torments  of  the  condemned. 
The  eschatology  of  the  Bible,  as  has 
been  already  stated,  is  symbolic  ; 
the  prophet,  like  the  other  men  of 
God,  speaks  in  figures.  His  sym- 
bols are  borrowed  partly  from  the 
valley  of  Hinnom,  which  had  for- 
merly been  the  scene  of  the  burnt 
sacrifices  to  Moloch  (comp.  on  Ivii. 
5),  and  afterwards  became  the  re- 
ceptacle of  the  filth  of  Jerusalem, 
and  partly  (as  we  have  seen)  from 
the  popular  imaginations  respect- 
ing the  soul.  We  must  be  on  our 
guard,  however,  against  supposing 
that  the  kernel  of  his  symbols  is  a 
mere  abstraction.  This  would  be 
high  treason  against  his  Semitic 
origin  and  his  prophetic  calling. 
There  is  no  reasonable  doubt  that 
material  torments  form  a  very  de- 
finite part  of  his  eschatology.  In 
one  essential  point,  however,  our 
prophet  is  distinguished  from  later 
non-prophetical  writers,  viz.,  his 
self-restraint  in  referring  to  the 
unseen  world.  He  refrains  as 
much  from  elaborate  pictorial  de- 
scriptions as  from  dogmatising.  3. 
As  to  the  everlastingness  of  the 
torments.  Did  the  prophet  merely 
mean  'that  nothing  should  put 
the  fire  out,,  while  any  portion  of 
the  carcases  remained  to  be  de- 
voured— that  it  should  be  un- 
quenchable tifih'/  it  had  done  its 
work,  and  all  was  entirely  con- 
sumed?' And  in  the  application 
of  the  figure  to  the  soul,  that 
pangs  of  conscience  should  con- 
tinue to  afflict  the  guilty  ones 
until  they  were  purified  thereby  ? 
This  at  any  rate  does  nut  seem 
to  have  been  the  interpretation  of 
the  early  readers  of  the  prophecy. 
Not  to  quote  again  the  words  of 
our  Lord,  the  proverbial  use  of  the 


'  Compare  the  Aramaic  and  Talmudic  use  of  nefesh  in  the  sense  of  a  funerary 
stele,  which  has  even  a  point  of  contact  in  the  Old  Testament.  See  Deut.  xxvi.  14, 
which  proves,  if  we  follow  the  Septuagint,  that  just  as  the  Egyptians  brought  obla- 
tions to  the  kiiy  or  '  double,'  resident  in  the  statue  of  the  dead,  so  the  jews  did  to  the 
ncfcih  ('soul)  of  the  dead.  Comp.  also  the  Arab  btlief  in  the  sadd"  of  the  dead, 
the  owl  which  haunts  the  grave  (H.imd.ui  p.  400  Freytag,  Sc/iol.  ii.  72).  See  W.  R. 
Smith,  Acudciiiy,  MarJi  18    1883,  p.  189. 

^  T)lor,  Primitive  ''ulli/rc,  i.  407. 


134 


ISAIAH. 


[chap.  LXVI. 


shall  not  be  quenched,  and  they  shall  be  an  abomination  unto 
all  flesh. 


fire  and  the  worm  in  Sirach  vii.  17, 
Judith  xvi.  17,'  would  hardly  have 
arisen,  if  the  Jewish  people  had 
given  the  phrases  so  mild  a  mean- 
ing. But  the  theory  mentioned 
may  I  think  be  refuted  out  of  the 
Book  of  Isaiah  itself,  where  we 
read  (xxxiv.  10)  respecting  the  fire 
with  which  guilty  Edom  is  threat- 
ened, that  it  shall  be  quenchless, 
and  that  its  smoke  shall  go  up  for 
ever,  so  that  '  none  shall  pass 
through '  Edom  '  for  ever  and  ever.' 
There  is  no  arricre  pensce  here  ; 
the  everlastingness  spoken  of  is 
absolute  and  without  qualification. 
The  phrase  '  perpetual  burnings ' 
(xxxiii.  14,  see  note)  has  quite 
another  reference. An  abomi- 
nation]   The  Hebr.  word  {derdoti) 

'  Mr.  E.  White  is  carried  too  far  by  his  controversial  bias,  when  he  accuses  the 
post-Christian  writer  of  Judith  of  'going  beyond  prophecy,  and  yielding  to  the  influ- 
ence of  a  philosophical  doctrine  of  an  immortality  learned  from  Greece  and  Egypt,  and 
not  found  in  his  national  Scriptures'  {Life  in  Christ,  3rd  ed.,  p.  170). 


only  occurs  again  in  Dan.  xii.  2 
(which,  from  the  context,  appears 
to  be  an  allusion  to  our  passage). 
— Such  is  the  awful  picture  with 
which  the  Book  of  Israel's  Con- 
solation closes.  Is  there  not  an 
incongruity  in  this .?  The  early 
Jewish  critics  appear  to  have 
thought  so.  They  directed  that 
when  this  chapter  (or  the  last  chap- 
ter of  the  Minor  Prophets,  the 
Lamentations,  and  Ecclesiastes) 
was  read,  the  last  verse  but  one 
should  be  repeated  to  correct  the 
sad  impression  of  the  last.  One 
cannot  but  sympathise  with  them. 
But  how  should  there  not  be  a  dif- 
ference between  the  Old  Testa- 
ment and  the  New.-" 


CRITICAL    AND    PHILOLOGICAL    NOTES. 


I.  7.  Dnr,  the  reading  of  the  text,  may  be  either  the  gen.  of  the 
subject  or  of  the  object.  If  of  the  subject,  the  whole  phrase  will 
mean  'like  a  subversion  in  which  strangers  (or,  enemies)  are  the 
agents.'  If  of  the  object,  'like  a  subversion  of  strangers'  land.' 
The  former  meaning  is  natural  in  itself,  but  there  are  three  objec- 
tions to  it  :  {a)  that  a  gen.  standing  alone  after  an  infinitive  or  a 
noun  used  infinitivally  is,  according  to  usage,  a  gen.  of  the  object 
(see  Deut.  xxix.  22,  Jer.  xlix.  18),  {b)  that  riDsriD  is  the  standing  term 
for  the  catastrophe  of  Sodom  and  Gomorrah  (which  is  also  an  ob- 
jection to  Dr.  Neubauer's  suggestion  D^.T),  and  {c)  that  the  context 
shows  that  Sodom  is  in  the  mind  of  Isaiah  here.  The  latter  meaning 
has  only  one  argument  against  it,  viz.  that  it  is  forced,  and  requires 
us  to  take  d^T  in  different  senses  in  two  successive  lines.  It  is 
better  therefore  to  suppose  that  d^T  was  written  either  carelessly  (the 
word  having  occurred  just  before)  or  by  design,  from  a  patriotic 
motive,  instead  of  DHD-  Against  Lowth's  conjecture  D"iT,  see  my 
Notes  and  Criticisms,  ad  loc.  (Ibn  Ezra  supposed  dht  to  be  a  col- 
lateral form  of  DIT.)     Prof.  Robertson  Smith  also  accepts  DHD. 

I.  9.  t3TO3-  To  attach  this  word  to  the  first  half  of  the  verse 
makes  this  disproportionately  long.  Geiger  '  has  shown  that  the  old 
Jewish  students  of  Scripture  (represented  by  the  Versions)  were 
startled  by  some  of  the  hard  things  said  of  Israel,  and  substituted 
milder  expressions.  He  even  thinks  that  the  text  was  sometimes 
gently  touched  from  the  same  patriotic  motive.  Certainly  in  this 
verse,  if  anywhere,  we  may  assume  a  softening  interpolation  ;  that 
the  judges  should  be  called  'judges  of  Sodom'  might  be  tolerated,, 
but  that  the  entire  people  should,  even  in  a  hypothesis,  be  likened  to 
Sodom,  was  too  great  a  shock.  Three  of  the  versions  (Sept.,  Ptih., 
Vulg.)  omit  the  word,  and  the  fourth  (Targ.)  gives  a  rendering  which 
clearly  reveals  a  dissatisfaction  with  the  text,  even  in  its  mitigated 
form  :  the  offence  remained,  to  the  author  of  this  rendering,  even 
after  the  insertion  of  the  gloss.  It  seems  to  me  possible  that  a 
similar  feehng  of  national  complacency  dictated  the  change  of  dhd 
into  Dnt  in  v.  7. 

I.   12.  ^3S  ni&?n|?.  Read 'Q  nii^n'?,  and  see  note   in  I.C.A.,  p.  39. 

1    Urschrift  und  Uebersetzungen  def  Bidel  [Biealsin    1857),  p.  346,  &c. 


136  CRITICAL    AND    PHILOLOGICAL    NOTES. 

Geiger  '  has  shown  by  a  number  of  passages  that  the  authors  of  the 
points  and  the  early  translators  took  great  offence  at  the  expression 
'  to  see  God.'  Hence,  they  frequently  modify  this  phrase  ;  but  as 
where  one  modifies  it  another  sometimes  does  not,  we  are  now  and 
then  able  to  produce  documentary  evidence  that  the  original  reading 
has  been  changed.  It  was  enough  (or  seemed  enough)  to  change 
the  vowels  ;  the  letters  of  the  text  were  allowed  to  remain.  Yet  it  is 
doubtful  whether  the  reading  of  the  points  in  the  present  case  is 
even  grammatically  admissible,  not  so  much  on  account  of  the  as- 
sumed syncope  of  n,  which  Bottcher  and  Stade  in  their  grammars 
call  in  question  (for  even  if  the  Massoretic  pointing  in  the  four  other 
supposed  cases  of  syncopated  infin.  Nifal  be  erroneous,  yet  the  prin- 
ciple of  such  a  syncope  is  assured  by  the  admitted  examples  of  syn- 
copated Hifil — see,  e.g.,  iii.  8,  xxiii.  1 1),  as  because  of  the  prepositional 
use  of  ''3Q,  which  only  occurs  elsewhere  in  two  passages  precisely 
analogous  to  the  present  (Ex.  xxiii.  15,  xxxiv.  20).  Del.  in  his  3rded. 
admits  the  plausibility  of  this  argument  ('vielleicht  aber  eben  nur 
vielleicht  richtig  '). — The  same  offence  at  the  anthropomorphism,  '  to 
see  God,'  dictated  the  Sept.  version  of  xxxviii.  11  (see  vol.  i.,  p.  229, 
note  ^). 

I.  13^.  mvui  pX-  The  rendering  adopted  has  been  objected  to  as 
giving  the  Vav  a  kind  of  sarcastic  value.  But  the  Vav  of  association, 
though  commoner  in  Arabic,  is  not  unknown  in  Hebrew  (see  below 
on  vii.  i).  Auth.  Vers,  is  grammatically  less  probable.  For  the 
principle  of  the  Hebrew  idiom,  see  Driver  {Hebrew  Tenses^  §  197, 
obs.  2),  who  compares  Jer.  xiii.  27. 

I.  24.  ^NiK''  n^ax.  Possibly  the  pointing  is  due  to  a  wish  on  the 
part  of  the  Massoretes  to  exclude  the  translation  '  steer  of  Israel '  as 
too  suggestive  of  idolatry.  'K**  "i^3i^  iiiight,  in  fact,  have  been  so 
translated  ;  comp.  the  figurative  '  bulls  of  Bashan,'  and  the  title  of 
bull  frequently  applied  to  the  Egyptian  sun-god  Amen,  to  express 
divine  youth  and  strength  {T.  S.  B.  A.,  ii.  252). 

I.  29.  Read  iK'^n-  Errors  in  the  pronominal  affixes  were  so  easy 
that  there  is  no  merit  in  retaining  the  harsh  transition  of  the  text. 
Comp.  xlii.  20,  xliv.  28,  liii.  10. 

II.  6.  Sept.  renders  the  first  part,  on  lv€Tr\y]a-B-q  ws  to  air  apxq<i  [so 
all  the  old  versions]  rj  x<^pa  avrtav  KXrjSovicrfjLwv.  Hence  Lowth  and 
Roorda  would  restore  W}\?IO  Dp^'O-  This  is  very  plausible  (or  we 
might  read  DQi?.),  but  perhaps  it  makes  the  clause  a  trifle  heavy  ;  it 
was  not  sorcery  alone  that  came  '  from  the  East,'  and  the  last  clause 
has  probably  no  connection  with  religion.  (The  simplest  correction 
of  all  is  Krochmal's  Cppp).    •1p''Sb'.''   is  hard.    pDD,  '  to  strike,'  is  only 

'    Urschrift  und  Ucbersetzungcn  der  Bibcl,  pp.  337-9. 


CRITICAL    AND    PHILOLOGICAL    NOTES.  137 

used  of  indignation  or  scorn,  Num.  xxiv.  lo,  Job  xxvii.  3,  but  Arab. 
^afaqa  means  to  strike  hands  in  a  bargain  (whence  ^afqa,  '  a  bar- 
gain ').  Another  plausible  rendering  is  '  applaud,'  the  sense  of  the 
Arabic  a^faqa  (=p^Db'n).     See  further  my  Notes  and  Criticisms. 

II.  16.  monn  nrse^-  '^  is  evidently  the  same  as  nv^E^'D,  which 
occurs  in  Num.  xxxiii.  52  (comp.  Lev.  xxvi.  i),  in  the  sense  of 
*  carved  idolatrous  obelisks,'  and  in  Prov.  xxv.  1 1  of  '  chased  (silver) 
vessels.'  The  (Aramaic)  root  is  nDb'  'to  pierce  through,'  'to  distinguish,' 
and  hence  'to  look  at.'  The  Vulgate  and  Saadya  have  understood  the 
phrase  to  mean  all  kinds  of  ornaments  ;  but  the  usage  of  the  word 
n*3:i'0  (comp.  also  Ezek.  viii.  12)  favours  the  view  that  some  sort  of 
imagery  was  represented  on  the  foreign  works  of  art  referred  to.  The 
wider  meaning  'objects  which  attract  the  gaze '  is,  however,  amply 
defensible  on  the  analogy  of  the  Aramaic  kJiezvd  and  Assyrian  ta- 
viariu,  both  used  of  costly  things,  and  both  from  roots  meaning  'to  see.' 
Ewald's  '  watch-towers  of  pleasure  '  is  derived  from  the  Peshito,  and 
confirmed  by  the  Aramaic  ni3D  'watch-tower,'  but  has  the  Hebrew 
usage  against  it,  and  is  scarcely  suitable  at  the  close  of  the  catalogue. 

III.  10.  nON.  The  present  reading  is  no  doubt  grammatically 
defensible  (cf  Gen.  i.  4,  vi.  2),  but  it  is  weak.  Correct,  with  Duhm, 
nr5<  (comp.  xxxii.  20),  thus  completing  the  parallelism  between  v.  10 
and  V.  II.      Lowth  suggested  '•X'X  "iiOX- 

III.  12.  vtJ'J^  here  without  connoting  oppression;  comp.  Ix.  17, 
Zech.  x.  4.  The  plural  is  to  be  explained  as  a  construction  Kara 
o-w€o-iv.  The  thought  of  the  prophet  was,  '  My  people's  governors 
are  a  petulant  child  and  the  court  women.'  He  began  to  write  this 
down  and  then  broke  up  the  clause  into  two,  to  produce  a  rhythmic 
parallelism  (comp.  xli.  27,  Zeph.  iii.  10). 

iir.  25.  -|^no.  A  poetic  archaism  (see  Notes  and  Criticisms,  ad 
loc).  The  Assyrian  cognate  mut,  and  the  Ethiopic  met,  are  both  used 
for  '  husband '  (properly  '  man  ').  In  Hebrew  usage  D^no  always  im- 
phes  dependence  or  weakness  (the  former  even  in  Job  xix.  19,  Job 
being  described  as  a  kind  of  emir).  It  does  not  appear  to  connote 
fewness  ;  else  there  would  be  no  occasion  for  the  familiar  compound 
phrase  isdo  ^niD  (Gen.  xxxiv.  30,  &c.).  Hence  in  xli.  14,  we  should 
render  '  petty  folk  '  (Sept.  wrongly  oXiyoorros).  '  Dependents '  would 
probably  be  the  best  general  rendering  ;  this  will  include  warriors 
(implied  here)  and  household  servants  (see  Job  xxxi.  31). 

IV.  3-6.  Several  questions  arise  out  of  this  difficult  passage. 
First  is  v.  4  the  protasis  of  v.  3  (Delit^ch),  or  of  v.  5  (Ewald,  ren- 
dering r;.  5,  'then  Yahveh  shall  make,'&c.)?  Its  position  favours 
the  latter  view,  but  the  sense  imperiously  requires  the  former.  Ac- 
cording to  Stade,  vv.  2,  3,  4  have  been  misplaced,  and  the  right 
order  is  4,  3,  2,  and  with  ?'.  2  he  closes  the  prophecy,  vv.  5,  6  being, 


138  CRITICAL    AND    PHILOLOGICAL    NOTES. 

he  thinks,  the  addition  of  an  editor  during  the  Exile  {Zeitschrift  fiir 
die  alttestaynentliche  Wissenschaft,  1884,  pp.  149-15 1).  Certainly  the 
last  two  verses  of  the  chapter  are  in  harmony  with  the  tone  of 
thought  of  the  exile-prophet  Ezekiel  (Ezek.  viii.  6,  x.  19,  xi.  23, 
xHii.  1-4),  not  to  mention  IL  Isa.  Hi.  8,  Ixiii.  17.  They  also  con- 
tain a  word  unique  in  this  part  of  the  book,  and  specially  character- 
istic of  II.  Isaiah  (see  commentary  on  xl.  26).  But  may  we  on  this 
account  alone  deny  that  Isaiah  wrote  N"i3  (so  Wellhausen,  Gesch. 
Israels,  i.  350  note)  ?  Granting  that  kiq  is  an  Aramaism,  does  it  follow 
that  every  Aramaism  in  Isaiah  is  a  corruption  ?  Ryssel  has  already 
pointed  out  how  growing  an  influence  was  exerted  by  Aramaic  from 
the  times  of  Ahaz  onwards  (Z>(?  Elohistce  Pentateuchi  sermone,  Lips. 
1878,  p.  25),  and  the  period  of  Ahaz  is  suitable  for  the  date  of 
chap,  iv.  That  X"i3  is  of  Aryan  origin  is  a  purely  personal  hypo- 
thesis of  Lagarde's  and  Wellhausen's.  We  find  the  Assyrian  cognate 
(in  the  Shafel  form)  in  the  Assyrian  deluge-story,  used  of  the  divine 
causation  of  a  dream  (Haupt  in  K.A.T.,  ed.  2,  pp.  60,  500). 

On  IV.  5,  6.  There  is  only  one  alternative  to  the  supposition  in  the 
commentary,  and  that  is  to  let  ?'.  5  run  on  into  v.  6  (so  Hitz.,  Naeg., 
and  virtually  Del.),  rendering,  'For  over  all  that  is  glorious  shall  a 
canopy  and  a  pavilion  arise.'  But  the  figure  seems  more  striking  with 
asp  alone.     Is  HDri  genuine  ? 

v.  I.  nn  riT'K'-  For  the  objection  to  the  ordinary  view,  see  my 
note  ad  loc.  The  phrase  should  probably  be  explained,  on  the 
analogy  of  nn'n  ^SC^'P  'bed  of  love'  (Ezek.  xxiii.  17),  'a  song  of 
love,'  i.e.  'a  lovely  song.'  Two  ways  of  explaining  the  nn  of  the 
text  are  open  to  us.  {ci)  It  may  be  an  example  of  the  popular 
apocopated  plural  il  for  im),  recognised  by  Ewald  in  2  Sam.  xxii.  44 
(Ps.  cxliv.  2),  Lam.  iii.  14,  Cant.  viii.  2,  and  perhaps  Ps.  xlv.  9 
(^Lehrbuch,  §  i^T  a).  If  Ewald  (Die  Dichter  des  Alien  Bufides,  ii. 
425)  may  be  followed,  we  have  another  instance  of  '^'^'\'-\  for  cnn  in 
Cant.  vii.  10,  but  this  is  very  doubtful.  But  although  the  Himya- 
ritic  plural  of  tens  is  formed  by  /  without  the  n  which  should  follow, 
I  question  whether  the  second  mode  of  explanation  (/')  is  not  better, 
not  only  for  Isa.  v.  i  (which  is  not  included  by  Ewald  in  his  instances 
pf  the  apocopated  plural),  but  for  the  other  passages  quoted  above. 
Bishop  Lowth  writes,  '[There  is  in  all  such  cases]  a  mistake  of 
the  transcribers,  by  not  observing  a  small  stroke,  which  in  many 
MSS.  is  made  to  supply  the  d  of  the  plural,  thus  nn-'  See  below, 
on  liii.  8. 

v.  13.  For  ^no  read  *to.  with  Hitz.  &c.  ;  comp.  Deut.  xxxii.  24. 
An  error  of  the  ear  rather  than  of  the  eye. 

v.  17.  I  have  quoted  Sept.  as  reading  D^^a  'kids,'  following 
Ewald.     But   it  is  quite   possible  that  Sept,   read  d^-o-     Dr.    Weir 


CRITICAL    AND    PHILOLOGICAL    NOTES.  1 39 

retains  Dn5  'sojourners,'  i.e.  nomad  shepherds,  comparing  2  Sam. 
iv.  3,  Jer.  XXXV.  7.  But  Dn5  really  hangs  together  with  the  unten- 
able Jewish  view  of  the  verse  as  a  promise  to  the  faithful  (Targ., 
Pesh.,  Kimchi,  and  so  Calv.,  Vitr.).  See  Buhl,  Zeitschr.  f.  kirchliche 
Wissenschaft,  1883,  pp.  231-2.  D^np  is  more  obstinate  than  Qnj. 
In  eds.  I  and  2  I  assumed  a  twofold  meaning  of  the  phrase,  in  which 
it  occurs — 'the  ruins  of  the  rich'  (Ps.  xxii.  29,  Ixxviii.  31),  and  'the 
ruins  of  (destined  for)thefatlings'  (Ps.  Ixvi.  15).  But  this  is  too  subde 
for  Isaiah,  and  I  now  follow  an  anonymous  writer  (in  the  Journal  of 
Sacred  Literature,  n.s.,  vol.  iv.,  pp.  328-343)  in  supposing  a  clerical 
error.  The  codex  primarius,  from  which  all  extant  Hebrew  MSS. 
ultimately  spring,  may  have  had  DrfDnmn — a  combination  of  two 
readings  with  different  suffixes.  Not  understanding  this,  a  scribe 
would  easily  alter  DrT'D  into  n>no.  The  remaining  correction  DimQ 
needs  no  defence. 

v.  30.  lisi  -IV.  Del.  claims  the  authority  of  the  points  for  his 
rendering,  but  the  Massoretes  (as  Buhl  has  pointed  out)  meant  us  to 
understand  '  moon  and  sun,'  as  Saadya  and  other  Jewish  scholars 
after  them  (see  Rashi  and  A.E.). 

For  the  hr.  Xey.  n''Dnu  Friedr.  Del.  compares  the  Assyr.  erpitu 
'  cloud  '  {Hebrew  and  Assyrian,  pp.  15,  20). 

VI.  6.  nSVI-  Ges.,  Hitz.,  Knob.,  Luzzatto,  render  'hot  stone' 
{Gliihstein,  pietra  infuocata),  and  refer  to  the  Eastern  custom  of 
cooking  food  on  stones  heated  in  a  fire  (comp.  i  Kings  xix.  6,  civi)- 
But  HD^n  is  not  necessarily  a  'hot  stone,'  see  Esth.  i.  6,  &c.,  and  for 
post-Biblical  Hebrew, /^^w^,  i.  7.'   (Vulg.  calculus  ;  Ewald,  Stiickstein.) 

VII.  I.  !?2»  N^i-  The  singular  is  used,  because  Pekah  is  only  an 
appendage  to  his  more  powerful  neighbour.  The  Vav  before  his 
name  is  that  of  association  (=' together  with')  ;  see  i.  13  (^,  xiii.  9, 
xlii.  5,  xlviii.  16  b,  li.  19,  and,  for  other  examples,  Ewald,  Lchrbuch  d.  h. 
Spr.,  §  339  a  (or  see  Kennedy's  transl.  of  Ewald's  Syntax), 

On  VII.  8,  9.  (See  end  of  note.)  The  corruption  of  ^SJDN 
(Asnapper)  from  '?Dj[n"i]DX  (Assurbanipal)  is  easy.  Two  letters  only 
had  become  effaced  in  the  manuscript  from  which  Ezra  iv.  9,  10 
was  copied.  Friedr.  Delitzsch,  Paradies,  p.  329,  in  adopting  this  iden- 
tification (due  to  Dr.  Haigh  ?),  remarks  that  Assurbanipal  was  the 
conqueror  of  Susa,  and  that  the  Susanchites  are  among  the  nations 
which  Asnapper  transported  to  N.  Israel  (Ezra  iv.  9,  10). 

VII.  14.  r\rh'^T\. — Dr.  Pusey  has  published  his  view  of  the  ren- 
dering and  etymology  of  nD*?!;  in  a  learned  note  to  a  university 
sermon.  See  Prophecy  of  Jesus,  &:c.,  Oxford,  1S79,  PP-  48-51-  With 
characteristic  independence,  he  boldly  defends  the  rendering  '  vir- 
gin,' and  the  connection  of  noSy  with  d'pu  'to  hide.'  His  argu- 
1  Siegfried,  review  of  I.C.A.,  m  Hilgenfelds  Zeitschrift,  1872,  p.  179. 


140  CRITICAL    AND    PHILOLOGICAL    NOTES. 

ments  are  drawn  partly  from  the  Biblical  usage  of  nn'py,  partly 
from  the  superior  suitability  which  he  attributes  to  the  native 
Hebrew  root.  He  remarks  incidentally  that  the  rendering  'young 
woman '  deprives  the  prophecy  of  its  emphasis — a  criticism  which  I  do 
not  understand,  for  would  not  the  article  prefixed  render  any  noun 
emphatic  ?  On  the  latter,  he  is  really  suggestive  ;  at  any  rate,  one  or 
two  of  the  facts  which  he  has  adduced  from  the  Arabic  lexicon  throw 
some  valuable  light  on  the  synoJty»nk  of  the  Semitic  languages.  For 
instance,  bifit  in  Arabic  (like  n3  in  Hebrew)  is  used  in  the  sense  of 
'  girl ; '  and  a  synonym  for  bint  is  habdt,  evidently  derived  from  the 
root  habaa,  'to  hide,'  and  meaning  '  a  girl  kept  in  the  tent,'  i.e.  'not 
yet  married '  (Lane,  pp.  692-3).  Dr.  Pusey,  however,  does  not  go 
so  far  as  to  include  habaa  among  the  four  roots  from  which,  he  re- 
marks, as  many  distinct  groups  of  words  signifying  'virginity'  are 
derived  ;  and  he  will  hardly  deny  that  the  Arabic  guld>/i,  '  a  young 
man,  youth,  boy,  or  male  child  '  (Lane),  is  derived  from  the  root^ah'ma, 
commonly  rendered  'coeundi  cupidus  esse,'  but  more  accurately  (for 
the  Arabic  lexicon  only  gives  the  coarsened  Arabic  usage,  not  the  fun- 
damental meaning)  '  maturus  esse.'  Dr.  Pusey  infers  that  no^U  might 
have  the  same  meaning  as  /labdt ;  I  follow  the  majority  in  inferring 
that  it  might  be  synonymous  with  g^ddinat  (fem.  of  guldm).  There 
would  be  no  objection  to  his  theory  of  the  etymology,  if  hd'pu  stood 
alone  in  the  Semitic  vocabulary,  if  d"?!;  and  D''P'l'?y,  and  the  ana- 
logues of  D7j;  and  HDpy  in  Arabic  and  Aramaic,  were  non-existent 
— if,  that  is,  riDpy  were  not  a  member  of  a  widely-spread  family  of 
words  which  require  to  be  accounted  for  in  the  same  way.  When  it 
can  be  shown  that  Aramaic  and  Arabic  had  a  root  d'?u  'to  hide,' 
Dr.  Pusey's  argument  will  gain  greatly  in  cogency.  I  admit,  of 
course,  that  the  etymology  does  not  necessarily  agree  with  the  usage 
of  a  word  (Dr.  Pusey  well  refers  to  the  Arabic  bikr,  '  a  virgin,'  but 
etymologically  only  '  a  young  woman  '),  but  I  urge  that  in  the  case  of 
Dpy  and  CD-lSy  it  does  so  agree,  and  that  the  context  of  Isa.  vii.  14 
does  not  compel  us  to  decide  that  nro^yn  has  any  but  the  etymo- 
logically correct  rendering  'the  young  woman.'  May  I,  in  conclusion, 
suggest  that  the  nuance  which  ^alima  has  accjuirod  in  Arabic  should 
not  be  confounded  with  the  fundamental  meaning  ?  It  seems  to  me 
as  if  Dr.  Pusey's  natural  aversion  to  Arabian  coarseness  has  impeded 
him  in  the  critical  use  of  the  Arabic  vocabulary. 

On  the  Biblical  usage  I  have  spoken  at  length  elsewhere.  It  so 
happens  that  the  context  of  the  other  passages  where  no'py  occurs 
(Ps.  Ixviii.  26,  I  Chr.  xv.  20  are  hardly  exceptions)  favours  a  reference 
to  an  unmarried  woman.  But  this  proves  nothing  with  regard  to  our 
passage,  the  context  being  indecisive.     With  regard  to  the  versions. 


CRITICAL    AND    PHILOLOGICAL    NOTES.  I4I 

we  have  no  ground  for  pressing  the  Sept.  rendering  17  irapOivo^  (comp. 
Pesh.  Fthidta),  which  may  of  course  be  used  loosely  like  virgo  (comp. 
Gen.  xxiv.  55,  where  it  is  the  Sept.  rend,  of  -iy:jn)-  The  d7roKpu<^os 
of  Aquila,  Gen.  xxiv.  43,  may  be  safely  disregarded.  Critical  ety- 
mologies were  not  the  forte  of  the  Jews  or  their  pupils.  Delitzsch 
remarks  with  laconic  positiveness,  '  The  assertion  of  Jerome,  Hebra- 
icum  HD^y  mcnquam  nisi  de  virgine  scribittir,  significat  enim  puellam 
virginem  absconditam,  defended  by  Vercellone  in  a  lengthy  lecture,  is 
untenable'  {/esaia,  ed.  3,  p.  115,  note  3). 

VII.  15.  inun'?.  Lit.  'towards  his  knowing,'  i.e.,  about  the  time  of 
his  knowing.  Comp.  Judg.  xx.  10  DKU^  '  when  they  shall  come.'  No 
other  rendering  suits  the  context. 

VII.  25.  'iii  nST  HDE^  Sinn-x"?.  The  rendering  of  Vitr.  and  Ew. 
is  variously  explained  (according  to  Ew.,  '  there  is  not  even  the  fear 
of  thorns,  for  they  are  allowed  to  grow  up  anywhere  undisturbed, 
which  is  very  unnatural);  but  in  any  case  the  contrast  between  the 
present  renunciation  of  agriculture  and  the  past  careful  pursuance 
of  it  is  entirely  lost.  The  construction  preferred  is  not  indeed  free 
from  awkwardness  (nx^*p  would  have  been  simpler)  ;  but  it  is  the 
fault,  not  of  Isaiah,  but  of  the  early  editor  of  chap.  vii.  (see  vol.  i. 

P-  42). 

VIII.  2.  Read  ni^yn-     Comp.  Ezek.  v.  2,  pnx  for  pnn. 

VIII.  9.  inni  has  been  repeated  accidentally  from  the  second 
verse-half  (Gratz). 

VIII.  15.  D3.  Most  critics  render  Dn  '  among  them,'  which  is  weak 
in  itself,  and  leaves  the  verse  rather  isolated.  I  prefer,  with  Ges.  and 
Hitz.,  to  attach  the  word  to  the  verb  (comp.  Jer.  vi.  21,  xlvi.  12).  The 
plural  is  however  less  natural  than  the  singular  (for  the  '  stone  '  and 
the  '  rock  '  are  but  one),  and  I  therefore  adopt  Prof  de  Goeje's  sugges- 
tion {Revue  critique,  May  8,  1875)  to  point  D3,  and  explain  on  the 
analogy  of  liii.  8  (see  below),  em  being  in  all  probability  a  Phoenicio- 
Hebrew  pronominal  suffix  form  for  the  3rd  pers.  masc.  sing. 

VIII.  19.  Sept.  renders  the  last  clause  of  this  verse,  rt  iK^rjrovo-i 
Trepl  Twv  CwvTwv  Tovs  veKpovs;  Did  Sept.  read  t^m^-nD?  or  are  the 
first  two  words  simply  an  interpretation  ? 

viii.  19  b.  We  might  also  bridge  over  the  two  parts  of  the  verse 
by  supplying  mentally,  '  then  answer  ye,'  comp.  Ps.  viii.  3,  4.  In 
/.  C.  A.  the  difficult  phrase  '  their  gods '  was  explained,  '  the 
spirits  of  the  departed  national  heroes,'  comp.  i  Sam.  xxviii.  13. 
According  to  this  view,  endorsed  by  Prof  J.  E.  Carpenter  {Modern 
JReview,]2.n.  1881,  p.  13),  and  proposed  afresh  by  Dr.  Buhl,  'the 
necromancers  and  wizards  had  their  eager  crowds  of  followers,  who 
proclaimed  that  nothing  was  more  natural  than  that  the  people  should 


142  CRITICAL    AND    PHILOLOGICAL    NOTES. 

have  resort  to  their  Elohim,  the  living  consult  the  dead.'  The  pro- 
phet attempts  to  open  their  eyes  by  placing  their  words  in  a  context 
which  reveals  their  absurdity.  I  find  in  my  own  copy  of  /.  C.  A.  this 
manuscript  criticism  upon  myself,  '  But  would  the  ghosts  be  called 
"  their  gods  "  ?  Elohim  they  might  be,  but  the  personal  pronoun 
surely  makes  the  relation  too  intimate.'  In  any  case,  we  must  not 
illustrate  the  passage  by  xxviii.  15. 

VIII.  21.  Dean  Perowne,  a  little  differently,  '  If  they  shall  not 
speak  according  to  this  word,  when  they  have  no  dawn  of  light,  [if 
they  shall  still  refuse  God's  revelation,]  then  {v.  21)  they  shall  pass 
along,' &c.  {Ser/nons,  p.  376.)  But  v.  21  reads  rather  like  a  continua- 
tion than  as  the  apodosis  of  a  sentence. 

VIII.  22.  rn:o  n'pSXI-  The  sense  'spread  abroad,'  based  only 
upon  Arab.  ?iadaha,  seems  precarious  ;  but  '  driven  (upon  him) '  is 
fairly  supported  by  2  Sam.  xv.  14,  Deut.  xx.  19  (Naeg.Jt  m^D  must 
be  explained  as  in  apposition,  '  caligo — propulsum.'  The  alternative 
rend.,  'he  is  thrust  into  darkness  '  (comp.,  with  Rashi,  Jer.  xxiii.  12) 
spoils  the  parallelism.  Sept.  renders  by  guess,  koI  (rK6To<;  wcrre  fxr} 
/JAeVeiv.     The  text  seems  doubtful. 

viii.  21,  22.  The  transposition  of  these  verses  is  made  (on  the 
analogy  of  many  similar  cases  in  the  Sept.  and  elsewhere)  in  order  to 
soften  the  transition  to  ix.  i.  The  mere  difficulty  of  the  proleptic 
ellipsis  of  the  noun  to  which  the  pronoun  in  n2  refers,  is  not  great  ; 
comp.  (with  Del.  on  Hab.  i.  5)  xiii.  2,  Dr}^  =  '»::'1po'?  ;  Job  vi.  29, 
n3='':iti^'?3;  Ps.  ix.  13,  DniN,  viz.  o^jy. 

On  VIII.  22,  ix.  1-7  comp.  Selwyn's  /force  Hebraicce  (Cambr. 
i860),  pp.  5-130. 

IX.  I.  nittbi-  Most  recent  critics  (not  however  Hitzig  and  Nol- 
deke ')  have  followed  Ewald  and  Olshausen  in  abandoning  the 
traditional  interpretation  'shadow  of  death.'  It  is  certainly  plausible 
to  point  n-1DV>*,  thus  assimilating  the  word  to  a  large  class  of  ab- 
stract nouns.  On  the  other  hand,  let  it  be  remembered  (i)  that 
Hebrew  does  possess  both  real  and  virtual  compounds  (comp.  the 
proper  names  ri.)pivn.  '  death's  court '  and  niDTy  '  strong  is  death,' 
also  "PS?-^?  'naughtiness,'  n;'?S^O  'Jah's  darkness,'  n;!J;inr7^C'  'Jah's 
flame  "^),  and  (2)  that  in  Job  xxxviii.  17  niO^V  is  undoubtedly  used  as 
a  parallel  to  Death  or  Hades.  My  own  view  is  that  the  original  pro- 
nunciation was  niD^V,  and  the  original  meaning  '  blackness '  or 
'  darkness,'  but  that,  as  no  other  offshoot  of  the  same  stem  had  sur- 

1  See  Hitzig  on  Isa.  ix.  i,  Ps.  xxiii.  4,  Job  iii.  5,  and  Nbldeke  in  Getting,  gelehrte 
Anseigen,  1867,  Bd.  i.,  p.  456.  It  is  worth  adding  that  Prof.  Noldeke  has  seen  no 
reason  to  change  his  opinion. 

■i  On  Semitic  compounds,  see  Delitzsch.  \Jesurvn,  p.  232  &c.,  Phihppi,  Wesen 
u.  Ursprvng  des  St.  Constr.  im  Hebr.,  p.  49  &c.,  and  on  the  two  last  named  (which 
are  contested  by  Ewald  and  Olshausen).  comp.  Geiger,  Urschrift,  p.  276. 


CRITICAL    AND    PHILOLOGICAL    NOTES.  1 43 

vived  in  Hebrew,  the  word  passed  into  disuse,  till  Amos  (v.  8)  and 
Isaiah  (ix.  i)  revived  it.  They  and  other  religious  writers  needed 
this  fresh  word  to  express  '  deep  gloom,'  and  assumed  a  didactic  ety- 
mology (as  was  done  for  other  words,  e.g.,  nK'.  D"IX)  and  probably 
^)2ii)  from  7^  and  n.ip.  The  author  or  authors  of  Job  had  a  special 
predilection  for  the  word  ;  ten  of  the  seventeen  passages  in  which 
the  word  is  found  occur  in  that  poem.  I  argue  upwards  from  Job 
xxxviii.  17,  where  the  sense  'deadly  shade'  seems  required,  but  I 
think  that  several  other  passages  gain  by  supposing  an  allusion  to  the 
darkness  of  Hades.  I  do  not  include  amoiig  these  Ps.  xxiii.  4, 
where  '  the  valley  '  referred  to  seems  to  me  Hades  itself.  The  stem 
D^V  '  to  be  dark'  is  proved  to  be  an  old  Semitic  root  by  its  occurrence 
in  Assyrian;  see  Schrader,  X.  A.  T.,  ed.  2,  pp.  515,  581  ;  Sayce, 
T.  S.  B.  A.,  iii.  169.  The  view  adopted  in  Miihlau  and  Volck's 
Gesenius,  according  to  which  n-1D7V  and  p7>'  '  shade  '  are  connected 
together,  must  be  erroneous,  as  th'i  never  means  '  shade,'  but  always 
(even  Ps.  xxxix.  7,  Ixxiii.  20)  'an  image,'  from  c'p^f  'to  cut  out.' 

IX.  3  [2].  '1J1  [i*?]  N^  iijn-  Selwyn  conjectures  !?^5n,  Krochmal  better 
n7''|n  (Ixv.  18).  If  we  follow  the  K'ri,  we  must  explain  the  position 
of  the  pronoun,  not  as  emphatic  (as  perhaps  in  Ixiii.  9),  but  as  eu- 
phonic (as  xliii.  22,  see  commentary). 

IX.  4.  jXD  |ii«D-  'D  is  an  Aramaism  adopted  into  Hebrew  and 
Ethiopic.  The  Syriac  denominative  verb  in  Pael  is  the  rend,  of 
vTToSeoixat  in  Pesh.  Acts  xii.  8,  but  the  Hebrew  of  course  may  mean 
'to  go  about  shod,'  or  (to  omit  the  context)  'to  stamp.'  The  Pesh. 
translator  confounded  pxo  with  jINti'  (comp.  Rashi).  The  Sept. 
thought  of  Syr.  zaind  '  armour '  {o-roXy])  ;  '  shoe '  seems  due  to  R. 
Joseph  Kimchi  (see  his  son's  Book  0/  Roots).  The  Targ.  and  Vulg. 
have  still  worse  guesses. 

:^'u")a•     Most  render  'in  the  tumult  (of  battle),'  but  the 

parallelism  leads  us  to  expect  a  qualification  of  the  participle,  and 
this  produces  a  grander  description. 

IX.  6.  nn"iD^-  Lagarde  {Semitica,  i.  17)  regards  the  n^  as  a 
fragment  of  a  half-illegible  word  in  the  MS.  from  which  the  scribe 
was  copying.  Why  should  it  not  be  a  case  of  StxToypa^ta,  di'pK^ 
having  been  first  of  all  written  '  defectively  '  d^K'  ?  The  verse  would 
then  run  more  smoothly.  '  Increased  (pointing,  nan)  is  the  govern- 
ment, and  peace  hath  no  end,'  &c.  (So  Gratz,  Geschichte,  ii.  i,  p. 
223.)  {j\'Z'yo  is  no  doubt  an  Isaianic  word,  see  xxxiii.  23,  but  we  have 
to  account  for  the  D  clausum^ 

IX.  8.  "in^n  might  also  be  taken  in  the  sense  of  '  a  thing '  as 
I  Sam.  xiv.  12),  i.e.,  in  this  case,  an  evil  thing.  So  Nestle  {Theology 
Literaturzeitung,  1878). 


144  CRITICAL   AND    PHILOLOGICAL    NOTES. 

IX.   lo.  n^*.  Hitzig  (on  Job  XXX.  13)  conjectures '•^Ty  'helpers.' 
IX.   16.  Read  HDD''  ah  with   Lagarde.     nOD  is  an  Isaianic  word 
(xxxi.  5).     True,  the  litotes  in  the  text  may  be  supported  by  Eccles. 
iv.  16.     But  it  gives  a  poor  parallel  to  om"'  ah- 

IX.  18.  I'lN  DDyJ-  The  sense  is  clearly  given  by  crvyK€KavTai  (Sept.)  ; 
whether  the  Arab.  'Jwa  '  to  glow  with  heat,'  'a///i  '  stifling  heat,'  may 
be  compared,  is  a  question  [which  Prof.  R.  Smith  has  finally  settled 
in  the  negative].  Ccmp.  below,  on  xi.  15.  Krochmal  corrects 
psn  nn^'j. 

IX.  19.   ~ITJ.  I.  to  cut  up  (meat) ;  2.  to  devour  :  cf.  Arab,  jaraza. 

X.  4.  Prof,  de  Lagarde  (letter  in  Academy,  Dec.  15,  1870)  pro- 
poses to  read  "i^px  nn  njznb  *ri^3  *  Beltis  stoops,  Osiris  is  con- 
founded ; '  comp.  xlvi.  i,  Jer.  1.  2.  Lagarde  thinks  that  Beltis 
(Ti^un)  ^i^d  Osiris  were  worshipped  by  some  of  the  Judahites.  There 
is,  it  is  true,  abundant  evidence  ^  of  the  worship  of  Beltis  in  Syria 
at  a  later  time  ;  but  early  testimony  seems  to  be  wholly  wanting, 
unless  with  Geiger  we  point  ^n?^?  in  2  Kings  xxiii.  10  (comp.  v.  7 
m"L^•N'?  DTi^)-^  The  form  again  is  doubtful.  If  the  deity  intended 
be  the  Babylonian  BiUt,  the  form  (as  Mr.  Sayce  points  out  to  me) 
should  be  •in'?2-  In  later  Phoenician,  the  form  was  certainly  rhv^ 
(see  de  Vogue's  Stele  de  Yehaiumelek,  p.  8),  and  the  Graecised 
BaaXxts  is  from  n^y3,  not  TlSya  (Schlottmann  ;  Schroder).  Still  less 
is  there  any  evidence  that  Osiris  Avas  ever  a  popular  deity  in  Palestine. 
True,  Usir  (Osiris)  has  been  found  in  one  Phoenician  and  in  one 
Cyprio-Phcenician  proper  name  (see  Corp.  I?iscr.  Sefnit.,  i.  68, 
inscr.  46).  It  may  perhaps  be  that  Assir,  in  Ex.  vi.  24,  should  be 
Osir  (comp.  Hur,  Ex.  xvii.  10,  probably =Horus),  and  that  Anion, 
the  son  of  king  Manasseh,  is  the  same  as  the  Egyptian  Amen  (=Ra, 
the  sun-god).  Mosheh  is  no  doubt  Mesa  ('  child  '  or  '  son,'  a  common 
proper  name  under  the  Middle  Empire);  Pinehas  may  be  'the  negro  ' 
(so  Lauth  and  Brugsch);  Ahi-ra  (Num.  i.  15)  and  Putiel  (Ex.  vi.  25) 
may  be  half-Egyptian  ;  for  the  last  comp.  the  Pet-Baal  mentioned  by 
Brugsch. 3  Still  the.  general  result  of  Old  Testament  study  is  to 
reduce  Egyptian  influence  on  the  Israelites  within  very  narrow  dimen- 
sions. A  sporadic  reverence  for  either  Osiris  or  Beltis  would  surely 
not  have  been  referred  to  in  this  context  and  in  these  terms. — The 
case  is  not  much  improved  if  with  Geiger ''  we  take  the  Beltis  in 
Lagarde's  proposed  reading  as  a  symbol  of  Babylon,  and  Osiris  of 
Egypt.     The  fugitive  Judahites  would  never  think  of  taking  refuge  in 

'  See  Lagarde's  note  in  Semitira,  Heft  i  ;  Payne  Smith,  Thesaurus,  p.  519  (Bilati 
or  Belati  -  the  planet  Venus  in  .Syriac). 

-  jfihiische  Z.eitsi hri/t,  ii.  259.  This  view  is  very  questionable;  Jer.  xxxii.  35  en- 
titles us  to  expect  Baal  and  not  Beltis. 

3  Putiel  is  thus  explained  by  Mr.  TomVins,  in  '  Biblical  Proper  Names  Illustrated,' 
&c.,   Viiioria  Institute  Transactions,  vol.  xvi.  1882. 

*  JUdiscke  Zeitsihrift,  ix.  119. 


CRITICAL    AND    PHILOLOGICAL    NOTES.  1 45 

Assyria,  when  the  Assyrians  had  but  just  ravaged  Gilead  and  Naphtali 
(ix.  I,  2  Kings  xv.  29).!  Prof,  de  Lagarde's  ingenious  conjecture 
must  therefore  on  various  grounds  be  decidedly  rejected.  Gladly 
would  we  learn  more  of  the  popular  religion  of  Palestine,  but  we 
must  not  read  our  own  fancies  into  the  scanty  records  at  our  disposal. 
(Sept.  seems  to  have  had  a  mutilated  Hebrew  text  ;  it  renders  by 
Tov  fjLT]  e/ATTCcretv  ci9  diraytjjyTJv.) 

X.  5  k  Prof.  Driver's  note  on  this  passage  {Hebrew  Tenses,  §  201, 
I  obs.)  should  be  consulted  ;  he  understands  sin  as  an  imperfect 
anticipation  of  the  subject,  comp.  Ezek.  xi.  15  end.  So  Del.  This 
is  possible,  though  the  construction  is,  I  think,  a  blot  on  a  fine  pas- 
sage. There  is  no  various  reading  of  moment  in  the  MSS.,  but 
Sept.  omits  j^in  nt3».  Hitz.,  Ew.  (ed.  i),  and  Diestel  omit  Dl^n  tJin 
as  an  intrusive  marginal  gloss  (comp.  v.  24),  but  this  leaves  the 
clause  too  short.     Seeker  (in  Lowth)  plausibly  corrects  DV?. 

X.  13.  nnixi  .  .  T'DSI.  Hitzig  and  Dr.  Kay  regard  this  as  the 
imperfect  of  hai)it  ('  I  am  wont  to  .  .  . '),  but  this  hardly  suits  the 
context ;  Ewald  (so  Prof.  Driver,  Hebrew  Tenses,  §§  83,  84),  as  a  vivid 
way  of  representing  past  events  as  in  course  of  happening,  but  yet 
without  implying  at  the  same  time  the  idea  of  sequence  or  causation. 
The  '  tense '  is  singularly  appropriate  here,  as  it  is  the  one  which 
the  Assyrian  kings,  for  the  same  reason  as  Isaiah  here,  habitually  use 
in  their  inscriptions.     Comp.  on  xii.  i. 

X.  18.  DDJ  Dbp5.  A  singular  phrase;  can  it  be  correct  ?  DDD  occurs 
nowhere  else  in  Kal,  and  though  Dpi  and  DpJnn  are  found  in  three 
other  places  (lix.  19,  Zech.  ix.  16,  Ps.  Ix.  6),  none  of  them  seem  to 
illustrate  our  passage.  'It  is  easier,'  as  Dr.  Weir  remarks,  'to  find 
objections  to  all  the  various  renderings  which  have  been  proposed, 
than  to  say  which  is  the  true  one.  The  ancient  versions  give  very 
little  assistance.'  He  suggests,  however  (in  which  I  do  not  agrep), 
that  some  light  is  thrown  upon  the  passage  by  xxxi,  8,  9. 

x.  22.  I  take  y\-\n  as  qualifying  |v'?3- 

X.  25.  Luzzatto  and  Krochmal  read  Dh;  ^^n'^y  ;  but,  as  Diestel 
remarks,  the  next  stage  was  to  be,  not  the  cessation  of  Jehovah's 
anger  against  Assyria,  but  its  manifestation  on  a  larger  scale.  The 
*  indignation  '  spoken  of  in  the  opening  words  was  the  judgment 
upon  Judah  (comp.  v.  12). 

On  X.  27,  28.  Prof.  Robertson  Smith  offers  a  very  tempting 
emendation  of  the  four  corrupt  words  which  close  v.  27,  viz. 
'^'ip  J'1D>*P  Thv  :  'pnnv  (See  below.)  His  argument  is  elaborate,  and 
is  connected  with  an  interesting  explanation  of  the  mention  of  Migron, 
which  has  puzzled  some  critics. 

1   Hitzig  in  Hilgenteld  s  ZciLuhrift,  xv.  228. 
VOL.    II.  L 


146  CRITICAL    AND    rilTLOLOGICAL    NOTES. 

From  his  article  in  the  Journal  of  Philology,  1884,  I  venture  to 
quote  the  following  interesting  suggestions.  '  There  is  a  good  reason 
why  the  description  should  begin  here,  for  in  the  8th  century,  as  in 
the  time  of  Saul,  the  pass  of  Michmash  was  no  doubt  the  frontier  of 
the  land  of  Benjamin.  An  advance  upon  this  pass  must  necessarily 
take  place  by  the  road  leading  down  from  Der  Diwan  (Ai,  or  Aiath); 
and  .  .  .  the  arrival  at  Ai  and  the  formation  of  the  army  on  the 
rolling  plateau  between  that  point  and  the  village  of  Michmash 
would  be  the  first  thing  visible  to  watchmen  at  Geba  or  Gibeah. 
The  exact  nature  of  the  operations  described  depends  on  the  loca- 
lisation of  Migron.  I  think  it  easiest  to  suppose  that  this  is  the 
same  place  as  the  Migron  which  appears  in  i  Sam.  xiv.  2  as  the 
furthest  outpost  of  Saul's  position  at  Gibeah.  .  .  .  Saul  held  Migron 
to  check  a  further  southward  advance  of  the  Philistines.  It  lay 
south  of  the  pass  ;  but  this  is  the  situation  which  fits  our  text  best. 
The  Assyrians  would  not  attempt  so  dangerous  an  operation  as  the 
crossing  the  pass  of  Michmash  with  their  whole  army  without  first 
seizing  a  point  on  the  other  side,  and  Migron  .  .  would  be  the  very 
point  to  secure.  Moreover  the  advance  from  Ai  to  the  village  of 
Michmash  is  a  mere  promenade  of  two  or  three  miles  by  an  easy 
road  through  country  not  held  by  the  Judaeans,  so  that  to  i)lace 
Migron  on  this  line  and  say  "  He  has  passed  by  Migron  "  would 
have  little  force.  I  take  n  "iny  =  '?U  inu  with  n  in  its  frequent  usage 
after  verbs  of  attacking,  and  explain,  "  He  has  arrived  at  Aiath,  he 
has  fallen  on  Migron,"  i.e.  has  taken  Migron  by  a  coj/p-de-f/iaui. 
The  passage  thus  secured,  the  heavy  baggage  is  left  on  the  northern 
side  of  the  pass  at  the  village  of  Michmash,  and  the  army  defiles 
through  the  ravine.'  Prof.  Smith  confirms  his  emendation  'iji  rhv  by 
the  remark,  'No  small  place  on  the  road  beyond  Ai  would  be  visible 
from  the  Juda^an  watch-towers,  or  could  properly  come  into  the 
prophet's  vivid  description.  Beyond  Ai  the  description  must  fall 
into  generalities,'  and  he  compares  for  pavD  xiv.  31,  Jer.  i.  14,  &c. 

With  regard  to  the  reading  o{  v.  27,  a  second  verb  in  the  second 
clause  is  certainly  wanted,  and  the  comparison  of  xiv.  25  is  greatly  in 
point.  The  Septuagint  version  evidently  contains  duplicate  render- 
ings, and  the  better  one  is  koX  KaTacfyOap-^trcTaL  6  t,vy(><s  drro  Twv  u>fXix)v 
vfj-Cju.  For  Prof  Smith's  correction  ^nn"*  he  compares  Job  vii.  16. 
The  whole  passage  now  runs,  -^oy^  ^u»  "hlD  11D^  Ninn  DV3  n-ni 

X,  33.  rrnXB.  Gesenius's  explanation,  adopted  in  my  translation 
and  also  by  Del.,  '  foliage,  lit.  glory,'  seems  not  to  suit  the  passages 
(six  in  Ezekiel),  in  wliich  nnNS  occurs  in  the  plural.  The  several 
branches  would  not  naturally  each  be  called  the  '  glory  '  of  a  tree. 
Better,  therefore,  to   derive  the  word   from   the  xooi  far  'to  break 


CRITICAL    AND    PHILOLOGICAL    NOTES.  1 47 

forth,'  and  render  '  bough  '  (see  Ezek.  xvii.  6),  or  collectively 
'  boughs.' 

XI.  3.  '2  innnv  The  phrase  is  withouc  a  parallel,  and,  as  Bickell 
has  pointed  out,  has  arisen  out  of  a  corrupt  repetition  of  the  pre- 
ceding words. 

XI.  4.  For  the  second  ps  read  |*nj;  with  Krochmal  and  Lagarde. 

XI.  7.  Laiiarde  would  read  n3''i;"inn. 

XI.  II.  D\T'''XDV  The  fact  that  qi^x  and  Q^ri  ^''X  are  specially 
characteristic  of  chaps,  xl.-lxvi.,  renders  it  a  little  doubtful  whether 
Isaiah  himself  wrote  the  latter  phrase  in  this  verse,  which,  indeed, 
seems  complete  without  it.  It  is  possibly  due  to  one  of  the  Soferim 
or  Scripturists  (see  Essay  vi.),  who  have  so  often  supplemented  the 
records  of  prophecy.  The  earliest  absolutely  certain  occurrences  of 
D^X  are  in  Jer.  ii.  10,  xxxi.  10.  Would  Isaiah  have  used  Dnn  '•"•X  as  a 
technical  phrase  in  but  one  passage  of  his  '  occasional  prophecies  '  ? 

riDHDV    May  we  go  further  still,  and  regard  this,  too,  as  a 

later  addition,  taking  njDH  as  =  ^riDHX  (Ecbatana),  a  form  which 
only  occurs  once  (Ezra  vi.  2)? 

XI.  15.  D^yn.  Read  Dpf  with  Ges.  (T/iesaurm),  Luz.,  and 
Kr.,  ".  and  v  being  easily  confounded  in  the  earlier  stages  of  the 
alphabetic  characters.  So  perhaps  Sept.,  Pesh.,  Vulg.,  though  their 
renderings  may  be  mere  guesswork  (comp.  Kimchi).  To  call  in  the 
aid  of  the  Arabic  in  this  exceedingly  plain  piece  of  Hebrew  seems 
very  dubious. 

XII.  I.  ':Dn:r^)  .  .  ab*'^-  Prof  Driver  suggests  >  that  this  may  be 
taken  as  a  prayer  ('  May  thine  anger  turn,'  &c.),  comp.  Ps.  Ixxxv.  5 
with  2-4,  and  cxxvi.  4  with  1-3.  To  me  this  does  not  seem  natural, 
as  the  next  verse  is  entirely  in  the  strain  of  thanksgiving.  I  would 
not,  however,  assert  that  -1  is  to  be  understood,  but  rather  that  the 
construction  with  the  imperfect,  in  poetic  Hebrew  as  in  epigraphic 
Assyrian,  is  a  vivid,  emotional  way  of  representing  even  past  events 
as  in  course  of  happening  (comp.  on  x.  13).  Whether  another  im- 
perfect with  simple  Vav  follows,  makes  no  difference  (see  on  the 
other  hand  Delitzsch,  whose  references,  however,  scarcely  prove  his 
case). 

XII.  2.  mn''  n^  npTI.  The  termination  n^  is  not  here  a  poetic 
or  archaic  form,  but  a  flexional  form  of  the  feminine  n  ;  in  fact  it 
stands  for  ^n^  by  an  Aramaizing  apocope  of  the  suffix,  "^and  so  also 
in  Ex.  XV.  2,  Ps.  cxviii.  14.  AVhy  this  apocopated  form  was  preferred, 
is  a  question  variously  answered.  'It  \?, possible,'  thinks  Prof.  Driver 
(following  Bottcher,  i.  241),  'that  the  older  language,  dispensing 
with  superfluous  letters,  intended  the  >  of  the  next  word  to  do  double 

1  Hebrew  Tenses,  ed.  2,  p.  261,  note  '. 

I-  2 


148  CRITICAL    AND    PHILOLOGICAL    NOTES. 

duty,  so  that  the  whole  would  read  n*rincn?'  Geiger,  however,  gives 
a  bolder  and  a  more  satisfactory  explanation.^  It  is  well  known  that 
the  later  Jews  (even  in  the  times  of  the  Septuagint)  scrupled  to 
])ronounce  the  Tetragrammaton,  and  it  is  natural  that  the  same 
scruple  (I  speak  of  pre-Massoretic  times)  should  have  prevented  the 
l)ronunciati6n  of  the  shorter  form  also.  How  could  this  be  avoided  ? 
By  connecting  the  syllable  n»  (wherever  the  sense  appeared  to  allow  it) 
very  closely  with  the  preceding  word,  and  slurring  it  over,  so  that  the 
hearer  was  not  conscious  of  hearing  the  Divine  name.  Hence  in 
Ex.  XV.  2,  the  Samaritan  Pentateuch  reads  rTTnon  as  one  word,  and 
Sept.  translates  or  paraphrases  there  ^orjBo?  koI  o-KCTrao-r^?  eycVcro. 
The  later  versions,  however,  express  the  n^^  and  it  is  in  accordance 
with  this  later  abatement  of  scrupulousness  that  the  Massoretic  text 
of  Isa.  xii.  2  introduces  ninv  It  was  apparently  still  the  custom 
among  some  public  readers  of  the  Scriptures  to  let  the  n*  be  slurred 
over  and  absorbed  in  the  preceding  word,  and  to  make  the  true 
sense  quite  clear  the  Massoretic  critics  inserted  the  full  name  t])^'' 
(only  here  however,  not  in  Ex.  xv.  2,  nor  in  Ps.  cxviii.  14).  (The 
case  is  much  stronger  than  can  be  shown  in  this  condensed  note. 
Nor  can  inconsistencies  on  the  part  of  the  Massoretes  be  pleaded 
against  Geiger's  view  ;  perfect  consistency  is  not  a  virtue  even  of 
those  laborious  critics.) 

XIII.  6.  ''T^.  I  now  see  from  Friedr.  Del.  {T/ie  Heh-ew  Lan- 
guage, &:c.  p.  48)  that  in  an  Assyrian  list  of  synonyms  ( W.  A.  I., 
v.  28,  82  h)  sadii  is  explained  as  a  synonym  of  saku,  '  to  be  high,' 
and  the  next  line  contains  the  equation  of  sadu  and  gabhon,  '  moun- 
tain.' Del.  also  quotes  the  i)hrase,  Bil  sadu  rahu,  '  Bel  the  great 
rock,'  and  '//u-sadu'a,  'God  (is)  my  rock.'  If  Shaddai  once  meant 
'  rock,'  it  must  have  been  forgotten  when  the  proper  name  ("//;-/- 
shaddai  (Num.  i.  6,  &c.)  was  framed.  More  probably  it  meant 
'high,'  or  'high  as  a  rock'  (intensive  form  from  rn^-)  These  are 
not  too  bold  conjectures  (comp.  Gen.  xlix.  24,  Deut.  xxxii.  18,  30, 
&c.)  When  the  origin  had  been  forgotten,  it  was  natural  for  the 
prophetic  writers  to  invent  a  connection  with  •y\^. 

XIII.  21,  22.  Q>iv  .  .  C3>''X.  Bochart  compares  for  the  former 
Arab,  daiwayr,  *a  wildcat,'  and  for  the  latter //;«  mva,  'a  jackal' 
But  if  the  latter  word  is  strictly  'a  howler,'  it  will  equally  well  suit 
the  hysna  (elsewhere  called  ynv  or  yi3>*). 

XIII.  21.  D''ns  'jackals.'  The  oldest  Babylonian  texts  refer  to 
an  animal  called  lik-barrn,  who  'goes  forth  to  seize  the  sheep,'  and 
this  word  lik-harra  (literally,  evil  or  wild  dog)  is  translated  in  the 
bilingual  lists  by  the  Assyrian  a-khu.  Mr.  Houghton  acutely  com- 
bined this  a-kku  with  the  Hebrew  'okhini  (plur.),  only  he  mistrans- 
lated the  Accadian  'striped  dog,'  as  if  =  'hynena.'     See  Friedr.  Del., 

'  Urschrift  mid  Ucbcrsetzungeti  dcr  Bibel,  pp.  274-8. 


CRITICAL    AND    PHILOLOGICAL    NOTES.  149 

The  Hebrew  Language  vietved  in  the  light  of  Assyrian  Research,  p.  34, 
Hommel,   Die  semitischen    Volker,   p.  404,  Houghton,    T.  S.  B.  A., 

V.  328. 

XIII.  22.  D^3n   'wolves'?  Cf.  Arab. //V?^;/,  '  a  wolf.' 

XIV.  6.  Read  n^lP  (^  and  n  confounded,  as  in  2  Kings  x.  32, 
where  read,  with  Targ.,  Hitz.,  ^yi'^% 

XIV.  21.  Dnu.  To  the  question,  '  Why  should  cities  be  denounced 
so  unqualifiedly?'  (vol.  i.  p.  93),  Dr.  Weir  replies  by  referring  to  the 
view  of  the  antitheistic  origin  of  Babylon  given  in  Gen.  xi.  ;  how  in- 
genious, but  how  far-fetched  !  Ibn  Ezra,  adopting  Targ.'s  rendering 
'enemies,'  compares  i  Sam.  xxviii.  16,  where,  however,  Sept.'s  read- 
ing is  now  generally  adopted.  (See  Q.  P.  B.)  With  some  hesitation 
I  read  D"-?!?  ;  a  similar  correction  is  necessary  in  xxiv.  15,  Ps.  Ixxii.  9, 
Jer.  xlix.  3.     (For  other  slight  errors  in  this  section,   see  xiii.    22, 

xiv.  4,  6.) 

XIV.  22.  |0.  Comp.  Assyrian  tiinu  'family'  (Friedr.  Dehtzsch, 
Assyrische    Studien,   i.    20).     So  perhaps  Ps.   Ixxiv.    8,   D3^3=' their 

family.' 

XIV.  23.  n'Qi?.  This  name  probably  came  to  the  bittern  from 
its  habit  of  erecting  or  bristling  out  the  long  feathers  of  the  neck, 
reminding  one  of  the  spines  of  the  porcupine  or  hedgehog.  In 
Arabic,  Syriac,  and  Ethiopic,  the  cognates  actually  mean  the  hedge- 
hog ;  in  Talmudic  the  usage  is  uncertain.  The  variety  of  meaning 
reminds  one  of  parallel  cases  in  the  Semitic  zoological  vocabulary  (see 
on  xxxiv,  7,  and  above  on  xxxv.  i). 

XIV.  30.  ni33.  Hupfeld,  on  Ps.  xxxvii.  20,  suggests  ns?,  comp. 
nn,  V.  25.     13  is  an  Isaianic  word  (see  xxx.  23). 

'' j-iP,v     'Shall  he  slay.'     From  a  Semitic  point  of  view,  a 

verb  is  never  used  impersonally.  If  there  is  no  other  subject,  the 
'  nomen  agentis '  of  the  verb  is  always  either  expressed  or,  as  here, 
implied.  But  who  is  '  the  slayer  '  in  this  passage  ?  Not  Jehovah, 
for  he  is  the  speaker,  but  the  enemy  who  is  Jehovah's  'rod' 
(x.  5).     (Comp.  Hos.    vi.  n,  and  Wiinsche's  note,  to  which  I  am 

indebted.) 

XV.  I.  hh-  If  the  pointing  is  correct,  this  must  be  a  collateral 
form  of  hh  (it  occurs  again  in  xxi.  11,  but  in  pause).  It  is  interest- 
ing that  it  should  occur  in  a  Moabite  inscription  (on  the  stele  of 
Mesha,  1.  15,  we  have  nVb  ballclah).     Comp.  on  xxiii.  11. 

XV.  5.  Sept.  and  Targ.  both  read  3N1?dS  2^  '  the  heart  of  Moab.' 
n'^nna.  In  eds.  i  and  2  I  ventured  on  a  general  ex- 
pression of  doubt  as  to  the  correctness  of  this  word,  which  is  Avant- 
ing  in  the  parallel  passage,  Jer.  xlviii.  34.  Sept.  in  Isaiah  has  iv 
avrrj.  This  (n3np2)  may  conceivably  be  the  genuine  reading,  but 
the'view  of  the  passage  taken  by  Sept.  rather  suggests  '  from  (some 


150  CRITICAL    AND    PHILOLOGICAL    NOTES. 

place  unkno'.vn)  '  ;  comp.  Jer.  xlviii.  34,  where  the  verse  runs  '  from 
.  .  unto  .  .  from  .  .  unto  .  .' 

XV.  5.  -"nj;!;^  for  -liyiyN  the  only  example  of  the  dissolution  of 
a  repeated  consonant  in  a  verb.  The  analogy  of  nnyvo  for  nnv^Vn 
may  justify  it,  '  but  it  is  very  possible  that  the  text  has  been  injured ' 
(Olshausen,  Lchrlmch  der  hebr.  Sprache,  §  253).  Read  -lyp^  with 
Lagarde  and  some  earlier  scholars  (see  Ges.).  yy'l  in  two  senses 
(see  xvi.  10)  like  T]''n.  Comp.  •ly^y!'  Job  xxxix.  29,  where  Ges.  and 
Olsh.  correct  K^^h^ 

XVI.  I.  Gratz  {Geschichtc,  ii.  i.  258),  reads  'hv'\^  "13C'N*.  He  ex- 
cises V.  2,  and  connects  vv.  i  and  3. 

XVL  4.  Lagarde's  edition  of  Targ.  reads  N'''?D'?nt2=D'^m:  ;  but 
this  is  probably  not  the  original  reading— see  Geiger's  Urschrift,  p. 
300  note.  I  therefore  adhere  to  the  statement  in  vol.  i.  Comp.  the 
mispointing  in  Gen.  xlix.  26. 

XVI.  10.  ^?o-i3  'planted  or  garden  land,'  distinct  from  dvD")3 
'  vineyards.'     The  two  senses  are  united  in  the  Assyr.  karinii. 

XVI.  14.  1^33  Vi.'h-  Read  1*3DX  i*?;  comp.  viii.  23.  Hoffmann 
in  Stade's  Zeitschrift,  1883,  p.  116. 

XVII.  I.  Omit  ''yD  with  Lagarde.  The  scribe  had  TyD  in  his  head, 
and  began  to  write  it  over  again.  He  would  not  spoil  his  manuscrii)t 
by  excising  it,  and  so  it  remained  a  non-word.  See  on  xxviii.  25, 
xliii.  12,  and  Q.  P.  B.  (2nd  ed.)  on  Zech.  ii.  2,  Mai.  ii.  ir. 

XVII.  9.  TDXni  :rnnn-  In  spite  of  2  Chr.  xxvii.  4  (cited  in  Com- 
mentary) it  is  fair  to  ask  whether  '  forests  '  are  natural  places  for  for- 
tresses? Even  if  (which  is,  I  think,  justifiable)  we  accept  a  second 
meaning,  'mountain-ridge,'  for  c'ln  on  Assyriological  grounds, ^  yet 
is  it  at  all  likely  that  'T'DX  would  have  been  used  in  the  sense  of  '  the 
summit  of  a  hill '  so  near  to  v.  6,  where  it  means  '  the  top  of  a  tree  '  ? 
Sept.  renders  ov  rpoVov  KareXiTrov  ol  'Afj.oi')i'}aiOL  Koi  OL  EvaioL,  which 
suggests  nosni  Mnn  (Sept.  has  tronsi)osed  the  names).  As  Lagarde 
points  out  {Se/zu'/ira,  i.,  p.  31)  en  and  >i  look  very  similar  in  old 
Hebrew  characters,  and  might  easily  be  confounded  by  a  scribe. 
Hitzig  strangely  renders  '  like  the  desolation  of  Horesh  and  Amir,' 
comparing  Harosheth  (Judg.  iv.  2).  A  resource  of  despair  !  though 
Pesh.,  Theod.,  Saad.,  and  (for  Amir)  Aq.,  Symm.,  are  his  predecessors. 
Kocher  and  others  exjjlain,  'like  the  few  trees  left  when  a  wood  has 
been  felled,  or  the  very  top  of  a  tree  when  the  boughs  have  been 
stripped'  ;  this  might  do,  if  '  which  they  deserted  '  &c.,  could  be  ex- 

'  Tigkilh-I'ilcser  gives  the  epithet  of  i,.'/.-////  '  iiigh  '  to  k/i.irsiuti  (plur.  of  k/uinii), 
which  certainly  suits  "  mountain-top'  better  than  '  forest "  (see  passage  in  Norris  s  Ass. 
Did.  s.  v.).  I'Yiedr.  Del.  maintains  liial  *  moimtain-ridge'  is  the  invariable  meaning 
of  kliarsii,  and  claims  it  as  a  second  meaning  for  ^>--\x\[Tlic  Ihbr.  I.iUi^u^igc  &<:., 
p.  17). 


CRITICAL    AND    PHILOLOGICAL    NOTES,  151 

cised.  Is  it  possible  that  the  strange  story  in  Procopius  and  the 
Jerusalem  Talmud  of  Canaanitish  fugitives  in  Africa  (see  Ewald, 
History^  ii.  229,  230)  may  have  some  connection  with  this  passage  of 
Isaiah  ? 

On  XVII.  13.  ^hl  properly  a  whirl  (Germ.  IVirbel);  then  either  (i) 
a  wheel  (v.  28),  or  (2)  a  whirlwind  (Ps.  Ixxvii.  19,  cf.  Assyr.  guo-g/7///^ 
Syr.  galgola),  or  (3)  that  which  is  whirled,  such  as  stubble  (cf.  Chald. 
vhi,  Syr.  geld)  and  any  globe-like  parts  of  plants,  such  as  the  branches 
of  the  wild  artichoke  (Dr.  Thomson),  or  the  '  rose  of  Jericho ' 
(letters  in  Guardian,  March  1884),  both  which  have  struck  travellers 
as  natural  emblems  of  impotency,  when  chased  by  the  wind.  The 
third  sense  applies  here  and  in  Ps.  Ixxxiii.  14.  For  the  Chaldee 
usage,  cf.  Targ.  Ex.  v.  12,  and  for  the  Assyrian  cognate,  Haupt  in 
K.  A.  T.,  p.  500. 

xviii.  I.  For  ^V^JV  comp.  Arabic  sarsaru,  the  'creaking'  insect 
(Lane),  also  found  in  Assyrian  ('the  cricket,'  Friedr.  Delitzsch, 
Assyr-ische  Studien,  i.  26).  It  is  noteworthy,  however,  that  both  here 
and  in  Job  xl.  31  the  Sept.  rendering  of  ^^"^  is  ttXoIov.  On  the 
whole  phrase,  see  Notes  and  Criticisms,  p.  20  (where,  on  1.  23,  for 
'  day  '  read  '  year  ',  and  Stade,  De  Isaice  Vaticiniis  ^Ethiopicis,  v/ho 
comes  to  the  same  conclusion. 

xviii.  2.  Read  with  Stade  '\\>^p_.  The  Metheg  of  the  received 
text  no  doubt  indicates  that  they  understood  the  word  (or  words) 
somewhat  as  M'Gill  or  Delitzsch,  against  whom  see  commentary. 
Ipip  might  be  an  adjective  (like  -ii;"iy),  but  is  more  probably  a  sub- 
stantive meaning  'great  strength  '  ;  comp.  Arab,  kimnvat,  i  'robur,'  2 
'pars  quoedam  funis.' 

xviii.  7.  Read  dj;d  (comp.  parallel  clause),  with  Sept.,  Targ., 
Vulg.,  Lowth,  Knobel,  Stade.  Ges.  renders  as  I  have  done,  but 
thinks  the  second  12  is  retroactive.  This,  however,  is  not  proved  by 
Job  xxxiii.  17,  where  a  12  has  dropped  out  of  the  text  (see  Dillmann, 
ad  loc).  Ewald  reads  Dy  Dyp.  I  observe  that  Del.,  in  his  3rd  ed., 
thinks  the  text-reading  is  established  by  'parallels  like  Zeph.  iii. 
10.'  But  nny,  there,  should  be  taken  in  the  sense  of  '  sweet 
odours'  (comp.  Ezek.  viii.  11),  parallel  to  >nnj)D  ;  for  the  form  of  the 
sentence,  comp.  on  iii.  12. 

XIX.  7.  Tis''  ''2"'?y-  Del.  (on  Prov.  viii.  29)  denies  that  ns  ever 
means  the  shore,  whether  of  the  sea,  or  of  a  river,  and  in  the  third 
edition  oihis/esaia  renders  the  above  words  '  at  the  mouth  (Miindnng) 
of  the  Nile,'  i.e.  where  the  stream  approaches  the  sea.  But  the 
ordinary  view  seems  more  appropriate.  Dr.  Weir  has  '  "  by  the 
brink  of  the  river,"  i.e.  where  the  last  vestige  of  green  might  be  sure 
to  be  found.' 

XIX.   10.  In  ihe  second  half  of  this  verse  there  are  two  difficulties. 


152  CRITICAL    AND    PHILOLOGICAL    NOTES. 

I.  D3K  everywhere  else,  even  Jer.  li.  32,  like  Assyr.  agammu,  means 
•pond,' 'marsh' (see  especially  Ex.  vii.  19,  viii.  i,  where  it  is  used 
in  this  sense  in  connection  with  the  Nile)  ;  qjx  or  Qjy  '  to  be  sad  '  is 
a  post-Biblical  word  (=Assyr.  agdmu).  2.  -y^^  '•t^y  is  an  unnatural 
way  of  expressing  '  hired  workmen ' ;  the  usual  term  is  DnOB',  after 
<K;y  we  should  have  expected  nDN^PO,  (Dr.  Weir).  The  "iDt?^  read  by 
Sept.,  Pesh.  (^v^os,  shakrh)  is  plausible  (Dr.  Weir  compares  xxiv.  9) ; 
these  versions  suppose  an  allusion  to  the  barley-wine  of  Egypt 
(Herod,  ii.  77).  But  this  hardly  suits  the  context.  Lastly,  there  is 
the  view  of  Targ.,  Saad.,  Rashi,  Ibn  Ezra,  Gratz  {Monatsschrift,  1877, 
p.  376),  that  -|3B>  meant  'dams,'  comp.  -)2iD  'to stop  up,' Arab,  sakara 
*  to  dam  up  a  river.'  This  harmonises  admirably  with  the  preceding 
verses,  but  not  so  well  with  the  first  half  of  this  verse. 

XIX.  18.  Dinn  T^y-  So  most  MSB.  and  editions,  the  Massora 
(see  however  Geiger,  Urschrift,  p.  79),  and  the  Peshito.  The  other 
reading  Dinn  ")^y  is  supported  by  15  MSS.  in  the  text  and  one 
in  the  margin  (Kennicott  and  de  Rossi)  ;  also  by  Symmachus,  the 
Vulgate,  Saadya,  the  Talmud  {^  Menachoth,  no  a'),  Rashi,  Vitr.,  Ges. 
{Thesaurus^  but  not  Commetitary),  Hitz.,  Naeg.  Aquila  and  Theodo- 
tion  have  "Apes,  which  leaves  the  reading  doubtful.  Sept.  has  iroXts 
a.<siZkK^  i.e  pnvn  Ty  (cf.  i.  26),  which  Geiger  boldly  maintains  to  be 
the  true  reading,  Din  (deliberately  altered,  he  thinks,  into  Din  by  the 
Egyptian  Jews)  being  a  disparaging  corruption  of  this.  To  me  the 
Sept.  reading  looks  more  like  a  retort  upon  the  Palestinian  Jews  for 
expounding  Dinn  Ty  in  a  manner  uncomplimentary  toOnias.  Very 
possibly  the  Book  of  Isaiah  was  translated  into  Greek  at  Leontopolis. 

XX.  I.  }i3")D.  On  the  transliteration  of  this  Assyrian  name  see 
below  on  xxii.  15.  The  meaning  is  explained  by  Sargon  himself  in 
the  cylinder  inscription  (line  50),  'the  gods  gave  him  this  name  that 
he  might  keep  justice  and  righteousness,'  imi)lying  that  Sargon  him- 
self is  the  '  faithful  king.' 

XXI.  II,  12.  On  Gratz's  hypothesis  {GescJiichte  der/uden,  ii.  i, 
p.  485)  the  passage  runs  thus  : — 

The  fugitives  ("TT)3n)  call  unto  me  from  Seir  ; 
'M'atchnian,  what  of  the  night? 

Watchman,  what  of  the  night  of  distress?' 

The  watchman  saitli,  . 

'  The  morning  conieth,  the  night  flceth  ('^n  pji)  ; 

O  that  ye  would  ask  !     Ask  ye  ; 

Return,  come.' 

XXII.  3.  nC'pJO  'without  the  bows  being  strung'  either  on  their 
side  or  the  enemy's. 

XXII.  5.  yic'.  The  word  stands  so  close  to  Elam,  that  it  seems 
inevitable  to  take  it  as  the  name  of  the  tribe  referred  to  in  the  com- 
mentary.    Added  to  this,  the  other  yvj*  means,  not  '  a  cry  of  despair ' 


CRITICAL    AND    rillLOLOGICAL    NOTES.  I  53 

(which  the  ordinary  rendering  presupposes),  but  'a  cry  for  help.' 
Tlie  remark  is  Luzzatto's. 

XXII.  14.  For  the  construction  'h  nSD,  Riehm  (Ber  Begriff  der 
Suhne  im  A.  7!,  p.  9)  well  compares  Ezek.  xvi.  63. 

XXII.  15.  |5b.  Saknu  in  Assyrian  means  '  a  high  officer,' from 
sakiti  'to  set  up,  place  '  (comp.  niJDDP  'store-cities  ')  ;  saknu  and  f3b 
alike  descend  from  the  period  of  '  undivided  '  Semitic  speech.  As  a 
rule,  no  doubt,  organic  ^  in  Assyrian  remains  so  in  the  corresponding 
word  in  Hebrew  ;  but  there  are  exceptions,  e.g.,  bislu  =7DD,  isid 
=  10''.  At  a  later  time,  the  Babylonian  form  of  this  word  {sagnti) 
became  the  Hebrew  s'agan  (see  comm.  on  xli.  25).  In  this  case,  the 
sibilant  is  just  what  we  should  expect,  since  Assyrian  proper  names, 
when  transferred  into  Hebrew,  usually  change  their  sibilants,  e.g., 
Sarrukin  becomes  pnp,  and  S'amirina  }hpb^.  Obviously,  the  Jews 
were  not  conscious  that  they  already  had  the  same  word  under  the 
form  pb.  M.  Ganneauhas  found  the  title  'thepD  of  Qarthadachat' 
applied  to  a  person  dedicating  a  vase  to  Baal- Lebanon  in  a  Phoenician 
inscription  {AthencEum,  Apr.  17,  1880,  pp.  502-4). 

XXIII.  7.  Twhv  Dd"?  nXTH-  Del.  (see  commentary)  regards  'y  as 
the  vocative,  remarking  that  '  the  omission  of  the  article  is  not  sur- 
prising (xxii.  2,  Ewald  §  327  «),  whereas,  on  the  other  view,  though 
possible  (see  xxxii.  13),  it  is  still  harsh  (comp.  xiv.  16).'  The  phrase 
is  harshly  constructed,  on  any  view  of  it ;  but  nr?y  as  epexegetical 
of  D57  seems  to  me  peculiarly  harsh,  and  considering  that  a  plurality 
of  persons  (viz.  the  Phoenicians  in  general)  has  been  addressed  just 
before  (?'.  6),  it  is  rather  unlikely  that  a  fresh  company  (viz.  the 
Tyrians)  should  be  referred  to  now. 

XXIII.  II.  n^Jtyn-  Is  this  an  intentional  Phoenicism  parallel  to 
the  Moabitism  in  the  prophecy  on  Moab  (see  above  on  xv.  i)  ?  At 
any  rate,  there  is  an  affinity  with  Phoenician  in  the  suffix  with  3  (comp, 
on  liii.  8).  See  Euting,  Seeks  phoniz.  Inschriften  aus  Idalion,  p.  15 
(also  referred  to  by  Del.  in  his  3rd  ed.). 

XXIII.  13.  □n:i>3.  The  Hebrew  represents  the  Babylonian  form 
Kasdu,the  Greek  XaASatoi,  the  Assyrian  Kaldu.  A  sibilant  gener- 
ally, though  not  necessarily,  becomes  /  before  a  dental  in  Assyrian, 
e.g.,  khamistu  and  kJiainiltu  '  five,'  lubustu  and  lubultu  '  clothing.' 

Saadya's  version  deserves  recording.      '  Console  thyself 

(by  reflecting)  that  against  this  very  country  of  the  Chaldeans  there 
hath  come  the  people  to  whom  it  did  not  belong — the  Assyrians,  and 
that  they  have  made  it  into  deserts.'  In  /.  C.  A.  I  adopted  Ewald's 
D''3y33  pS,  to  which  Kuenen  objects,  i.  that  usage  requires  ''jy^DH  pX, 
and  2.  that  it  is  natural  to  expect  a  reference  to  a  fresh  people 
rather  than  to  the  Phoenicians,  who  have  been  addressed  all  along 


154  CRITICAL    AND    PHILOLOGICAL    NOTES. 

{Theologisch  Tijdschrift,  1871,  pp.  74,  75).  The  first  objection  is  not 
very  important  ;  the  phrase  quoted  by  Dr.  Kuenen  only  occurs  in 
catalogues  of  nations.  We  can  as  well  say  D*:y3D  |>-ix  as  DTlt^^S  V~iN- 
The  second  is  really  strong.  (Comp.  a  long  discussion  of  the  pas- 
sage in  my  Notes  and  Criticisms.) 

XXIV.  15.  nnxa-  'May  it  not  be  n??^  TT!^?)  somewhat  as  xxv. 
3?  Comp.  Esth.  X.  I,  the  only  other  passage,  except  xi.  11,  in  which 
D\T  ^^N  is  found.'     Dr.  Weir. 

XXIV.  19.  '  For  nun  read  y'"i,  inf.  abs.  with  n  being  without  ex- 
ample, and  the  n  being  taken  from  next  word  :  so  read  px  (n  re- 
peated from  last  word).'     Dr.  Weir  after  Maurer,  Hitzig,  Knobel. 

XXIV.  22.   Dr.  Weir  reads  "I'DSn  Plpt«  ;  comp.  b^Dnn  fiDS  xxxiii.  4. 

XXVI.  4,  Ges.  suggests  that  nin''  niay  be  a  gloss  on  the  uncom- 
mon \\\ ;  so  too  Knobel.  But  though  Aquila  already  has  Iv  tw  Kiyito) 
Kvptos,  it  is  possible  that  the  text  is  imperfect. 

XXVII.  6.  Has  not  DID'-n  fallen  out  (comp.  Eccles.  ii.  16)?  There 
is  a  similar  doubt  in  Ixvi.  18. 

XXVIII.  II.  '.jy'?.  See  Hupfeld  or  Perowne  on  Ps.  xxw.  16. 
xxviii.    16.  The  construction   'I  am   he  that  have  founded'  is 

most  unnatural ;  read  np\  (I  am  glad  to  find  myself  supported  by 
Dr.  Weir,  who  also  suggests  TDVD,  and  by  Stade,  Hebr.  Gnvinuatik, 
§  2\\b.)  fipi^  is  not  a  genuine  parallel.  There  is  no  occasion  to  take 
it  as  3  s.  m.  imperf.  Hif.  ;  it  can  equally  well  be  partic.  Kal  (comp. 
Arab,  qdtil). 

Read    t:"'P^>  ;  I  forget  to  whom  the  suggestion  is  due. 

The  Hifil  is  used  absolutely,  as  Nah.  iii.  i.  The  letters  D  and  n  are 
easily  confounded  in  the  square  character.  The  Sept.  translator 
either  reads  L*'U.''.,  or  (since  Targ.  has  an  ecjuivalcnt  rend.)  falls  into 
I)araphrase.     Pesh.  follows  Sept.,  Targ. 

XXVIII.  iS.  "IS3).  This  is  the  only  passage  in  which  the  Pual  of 
-IS3  is  used  in  the  sense  of  'cancelling,'  and  ri''"i3  is  feminine.  The 
conjecture  "isril  is  confirmed  by  Jer.  xxxiii.  21.  I  find  that  Dr.  ^Veir 
accei)ted  it. 

XXVIII.  25.  The  difficult  words  miC'  ^'''d  jdD3  ^'""^  simply  mis- 
written  for  mvf  and  nOD3-  The  scribe  did  not  like  to  spoil  his  ma- 
nuscript by  excising  the  faulty  letters  (as  in  xvii.  i,  xliii.  12,  see  notes): 
^\'ellhausen,  GcscJiichtc  Israels,  i.  409  (the  conjecture  had  already 
been  made,  so  far  as  r\i\^  is  concerned).  Sept.  gives  a  duplicate 
rend,  of  nnD31- 

XXVIII.  29.  n-^'in  •  ■  •  N^2n-  Comp.  Job  xi.  6,  where  read  with 
Dr.  Robertson  Smith  and  (partly)  Merx,  n*::'in'?  D^n'pd  O-  Another 
sign  of  the  gnomic  affinities  of  this  paragraph. 

xxix.    I.  ^Nnx-     Del.  and  Hitzig  {/esaia,  but  nut   G'esc/i.  d.    !'. 


CRITICAL    AND    rillLOLOGICAL    NOTES.  1 55 

Israel)  explain,  'God's  hearth  ;'  comp.  Ezek.  xhii.  15,  16.  But  this 
meaning  is  very  dubious,  even  in  Ezekiel  (see  Notes  and  Criticisms, 
pp.  31,  32,  and  comp.  Smend  on  Ezek.  /.  c.\  whereas  that  adopted 
has  the  support  of  usage,  requires  no  comparison  of  Arabic,  and 
suits  the  context. 

XXIX.  9.  Read  -inJ^Jiin.  See  the  parallel  passage  Hab.  i.  5,  and 
comp.  for  the  form  of  the  phrase  Zeph.  ii.  i  (where  read  •1Cn21  -l^'^'iann 
for  the  unintelligible  'pnn). 

XXIX.  10.  D*N>3n-nx  seems  to  be  a  gloss  inserted  from  a  mis- 
understanding of  Q^rnn,  as  Mr.  G.  W.  Collins,  of  Keble  College, 
suggests. 

XXIX.  22.  Dm3i<-nx  mDX'5^.  Wellhausen  regards  these  words  as 
a  gloss  based  on  the  late  legend  of  the  deliverance  of  Abraham  from 
the  furnace  of  the  Chaldeans  {Geschichte  Israels,  i.  373,  note  ^).  But 
is  not  the  expression  too  forcible  for  a  mere  gloss,  and  may  not 
Abraham's  deliverance  from  his  idolatrous  kinsmen  (see  my  note, 
vol.  i.,  p.  174)  be  typical  of  the  deliverance  of  the  faithful  Israel  from 
the  tyrant,  the  scorner,  and  the  unrighteous  (xxix.  20)  ?  I  admit, 
however,  that  the  clause  comes  in  very  unexpectedly  ;  it  does  not 
fall  in  quite  naturally  with  the  context  ;  and  if  we  approach  the  pas- 
sage with  the  presuppositions  {a)  that  Abraham  is  a  legendary  or 
mythical  personage,  and  {b)  that  this  personage  only  attained  im- 
portance at  a  late  period  of  Hebrew  hterature  compared  with  Isaac 
('Abraham  first  appears  in  Isa.  xl.-lxvi.'  [xli.  8,  h.  2],  says  Well- 
hausen), it  becomes  natural  to  excise  the  words,  as  this  talented 
though  hypercritical  scholar  has  proposed.  My  objection  to  admit- 
ting his  view  is  not  that  he  supposes  a  gloss  to  have  intruded  into  the 
received  text.  Considering  the  large  number  of  glosses  which  in- 
truded into  the  Hebrew  text  reproduced  by  the  Sept.,  it  would  be  no 
wonder  if,  with  all  the  care  bestowed  by  the  Palestinian  Jewish 
critics,  a  fair  number  of  glosses  should  have  lingered  in  the  Mas- 
soretic  text.  It  is  rather  this  :  that  in  the  present  position  of  inquiry 
a  commentator  on  the  prophets,  whether  of  orthodox  or  rationalistic 
leanings,  cannot  allow  himself  to  take  the  mythical  theory  of  the 
early  Jewish  narratives  into  account.  I  have  thought  it,  however, 
only  fair  to  warn  the  student  of  the  rocks  which  may  be  hidden  even 
in  a  passage  so  simple  grammatically  as  the  present.  No  book  of 
the  Bible  can  be  fully  understood  by  itself ;  a  future  commentator  on 
Isaiah  will  be  able  to  assume  positive  critical  results  which  are  yet  far 
from  having  been  attained. 

XXX.   12.  prr^-^..     Read,   with  Gratz,  L"py2,  and  so  also  Ps.  Ixii. 
II.     Comp.  Prov.  ii.  15,  iv.  24. 

XXX.   18.  on^     This,  the  text-reading,  does  not  give  a  suitable 
sense,     n-n  with  a  gerund   following  can  only  mean  'to  arise  fur 


156  CRITICAL    AND    PHILOLOGICAL    NOTLS. 

action  '  (so  Ges.  in  Thesaurus)  ;  we  have  no  right  to  import  the 
meaning  of  '  desire '  from  the  Arabic.  Rashi  indeed  explains  by 
pmns  and  similarly  Delitzsch  ('  God  will  withdraw  Himself  from 
Israel's  history  to  His  royal  and  judicial  throne  in  heaven  ').  But 
how  forced  a  view,  and  how  opposed  to  the  context  !  Yet  the  view 
of  Ges.,  though  supported  by  the  usage  of  the  Psalms  (see  Ps.  xviii. 
47,  xxi.  14,  &c.),  does  not  suit  the  parallelism.  7  riDn  means  '  to  ex- 
pect with  longing'  (as  may  also  be  urged  against  Del.'s  rendering)  ; 
D")"!''  ought,  it  would  seem,  to  have  a  similar  meaning.  It  is  best  there- 
fore to  adopt  the  reading  of  two  MSS.  t^t.,  not  in  the  artificial  sense 
•'  stirreth  not '  given  to  it  by  Ewald,  '  but  in  that  which  it  undoubtedly 
bears  in  Ps.  xxxvii.  7  '•  (where  note  the  parallelism).  The  difficulty 
of  the  passage  partly  arises  from  the  fusion  of  two  distinct  prophecies 
(see  Commentary). 

XXX.  32.  Read  D3,  with  Q'ri,  Targ.,  Vulg.,  and  many  MSS.,  in- 
cluding the  Babylonian  Codex  ;  ^  so  Naegelsbach.  Chap,  xxiii.  13 
must  not  be  quoted  in  favour  of  1^3,  for  there  both  land  and  people 
of  Chaldoea  are  referred  to — here  only  the  Assyrian  army. 

XXX.  33.  nnsn-  From  riD'n,  i-  an  object  spat  upon  ;  2.  the 
'  abominable  '  place  where  children  were  sacrificed  to  Baal  as  Moloch, 
comes  nJi)Dp  (as  nCi'N  from  C'^).  The  word  is  masculine  ;  and  the 
feminine  suffixes  at  the  end  of  the  verse  are  to  be  referred  (as  Del. 
points  out)  to  the  njoa,  or  '  high  place '  on  which  any  sacrifice  had  to 
be  offered.  The  Jewish  derivation  from  ^7\  '  a  drum,'  has  only  an 
imaginative,  '  Haggadic '  value  ;  though  in  Egypt,  as  well  as,  accord- 
ing to  the  legend,  in  Palestine,  the  tambourine  was  possibly  asso- 
ciated with  Baal-worship.  (So  Mr.  Tomkins,  referring  to  Revue 
JEgyptienne,  i.  43.) 

XXXI.  8.  Sept.,  Vulg.,  and  the  Babylonian  Codex  read  N?  for  '"b  ; 
comp.  xxii.  3  (see  above). 

XXXII.  I.  Read  d^'J^v  The  scribe  began  to  write  tDSK'oS,  which 
the  parallel  line  led  him  to  expect  here.  A  similar  error  in  Ps.  Ixxiv. 
14  (end). 

XXXIII.  I.  Read  *]ni'?D3  ;  the  argument  of  Ges.  (in  Thesaurus, 
s.  V.  n^j)  is  conclusive.  3  and  3  confounded,  as  Ex.  xvii.  16,  Josh, 
viii.  13  (comp.  v.  9  jSm)-    So,  too,  Cappel,  Lowth,  Ewald,  Krochmal. 

XXXIII.  II.  Notice  the  rhyme.  Assonance  and  even  rhyme  are 
more  frequently  and  deliberately  employed  in  Hebrew  poctr)'  than 
is  observed  at  first  sight. — 'The  last  clause,'  remarks  Dr.  Weir,  '  is 
difficult.     The  present  reading  seems  to  have  been  that  of  the  copy 

'  No/ex  and  Criticisms  on  the  Ilcbrnu  Text  (7/'/.f<??'(7/t  (Macinillan,  1868),  pp.  32,  33. 

'^  By  this  title  I  designate  a  Codex  of  the  projihets  (i.e.  the  so-called  later  prophets), 
with  the  Bibylonian  punctuation,  dated  A.n.  916-17,  and  now  preserved  at  St.  I^eters- 
burg.  It  was  edited  for  the  Russian  Government  in  a  superb  photo-lithographic  lac- 
simile  by  Dr.  Hermann  Slrack  in  1876. 


CRITICAL    AND    PHILOLOGICAL    NOTES.  1 57 

from  which  Sept.  was  translated  ;  so  of  the  other  old  versions,  except 
Pesh.,  which  puts  1  before  D3ni"i,  and  joins  it  to  the  preceding  clause 
(as  Sept.  also  does),  and  the  Targ.  which  gives,  "  My  word  shall 
destroy  you  as  the  whirlwind  chaff."  A  conjectural  reading  is  idh  ^^n 
for  DSrin,  which  seems  borne  out  by  other  passages  of  Isaiah,  as 
iv.  4,  xi.  4,  and  especially  xxx.  27,  28.'  The  conjecture  is  that  of 
Seeker  and  Lowth. 

XXXIII.  14  b.  Dr.  Weir  proposes  to  render,  '  Who  will  abide  for 
us  the  devouring  fire  ? '  i.e.,  on  our  behalf,  for  the  salvation  of  the 
people. 

XXXIII.  23.  D:-in"p  1pTn''"^n-  A  hard  passage.  The  subject  of 
the  verb  is  clearly  the  ropes  which  have  just  been  mentioned  (not 
the  sailors,  as  A.  E.,  Kimchi,  Drechsler)  ;  hence  'their  mast,'  i.e.,  the 
mast  which  it  is  their  function  (according  to  the  ancient  Greek  and 
doubtless  also  the  Phoenicio-Hebrew  system)  to  bind  to  the  la-TOTreSr] 
(a  piece  of  wood  set  in  the  keel).  Now  arises  a  difficulty  with  p. 
To  render,  with  most  since  Cocceius,  '  the  stand  '  (i.e.,  the  io-tott.) 
seems  to  contradict  these  primitive  naval  arrangements  ;  so  that  I 
have  preferred,  with  Luzzatto,  the  Jewish  commentator,  and  Naegels- 
bach,  to  recur  to  the  original  sense  of  '  firm,'  or  rather  '  upright.'  It 
is  true  (as  remarked  in  the  review  of  vol.  i.  in  the  Dtiblin)  that  fS  does 
not  occur  as  an  adjective  elsewhere  in  the  sense  of  physical,  but  only 
in  that  of  moral  uprightness,  but  there  is  no  reason  whatever  why  the 
physical  sense  (guaranteed  by  the  use  of  |3  the  substantive  for 
'pedestal')  should  not  occur  —  comp.  pT]^  (i)  straightness,  (2) 
righteousness.  On  the  whole  passage,  comp.  the  beautiful  ode  of 
Horace  :  'O  navis,  referent'  (i.  14). 

XXXIV.  12.  I  formerly  read  Dtr  |'N1  1X"ip"'  nsi'ptDn  nn  with  Dr. 
Weir;  comp.  xli.  12,  1.  2,     Bickell  is  partly  supported  by  Sept. 

XXXV.  I.  -|31D  DlK't^''-  The  final  \  of  the  verb  is  assimilated  to 
the  following  O  ;  comp.  Dins,  Num.  iii.  49  (Ibn  Ezra).  Apparent 
orthographical  errors  may  now  and  then  indicate  phonetic  laws.  So 
Ezek.  xxxiii.  26,  'n  |n"•:^'y  {ill  before  t  becomes  n). 

nS-V3n.     Friedr.    Del.  rejects    the  usual  renderings  of 

this  word,  partly  because  they  imply  that  it  is  connected  with  "^V? 
'  onion,'  partly  because  of  his  discovery  of  the  Assyrian  cognate  of 
'n  in  the  bilingual  tablets.'  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  Assyr. 
khabagillatu  is  identical  by  origin  with  the  Hebrew  khabaffalt  (so  the 
early  form  may  have  been),  and  the  Accadian  word  of  which  the 
former  is  the  equivalent  is  ideographically  written  '  reed  seed-making  ' 
(Sayce),  and  explained  by  the  Assyr.  lubsu  sa  kane  '  clothing  (or  gar- 
ment) of  the  reed  (or  reeds) '  (  W.  A.  /.,  v.  32,  lines  60-63).  What  this 

1    The  Hebrew  Language  viewed  in  the  Light  of  Assyrian  Research,  p.  34. 


158  CRITICAL    AND    PIIILOl.OCICAL    NOTES. 

l>hrasc  means  is  not  obvious.  It  may  refer  to  the  '  husk  of  the  reed  ' 
(Friedr.  Del.),  or  to  the  uses  to  which  this  plant  was  applied  (Hough- 
ton). But  I  hesitate  to  conclude  that  by  Idiabaccalt  the  Hebrew  poets 
meant  either  'the  reed'  in  general  (so  Friedr.  Del.),  or  the  kind  of 
reed  {cyperus  syriacus)  found  in  Sharon  and  elsewhere  at  present. 
Identical  names  of  plants  and  animals  in  cognate  languages  do  not 
always  designate  the  same  species  (take  DN")  and  the  Arab,  rim  for 
instances). — The  objection  to  the  current  renderings  based  on  the 
doubtfulness  of  a  preformative  n  is  plausible,  but  not  decisive.  The 
plant  intended  by  khoha^calt  may  have  only  an  apparent  connection 
with  bogl,  and  yet  it  may  be  of  the  bulbous  class.  Tristram  and  Conder 
were  both  struck  by  the  beautiful  white  narcissus  of  the  Plain  of 
Sharon,  and  graceful  as  both  the  cyperus  papyrus  and  the  cyperus  syriacus 
may  be,  they  can  hardly  compete  in  poetic  appropriateness  with  the 
narcissus.  (Nor  do  they  flower  at  the  right  time  to  satisfy  Cant.  ii.  i, 
II,  12,  viz.  the  spring.)  'If  we  ask  how  does  a  word  in  Assyrian 
similar  to  the  Hebrew  'n  come  to  denote  a  reed,  I  think  we  can  with- 
out any  stretch  of  the  imagination  give  a  reason.  The  Accadian 
name  of  "  reed-making  seed  "  will  apply  to  the  large  tufts  of  heads  at 
the  extremity  of  which  the  flowers  and  seeds  appear  in  both  the 
above-named  species.'  (Mr.  Houghton,  M.S.  communication.) 

XXXV.  8.  The  first  -|-n  has  obviously  got  its  1  from  the  second. 
As  to  \xh  Sini,  110  one  doubts  that  \X.can  be  construed;  and  ingenuity 
can  always  devise  a  point  of  connection  with  the  context.  Mr.  Words- 
worth suggests  that  '  for  them  '  may  refer  to  the  blind,  deaf,  and 
lame  of  in).  5,  6  {Bampton  Lectures,  1881).  If  some  one  of  the  current 
renderings  must  be  chosen,  that  of  Ewald  seems  preferable,  but  the 
words  may  perhaps  be  a  duplicate  corrupt  reading  of  the  opening 
words  of  the  verse. 

XXXV.   10.    Read  as  in  Iv.   11,    and  sec  Driver,  Hebrew  Teuses, 

§  14  y  note  ^ 

XXXVII.  16.  D''3"i3n  IV-  It  is  debated  whether  this  should  be 
rendered  'who  sitteth  between,'  or,  '  upon  the  cherubim.'  It  is  best 
to  adhere  to  the  undeniable  usage,  and  render  '  who  inhabiteth  the 
cherubim.'  So  Ewald,  though  he  does  not  mean  anything  sub- 
stantially different  from  the  alternative  rendering  (see  his  Comment- 
ary on  Ps.  xxii.  4).  Richm,  however  (rendering,  like  Ewald,  'in- 
habitest'),  thinks  the  Hebrew  phrase  meant  that  Jehovah  in  the 
temple  was  altogether  inclosed  by  the  cherubs  and  their  wings.  See 
also  Kosters,  T/ieologisc/i  Tijdschrift,  1879,  p.  468. 

xxxvii.  28.  Are  we  to  read  non::'  or  (with  2  Kings)  nsnE'?  The 
latter  would  be  a  unique  form  for  flD^tJ'  ('  blasting  '  i.e., '  blasted  corn'); 
the  former  (in  the  plural)  is  well  known.     The  saying  '  pnxstat  lectio 


CRITICAL    AND    PHILOLOGICAL    NOTES.  1 59 

ardua '  is  not  axiomatic  in  the  O.  T.  ;  so  that  nonti'  is  preferable.  It 
means  a  field  with  the  corn  that  grows  upon  it  (see  Hab.  iii.  17,  and 
comp.  nib*  Ex.  xxii.  4).  The  Isaiah  Septuagint  however  renders  as 
if  a  special  kind  of  grass  were  meant — aypwo-ns  (the  cynodon  dadylon, 
anglicised  as  creeping  dog's  tooth  grass,  universally  found  in  the 
south  of  Europe,  and  the  grass  of  the  streets  in  north  Italy.  (Well- 
hausen's  conjecture  that  nop  ^Jq"?  is  a  corruption  of  "^D.p  '•Jp?,  Bleek's 
Einldtung,  4th  ed.,  p.  257,  is  plausible,  but  scarcely  necessary.) 

XXXVIII.  8.  Read  tyoti'n,  for  the  sake  of  simplicity  and  '  concord.' 
XXXVIII.  12.  nn  ^"^y  dwelling.'  Kimchi  well  compares  Ps. 
Ixxxiv.  II,  where  the  verb  111  occurs  in  this  sense.  Still  I  doubt  if 
it  be  a  part  of  the  proper  Hebrew  vocabulary  ;  in  the  Targums  it  is 
the  constant  rendering  of  "itli.  The  Assyrian  duru  means  rather 
'castle.' 

Read    J^ISp   with   Fiirst ;    the  Chaldaising  sense  suits 

best. 

xxxviii.  14.  ^p5^'y•  Pointing  ni^b'y,  Klostermann  takes  this  for 
another  form  of  npDJ?  from  Chald.  ppy  to  occupy  oneself,  or  (Ithpaal) 
to  strive  together.  Comp.  pp  Gen.  xxvi.  20,  p-lb'y  a  v.  1.  of  Prov. 
xxviii.  1 7,  and  for  the  unusual  preposition  which  follows  Targ.  2 
Kings  iv.  13. 

xxxviii.  16.  '-lii  vn''  DH^'py-  Gratz  {Geschichte,  ii.  i,  p.  478) 
conjectures  this  to  be  a  prayer  of  the  king  that  his  life  might  be 
spared  for  his  people's  sake.  Comp.  Lam.  iv.  20,  'The  breath  of 
our  nostrils,  the  anointed  of  Jehovah.'  The  sense  would  then  be, 
'  O  Lord  !  [mayest  thou  recover  me]  for  their  sakes,  that  they  may 
live  ;  indeed,  for  every  one  of  them  is  the  breath  of  my  life.' 

xxxix.  I.  VDP?!-  Read  y»t:'  "'3  (after  2  Kings  xx.  12).  So  Sept., 
Pesh.  For  instances  of  the  confusion  of  1  and  3  see  Driver, 
Hebrew  Tenses,  §  75  «-,  note. 

XL.  4.  D''D3"i-  There  is  no  doubt  that  riksu  (same  sibilant)  in 
Assyr.  means  a  rope  or  bond,  so  that,  using  this  analogy,  '"i  should 
mean  '  bonds.'  This  agrees  with  the  meaning  of  the  Hebrew  verb. 
But  in  this  connection  ?  Yes,  comp.  Assyr.  biruti '  hills  '  from  baru  '  to 
bind'  (Friedr.  Del.,  The  Heb.  Language  &c.,  p.  23,  note).  So  jiigiwi 
from  jiingere. 

XL.  II.  ^n:"-  Yx\^^x.  Y)€i.  {The  Hebrew  Laiiguage  k.c.,  ^^\).  5,  6) 
produces  a  new  meaning  for  ^nj  from  the  Babylonian  bilingual  texts, 
where  na'alu,  nakhu,  and  rabapc  are  the  equivalents  of  the  same 
ideograph.  He  would  render  'cause  to  rest,'  'satisfy,'  'place  in 
safety,'  according  to  the  context,  the  root-meaning  being  '  to  rest,  or 
lie  down.'  This  suits  Gen.  xlvii.  17,  2  Chr.  xxxii.  22,  Ps.  xxiii.  2,  but 
a   careful  examination   of  the  twelve  passages   in  which  the  word 


l6o  CRITICAL    AND    PHILOLOGICAL    NOTES. 

occurs  may  lead  the  reader  to  doubt  whether  the  verb  has  quite 
the  same  sense  in  Hebrew  as  in  Assyrian.  In  the  three  pas- 
sages of  Isaiah  (xl.  ii,  xlix.  lo,  li.  18)  the  context  or  the 
parallehsm  is  against  the  new  meaning  proposed.  The  notion  of 
'  leading '  seems,  whether  by  accretion,  or  by  nature,  to  be  now 
inherent  in  the  Hebrew  verb.  Besides,  two  of  the  three  places  re- 
ferred to  above  are  doubtful.  In  2  Chr.  xxxii.  22  a  corruption  of  the 
text  has  long  ago  been  surmised  (see  Q.  P.  B.),  and  in  Ps.  xxiii.  2  a 
slit^ht  difference  of  meaning  between  the  two  verbs  heightens  the 
effect.     Del.  also  quotes  Ex.  xv.  13,  but  the  preposition  b^  is  adverse 

to  his  view. 

XL.  21.  nnoio-  ^^'e  may  either  supply  the  prep,  from  t;*X"iD, 
comp.  xlviii.  9  (see  however  Commentary),  or  read  'DO,  and  suppose 
that  the  first  D  dropped  out,  owing  to  the  D  preceding  and  the  O  fol- 
lowing. Vitr.  thinks  that  the  Massoretes  accented  off  y\^r^  nnDlO 
to  show  that  it  was  the  common  object  of  all  the  three  verbs.  More 
probably  they  assumed  an  ellipsis  of  O. 

XL.  24.  hi  51J«-  1'he  phrase  only  occurs  here.  But  we  find  ps  ?[« 
repeated  three  times  in  xli.  26,  and  f)N  repeated  without  a  negative  in 
xli.  10,  xliv.  15,  xlvi.  II  ;  for  the  repetition  of  7?  comp.  xxxiii.  20. 
There  is,  therefore,  no  occasion  for  Dr.  Weir's  conjecture  "pan  "JN- 

. .lyiT  .  •  .  -lyts:.     Sept.,  Pesh.,  -lunr  •  •  •  -lyp:.    '  A  good  deal 

may  be  said  in  favour  of  this  reading,  (i)  ytSJ  is  not  found  else- 
where in  Nifal,  nor  unt  in  Piel  or  Pual.  (2)  The  meaning  is  good 
(comp.  xvii.  10,  11).  '  "Before  they  have  planted  or  sown,  i.e.,  pro- 
pagated themselves  in  any  way  ;  nay,  before  they  have  themselves 
taken  root."  Ult  may  be  used  of  the  plant,  Gen.  i.  29,  and  perhaps 
yt3:  may  also  of  the  UD3,  for  "  to  shoot  forth  fresh  plants."  '    Dr.  Weir. 

XL.  31.  -OK  hv-  My  own  rend,  is  that  of  Sept.,  Targ.,  Pesh., 
Vulg.,  Saad.,  Bochart,  Lo.,  Ew.,  Nacg.  It  seems  to  be  required  by 
the  parallelism  with  C]>Snn  (for  which  word  Dr.  Puscy  compares  Arab. 
akhlafa,  'to  put  forth  fresh  feathers  after  moulting').  Hitz.  indeed 
objects  (i)  that  though  n'?y=' to  grow  up'  in  v.  6,  there  is  no  in- 
stance of  such  a  sense  of  n^un,  and  (2)  that  instead  of  -as  we  should, 
on  the  view  opposed  to  his  own,  expect  nvi3-  But  as  to  (i),  the 
observation,  though  adopted  by  Del.,  seems  incorrect  ;  for  in  Ezek. 
xxxvii.  6,  n!?un  is  used  of  bringing  flesh  upon  the  bones.  And  with 
regard  to  (2),  let  me  simply  ask,  Why  ?  Are  not  the  pinion-feathers 
renewed? — As  to  the  form  mns,  it  is,  strictly  speaking,  a  7io/nc?i 
ufii(a/is  (sec  E^s'M,  Gramm.  orab.,  §  295,  Lehrhuch  dcr  hcbr.  Sprachc, 
§  176^),  but  the  distinction  is  not  always  present  to  the  Hebrew 

writers. 

XLL  8.  '3nN-     Dr.   Weir,  while  admitting    that    the  pronominal 


CRITICAL    AND    PHILOLOGICAL    NOTES.  l6l 

suffix  of  3nX  elsewhere  always  denotes  the  object  (*  my  lover '=' he 
who  loveth,  or  loved,  me ')  thinks  that  in  this  passage  it  marks  the 
subject,  and  renders  '  whom  I  have  loved  '  (comp.  Deut.  iv.  37). 
Comp.  Vitringa. 

XLi.  10.  -[TIVOX-  For  the  sense  adopted,  comp.  Ruth  i.  18 
(partic.  Hithp.  =  ' steadfastly  purposing'),  and  especially  Ps.  Ixxx.  16, 
18  (Pielused  precisely  as  here)  ;  also  (with  Naeg.)  Matt.  xii.  18,  where 
the  -jcnx  of  Isa.  xlii.  i  is  rendered  TjpeVto-a. 

XLI.  18.  ^Qt>>  is  not  quite  synonymous  with  nst:':  nn  (xiii.  2).  It 
means  those  slight  elevations  which  are  drier  than  the  surrounding 
land,  though  in  Palestine  at  least  they  yield  pasture  (Jer.  xiv.  6). 
The  Syriac  sh'fayd  denotes  simply  '  a  plain  ; '  shafyd  is  the  equivalent 
of  niK'^o  in  Pesh.  Isa.  xl.  4,  and  (virtually)  of  r\'^^1  in  the  Harclean 
Syriac  of  Luke  iii.  5.  De  Dieu  would  have  >scj>,  too,  rendered 
everywhere  '  plain,'  though  Pesh.  nowhere,  I  think,  gives  sJCfdya  as 
the  equivalent  of  ^s^',  but  most  commonly  shabild,   'a  way.' 

XLI.  25.  Read  D2\ 

XLI.  27.  It  is  a  pleasure  to  transcribe  I.ouis  de  Dieu's  acute  note 
in  his  Aniviadversions  (1648)  : — 

'  Interpretes  duas  hie  faciunt  enunciationes,  quarum  primam 
duris  satis  ellipsibus  supplent.  Mihi  videtur  hie  mera  esse  vocum 
transpositio,  in  hac  lingua  mire  elegans,  sed  aliis  Unguis  inimitabilis. 
Sic  explico,  Primus  ego  dabo  Sioni  et  Hierosolymis  Icete  anmniciatiiem 
ecce  ecce  ilia.  Provocaverat  omnes  Gentium  deos,  ut  quse  futura  sunt 
prsedicerent  ;  quumque  eos  nihil  tale  posse  gloriatus  esset,  Ego, 
inquit,  et  ego  primus  dabo  Sioni  et  Hierosolymis  qui  laetum  nuncium 
afferentes  dicant,  Ecce  ecce  ilia,  prsesto  sunt  quae  Deus  prsdixit.' 
De  Dieu,  however,  had  no  idea  of  Hebrew  parallelism,  which  seems 
to  me  to  require  us  to  render  p^'xi  '  a  precursor  '  (or,  in  Wiclif 's 
language,  '  a  prior  '),  like  pnnx  'a  successor,'  in  Job  xix.  25.  Perhaps 
we  may  say  that  the  former  receives  a  fuller  meaning  from  the 
parallel  word  xoro,  as  the  latter  is  coloured  or  defined  by  the 
corresponding  word  ■'^XJ  (as  if  '  the  future  defender  of  my  right '). 

XLII.  2.  XC'*.  Reifmann's  conjecture  iSt?**  (Del.,  Jesaia,  p.  440) 
is  very  plausible  ;  it  brings  out  with  much  force  the  contrast  betweeu 
the  old  and  the  new  dispensation  ;  comp.  Am.  i.  2,  iii.  8.  Still,  XCJ'3 
without  ^ip  occurs  again  in  v.  11  (comp.  iii.  7). 

XLII.  4.  pi*.  The  pronunciation  of  common  life  for  pj,  as  in 
neo-Punic  and  west  Aramaic.  Buhl,  comparing  Stade,  Lehrbuch 
d.  h.  Spr.,  §  95,  Noldeke,  Kurzgef.  syr.  Gr.,  §  48. 

XLII.  6.  p.Tnx.1.     The  presence  of  the  jussive  is  a  great  difficulty. 
I  cannot  bring  myself,  with  my  friend   Dr.  Driver,  to  render  '  that 
I   may  take  hold'  {Hebrew   Teuses,  §    176    Ob s. ),  ^r\d   would  rather 
VOL.   II.  M 


l62  CRITICAL    AND    PHILOLOGICAL    NOTES. 

suppose  a  laxity  of  pronunciation,  which  has  found  expression  here 
and  there  in  the  punctuation.  What  the  sense  requires  seems  to  me 
clearly  '). 

XLii.  6.  nna-  Taking  'appointment,'  'decision,'  for  the  pri- 
mary sense,  we  require  a  root  meaning  '  to  decide.'  There  is  in 
Assyrian  a  verb  i>an/,  '  to  decide.'  See  passage  quoted  by  Friedr. 
Del.,  who  agrees  on  the  sense  of  n"*"!!,  T/ie  Hebretv  Language,  &c., 
p.  49. 

XLII.  15.  c-^K.  This  passage  is  Strongly  against  the  view  that  D'»S 
can  mean  '  islands.'  The  sense  required  and  established  by  etymo- 
logy (it  is  cognate  with  Arab,  awa^,  'he  sojourned')  is  'habitable 
land.'     Hence  elsewhere  'countries'  (see  Commentary  on  xl.  15). 

XLII.  21.  Note  the  construction,  which,  though  thoroughly  Hebrew 
(Job  xxxii.  22,  Lam.  iv.  14,  Ewald),  reminds  us  still  more  of  Arabic. 
XLII.  25.  non-     The  adverbial  accusative  is  doubtless  used  for 
the  sake  of  the  assonance  with  non'po  (Del.). 

xLiii.  9.  iV3p3-  Of  the  three  ways  of  understanding  this  word — 
(i)  as  an  ordinary  perfect,  (2)  as  a  precative  perfect,  and  (3)  as  an 
imperative — the  second  and  third  are  alone  suitable  to  the  conte.xt. 
A  precative  perfect,  however,  seems  too  much  of  an  Arabism  to  be 
easily  admitted,  especially  as  the  evidence  for  it  in  Hebrew  is  not  by 
any  means  strong  (see  Driver,  Hebrew  Tenses,  §  20).  There  is  no 
choice,  therefore,  but  to  accept  the  form  as  an  imperative.  One  can 
hardly  suppose  a  corruption  of  the  text  (as  Lowth),  for  the  same 
form  occurs  in  a  similar  context  in  Joel  iv.  11;  comp.  11^3  Jer.  1.  5. 

XLIII.  12.  ♦nuK'inv  The  view  proposed  in  my  commentary  is 
supported  by  the  parallel  of  xxviii.  25  (see  above). 

XLIII.  22.  On  the  force  of  ""a  here,  see  Ewald,  Lehrb.  der  hebr. 
Sprache,  §  354  b  {^Hebrew  Syntax,  by  Kennedy,  p.  269). 

XLiv.  5.  Read  n'3  nn3%  with  Klostermann.  A  repeated  letter 
here,  as  so  often,  was  dropped.  '3  iro  '  to  write  upon,'  as  Neh.  vii.  5, 
viii.  14,  xiii.  i.  'Write  with  his  hand  '  is  surely  a  very  harsh  expres- 
sion, though  I  see  it  has  the  authority  of  Dr.  Kay. 

xLiv.  12.  '  Unstreitig  ist  ein  Wort  ausgefallen'  (Del).  Read,  as 
the  first  word  of  the  verse,  with  Sept.,  Pesh.,  either  l^n  (Del.),  or  nnn 
(comp.  Prov.  xxvii.  17),  which  would  easily  fall  out,  owing  to  the  pre- 
ceding nn^  Prof.  Driver  {Hebrew  Tenses,  §  123  ft),  prefers  nn?  (jus- 
sive form)  or   nn;  ;  but  the  analogy  of  v.  13  favours  the  perfect. 

XLIV.  14.  rroh-  Read  nn31.  ^  or  -.  and  "?  might  possibly  be  con- 
founded in  the  square  character  ;  but  more  probably  the  first  7  is  pro- 
duced by  the  vicinity  of  another  word  beginning  with  ^  (comp.  Ps. 
Ixxiv.  14).  This  is  infinitely  easier  than  to  suppose  an  isolated 
example  of  an  imperfect  in  ^  (on  which   see   Driver,  Hcbrav    Tenses, 


CRITICAL    AND    PHILOLOGICAL    NOTES.  1 6 


3 


§  204,  Obs.  i),  and  more  so  even  than  to  assume  a  'periphrastic 
future,'  the  instances  of  which  given  by  Del.  on  Hab.  i.  11  may 
perhaps  require  sifting.  The  three  other  supposed  instances  in 
Isaiah  all  seem  to  me  very  doubtful.  In  xxi.  i  the  construction  is 
rather  gerundial ;  in  xxxvii.  26  the  phrase  is?  nTi,  '  to  serve  for ' ; 
and  in  xxxviii.  20,  though  there  is  no  n\T  expressed,  the  b  is  still  that 
of  tendency  (see  translation), 

XLiv.  15.  •.0^.  It  is  not  very  natural  in  this  individualising  de- 
scription (contrast  xlii.  17,  where  it  is  a  dass  of  persons  who  say  nns 
to  n3Ei!p)  to  regard  this  as  a  collective.  The  suffix  is  amply  de- 
fensible as  a  singular  (see  on  liii.  8).  Sept.,  however  (not  Pesh.), 
takes  it  as  a  plural. 

XLIV.  23.  px  nvnnn-  This  and  similar  phrases  always  have  an 
at  least  implied  reference  to  Shedl.  It  is  Sheol,  as  the  context  shows, 
which  is  called  riTinn  pS  in  Ezek.  xxxi.  14,  16,  18,  niTinn  pK  in 
Ezek.  xxvi.  20,  xxxii.  18,  24  ;  nvnnn  "113  in  Ps.  Ixxxviii.  7,  Lam.  iii, 
55,  and,  more  explicitly  still,  nTinn  hlUlif  in  Ps.  Ixxxvi.  13  (comp. 
nnno  'pinCJ',  Isa.  xiv.  9).  In  Ps.  cxxxix.  15  the  context  is  obscure, 
but  even  there  we  have  no  right,  I  think,  to  depart  from  the  universal 
meaning  of  the  phrase  elsewhere.  Possibly,  as  Hupfeld  suggests, 
Shedl  is  there  used  as  an  image  of  an  utterly  dark,  mysterious  place. 

XLiv.  28.  Dr.  Kuenen  proposes  {Hibbert  Lectures,  1882,  p.  132) 
to  pronounce,  not  roH  '  my  shepherd,'  but  re'-'i  '  my  companion,' 
comparing  Zech.  xiii.  7,  where,  as  he  truly  says,  this  correction  is 
required  to  match  the  parallel  line  ('the  man  who  is  my  neighbour'). 
The  mistake  would  be  a  natural  one  ;  in  Jer.  iii.  i,  Sept.  and  Pesh. 
misread  ro'hn  instead  of  rtim.  But  the  received  pronunciation 
gives  a  good  sense  here  ('my  shepherd '=' the  shepherd  appointed 
by  me,'  comp.  'his  king,'  Ps.  xviii.  50,  Heb.  51),  and  produces  a 
parallelism  with  '  his  anointed '  in  the  next  verse.  If,  however,  we 
accept  the  correction,  it  is  the  highest  title  which  Cyrus  has  received 
from  the  prophet. 

XLV.  II.  'Or  should  we  not  read  i^KtJTl?'  (Pencil  note  of  Dr. 
Weir's).     See  Commentary. 

XLV.  24.  nt:s  'h.  Read  '^\'Q)^\  with  Luzzatto.  The  h  probably  arose 
out  of  the  mark  put  by  the  scribe  to  separate  the  name  of  God 
from  the  following  word.  Comp.  the  use  of  P'siq  in  the  Massoretic 
text  of  Ex.  xvii.  15,  Jer.  xxiii.  6,  xxxiii.  16.  For  a  parallel  to  such 
an  interruption  of  the  speech,  see  Ivii.  19. 

XLVL  4.  '>n"'B'u.  Klostermann  would  read  >nDDu(^^//J^/^^.//'///;^^ 
Theologie,  1876,  p.  18).  But  the  received  text  gives  a  finer  meaning: 
'  I  have  made,'  or  begotten  ;  paternal  love  impels  me  to  'carry.' 

XLVL  8.  Read  icj'B'ann  (n  and  3  may  be  confounded  in  several 


164  CRITICAL    AND    PHILOLOGICAL    NOTES. 

older  forms  of  the  characters).  Comp.  above  on  xxix.  9.  The 
commentaries  cite  the  Vulgate  as  reading  '  confundamini '  ;  but  the 
Codex  Amiatinus  has  '  fundamini '  (Heyse),  and  this  is  the  rendering 
of  St.  Jerome  in  his  Commentar}' {' imo  fundamini,  nerursum  subitus 
idolatri?e  vos  turbo  subvertat ').  In  any  case,  'fundamini,'  and  not 
'fundemini,'  seems  to  be  established. 

XLvii.  7.  "ly  'for  ever.'  See  Commentar}-,  and  compare  the  form 
of  7\  6.  Hitzig  goes  so  far  as  to  deny  that  11/  ever  means  '  usque'  or 
'  adeo  ut,'  and  certainly  the  passages  generally  quoted  require  revi- 
sion. In  I  Sam.  ii.  5,  ly  may  very  \vell='for  ever,'  as  here;  in 
I  Sam.  XX.  41,  it  probably  has  the  prepositional  meaning  'unto'  (see 
Sept.)  ;  in  Job  viii.  21,  Ewald,  Dillmann,  Merx,  and  Hitzig  point  ny, 
and  the  connection  seems  to  require  this;  in  Job  xiv.  6,  'until' 
yields  a  perfectly  satisfactor)-  sense.  In  Josh.  xvii.  14  (where  what 
Ges.  calls  the  fuller  form  -IK'S  ny  stands  at  present)  we  should  pro- 
bably rather  read  ncj'x  ^y— notice  that  a  second  ny  follows  ;  and 
Gratz  proposes  to  read  7V  '  because '  in  our  passage  {Mo?iatssc/trift, 
1881,  p.  228). 

XLVII.  II.  ri")nt*.  Not  'its  dawn '  (Dr.  Weir  remarks  that  inr  occurs 
nowhere  else  with  a  suffix),  but  '  to  charm  away.'  How  does  the 
word  obtain  this  meaning  ?  Through  the  root-meaning  of  '  dark- 
ness.' -inK'  is  properly  'to  be  dark'  (whence  nn^'  'the  morning- 
grey  ').  To  '  charm  '  is  to  bring  something  about  by  dark,  mysterious 
means  (see  Wiinsche  on  Hos.  vi.  3)  ;  comp.  our  own  phrase  '  the 
black  art.'  It  is  not  therefore  (as  might  be  supposed  by  the  oft- 
repeated  reference  to  the  Arabic  sahara)  a  sense  not  thoroughly 
native  to  Hebrew. 

XLVII.   14.  Read  DSn^  with  Luzzatto,  and  so  Job  xxx.  4. 

XLViii.  6.  ni"iV3-  Very  possibly  we  should  read  nn:»'3  '  ardua  in- 
tellectu,'  as  in  the  parallel  passage,  Jer.  xxxiii.  3. 

XLVIII.  14.  Read  oniron  with  Del.  (ed.  3,  p.  720).  In  spite  of 
V.  9,  it  does  not  seem  very  natural  to  make  the  preposition  in  the 
preceding  line  operate  prospectively. 

XLVIII.  18,  19.  Ewald's  view  of  the  construction,  alluded  to  in 
the  Commentary,  is  peculiar.  He  puts  '  O  that  thou  hadst '  down  to 
'as  the  grains  thereof'  into  a  parenthesis,  and  continues  '  his  (Israel's) 
name  shall  not  be  cut  off  nor  destroyed  before  me,'  thus  making 
the  last  clause  a  categorical  affirmation  of  Israel's  indestructibility. 
Against  this  see  my  note.  The  slight  change  in  the  construction  is 
simply  due  to  the  fact  that  the  consequence  expressed  in  ms^'K^  is 
still  future.  On  >t\'"\  see  Driver,  Hebrew  Tenses,  §§  127  y,  140.  His 
alternative  rendering  is  one  of  those  subtleties  in  which  able  gram- 
marians delight.     The  versicjn  of  Hit/.,  Del.  (sec  above,  |>.  8,  note  '') 


CRITICAL    AND    I'lIILOLOGICAL    NOTES.  165 

seems  almost  to  require  •tT'I  (comp.  Deut.  xxxii.  29)  or  hti*  (as  Mic. 
ii.  11),  as   Del.   himself  frankly  admits;  comp.  also  Ps.  Ixxxi.  14-16 

XLix.  5.  eiDX*  iih  (Q'ri,  1^)-  The  reading  of  the  text  is  harder  than 
that  of  the  margin,  but  is  not  on  that  account  (comp.  ix.  2)  to  be 
preferred.  The  latter  is  evidently  required  by  the  context.  The 
division  among  the  ancient  interpreters  was  partly  occasioned  by 
their  party  prejudices.  Thus  St.  Jerome  objects  to  the  rendering  of 
Sept.,  because  it  gives  up  '  a  very  strong  testimony  against  the  perfidy 
of  the  Jews.'  He  himself  renders  '  et  Israel  non  congregabitur  '  (the 
exact  opposite  of  Aquila). 

XLIX.  7.  nil.  Most  explain  this  as  either  an  infinitival  substan- 
tive or  an  uncommon  adjective.  But  it  is  more  natural  (comp.  next 
phrase)  either  to  point  n.T3  (Aram,  partic.  Peil)  with  Luzzatto,  or  (as 
this  would  be  unique  in  Hebr.)  to  read  nt33  (comp.  hii.  3)  with 
Lagarde. 

2VnD,  According  to  Ew.,  Hitz.,  Del.,  a  participial  sub- 
stantive in  Piel  =  'object  of  abhorrence '  (Ewald,  Lehrbiich,  §  160  e, 
compares  "ippD  in  liii.  3).  Ges.,  however,  remarks  that  the  easiest 
explanation  is  to  take  the  Piel  as  'poetically  intransitive '=3i;ri  p. 
But  how  much  more  natural  to  read  3yhp  with  Luzzatto  (pointing, 
however,  3yriP)  !  It  really  seems  as  if  the  authors  of  the  points  made 
a  desperate,  though  partial,  attempt  to  efface  a  meaning  which  was 
offensive  to  the  national  pride. 

XLIX.  8.  Ewald  would  insert  q-ij  -nx^  from  Sept.,  and  supports 
this  by  Just.  Mart.  c.  Tryph.  c.  122  (but  wrongly,  for  Justin  quotes 
from  chap.  xlii.).     Against  this,  see  Commentary. 

XLIX.  12.  D*P.  Clericus  and  Hupfeld  (on  Ps.  cvii.  3)  conjecture 
pP*^P  for  the  Psalm-passage,  and  this  seems  to  be  absolutely  neces- 
sary there,  since  the  West  has  been  already  mentioned  in  the  parallel 
line.*  It  is,  I  think,  but  little  less  necessary  here.  It  is  clear  from 
the  mistakes  of  Sept.  that  abbreviations  were  of  frequent  occurrence 
in  the  most  ancient  Hebrew  MSS.  See  the  instances  in  Frankel, 
Vorstiidien  zu  der  Septuaginta,  pp.  214-6  (a  notable  one  is  cts  Oavarov 
="107,  as  if  this  were  abbreviated  from  DIK)?,  liii.  8  ;  see  also  Jer.  iii. 
19,  Judg.  xix.  18,  and  below  on  li.  6). 

XLIX.  1 7.  One  of  the  few  occasions  on  which  Saadya  deviates  from 
the  Massoretic  text,  not  without  the  ancient  versions.     See  on  liv.  9, 

L.  4.  n-lj;?.  If  it  is  undesirable  in  any  case  to  appeal  solely  to 
the  superabundant  Arabic  vocabulary,  it  is  specially  so  in  a  section  so 
plain  and  natural  in  its  phraseology.    I  incline  to  agree  with  Kloster- 

'  Aulh.  Vers.,  too,  boldly  renders  in  I's.  I.e.  '  from  the  soulh,'  though  perhaps  by 
a  guess  ;  yce  ['oole,  Syno/>sis  ad  loc. 


l66  CRITICAL    AND    PHILOLOGICAL    NOTES. 

mann,  that  both  n)]h  and  nynS  are  only  variants  for  the  one  true 
reading  niy")'?.  Comp.  the  use  of  nj;"i  for  'to  teach'  in  Prov.  x.  21. 
Perhaps  '  to  edify '  (suggested  by  Del.  on  Prov.)  would  be  the  best 
rendering. 

LI.  6.  'i2'>  p-iD3-  There  are  two  objections  to  rendering  |5  '  an 
insect:'  i.  that  thesingular  (as Talmudic  Hebrew  shows)  would  be  n33 
(comp.  D-.^'^3  from  nvs)  ;  2.  that  a  single  gnat  would  hardly  be 
referred  to  in  so  elevated  a  passage  (contrast  i  Sam.  xxiv.  14).  The 
force  of  both  objections  is  destroyed  by  Dr.  Weir's  very  easy  cor- 
rection. 'Is  not,'  he  asks,  'the  right  reading  D*33,  the  next  word 
beginning  with  D"?'  It  seems  natural  to  make  the  same  emendation 
in  Num.  xiii.  33,  '  We  became  in  our  eyes  as  locusts,  and  vermin 
became  we  in  theirs.'  The  mark  of  abbreviation  may  have  been 
overlooked  ;  thus  '33  became  )3.  There  is  an  Egyptian  word  which 
Brugsch  and  Canon  Cook  identify  with  the  '3  of  Exodus,  viz., 
cheneinms,  the  mosquito. 

LI.  19.  ■jDnJX  'D-  This  would  mean  'Who  am  I  that  I  should 
comfort  you  ? '  which  does  not  suit  the  passage.  Probably  there  is  an 
error  of  the  ear,  and  we  should  read  -^nv-  Comp.  the  false  reading 
-1K3  for  -ix''D,  Am.  viii.  8  ;  C'N  for  C'^  2  Sam.  xiv.  9  ;  -ijdn-i  for  lONI. 
Zech.  iv.  2,  &c. ;  "iV1*lI  for  Tyii^n,  Zech.  xi.  13. 

Lii,  5.  I'NJp.  As  Del.  (3rd  ed.)  remarks,  the  pointing  is  very 
strange  ;  we  should  expect  the  Paul  partic,  or,  if  a  reflexive  at  all 
(which,  however,  seems  out  of  place),  Hithpoel  and  not  Hithpoal. 
Luzzatto's  view  is  very  plausible,  and  in  harmony  with  the  pheno- 
mena brought  out  so  fully  (perhaps  too  fully)  by  Geiger  in  his  Ur- 
schrift.  He  would  point  I'Xbp,  and  accounts  for  the  actual  pointing 
from  an  aversion  on  the  part  of  the  Massoretes  to  speak  of  Jehovah's 
name  as  '  reviled.'  All  that  they  succeeded  in  doing,  however,  was 
to  shroud  the  passage  in  obscurity. 

LII.  8  (end).  On  the  view  of  the  text  adopted,  Del.  thinks  we 
should  expect  jvv^  ;  but  the  accus.  loci  is  amply  justified  (see  2  Sam. 
XV.  34).  At  the  end  of  my  note  (p.  38),  I  have  sugested  that  3i::> 
might  be  taken  as  the  short  for  ni3C*  31K' ;  comp.  Ps.  Ixxxv.  5,  where 
•133'iK'  corresponds  to  3py*  nncr  n3L*N  v.  2  (Q'ri).  One  of  the  best 
discussions  of  nnt'  3"::'  is  by  Dr.  Kuenen,  Thcologisch  Tijdsc/iri/f, 
1873,  pp.  52o-:i.  A  priori,  it  certainly  seems  probable  that  jwi'^ 
and  2^^  should  be  of  cognate  origin  (comp.  '  to  rejoice  with  a  great 
joy,'  Sec.)  ;  and,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the  meaning  '  to  restore  the  re- 
storation of  suits  all  the  passages  in  which  the  phrase  occurs,  whereas 
the  alternative  meaning  does  not.  ni3t'  from  qic,  as  nio^  from  Dn 
(Ezek.  xxxii.  5),  rwh  from  Tli5=|*l'?  (Prov.  iv.  24). 

1,11.    15.   r\v.     No  word   in  the  whole  of  the  Old  Testament  so 


CRITICAL    AND    THILOLOGICAL    NOTES.  1 67 

forcibly  exemplifies  the  urgent  necessity  for  keeping  the  philological 
department  in  exegesis  separate  from  the  theological.  Through  an 
unfortunate  failure  in  this  respect,  even  Dr.  Pusey  is  unable  (be 
it  said  with  all  respect)  to  state  the  facts  of  Hebrew  usage  accu- 
rately.' The  truth  is,  as  Dr.  Taylor  remarks,  that  '  nm  does  not 
mean  besprinkle  (a  person  with  a  liquid),  but  sprinkle  (a  liquid  upo7i  a 
person) ' ;  2  Mr.  Urwick  wholly  misses  the  point  when,  after  Reinke, 
he  quotes  Lev.  iv.  6,  17,  in  favour  of  the  old  rendering.^  In  one 
point  I  entirely  agree  with  Dr.  Pusey,  viz.  that  the  reference  of  many 
of  the  moderns  to  the  Arabic  naza,  '  to  leap,'  is  out  of  place.  The 
case  is  parallel  to  that  of  niy  in  1.  6.  There  are  so  many  undoubtedly 
Hebrew  words  both  for  'to  help'  and  'to  leap,' that  it  is  quite  un- 
necessary to  resort  to  the  Arabic  Lexicon.  It  is  also  worth  noticing 
(though  the  objection  is  not  absolutely  fatal)  that  tiaza  is  rare  in  grave 
and  classical  literature,  being  used  properly  of  animals,  and  mostly 
in  an  obscene  sense.*  If  a  conjecture  is  to  be  ventured  upon  (for 
Dr.  Taylor's  new  interpretation  of  nf— see  note  on  Essay  X. — seems 
the  effort  of  despair),  I  would  suggest  "ip!  (if  no  one  has  offered  it 
before).  The  word  occurs  in  Hab.  iii.  6  (comp.  Job  xxxvii.  i)  with 
an  implication  of  fear  ;  but  in  another  context  it  might  be  used 
differently.  A  reference  to  Stade's  comparative  table  of  the  forms 
of  the  Hebrew  characters  will  show  that  the  confusion  between  in'' 
and  nt*  might  easily  have  occurred. 

Dr.  Weir's  comment  on  this  word  and  its  context  is  peculiar.  He 
sees  no  difficulty  in  the  omission  of  "py  or  h^  after  n-J!,  which  he 
regards  as  a  justifiable  poetical  licence  (as  if  a  licence  of  this  kind 
were  credible,  when  so  much  depended  on  intelligibility — consider 
the  position  of  this  prophecy  ! )  ;  nor  yet  in  the  context,  which  he 
considers  to  be  in  perfect  harmony  with  the  meaning  '  sprinkle.'  He 
explains  the  connection  thus  : — '  As  many  shrank  back  in  horror 
from  him,  as  one  unclean  or  accursed,  ...  so  shall  he  sprinkle  many- 
Many  who  looked  upon  him  as  unclean,  and  avoided  and  loathed 
him  as  such,  shall  themselves  be  cleansed  by  him.'  But  where  is 
the  Servant  said  to  be  a  priest  ? 

Liii.  3.  D''C"S  "pin.  Dr.  Kay  explains,  '  ceasing  to  be  of  men ' ; 
of  so  mean  appearance  that  he  '  was  no  longer  reckoned  with  men  ' 
(A.  Ezra).  But  Job  xix.  14,  and  the  analogy  of  the  Arabic  khadilu 
'abstaining  from  aiding'  or  'holding  back  from  going  with  '  (Lane), 
justifies  the  rendering  adopted  (so  Del.). 

1  The  Fifty-third  Chapter  of  Isaiah  accordi}tg  to  the  Jewish  Translators,  Intro- 
duction to  the  English  Translation,  by  Rev.  E.  B.  Pusey,  p.  xxxviii. 

-  Review  of  The  Fifty-third  Chapter,  &c.,  in  the  Academy,  May  19,  1877, 
p.  441. 

5  Urwick,   The  Servant  of  Jehovati,  p.  102. 

■^  See  Tayler  Lewis,  'The  Purifying  Messiah  ;  Interpretation  of  Isa,  lii.  13' ;  Biblio- 
thgca  Sacra',  \%-ji,  pp.  166-177. 


l6S  CRITICAL    AND    I'HILOI.OGICAL    KOTLS. 

Mil.  4.  Many  MSS.,  Pesh.,  Vulg.,  insert  x-in  before  q^2^'-  'I'bis 
adds  force,  and  Lowth  and  Bleek  incline  to  accept  it. 

i.iii.  5.  •Upi'pt'.  32  MSS.  read  •"irrpi'?^,  and  Dr.  Weir  suggests 
i:m^^  'our  retribution.' 

I.III.  7.  n^y;.  JVifa/  tolerathmm  ;  comp.  v.  12,  Iv.  6,  Ixv.  1,  Ps. 
ii.  10,  Gen.  xiii.  16.  We  need  not  therefore  quote  Ex.  x.  3  (with 
Del.)  ;  the  syncope  of  n  in  Nifal  is  questionable  (see  on  i.  12).  On 
the  syntax  of  the  clause,  see  Del.'s  note  in  his  3rd  ed. 

Liii.  8.  'iji  nnTiSV  For  the  view  of  the  construction,  .see 
Ewald,  Lehrbuch,  §  277  d  {=Hebr.  Syntax,  by  Kennedy,  p.  38), 
where  Ew.  compares,  not  indeed  our  passage,  but  Ivii.  15,  Ezek. 
xvii.  21,  xliv.  3,  Neh.  ix.  19,  and  refers  to  the  demonstrative  force  of 
nx  in  the  Hebrew  of  the  Mishna.  — To  revert  to  the  exegesis.  Dr. 
Weir  thinks  that  liii.  2>a  is  precisely  parallel  to  xxxviii.  12,  *  my  age 
(i.e.  my  full  life-circle,  my  lifetime)  is  cut  off  like  a  weaver's  web  '  ; 
but  the  meaning  thus  ascribed  to  "in  is  arbitrary,  rw-^  can  only  have 
one  of  these  three  meanings— (<?)  'his  contemporaries,'  (p)  'those 
like-minded  with  him  '  (-in=a  class  of  characters,'  comp.  Ps.  xii.  8, 
xiv.  5,  cxii.  2,  Prov.  xxx.  11-14),  or  (r)  'his  dwelling,'  i.e.  his  grave 
(comp.  xxxviii.  12).  Both  {b)  and  {c)  anticipate  unnaturally  the 
statements  of  subsequent  verses  ;  Seinccke  (ap])roved  by  Riehm) 
thinks  that  {h)  is  supported  by  the  plural  suffix  in  ID*?,  but  see  next 
note,     {a)  is  favoured  by  the  parallel  passage,  Ivii.  i. 

iJ^A     I  had  already,  in   1870,  explained  this  mysterious 

form  (/.  C.  A.,  p.  192)  by  a  reference  to  the  Phcenician  suffix  e  or 
hn  for  the  3rd  pers.  sing.,  following  Schroder  {Die  phonizische 
Sprache,  p.  153)  and  '^\Qk.€i\.{Theologisches  L.'teroturblatt,  Bonn,  1869, 
p.  366).^  Dr.  Pusey,  in  1877,  notices  the  same  linguistic  fact  {Jeiv- 
ish  Interpreters,  &c.,  p.  liii.),  but  overlooks  his  English  predecessor. 
The  suffix  e  reminds  us  of  course  of  Aramaic  ;  the  appended  ///  is 
doubtless  'a  remnant  of  the  ])rimitive  Semitic  "nunnation  "  or  "  mim- 
mation  "  ;  in  other  words,  the  pronoun  of  the  third  person  singular, 
like  the  noun,  was  terminated  by  n  or  w.'  The  same  explanation  in 
all  probability  applies  to  the  suffix  in  em  in  vii.  15  (see  note  above), 
and  those  in  dino  or  e>iid  in  xliv,  15,  Job  xx.  23,  xxii.  2,  xxvii.  23,  Ps. 
xi.  7,  but  not  to  Gen.  ix.  26,  27,  P.s.  xxviii.  8,^  Ixxiii.  10  (where  the 
reference  is  collective).  The  0  in  the  Hebrew  form  seems  to  point 
to  a  marginal  note,  to  the  effect  that  0  or  d7>  was  to  be  read,  and  not 
dtno  or  imb.     The  correct  pronunciation  would  therefore  seem  to  be 

'  Or,  as  Del.  untranslatably  expresses  it,  •  Eincni  Zeilgcist  InildigendeZeilgenossen- 
schaft  ■  (on  Ps.  xii.  8). 

*  See  also  Studi' in  /l/(;;y<?// /,;//(// «7/tf  Foru/iiiHi^en  (1875),    p.    20J,   &c.  ;  Ixhrbiuk 
d-Lj' hebr.  (',rainni.  (1879),  p.  20 i. 

*  nut  here  wc  should  probiibly  read,  with  S])l.,  i^y> 


CRITICAL    AND    PHILOLOGICAL    NOTES.  1 69 

bent,  lem^pdnem,  &c.-It  is  quite  true,  as  my  late  friend  Dr.  Diestel 
observed,'  that  the  above  merely  proves  the  possibility  that  107  may 
be  singular;  but  when  the  remainder  of  this  paragraph  (putting  aside 
the  dubious  rn03)  is  so  strikingly  individualising  in  its  phraseology, 
have  we  not  a  right  to  demand  that  of  two  possible  meanings  that 
one  should  be  chosen  which  harmonises  with  this  cast  of  phraseology? 
Dr.  Diestel  certainly  misses  the  mark  when  he  maintains  that  my 
view  is  against  the  usage  of  II.  Isaiah,  referring  to  \rh  in  xliv.  15,  as 
'  also  collective.'  It  is  noteworthy  that  both  Pesh.  and  Vulg.  under- 
stand the  suffix  to  be  singular  ;  Targ.,  however,  to  be  plural.  Sept. 
read  'id"?  i.e.  mc^.  In  support  of  this,  see  Kennicott's  note  in  Lowth, 
Geiger  {Nachgelassene  Schrifien,  iv.  80),  and  above,  on  xlix.  12. 

Liii.  9.  -i^K^y.  To  the  difficulty  urged  in  my  note  (p.  49),  I  may 
add  that  to  use  '':j;  synonymously  with  n^DH  or  pnv  is  quite  natural, 
for  "-jy  is  etymologically  'humble,'  and  'humility'  is  the  fundamental 
note  of  Biblical  piety.  But  i^K^y  has  not  the  parallel  root-meaning 
of  '  proud.'  It  is  therefore  not  without  some  reason  that  Del.  has 
abandoned  the  view  which  he  held  as  lately  as  1864  {Hiob,  \^  Ausg., 
note  on  xxi.  28),  viz.  that  '  rich '  here  =  '  ungodly,'  and  now  maintains 
that  there  is  an  antithesis  between  the  first  clause  and  the  second— 
'  He  was  appointed  to  be  buried  with  deceased  malefactors,  but  when 
dead  he  was  appointed  to  lie  in  a  rich  man's  grave.'  But  this  (equally 
with  the  traditional  orthodox  explanation)  requires  an  inversion  of 
the  prophet's  words.  — Ewald  (and  so  /.  C.  A.)  conjectures  piK^U  (comp. 
Jer.  xxii.  3)  ;  Krochmal  emends  U'W\  into  D''yt;'D>  and  -iic^y  into 
D-yt^'-l. 

vnon-     There   is   no  evidence  that  D'-nb  was   used  for 

'  the  state  of  death,'  on  the  analogy  of  D""'n  ;  nor  yet  for  '  violent 
death,'  which  is  rather  n^1iO♦p,  Ezek.  xxviii.  8  (which  determines  the 
reading  of  v.  10),  and  even  □''niDp  is  only  used  in  construction  with 
a  collective  noun.  The  alternatives  are  either  to  read  Vnb2  or  inb?. 
The  former,  which  is  the  reading  of  three  of  De  Rossi's  MSS.,^  is  ren- 
dered either  'his  tombs  '  or  'his  tomb,'  according  as  we  suppose  the 
subject  of  the  prophecy  to  be  a  collective  term  or  a  real  person  :  in  the 
latter  case  the  plural  will  be  honorific  (comp.  m:Dt^•D,  Isa.  liv.  2,  Ps. 
cxxxii.  5).  I  much  doubt,  however,  whether  nD2  will  bear  the  render- 
ing 'tomb.'  It  is  true  there  is  the  analogy  of  ti'n|  in  Job  xxi.  32, 
but  the  very  definite  use  of  n?33,  both  in  Biblical  and  in  Rabbinic 
Hebrew,  for  'high  place  '  or  'altar,'  makes  this  wider  use  highly  im- 
probable.    Ezek.  xliii.  7  has  been  quoted  in  its  favour,  but  in  that 

1  Knobel's  Jesaia,  4te  Aufl.,  von  Dr.  L.  Diestel  (1872),  p.  444. 

2  Ibn  Ezra  keeps  the    reading  vn03'  ^ut  gives  '2,  the  sense  of  '  tomb,'  and  says 

that  it  has  two  construct  forms  of  the  plui'al,  hke  D'"ID- 


T70  CRITICAL    AND    PHILOLOGICAL    NOTES. 

passage  we  ought,  with  the  Babylonian  Codex,  to  point  Drii»3.  On 
the  whole,  I  prefer  )nb2  ;  an  intrusive  »  is  no  novelty  in  the  O.  T. 
text.  '  In  his  death  '  =  after  his  death  (Lev.  xi.  31,  &c.)  ;  cf.  Shake- 
speare's '  Speak  me  fair  in  death.' 

Liii.  10.  vPH-  I  understand  this  as  referring  to  1K3T  (com p. 
Mic.  vi.  13,  Nah.  iii.  19),  but  not  as  grammatically  in  combination 
with  it.     This  seems  the  most  natural  view. 

D'^K'n.     The  difficulty  of  rendering  the  text-reading  na- 

turally  is  obvious,  whether  we  prefer  to  make  mn*  or  IC'DJ  the  sub- 
ject.    A  similar  error  in  Ps.  xlix.  19. 

LIII.  12.  D^jnn.  The  rendering  adopted  is  the  only  one  fully 
in  harmony  with  the  parallel  line.  The  alternative  is  to  take  the 
preposition  distributively,  as  serving  to  specialise  the  contents  of  the 
p^n  ;  comp.  e.g.  Gen.  xxiii.  18  (Job  xxxix.  17,  often  referred  to,  is 
an  unfortunate  example,  for  it  would  suggest  that  the  ppn  only  in- 
cluded a  part,  and  not  the  whole,  of  the  D''3")).  Del.'s  note  on 
this  passage  is  obscurely  expressed,  and  seems  inconsistent  with  his 
translation. 

Liv.  9.  The  Babylonian  Codex  has  "'I?''?  ;  so  also  Saad.,  who 
deviates  but  rarely  from  the  Mas.  text  (see  on  xlix.  17).  Sept.  read 
*t?>»,  a  corruption,  thinks  Del.,  of  '•ip^?. 

LIV.  15.  "1-13J  The  renderings  'sojourn,'  'congregate,'  do  not  suit 
the  context.  As  Ewald  rightly  holds,  "i-IH  borrows  its  meaning  here 
trorn  r\-\l  (comp.  Ti>f— mv>  Tn-nrn.  nib'— mb),  as  in  Ps.  cxl.  3. 

^IS"!  -|i^y.     Alt.    rend.,    which   brings   before   us  Israel's 

moral  conquest  of  his  enemies,  is  not  in  harmony  with  the  context, 
which  speaks  only  of  the  failure  of  their  hostile  enterprises.  Besides, 
as  Dr.  Kay  points  out,  the  preposition  here  precedes  the  verb ;  where 
the  phrase  7U  "PDJ  or  ^  7S:  means  '  to  join  the  opposite  party,'  the 
preposition  follows.    Perhaps,  however,  this  is  too  subtle  a  distinction. 

LIV.  17.  u''tJ'")n-  Comp.  '$i^x\z.c  khbb  'to  be  defeated,'  z'ka  'to 
fonquer.' 

LV.  13.  m?.  This  is  one  of  the  passages  which  seem  to  require 
the  rendering  '  monument  '  (note  niX  in  the  parallel  clause).  See 
also  especially  Ivi.  5,  Ps.  cxxxviii.  2  (observe  ^,3,  which  hardly  suits 
the  rend,  'name'),  (2  Sam.  iii.  13,  Gen.  xi.  4).  In  fact,  if  Ges.'s 
etymology  be  accepted,  this  should  be  the  primary  meaning  of  the 
word. 

Lvi.  II.  Read  D^ynn  hdh. 

Lvii.  3  end.  n^tni.  Ewald  explains  the  whole  phrase,  '  seed  of 
him  who  broke  wedlock,  and  she  consequently  (Vav  consecutive) 
committed  whoredom  '  {Lehrbuch,  §  35 1  /') ;  he  compares  Dan.  viii. 


CRITICAL   AND    PHILOLOGICAL   NOTES.  17I 

22.     But  the  construction  does  not  suit  the  style  of  our  passage. 
Klostermann  reads  r\:n  nSNJO,  simpHfying  the  construction  at  the 

expense  of  a  tautology. 

Lvii.  8.  DriD.    Graetz  restores  Dq»V  {Monatsschrift,  1883,  p.  114). 

LVii.  13.  i^vinp.  Sept.  Iv  rfj  OXiij/eL  a-ov,  '  probably  reading 
npi:;n3  or  -jnpl'ifa,  an  indication  that  there  was  some  different  ar- 
rangement of  the  letters  of  the  text,  and  apparently  favouring  ^vipJi'.' 
Dr.  Weir. 

LVII.  20.  G.  Hoffmann's  corrections  K>njj  and  iK'nri  (cf.  K'nj)  do 
not  improve  the  sense.  (Stade's  Z?//jr/;W//,  1883,  p.  122.)  For  the 
nuance  acquired  by  ^^133  comp.  Am.  viii.  8,  where  the  sense  of  ncnw 
is  defined  by  the  preceding  nn"?U,  as  well  as  by  the  following  npp 
(read  nypK^j).  '  Heaping  up  '  gives  the  notion  rather  of  immobility 
than  of  unrest. 

Lviii.  6.  'The  ancient  versions  seem  to  have  had  a  different  text.' 

Dr.  Weir. 

Lviii.  7.  n^n-'ni?.  Read  Dn>10.  An  accidental  transposition,  as 
in  2  Kings  xi.  2,  where  the  k'thibh  is,  by  an  obvious  error,  DTIIDQ. 
Ewald  apparendy  supposes  a  peculiarity  of  pronunciation  in  both 
cases  {Lehrbuch,  §  131  ^)  ;  but  surely  this  is  improbable.  Del. 
assumes  a  secondary  formation  from  nn,  viz.  I^D,  of  which  the  form 
in  the  text  would  be  a  passive  participle. 

LVIII.  II.  "^hrw  The  ancient  versions  stumbled  at  this  word, 
and  it  is  possible  that  we  have  here  a  very  ancient  corruption  of 
^hn\  '  he  shall  renew.'  But  we  need  not  in  this  case  read  ^n^vy, 
'  thy  strength '  (as  Seeker  and  Lowth)  ;  Hupfeld  (on  Ps.  vi.  3)  well 
compares  Ps.  xxxii.  3,  '  my  bones  waxed  old.' 

Lvin.  12.  "IDD.  'Should  we  not  readT^:!?'  Dr.  Weir.  The 
text-reading  is,  of  course,  not  untranslatable,  but  there  is  no  obvious 
reason  here  for  such  a  construction.  The  case  is  different  in  Ps. 
Ixviii.  27,  Job  xviii.  15. 

Lix.  3.  6kJ3.  The  same  form  (the  passive  of  the  Arabic  seventh 
verbal  stem)  occurs  in  Lam.  iv.  14.  It  is  odd  that  it  should  only 
occur  as  a  derivation  of  Ss3.  Luzzatto  suspects  that  the  authors 
of  the  points  wished  to  avoid  a  confusion  with  17X33,  from  bui,  '  tq 
redeem.' 

LIX.  18.  hv2.  The  versions  seem  to  have  found  this  gramma- 
tical anomaly  unintelligible  ;  so  too  Bp.  Lowth,  who  adopts  7V2  for 
7V2  from  Targ.  (see  his  note). 

Lxi.  I.  The  difficulty  of  the  closing  words  Ues  in  the  fact  that 
npa  is  elsewhere  only  used  of  the  eyes  or  (once,  viz.  xhi.  20)  of  the 
ears.  We  should  therefore  expect  nipnps  Dniy^l.  It  is  tempting 
to  suppose  that  we  have  in  the  Massoretic  text  a  combination  of  two 


lyi  CRITICAL    A\D    PHILOLOGICAL    NOTES. 

readings  — one,  that  just  quoted  (favoured  by  Sept.),  and  the  other 
ninnns  Dmos'pi  (favoured  by  Pesh.,  Vulg.).  This  is  the  view  of  Dr. 
Neubauer,  who  remarks  that  a  combination  of  this  sort,  where  manu- 
script authorities  were  equally  divided,  would  be  quite  in  the  spirit  of 
the  Massoretic  critics  {Acadony,  June  ii,  1870).  Comp.  a  plausible 
explanation  of  the  famous  SevrepoTrpoWia  in  Luke  vi.  i,  as  a  combina- 
tion of  two  readings  Seurepa)  and  Trpwrw. 

LXL  2,  3.  The  text  is  evidently  in  disorder.  Bickell's  corrections 
(see  vol.  i.  ad  /oc.)  explain  themselves. 

Lxiii.  3.  D3"nsi.  Point  this,  and  the  corresponding  verbs  in  this 
and  the  following  verses,  according  to  the  rule  of  '  vav  consecutive.' 
So  Luzzatto.  It  is  only  those  who  are  unaware  of  the  numerous 
instances  in  which,  from  exegetical  or  theological  peculiarities,  or  from 
some  obscure  causes,  the  Massoretic  punctuation  is  entirely  or  proba- 
bly erroneous,  who  will  accuse  such  a  proceeding  of  uncritical  rashness. 
Here  the  cause  of  the  wrong  pointing  is  patent — it  is  the  theory,  em- 
balmed in  that  other  record  (the  Massoretic  punctuation  being  also 
one)  of  early  Jewish  exegetical  traditions,  the  Targum,  that  this  section 
of  prophecy  relates  to  the  future  (comp.  on  xliii.  28).  It  is  singular 
that  in  v.  5  the  authors  of  the  points  should  have  allowed  themselves 
to  write  yci'ini,  mechanically  following  lix.  16.  This  is  one  of  those 
inconsistencies  which  occasionally  puzzle  us  in  the  Massoretic  punc- 
tuation.— Comp.  Driver,  Hebrew  Tenses,  §  84  a,  176,  Obs.  i  (he  in- 
clines to  agree  as  to  T^.i). 

^n^NJN.     The  initial  N  is  miswritten  by  an  Aramaism  for 

n  ;  comp.  Jer.  xxv.  3,  and  perhaps  Mic.  vii.  15, 

LXIII.  9.  Dr.  Kay  objects  that  iv  h  can  only  mean  '  he  was  re- 
duced to  a  strait,'  'which,  of  course,  is  not  suitable  here.'  But  it  is 
as  suitable  as  any  other  anthropomorphic  expression  (see,  e.g.,  lix.  16). 
For  the  position  of  h  see  comm.  on  xliii.  22. 

LXIII.  II.  The  reason  why  the  accents  unite  IDJ?  nt'D  appears  from 
Targ.,  which  paraphrases  'the  mighty  deeds  which  he  had  done 
through  Moses  to  his  people.' 

The  Babylonian  Codex  has  ^y'l ;  Baer,  too,  adopts  this  as 

the  Massoretic  reading.     This  determines  the  subject  of  "I3")p2. 

LXIII.  15.  The  meaning  '  habitation  '  has  been  generally  ac- 
quiesced in,  but  seems  very  uncertain,  and  has  no  philological  foun- 
dation. The  verb  ^3T  is  found  only  in  Gen.  xxx.  20,  where  it 
is  commonly  rendered  '  dwell  (with  me),'  not  to  suit  the  context,  but 
in  obedience  to  a  prejudice  as  to  the  meaning  of  H\y\  (although  Sept. 
renders  aipcTtci  /ac).  The  writer  himself  seems  to  have  felt  that  the 
root  \l\  was  unfamiliar  to  his  readers,  and  he  therefore  selects  an 
alternative  root  131  to  illustrate  n'rar      '^^c  are  evidently  justified  in 


CRITICAL   AND    PHILOLOGICAL    NOTES.  I  73 

expecting   some    light   from  the    aUied    languages,  especially  from 
Assyrian.    In  Chaldee,  ^3.T  and  the  cognate  words  have  no  connec- 
tion with  the  idea   of  'dwelling,'  but  with  that  of   'manure.'     In 
Arabic,  too,  according  to  Lane,  zabala  means— i.  to  dung,  manure  ; 
2.  to  bear,  carry.     The  latter  meaning  is  important  for  us,  for  M. 
Stanislas  Guyard  has  lately  pointed  out  ^  that  Assyrian  also  possesses 
the  root  zabalu^nasfi  (sb'j)  in  the  sense  of  '  bearing  '  (whence  zabil 
kudurri,'^  'crown-bearer'  =  Arab,  xvaztr  [vizier],  a  title  of  the  kings 
tributary   to   Assyria),    and   hence   of  'elevating.'      My  friend  Mr. 
Sayce  corroborates  the  meaning  of  '  elevation  '  for  zabal  by  a  refer- 
ence to  bilingual  tablets  (see,  e.g.,  the  Briiish  Museum  Inscriptions, 
vol.  ii.  p.  15,  1.  45),  where  the  Accadian  sag-il,  or  sag-ga  (Haupt),  lit. 
'high  head,' 3   is  explained  by  the  Assyrian   zabal.     It  cannot  be 
denied  that  several  passages  of  the  Old  Testament  gain  in  force  if  we 
explain  \l\  on  the  analogy  of  zabal.     How  suitably,  for  instance, 
does  Solomon,  after  alluding  to  Jehovah's  dwelling  in  'thick  clouds,' 
refer  to  the  newly  built  temple  as  a  ^?t  n\3  '  a  house  of  height ' 
(i  Kings  xii.   12,  13,  comp.  ix.  8«),  a  house  which  by  its  elevation 
pointed  men  upwards  to  the  heavenly  temple  (comp.  Isa.  vi.  i)  ! 
How  apposite  is  the  same  sense  of  '  elevation '  in  a  description  of 
the  sun  and  moon  (Hab.  iii.   n)  !     How  finely  does  the  Psalmist 
(Ps.  xlix.  15)  suggest  the  contrast  between  the  palaces  (?i)d"ix  from 
the  idea  of  height)  of  the  worldly-minded  rich  and  the  '  castle '  '*  of 
Sheol  (comp.   Job  xxxviii.   17)!     In  Gen.  xxx.   20,  where  the  verb 
occurs,  the  rendering  'extol,'  'honour  '  (closely  approached  by  Sept.), 
is  certainly   appropriate,    and,   as  M.    Guyard   remarks,  avoids  the 
necessity  of  understanding  a  preposition.     In  the  passage  of  Isaiah 
before  us,  the  gain  in  force  by  substituting  '  height '  for  '  habitation  ' 
is  obvious.     Of  course,  a  vague  sense  like  'habitation'   may   just 
suffice  for  the  passages  in  which  ^-inT  occurs.    But  what  greater  claim 
has  it  than  '  elevation  '  ?     The  supposed  tradition  in  its  favour  seems 
really  to  be  based  on  a  guess.     On  the  other  hand,  the  proposed 
rendering  is  supported  by  indisputable  evidence  from  a  north  Semitic 
vocabulary. 

LXiii.  15.  We  might  take  the  second  part  of  the  verse  as  a  ques- 
tion, with  Dr.  Gratz,  who  also  reads  i:>^x  (comp.  Sept.). 

1  •  Remarques  sur  le  mot  assyrien  zabal,'  &c.,  in  Journal  asiatique,  aoHt-sept., 
1878  pp.  220-5  ;  cf.  Friedr.  Delitzsch,  Hebrew  and  Assyrian  (1883),  pp.  38,  39. 
Schrader,   K.   A.    T.,  ed.  2,    pp.   185-6.     A  part  of  M.  Guyard's  evidence,  however, 

seems  doubtful.  .,,..,  ,       .    •        0^0 

2  Mr.  Norris,  with  exemplary  self-restramt,  left  this  title  untranslated  in  1868 
(Assyrian  Dictionary,  i.  310). 

3  Comp.  130  and  227^  in  the  Syllabary  in  Sayce  sElemefiiary  Assyrian  Grammar. 

4  In  Ps.  I.e.  the  least  we  can  do  is  to  point  (with  Ew.,  Hitz.)  7IIT0  ;  "^ore  pro- 
bably the  n  is  a  fragment  of  a'piy'?  (Bickell).  But  the  old  rend,  'glory'  (Sept.,  Vulg., 
but  not  St.  Jerome's  version,  and  virtually  Targ.)  can  be  used  as  a  testimony  for  the 
true  meaning  of  the  root. 


174  CRITICAL    AND    PHILOLOGICAL    NOTES. 

Lxiii.  19.  The  versions  (see  p.  no)  certainly  favour  the  supposi- 
tion of  corruptness,  though  II.  Isaiah  does  contain  rather  extreme 
cases  of  constructions  in  which  the  logical  syntax  is  not  expressed, 
e.g.  xli.  2  a,  24,  xlviii.  14  b.  Prof  Driver  compares  Gen.  xxxi.  40,  Job 
xii.  4. 

LXiv.  4  (5).  nnx-  Griiz  {Monatsschrift,  1880,  p.  52)  reads  nnuj 
'  formerly  thou  wast  favourable,  but  no7V  thou  art  wroth.'  But  there 
is  an  emphasis  in  the  nns  (how  often  the  personal  pronoun  is  used 
when  Jehovah  speaks  !).  '  It  was  because  tho2i,  whose  nature  is  to 
be  gracious,  becamest  angry,'  &c. 

NtDn:i-     The  rend,  adopted  seems  called  for  (as  against 

DeL's)  by  the  statement  at  the  end  of  v.  6  (7). 

D^iy  Dn3-     To  illustrate  Ew.'s  view  of  the  passage,  comp. 

iii.  12  (note  above).  It  is  against  it,  however,  that  t]vp  is  nev^er 
elsewhere  constructed  with  3.  Del.  takes  Dn3  in  a  neuter  sense  (so 
St.  Jerome,  '  in  ipsis,'  sc.  peccatis)  ;  comp.  xxx.  6,  xxxviii.  16,  xliv.  15, 
Ezek.  xxxiii.  18.     Possible  ;  but  probable  here? 

Lxv.  15.  13")  in''?onv  The  suffix  seems  to  me  to  prove  that  this  is 
a  fragment  of  a  formula  of  imprecation.  Not,  however,  the  opening 
words.  Hence  the  perfect  need  not  be  the  precative,  the  existence 
of  which  is  doubtful  (see  on  xliii.  9),  nor  need  we  be  surprised  by 
the  omission  of   Dna  or  npX3. 

Lxvi.  II.  t*T.  The  sense  'udder'  seems  required  by  the  paral- 
lelism, and  may  be  justified  by  Assyr.  zuz,  'to  come  forth  '  (refer- 
ences in  Schrader,  K.  A.  T.,  ed.  2,  p.  550).  Rodiger  mentions  a 
vulgar  Arabic  word  ztza,  'udder  ; '  and  Judah  ben  Karish  (Koreish), 
in  his  Risalet  or  letter  to  the  Jews  of  Fez,  quotes  a  similar  '  barbar- 
ous '  word  with  the  same  meaning  (on  the  latter,  see  Ewald  and 
Dukes,  Beitrdge  zur  Gesch.  der  dltesten  Auslegung,  i.  118).  Lagarde 
would  read  V2,  ;  Nf^  is  the  equivalent  of  Yk*  in  the  Targum  of  the 
first  line  of  z^.  11  and  in  Ix.  16.  The  sense  of  'abundance'  ordina- 
rily given  has  not  been  well  made  out ;  the  transition  from  radiation 
or  from  offspring  to  plenty  is  unnatural.  The  ancient  versions  only 
guess. 


ESSAYS 

ILLUSTRATIVE    OF   THE    COMMENTARY 
ON    ISAIAH. 


I.     THE    OCCASIONAL   PROPHECIES    OF    ISAIAH 
IN   THE   LIGHT   OF   HISTORY. 


The  editor  of  a  modern  classic  of  the  interest  and  importance 
of  the  Book  of  Isaiah  would  naturally  preface  his  illustrations 
with  a  life  of  his  author.  But  of  Isaiah  what  has  the  editor 
to  tell  ?  Later  legend,  indeed,  hovered  busily  about  the 
prophet ;  ^  but,  except  as  giving  evidence  of  his  posthumous 
influence,  its  imaginative  creations  are  of  no  interest  to  the 
student  of  Isaiah.  The  prophet  is  not,  however,  a  mere 
name,  vox  et prcEterea  nihil,  for  his  works  are  the  monuments 
of  a  widely-reaching  activity  ;  and  through  his  teaching,  and 
probably  through  a  scanty  but  enthusiastic  band  of  disciples,^ 
he  was  the  means  of  beginning,  or  at  any  rate  of  greatly 
strengthening,  that  remarkable  phase  of  belief  which  we  may 
call,  in  the  literal  sense  of  the  word,  the  Messianic.  Of  the 
latter  I  shall  say  more  in  a  subsequent  essay  ;  my  immediate 
subject  is  the  place  of  Isaiah  in  the  history  of  his  times,  and 
the  chronological  arrangement  of  his  extant  ^  prophecies. 

By  thus  limiting  my  subject,  I  do  not  intend  to  deny  that 
Isaiah,  by  some  of  his  prophecies,  was  an  important  factor  in 
the  history  of  later  times — that  he  foretold,  and  by  foretelling 
contributed  to  bring  about  (for  such  is  the  Biblical  doctrine  of 
prophecy ''),  events  long  subsequent  to  his  own  age  ;  but  I  am 
equally  far  from  affirming  it.  Either  course  would  require 
me  to  carry  my  researches  into  the  domain  of  the  '  higher 
criticism,'  whereas  at  present,  in  the  interests  of  the  student, 
I  have  limited  myself  to  the  functions  of  an  exegete,  and 
only  pretend  to  set  before  the  reader  the  facts  (sometimes 
the  conflicting  facts)  supplied  by  the  text  itself. 

'  One  Rabbinic  authority  makes  Amoz,  the  father  of  Isaiah,  a  brother  of  King 
Amaziah,  and  there  is  a  general  agreement  that  Isaiah  himself  was  martyred  by  being 
sawn  asunder  at  the  order  of  Manasseh.  (See  references  in  Gesenius,  Commentar  iiber 
den  Jesaia,  i.  3-15.)  The  former  story  is  evidently  based  on  an  etymological  fancy  ; 
the  latter  may  have  been  occasioned  by  Isa.  lii.  13-liii.  12.  (So  Furst,  Geschichte  der 
biblischen  Literattir,  ii.  393.) 

-  Comp.  viii.  12-16,  xxviii.  23-29 ;  both  passages  presuppose  such  a  band  of 
disciples. 

3  For  of  course  we  have  no  reason  to  assume  that  all  Isaiah's  prophetic  writings 
have  been  preserved. 

^  Comp.  notes  on  ix.  8,  Iv.  11.  This  doctrine  of  the  self-fulfilling  power  of  pro- 
phecy explains  the  imprisonments  of  Micaiah  and  Jeremiah,  and  a  similar  belief  is 
presupposed  in  the  narrative  of  Balaam  (Num.  xxii.  6). 

VOL.   II.  N 


I  78  ESSAYS. 

The  prophecies  with  which  I  am  now  concerned  are  the 
occasional  ones — that  is,  those  which  were  called  forth  by 
passing  events,  and  are  at  any  rate  based  on  public  discourses 
of  Isaiah.  A  difference  of  opinion  in  specifying  these  is 
hardly  possible,  except  in  the  case  of  xxi.  i-io,  but  critics 
are  very  much  divided  as  to  the  time  when  the  prophecies 
were  composed.  Nor  can  this  be  greatly  wondered  at.  In 
the  first  place,  Israelitish  history  has  only  come  down  to  us 
in  fragments.  If  even  the  plays  of  Aristophanes  contain 
numerous  obscure  allusions,  though  the  author  lived  subse- 
quently to  the  rise  of  history  {Icnoplri),  how  much  more 
should  we  expect  this  to  be  the  case  with  the  religious  litera- 
ture of  a  nation  with  no  gift  for  scientific  research  !  In  the 
second  place,  it  is  evident  from  the  form  of  not  a  few  pro- 
phecies that  they  are  summaries  of  discourses  delivered  at 
various  times  ;  and  even  when  it  is  not  so,  the  cultivated  style 
of  the  oracles  sufficiently  proves  that  they  have  been  much 
altered  since  the  time  of  delivery  ;  we  cannot,  therefore,  be 
sure  that  they  give  an  absolutely  faithful  picture  of  the 
prophet's  original  feelings  and  circumstances.  Hence  a 
distinction  must  be  drawn  between  two  entirely  separate 
objects  of  inquiry — viz.  i.  the  date  of  Isaiah's  original  dis- 
course or  discourses,  and  2.  that  of  the  final  editing  of  the 
discourse  or  summarising  of  the  discourses.' 

But  it  may  be  asked.  Have  we  not  already  in  the  Book 
of  Isaiah  itself  an  authoritative  chronological  arrangement  ? 
This  is  the  view  of  Hengstenberg.  '  In  the  first  six  chapters/ 
remarks  this  celebrated  critic,  '  we  obtain  a  survey  of  the 
prophet's  ministry  under  Uzziah  and  Jotham.  Chap.  vii.  to 
x.  4  belongs  to  the  time  of  Ahaz.  From  x.  4  to  the  end  of 
chap.  XXXV.  everything  belongs  to  the  time  of  the  Assyrian 
invasion  in  the  fourteenth  year  of  Hezekiah  ;  in  the  face  of 
which  invasion  the  prophetic  gift  of  Isaiah  was  displayed  as 
it  had  never  been  before.  The  section,  chap,  xxxvi.-xxxix., 
furnishes  us  with  the  historical  commentary  on  the  preceding 
prophecies  from  the  Assyrian  period,  and  forms,  at  the  same 
time,  the  transition  to  the  second  part,  which  still  belongs  to 
the  same  period.'^  The  faults  of  this  theory  are,  i.  that  it 
implies  the  infallibility  of  the  later  Jewish  editors  of  Isaiah, 
and  2.  that  it  regards  the  prophecies  of  Isaiah,  or  at  any 
rate  those  in  the  first  part,  as  if  they  had  been  sent  out  into 
the  world  singly,  whereas  internal  evidence  strongly  favoui-s 
the  view  that  underlying  our  present  book  there  are  several 
partial  collections,  made  either  by  Isaiah,  or  bj-  Isaiah's  dis- 

'  See  /.  C.  /I.,  introduction,  p.  xii. 

*  Christolpgy  of  the  Old  Tes/amenI,  ii.  2,  3. 


ESSAYS.  I  79 

ciples,  or  perhaps  some  by  the  former,  and  others  by  the 
latter.  If  we  accept  this  position,  it  will  be  extremely  un- 
likely that  after  the  combination  of  these  small  collections 
the  prophecies  should  turn  out  to  be  in  exact  chronological 
order.  In  fact,  before  the  recent  Assyrian  discoveries  it 
seemed  easy  to  show  that  this  was  no  less  improbable  than 
the  sirnilar  view  that  the  Minor  Prophets,  as  they  stand,  are 
in  chronological  order  ;  for  how  could  the  section  x.  5-xii.  6, 
evidently  written  in  the  crisis  of  an  invasion,  be  rightly 
placed  so  far  from  chaps,  xxviii.-xxxii.,  which  only  express 
an  increasing  confidence  that  an  invasion  was  inevitable  ? 
The  discovery  of  the  large  part  played  by  Sargon  in  the 
affairs  of  Palestine  has,  it  is  true,  made  Hengstenberg's 
position  a  more  tenable  one.  The  prophecy  in  x.  5-xii.  6 
may  conceivably  refer  to  the  invasion  of  Sargon,  and  those  in 
xxviii.-xxxii.  to  that  of  Sennacherib.'  Hence  it  is  less  sur- 
prising that,  after  being  abandoned  by  scholars  in  general, 
Hengstenberg's  view  should  again  be  independently  main- 
tained by  Mr.  George  Smith  the  Assyriologist.^  Still,  some 
of  the  old  objections  to  it  remain  in  full  force.  Some  pro- 
phecies {e.g.  chap.  i.  and  chap.  xvii.  i-ii)  cannot  be  in  their 
right  chronological  order,  unless  the  remarks  in  the  preceding 
commentary  are  very  far  wrong  indeed.  The  evidence  for 
the  existence  of  groups  of  prophecies  is,  moreover,  too  strong 
to  be  disregarded  ;  and  it  would  argue  a  mean  estimate  of 
the  intellect  of  those  who  formed  these  groups  to  suppose 
that  chronology  was  their  only  guide,  and  that  affinity  of 
subjects  had  no  influence  on  their  selection  of  prophecies. 

I  assume,  then,  that  the  actual  order  of  the  prophecies  in 
the  Book  of  Isaiah  is  not  strictly  chronological.  The  results 
of  the  present  work,  however,  tend  to  show  that  the  devia- 
tions from  chronological  accuracy  are  not  considerable.  A 
brief  summary  will  make  this  at  once  clear,  and  serve  as  a 
table  of  contents  to  the  introductions  in  the  preceding  com- 
mentary. 

Isaiah  came  forward  as  a  young  prophet  (vi.  i)  in  the 
year  of  the  death  of  Azariah,''  that  warlike  and  enterprising 
monarch,  who  ventured  to  defy  Assyria  by  heading  a  con- 
federacy of  discontented  Syrian  powers.     Jotham,  the  next 

1  This  is  certainly  conceivable,  but  far  from  probable,  as  the  phraseological  points 
of  contact  between  the  proj^hecy  in  x.  5-xii.  6  and  chaps,  xxviii.  xxix.  (see  vol.  i.  p. 
67)  naturally  suggest  a  contemporary  origin. 

2  T.  S.  B.  A.,  ii.  (1873).  328-9. 

^  The  text  of  Isa.  vi.  i  calls  him  Uzziah,  and  so  2  Kings  xv.  13,  2  Chr.  xxvi. ;  but 
the  name  is  given  as  Azariah  in  2  Kings  xiv.  21,  and  in  the  contemporary  Assyrian 
inscriptions  as  A^riyau.  On  the  Syrian  coalition,  see  vol.  i.  p.  41,  and  note  the  refer- 
ence to  Sclnader. 


1 80  ESSAYS. 

king,  was  as  secular  in  tastes  as  his  father,  and  the  denuncia- 
tions in  chap.  ii.  and  in  ix.  8-x.  4  may  well  have  been 
delivered  in  substance  during  his  reign.  In  these  sterner 
passages  our  prophet  reminds  us  of  his  predecessor  Amos. 
But  as  soon  as  a  real  calamity  draws  near,  the  tone  of  his 
discourses  begins  to  soften,  and  the  passages  which  we 
naturally  turn  to  as  typical  of  his  genius  are  centred  in  the 
three  invasions  of  Judah  by  Rezin,  Sargon,  and  Sennacherib. 
Rezin  and  his  Israelitish  vassal  were  already  at  the  gates  of 
Jerusalem  when  Isaiah  delivered  the  substance  of  the  pro- 
phecies in  vii.  i-ix.  7,  famous  as  containing  the  first  distinct 
predictions  of  the  Messiah.  Chap.  xvii.  i-i  i  evidently 
belongs  to  the  same  period,  but  is  probably  a  little  earlier 
than  vii.  i-ix.  7.  In  724  (?)  Shalmaneser  opened  that  siege 
of  Samaria  which  was  so  soon  brought  to  its  fatal  end  by 
Sargon,'  and  we  may  presume  that  chap,  xxviii.  embodies 
the  discourses  of  Isaiah  on  that  striking  occasion  ;  but 
Shalmaneser  has  left  but  little  impression  on  the  Israelitish 
literature  compared  with  Sargon,  his  successor.  It  is  to  this 
king's  interference  with  the  affairs  of  Judah  ^  that  we  are,  as 
I  believe,  indebted  for  the  following  important  group  of 
prophecies  : — 

Chap.  xiv.  29-32,  a  prophecy  on  Philistia. 

Chap.  xix.  1-16,  a  prophecy  on  Egypt. 

Chap.  XX.,  a  prophecy  on  Egypt  and  Ethiopia. 

Chap,  xxix.-xxxii.,  a  prophecy  on  the  Egyptian  alliance  and  the  Assyrian 

invasion. 
Chap.  X.  5 — xi.  16,  a  prophecy  on  the  Assyrian  invasion  and  the  times 

following. 
Chap,  xxii.,  a  prophecy  on  the  siege  of  Jerusalem. 
Chap,  i.,  a  prophecy  on  the  spiritual  lessons  of  the  invasion. 

(Perhaps  also  chap.  xvi.  13,  14,  the  epilogue  attached  to  an 
older  prophecy  on  Moab,  and  chap.  xxi.  11-17,  containing 
short  prophecies  on  Dumah  and  Kedar.) 

The  Philistines,  destined  to  suffer  so  much  from  Assyria, 
were  already  hankering  after  independence,  when  Isaiah 
wrote  the  short  prophecy  in  xiv.  29-32  :  '  The  rod  which 
smote  them  '  {i.e.  Shalmaneser)  was  '  broken,'  but  the  prophet 
warned  them  that  the  new  king  (Sargon)  would  dart  upon 
them  like  a  basilisk,  and  punish  them  for  their  disobedience. 
The  unfavourable  'oracle  of  P2gypt '  (xix.  1-16)  probably 
comes  from  the  same  period.     The  '  hard   lord  '  into  whose 

'  Th'  re  is  some  doubt  respecting  the  chronological  limits  of  the  siege  of  S.Tm.iria; 
it  is  safest,  however,  to  follow  .^argon's  express  statement,  that  he  captured  Samaria 
in  the  beginning  of  his  reign.  Sec  further  Schrader,  A'.  G.  F.,  pp.  314-15  ;  Smith, 
The  Eponym  Canon,  p.  175. 

'^  See  introd.  to  x.  5-xii.  6  (vol.  i   pp.   O7-69). 


ESSAYS. 


i8i 


hand  the  Egyptians  are  to  be  delivered  (xix.  4)  is  Sargon, 
and  the  event  pointed  to  is  the  defeat  of  Shabaka,  King  of 
Egypt  and  Ethiopia,  B.C.  720,  near  the  Philistine  town  of 
Raphia.  It  does  not  appear  that  Sargon  interfered  with 
Judah  on  this  occasion.  Hezekiah  had  probably  refrained 
from  assisting  Shabaka,  so  that  the  Assyrian  army  would 
naturally  keep  to  the  coast-road.  The  security  of  Judah  will 
also  perhaps  account  for  the  falling  off  in  style  which  has 
been  noticed  in  chap.  xix.  When  the  danger  was  nearer 
home,  the  prophet's  voice  became  trumpet-toned. 

The  woes  denounced  on  Egypt  in  chap.  xix.  were  not 
immediately  realised,  and  in  chap.  xx.  Isaiah  renews  his 
warning.  Still,  the  results  of  the  battle  of  Raphia  were  by 
no  means  insignificant.  To  Rahab,  '  the  arrogant  one  '  (such 
was  the  symbolic  name  of  Egypt  in  Hebrew  :  see  on  xxx.  7), 
the  acknowledgment  of  Assyrian  supremacy  was  galling  in 
the  extreme  ;  a  still  greater  national  calamity  was  the  dis- 
memberment of  the  country  (see  introduction  to  chap.  xx.). 
That  Hezekiah  should  have  thought  it  worth  while  after  this 
to  seek  Egyptian  assistance  is  a  fact  so  improbable  that 
nothing  short  of  Isaiah's  authority  (see  chaps,  xxx.  xxxi.) 
could  establish  it.  Chap.  xxix.  also  belongs  in  substance  to 
this  period  ;  it  declares  that  Jerusalem  itself  is  in  imminent 
peril.  Shortly  after,  in  xxxii.  9-20,  the  prophet  repeats  his 
denunciation  to  the  frivolous  ladies  of  Jerusalem. 

Nor  are  these  the  only  words  spoken  by  the  great  prophet 
at  this  dark  period.  The  two  prophecies  on  the  Egyptian 
alliance  contain  some  passages  which  clearly  refer  to  this 
later  stage  in  the  history.  Thus  chap.  xxx.  18-33  evidently 
assumes  that  the  people  of  Judah  are  actually  suffering  from 
an  Assyrian  invasion,  and  xxxi.  4  announces  that  Jehovah 
will,  as  it  were,  personally  descend,  and  fight  for  Jerusalem . 
We  are,  in  fact,  in  the  midst  of  the  first  of  the  two  invasions 
under  Hezekiah,  when  Sargon  {i.e.  probably  his  Tartan,  or 
commander-in-chief)  took  '  all  the  fenced  cities  of  Judah.' ' 
Hezekiah  had  probably  followed  the  example  of  Yavan,  King 
of  Ashdod,  and  refused  the  usual  tribute  to  the  King  of 
Assyria  ;  so,  at  least,  we  may  infer  from  the  statement  of 
Sargon  that  the  Judahites  who  used  to  bring  tribute  were 
•speaking  treason.' ^  The  fate  of  Ashdod  seemed  likely  to 
become  that  of  Jerusalem,  and  Isaiah  (who  had  already 
pointed  out  the  danger,  xx.  6)  felt  the  urgency  of  the  call  for 
prophetic  admonition.  Of  his  discourses  during  this  critical 
period  at  least  three  appear  to  have  been  preserved — chap.  x. 

'  2  Kings  xviii.  13  (  =  Isa.  x.xxvi.  i).     On  this  passage,  see  vol.  i.  p.  202. 
^  See  inlrod.  to  chap.  xx.  (vol.  i.  pp.  122-3). 


1 82  ESSAYS. 

5-xii.  6,  chap.  xiv.  24-27,  and  chap.  xxii.  The  date  of  the 
first  two  is  absolutely  certain  (see  introds.),  and  even  Dr. 
Robertson  Smith  admits  that  they  were  written  in  the  time 
of  Sargon. '  The  only  reasonable  doubt  can  be  with  regard  to 
chap,  xxii.,  the  explanation  of  which,  as  the  student  will  have 
seen,  requires  a  more  than  ordinary  degree  of  exegetical  tact. 

At  length  the  tide  of  invasion  turned,  and  very  soon 
afterwards,  if  I  am  not  mistaken,  in  a  case  which  again  espe- 
cially calls  for  tact,  Isaiah  wrote  (not  spoke)  one  of  his  most 
beautiful  prophecies,  chap.  i.  The  generality  of  its  contents 
(which  marks  it  out  as  composed  for  an  introduction)  makes 
it  unusually  difficult  to  pronounce  upon  its  date  ;  yet  there  is 
some  internal  evidence  which  points  to  the  time  of  Sargon's 
invasion.  It  would,  in  fact,  be  an  incongruity  if  a  prophet 
like  Isaiah  had  been  able  to  compose  a  purely  literary  work. 

Three  years  after  the  subjugation  of  Judah  occurred  an 
event  second  only  in  importance  for  Palestine  to  the  battle  of 
Raphia — the  conquest  of  Babylonia  by  Sargon  (710).  From 
a  narrative  certainly  based  on  an  early  tradition  (2  Kings 
XX.  12,  &c.  =  Isa.  xxxix.  i,  &c.),  we  may  probably  infer  that 
Hezekiah  had  had  some  thoughts  of  a  Babylonian  alliance. 
Isaiah  would,  of  course,  be  opposed  to  this,  but  the  fall  of 
Babylon  must  have  profoundly  shocked  him  as  an  evidence 
of  the  (humanly  speaking)  irresistible  progress  of  Assyria. 
The  prophecy  in  xxi.  i-io,  which,  taken  by  itself,  is  so  ob- 
scure,^ seems  in  most  respects  easier  of  explanation  if  we 
refer  its  origin  to  the  siege  of  Babylon  in  710.  I  say  'in 
most  respects,'  for  I  do  not  deny  the  striking  plausibility  of 
some  of  the  arguments  for  a  Captivity  origin. 

Isaiah  took  no  narrow  view  of  his  prophetic  mission,  and 
the  fall  of  Babylon  was,  according  to  him,  a  warning  to  other 
nations  besides  his  own.  '  Behold  the  land  of  Chaldea,'  he 
cried  to  the  proud  merchant  people  of  Phcenicia  ;  '  this  people 
is  no  more'  (xxiii.  13).  Indeed,  Tyre  was  nearer  to  the  com- 
mon foe,  and  had  a  still  better  reason  for  alarm  (in  propor- 
tion to  its  greater  power)  than  the  second-rate  or  third-rate 
kingdom  of  Judah.  So  sure  is  Jehovah's  prophet  of  the 
catastrophe  that  he  bursts  into  an  elegiac  ode  on  the  ruin  of 
Zidon's  greatest  daughter.  The  concluding  verses  of  the 
chapter,  however,  which  form  no  part  of  the  elegy,  and  seem 

'    The  Prophei<.  of  /snie/ {1882).  pp.  297-8. 

'  The  obscurity  consists  in  ttie  rlcprcssion  into  which  the  writer  appniently  fails  a 
the  news  of  the  fall  of  Balnlon.  In  /.  (.'.  A.,  p.  xxvii,  I  conjectured  that  he  was 
'  almost  unmanned  by  affection  for  his  adopted  home.'  But  this  is  not  ver>'  probable 
tn  a  pious  Jewish  exile,  and  the  theory  of  a  Babylonian  origin  is  also  opposed  (though 
not,  of  course,  absolutely  dispro\cd)  by  the  numerous  points  of  contact  with  Isaiah 
(see  vol.  i.  p.  125). 


ESSAYS.  183 

to  have  been  added  by  an  afterthought,  prophesy  a  revival  of 
Tyre  at  the  end  of  '  seventy  years.' ' 

The  third  event  which  called  forth  the  energies  of  the 
prophet  was  the  invasion  of  Sennacherib  ;  the  attendant  cir- 
cumstances have  been  described  already  (vol.  i.  pp.  206-7). 
Great  as  the  war  was — greater  even  than  the  invasion  of 
Sargon — only  four  of  the  extant  prophecies  appear  to  have 
been  originated  by  it.  These  are  chap,  xviii.,  chap.  xvii.  12-14, 
chap,  xxxiii.,  and  chap,  xxxvii.  22-35  (or  32).  The  first  of 
the  four  was  evidently  produced  by  the  news  of  the  approach 
of  the  Assyrians,  and  the  consequent  excitement  of  the 
warlike  Ethiopians.  The  second  and  third  were  (according 
to  the  historical  sketch  referred  to  above)  probably  composed 
during  the  march  of  the  Assyrian  general,  who,  after  captur- 
ing forty-six  fortified  towns,  was  so  wonderfully  and  provi- 
dentially checked  beneath  the  walls  of  Jerusalem.  The  fourth 
has  all  the  incisive  energy  which  we  should  expect  from  the 
circumstances  under  which  the  Book  of  Isaiah  itself  declares 
it  to  have  been  delivered. 

2. 

Such  now  appears  to  me,  upon  a  reconsideration  of  the 
subject,  to  be  a  more  probable  chronological  arrangement  of 
these  prophecies  than  I  was  able  to  offer  in  1870 — it  is  at 
any  rate  more  personal  and  independent.  My  endeavour  has 
been  to  avoid  arbitrary  conjecture,  and,  whenever  practicable, 
to  explain  the  prophet's  allusions  from  the  contemporary 
Assyrian  inscriptions.  I  confess,  therefore,  to  some  disappoint- 
ment when  that  excellent  scholar,  Dr.  Robertson  Smith,  ex- 
presses the  opinion  that  one  of  the  historical  bases  of  the 
preceding  sketch  is  unsound,  and  that  '  the  mere  statement  of 
this  hypothesis  is  sufficient  to  show  its  extreme  improbability.'^ 
A  page  or  two  in  reply  to  Dr.  Robertson  Smith's  leading  ob- 
jections is  indispensable  to  complete  this  essay. 

Did  Sargon  invade  Judah,  and  threaten,  or  even  capture 
Jerusalem,  or  not  ?  The  grounds  for  maintaining  that  he  did 
have  been  already  given  ;  the  documentary  evidence  is,  no 
doubt,  scanty,  still  it  exists,  and  historical  probability  is  strongly 
in  favour  of  this  view.  Dr.  Robertson  Smith's  counter  argu- 
ment has  not  yet  been  put  in  a  complete  form  ;  but  appear- 
ances rather  indicate  that  he  has  been  biassed  by  a  partiality 
for  a  distinguished  recent  critic. 

'  Hence  one  of  the  arguments  for  the  view  that  the  epilogue,  as  we  may  call  these 
verses,  is  the  work  of  some  unknown  writer  at  the  close  of  the  Bab)  Ionian  exile. 
Against  it  see  my  note  on  xxiii.  15-18. 

2   The  Prophets  of  Israel  (1882),  p.  206. 


1 84  ESSAYS. 

In  admiration  for  Julius  Wellhausen's  brilliant  genius  I 
hardly  yield  to  Dr.  Robertson  Smith.  But  I  cannot  help 
adding  that  his  insight  is  sometimes  marred  by  excessive 
self-assertion.  His  personal  dislikes  are  indeed  painfully 
visible  in  some  of  his  critiques  in  the  Gottingen  Gelehrte 
Anzeigen,  and  his  bias  against  Assyriology  (shared,  it  is  true, 
by  others  in  Germany)  comes  out  very  strongly  in  an  article 
in  vol.  XX.  of  the  JahrbiicJier  fiir  dciitsclie  Theologie  (1875), 
replied  to  with  exemplary  calmness  by  Schrader,  in  vol.  ii.  of 
the  JaJirbiicJier  fiir  protestantiscJie  TJieologie  (1876),  in  his 
article  on  '  The  Azriyahu  of  the  cuneiform  inscriptions,  and 
the  Azaryah  of  the  Bible.'  I  am  the  more  confirmed  in  my 
opinion  that  Dr.  Robertson  Smith  has  been  '  misled  '  by 
German  influences,  when  I  notice  his  own  insufficient  esti- 
mate of  the  value  of  the  Assyriologists'  work  in  p.  377  of 
The  Prophets  of  Israel,  where  Gutschmid's  extravagant  attack 
on  Assyriology  is  characterised  as  setting  forth  the  state  of 
things  '  very  forcibly,  though  perhaps  (!)  with  an  extreme  of 
scepticism,'  and  no  mention  is  made  of  Schrader's  reply,  so 
impressive  from  its  honesty  and  documentary  completeness, 
in  the  K.  G.  F. 

Dr.  Robertson  Smith  objects  to  the  view  which  I  have 
advocated,  that  it  represents  Judah  as  suffering  '  precisely  in 
the  same  way,  and  to  the  same  extent,'  both  from  Sargon  and 
Sennacherib,  that  '  history  does  not  repeat  itself  exactly,'  and 
that  'we  must  conclude  that  Isaiah  held  precisely  similar 
language  in  the  two  cases,  and  that  he  did  this  in  the  second 
invasion  without  making  any  reference  back  to  the  events  of 
the  siege  which  has  called  forth  similar  predictions  two  years 
before'  (p.  295).  'Precisely'  and  '  exactly '  are  words  that 
shoot  beyond  the  mark.  It  has  not  been  asserted  that  his- 
tory '  repeated  itself  exactly,'  nor  that  Isaiah  used  'precisely 
similar  language  '  in  the  two  cases.  History  may  surely  have 
repeated  itself  in  the  career  of  Hezekiah,  as  it  did  in  that  of 
Merodach-Baladan,  but  the  repetition  need  not  have  been 
'  exact '  ;  all  that  is  claimed  by  Mr.  Sayce  and  myself  is  a 
parallelis))i  between  the  two  invasions.  Next,  with  regard  to 
the  language  of  Isaiah.  It  is  true  that,  in  both  groups  of 
prophecies  (those  referring  to  Sargon  as  well  as  those  to 
Sennacherib),  Isaiah  is  well  assured  that  Jehovah  will  inter- 
pose for  Mount  Zion  ;  but  is  there  not  a  variety  amidst  the 
similarity?  In  Sargon's  reign  Isaiah  says  that  the  chief  men 
of  the  city  have  been  captured,  and  that  many  of  the  inhabit- 
ants of  Jerusalem  shall  be  slain  (xxii.  3,  14)  ;  in  Sennacherib's, 
he  implies  that  all  shall  escape  (xxxvii.  22).  In  Sargon's  he 
declares  that  Jerusalem  shall  be  reduced  to  extremities  (xxix. 


ESSAYS.  185 

1-6)  ;  In  Sennacherib's,  that  the  Assyrian  shall  not  come 
before  the  city,  nor  raise  a  bank  against  it  (xxxvii.  33  ;  see 
vol.  i.  p.  207).  In  Sargon's,  his  tone  towards  his  countrymen 
is  most  severe  (xxii.  1-14  ;  see  vol.  i.  p.  132)  ;  in  Sennacherib's, 
it  is  one  of  consolation  and  hope.  Surely,  if  Sargon's  invasion 
be  denied,  there  is  no  choice  but  to  follow  a  recent  German 
critic  '  who,  on  the  ground  of  the  inconsistently  severe  tone  of 
xxii.  I -14,  expresses  a  grave  doubt  of  its  authenticity. 

But  w^hy,  asks  Dr.  Robertson  Smith,  did  Isaiah  make  no 
reference  during  Sennacherib's  invasion  to  the  events  of  the 
former  crisis  ?  The  question  could  only  be  answered  with 
certainty  from  the  contemporary  Jewish  annals,  which  we  do 
not  possess.  It  may  be  that  there  were  circumstances  con- 
nected with  Sargon's  siege  of  Jerusalem,  which  it  was  no  un- 
mixed pleasure  to  remember  (comp.  chap,  xxii.),  but  I  do  not 
care  to  reconstruct  history  speculatively.  Dr.  Robertson 
Smith  thinks  it  also  'highly  improbable  that  [Hezekiah] 
would  have  been  allowed  to  restore  the  Juda^an  fortresses' 
(p.  296).  But  Sargon,  in  his  latter  years,  was  enfeebled  by 
age  ;  and  Sennacherib,  on  his  accession,  had  work  enough  on 
his  hands  nearer  home,  on  his  southern  and  eastern  frontier. 
Next,  my  friendly  critic  is  surprised  at  the  non-mention  of 
any  punishment  of  Judah  in  the  Annals  of  Sargon,  and  ques- 
tions whether  the  Book  of  Kings  would  have  ignored  an 
invasion  of  Sargon  had  it  really  taken  place.  I  have  already 
answered  these  objections^  (vol.  i.  pp.  68-9),  but  I  feel  that 
I  should  not  be  doing  justice  to  this  acute  scholar  if  I  assumed 
that  he  attached  special  importance  to  such  arguments.  His 
sceptical  attitude  is  surely  dictated  by  his  chronological 
theory,  and  the  discussion  of  his  and  Wellhausen's  chronology 
would  lead  me  into  digressions  for  which  I  am  not  now  pre- 
pared. I  will  agree  to  leave  it  an  open  question  whether 
Sargon  really  invaded  Judah  or  not,  provided  it  be  admitted 
that  there  is  at  least  some  evidence  for  it,  and  that  to  accept 
the  view  throws  a  bright  light  on  some  very  important  pro- 
phecies. Of  course,  all  opinions  on  ancient  history  must  be 
held  with  a  certain  amount  of  reserve,  and  be  liable  to  modifi- 
cation or  correction  from  more  thorough  criticism,  or  the 
discovery  of  more  complete  evidence.  Dr.  Robertson  Smith 
is  well  able  to  contribute  to  this  desirable  result.  Let  me 
add  that  if  I  have,  in  the  foregoing  commentary  or  elsewhere, 
expressed  myself  too  positively,  I  regret  it,  as  it  may  perhaps 
have  encouraged  his  own  too  positive  contradiction.     At  any 

1  Dr.  C.  H.  Cornill,  in  Stade's  Zeitschrift,  1884,  p.  96. 

'  The  absence  of  any  reference  to  Assurbanipal,  except  under  the  mutilated  form 
Asnapper  (Ezra  iv.  lo),  may  also  be  mentioned  in  this  connection. 


1 86  ESSAYS. 

rate,  he  will,  I  know,  echo  the  words  with  which  I  concluded 
this  essay  in  the  first  edition,  that  '  the  prophecies  have  surely 
become  more  vivid  through  being  read  in  this  new  light,  and 
the  character  of  Isaiah  as  a  "  watcher  "  of  the  political  as  well 
as  spiritual  horizon  does  but  shine  with  a  steadier  and  more 
enlivening  glow.' 


II.     THE    ARRANGEMENT    OF    THE    PROrHECIES 

I. 

That  there  is  some  principle  (or,  that  there  are  some  prin- 
ciples) of  arrangement  in  the  Book  of  Isaiah,  is  now  universally 
acknowledged.  The  book  is  no  mere  anthology  of  single 
prophecies ;  this  cannot  be  even  said  of  chaps,  i.-xxxix., 
where  a  continuous  thread  of  thought  is  undoubtedly  wanting. 
But  the  plan  of  the  book  is  by  no  means  easy  to  grasp.  It 
seems  simple  enough  to  suppose  with  Hengstcnberg  that  the 
prophecies  in  chaps,  i.-xxxix.  are  arranged  chronologically, 
or  with  Vitringa  that  similarity  of  contents  was  the  guiding 
principle  of  the  collector  and  editor.  But  neither  theory  can 
be  carried  out  without  violence  to  facts.  The  suggestion  has 
therefore  been  offered  to  divide  the  book  into  four  smaller 
books  or  parts,  viz.  chaps,  i.-xii.,  chaps,  xiii.-xxiii.,  chaps. 
xxiv.-xxxv.  (with  its  appendix,  chaps,  xxxvi.-xxxix.),  and 
chaps,  xl.-lxvi.  ;  and  this  view  has  been  adopted  by  Gesenius, 
Havernick,  and  (in  1856)  Dr.  S.  Davidson.  When,  however, 
we  come  to  analyse  these  groups,  we  find  that  they  are  by  no 
means  homogeneous,  and  that  there  are  several  breaks  in  the 
continuity.  Hence  Ewald  and  Delitzsch  seem  fully  justified 
in  subdividing  the  book  still  further.  These  eminent  scholars 
differ  widely,  it  is  true  ;  the  reason  being  that  while  Delitzsch 
regards  the  prophet  Isaiah  as  himself  the  sole  author  and 
editor,  Ewald  postulates  a  variety  of  authors  and  several 
editors.  Controversy,  however,  is  not  my  object.  Those  who 
wish  to  see  the  thoughtful  and  only  too  ingenious  arrange- 
ment of  Delitzsch  can  easily  refer  to  his  widely-known 
commentary  (Introduction,  section  2).  My  own  view  on 
the  subject  of  this  essay  continues  to  be  based  on  that  of 
Ewald,  and,  in  offering  it  anew  for  acceptance,  I  would  merely 
remark  that  it  is  in  no  way  bound  up  with  any  preconceived 
opinion  as  to  the  unity  or  plurality  of  the  authorship  of  the 
book. ' 

'   Dr.   C.    H.    Cornill,    in   Sta<li!S   Zeitirhnft,    1834,    p.   83,    &'c.,    tws   offorcfl    ;in 
explanation  of  the  order  of  the  prophecies,   which  he   thinks   was   to  a  great  extent 


ESSAYS.  187 

Tt  was  stated   in   the   present  writer's   former  edition   of 
Isaiah,'  that  at  any  rate  that  part  of  the  book  which  contains 
occasional   prophecies    '  appears   to    be  composed  of  several 
smaller  books  or  prophetic  collections.'     This  view,  I  repeat, 
will  still  be  the  most  probable  one,  even   if  we  should  admit 
the  Isaianic  authorship  of  the  entire  book.     Let  us  see  what 
it  is  that  it  involves.     '  The  chapter  which  opens  the  book  in 
the  traditional  arrangement  is  evidently  intended  as  a  general 
introduction  to  a  large  group  of  prophecies.     It  is  impossible, 
however,  to  trace  any  distinct  connection  between  that  chapter 
and   the  three  following  ones,  which  certainly  constitute  a 
single  homogeneous  prophecy.     Equally  difficult  is  it  to  trace 
a  connection  between  chap.  i.  and  chaps,  vi -x.  4  ;  the  latter 
chapters,  with  the  exception  of  ix.  8-x.  4'  (see  vol.  i.  p.  63), 
'  are  as  distinct  and  homogeneous  as  the  prophecy  already 
mentioned.'     But  there  is  a  general  agreement  between  the 
historical  circumstances  of  chap,  i.,  of  chaps,  x.  5-xi.  16,  and 
of  most  of  the  minor  prophecies  on  foreign  nations,  all  of 
which  were  probably  written  under  the  shadow  of  the  first 
Assyrian    invasion  by  Sargon.      It   seems  therefore  reason- 
able to  suppose  that,  after  the  retiremicnt  of  Sargon,  Isaiah 
prepared  'a  new  and  enlarged  edition  of  his  works,'  consisting 
of  the  two  prophetic  writings   mentioned  above   (ii.-v.,  and 
vi.  i-ix.  7),  supplemented  by  x.  5-xii.  6  ^  (which  once  doubt- 
less had  an  independent  existence,  and  which  was  now  inserted 
as  a  pendant  to  the  prophecy  of  Immanuel),  and  by  most  of 
the  prophecies  on  foreign  nations.^    Later  still,  Isaiah,  or  some 
of  his  disciples  availing  themselves  of  his  literary  material, 
made   several   insertions   in    his  already   extant   works,  and 
added  a  new  one  to  their  number.     The  insertions  are  xiv. 
24-27,  originally  an  appendix  to  x.  5-xii.  6  (compare  vol.  i.  p. 
94),  but  displaced,  xvii.  i - 1 1 ,  xvii.  1 2-xviii.  7,  and,  according  to 
conservative  critics,  xiii.  i-xiv.  23,  the  last  three  of  which  were 
included  among  the  oracles  on  foreign  nations."*    The  only  one 
of  these  insertions  which  requires  any  special  explanation  is 
the  last-m.entioned,  and  to  this  I  will  return  presently.     The 

suggested  by  the  recurrence  of  certain  words  [Stick-worte,  'cues')  in  pairs  of  prophe- 
cies. This  had  already  been  noticed  here  and  there,  e.g.  in  chnp.  xxi.,  and  it  seems 
doubtful  whether  Dr.  Cornill's  extension  of  the  principle  will  stand. 

'  /.  C.  A.,  Introduction,  pp.  .xii-xiv.  The  reader  will  at  once  notice  the  points  in 
which  I  have  modified  my  views. 

2  I  am  aware  that  Ewald  considers  chap.  xii.  to  be  an  insertion  of  post-Exile  origin. 
The  time  of  this  lyric  passage,  and  its  imitative  character,  seem  to  have  suggested  ihi 
view,  which  is  certainly  attractive. 

5  Amos  had  already  given  a  series  of  short  decisive  oracles  on  the  neighbouring 
peoples  (i.  3-ii.  3).  Zephaniah  (ii.  4-15),  Jeremiah  (xlvi.-li.),  and  Ezekiel  (x.xv.-xxxii.) 
did  so  afterwards. 

*  Whenever  xiii.  i-xiv.  23  was  inserted,  whether  in  Isaiah's  time  or  during  the 
Exile,  it  had  the  unfortunate  effect  of  separating  x.  5-xii.  6  from  its  appendix. 


1 88  ESSAYS. 

new  prophetic  work  consists  of  chaps,  xxviii.-xxxiii.;  it  seems 
chiefly  intended  as  a  memorial  of  the  state  of  the  Jews  duringf 
Sargon  s  intervention  in  the  affairs  of  Palestine,  though  a 
prophecy  of  a  later  period  (xxxiii.)  was  added  as  an  appendix. 
Four  groups  of  chapters  still  remain,  viz.  xxiv.-xxvii.,  xxxiv, 
and  xxxv.,  xxxvi.-xxxix.,  and  xl.-lxvi.  Let  me  begin  with 
the  third.  It  consists  of  an  historical  narrative  in  which  two 
prophecies  (xxxvii.  21-35  and  xxxix.  5-7)  and  a  poem 
(xxxviii.  9-20),  the  latter  ascribed,  not  to  Isaiah,  but  to 
Hezckiah,  are  imbedded.  By  whom  the  narrative  was 
written,  and  vv'hen,  is  much  disputed  (see  vol.  i.  p.  209)  ;  but 
that  the  first  of  the  two  prophecies  is  the  work  of  Isaiah  is 
admitted  on  all  hands,  and  the  analogy  of  chaps,  vii.  and  xx. 
shows  that  the  narrative,  long  as  it  is,  exists  for  the  sake  of 
the  prophecies,  and  not  the  prophecies  for  the  narrative.  The 
parallel  of  Jer.  Hi.  suggests  further  that  Isa.  xxxvi.-xxxix. 
were  originally  intended  as  a  conclusion  or  appendix  to  the 
Book  of  Isaiah. 

As  to  the  three  other  groups,  we  must  first  of  all  separate 
chaps,  xl.-lxvi.,  the  difficulty  with  regard  to  which  is,  not  so 
much  its  position,  as  the  arrangement  of  its  contents.  Not, 
I  say,  its  position,  for  supposing  Isaiah  to  have  written  these 
chapters,  he  or  his  disciple-editor  could  not  well  have  placed 
them  anywhere  else.'  To  its  internal  arrangement  I  return 
presently.  There  remain  chaps,  xxiv.-xxvii.  and  xxxiv., 
xxxv.,  which  must  be  taken  in  connection  with  xiii.  i-xiv.  23. 
Why  these  groups  of  prophecies  received  their  present  position 
is  certainly  not  clear  at  first  sight ;  plausible  reasons  are  all 
that  can  be  given.  The  last-mentioned  not  unnaturally  heads 
the  series  of  foreign  oracles  with  its  emphatic  description  of 
the  day  of  Jehovah — that  day  which  is  always  coming  anew, 
whether  Babylon  or  Assyria,  Moab  or  Philistia,  be  its  most 
prominent  victim  ;  while  the  group,  chaps,  x.xiv.-xxvii.,  not 
unsuitably  closes  it,  since  the  restoration  of  Israel  in  which 
these  prophecies  culminate  is,  in  fact,  the  object  of  history 
as  viewed  by  Jehovah's  prophets.  There  is  also  a  striking 
similarity  between  the  closing  verse  (x.xvii.  1 3)  and  the  passage 
(xi.  1 1- 1 6)  which  concludes  the  predictive  portion  of  the  group 
X.  5-xii.  6,  As  to  chaps,  xxxiv.,  xxxv.,  their  wide  and  com- 
prehensive character  fully  explains  their  present  position  at 
the  end  of  what  we  may  call  the  first  book  or  volume  of 
Isaiah  (chaps,  xxxvi.-xxxix.  being  regarded  as  an  appendi.x). 
Chap,  xxxv.,  in  particular,  would  commend  itself  as  a  finale 
to  one  of  the  most  characteristic  feelings  of  a  Jew.     We  have 

'  Chap,  xxxix.  6,  with  its  reference  to  a  'carrying  to  Bal)ylon,'  forms  a  natural  link 
between  the  two  halves  of  the  book. 


ESSAYS.  1 89 

already  seen  how  distressed  the  Rabbis  were  by  the  gloomy 
tone  of  the  last  verse  of  chap.  Ixvi.  On  the  other  hand,  such 
a  comforting  word  as  '  They  shall  overtake  gladness  and  joy, 
trouble  and  sighing  shall  flee  away,'  would  appear  a  most 
appropriate  epilogue  to  the  works  of  so  great  a  prophet. 


With  regard  to  the  second  part  of  Isaiah,  the  writer  has 
already  stated  that  he  cannot  see  his  way  to  adopt  any  of 
the  current  arrangements  (vol.  i.  p.  242).     The  discourse  no 
doubt  makes  a  fair  show  of  continuity.     There  are  none  of 
those  headings  which  in  the  first  part  so  rudely  dispel  the 
dream  of  homogeneousness,  and  one  can  read  on  for  a  con- 
siderable way  without   any  striking  break  in  the  thread  of 
thought.     Besides  this,  there  occurs  at  equal  intervals  in  the 
volume  an  expression  which  looks  as  if  it  were  intended  to 
mark  the  close  of  a  book,  in   the  manner  of   a   chorus    or 
refrain— '  There  is  no  peace  to  the  ungodly'    (xlviii.  22,  Ivii. 
21),  and  the  closing  verse  of  the  last  chapter  may  be  regarded 
as  'repeating  the   idea  of   this  refrain    in  a  new    and    more 
striking  form.      On  this  ground,  P'riedrich  Ruckert,  scholar 
as  well  as  poet,  suggested  in  1831  a  division  of  the  prophecy 
into  three  parts,  each  consisting  of  nine  chapters  ;  and  Rue- 
tschi,  a  Swiss  scholar,  attempted,  on  this  basis,  to  draw  out 
the  design  of  the  book,  and  to  show  that  there  was  a  unity, 
not  only  of  form,  but  of  subject  and  of  time.'     This  view  has 
met  with  a  large  measure  of  acceptance  ;  it  flatters  the  natural 
love  of  symmetry,  and  appears  to  accord  with  the  supposed 
fondness  of  the  Jews  for  the  number  three  (it  gives  three 
books  with  three  times  three  subdivisions).     Voices  on  the 
other  side,  however,  have  not  been  wanting,  and  chief  among 
these  is  Ewald's,  who  declares  the  popularity  of   Riickert's 
view  to  be  inconceivably  perverse.^     It  is,  in  fact,  too  simple, 
too  mechanical.     Had  it  really  the  support  of  the  contents, 
Ruckert,  a  dilettante  student  of   the  prophets,  would  hardly 
have  been  the  first  to  discover  it.     Nor  are  the  writers  who 
hold    with    him  at  all  at  one  among    themselves    as  to   the 
arrangement   of    the    prophecies    within    the    three    books. 
Naegelsbach,  for  instance,  the  latest  commentator  on  Isaiah, 
only  admits  five  discourses  in  the  last  book,  and  Prof.  Birks 
prefers  a  sevenfold  to  a  ninefold  subdivision.     Approaching 
the  book  with  disenchanted  eyes,  we  see  that  there  is  a  much 

1  Theolog.  Studieyi  und  Kritiken,  1854,  p.  261,  &C. 

2  So  I  suppose  1  may  paraphrase  the  characteristic    '  es  ist  im  guten  sinne  unbe- 
greifli'ch  '  (liwald,  Die  Prcpheten,  iii.  29,  note  2). 


I  go  ESSAYS. 

larger  number  of  interruptions  of  continuity  than  Rlickert's 
division  supposes  ;  and,  while  granting  the  importance  of  the 
division  at  xlviii.  22,  we  can  attach  comparatively  little  weight 
to  that  at  Ivii.  21,  chap.  Ivi.  1-8  being  closely  akin  to  chap. 
Iviii.,  and  even  chap.  Ivii.  not  so  violently  separated  from  the 
next  chapter  by  its  subject-matter  as,  for  instance,  Ivi.  8  from 
Ivi.  9,  and  chap.  Ixii.  from  chap.  Ixiii.  We  cannot,  indeed, 
suppose  that  the  occurrence  of  the  same  striking  verse  at  equal 
intervals  is  purely  accidental.  But  may  it  not  be  that  the 
two  verses  at  the  end  of  chap.  Ivii.  were  added  by  an  after- 
thought to  gratify  a  fondness  for  external  .symmetry  .-*  that 
the  original  prophecy  ended  at  xlviii.  22,'  and  that  the  re- 
mainder of  the  book  grew  up  by  degrees  under  a  less  per- 
sistent flame  of  inspiration  ?  This  view  clearly  involves 
no  disparagement  to  the  spiritual  importance  of  the  latter 
prophecies,  the  significance  of  which  stands  in  no  relation  to 
their  technical  perfection. 

It  is  the  frequency  with  which  the  thread  of  thought  is 
broken  which  makes  it,  in  my  opinion,  so  difficult  to  offer  a 
satisfactory  division  of  the  latter  part  of  Isaiah.  Even  in 
chaps,  xl.-xlviii.,  which  are  tolerably  coherent,  there  are 
several  points  at  which  it  is  quite  uncertain  whether  or  not 
we  ought  to  begin  a  new  chapter :  this  is  particularly  the 
case  in  chaps,  xlii.-xlv.  To  me,  indeed,  it  is  tolerably  clear 
that  xliii.  i-xliv.  5  forms  one  section  in  itself,  and  xliv.  6- 
xlv.  25  another.  But  when  I  find  Delitzsch  connecting  xliii. 
I -1 3  with  chap,  xlii.,  and  Ewald,  not  only  accepting  chap, 
xliv.  as  an  independent  section,  but  even  forming  xliv.  1-9 
into  a  single  paragraph,  I  am  obliged  to  distrust  my  own 
insight.  In  the  portion  beginning  at  chap,  xlix.,  however,  the 
difficulties  of  distribution  are  much  increased.  The  opening 
chapter,  no  doubt,  connects  itself  with  the  preceding  part  by 
the  obvious  parallelism  of  verses  1-6  with  xlii.  1-7,  and  down 
to  Hi.  12  (see  note  below)  there  is  no  unusual  break  in  the 
continuity.  But  from  Hi.  13  to  liii.  12  both  style  and  ideas 
become  strikingly  different  (see  p.  39).  It  seems  to  me  clear 
that,  though  not  di.scordant  with  the  other  passages  relative 
to  the  Servant,  this  obscure  and  difficult  section  cannot  have 
been  originally  intended  to  follow  chaps,  xlix.  i-lii.  12.  Let 
any  plain,  untheological  reader  be  called  upon  to  arbitrate  ;  I 
liave  no  doubt  as  to  his  decision.  And  this  section  does  but 
introduce  a  series  of  still  more  strikingly  disconnected  pas- 
sages which  occur  at  intervals  in  the  remainder  of  the  book — 

I  Chap.  lii.  15  lias  equally  the  appearance  of  having  been  designed  as  the  close 
of  a  book,  ll  would  lu  a  plauiible  conjcclurt;  lljai  xli.x.  i-lii.  12  was  originall>  mtaiit 
as  an  epilogue. 


ESSAYS.  I  9  1 


viz.  Ivi.  1-8  ;  Ivi.  g-Wii.  2i  ;  '  Iviii.  i-lix.  2i  ;  Ixiii.  i-6;  Ixiii. 
7-lxiv. ;  Ixv. ;  Ixvi.^  The  preceding  commentary  will,  I  hope, 
have  proved' that  these  opinions  are  not  thrown  out  loosely 
and  at  random.  But  a  mere  glance  is  sufficient  to  show  the 
wide  discordance  of  tone  between  chaps.  Ix.-lxii.  and  the 
passages  to  which  I  have  just  referred. 


III.     THE   CHRISTIAN    ELEMENT    IN    THE    BOOK 
OF    ISAIAH. 


An  essay  in  apologetic  theology  is  foredoomed  to  much 
adverse  criticism  :  as  Herder  long  ago  said,  'the  witness  of 
the  Old  Testament  for  Christ  is  no  simple  and  overpowermg 
demonstration  ;  it  is  based  on  composite  and  convergent 
evidence,  and  so  delicate  and  obscure,  that  to  him  who  doubts 
and  denies  it  can  prove  nothing.'  Still,  the  effort  to  express 
this  witness  anew  must  now  be  made  ;  it  is  useless  to  repeat 
what  is  no  longer  in  harmony  with  the  best  knowledge  of  the 
age.  Apologetic  theology  must  be  reformed,  and  Biblical 
criticism  and  exegesis  have  to  aid  in  preparing  the  ground. 
This  is  the  reason  why  these  seeds  of  thought  on  the  Christian 
element  in  prophecy  are  once  again  published,  not  without 
some  reluctance,  in  a  philological  work.  May  I  add  that  the 
treatment  of  the  Psalms  in  this  essay  supplies  what  some  may 
have  desiderated  in  my  recent  literary  edition  of  the  Psalter 
in  the  Parchment  Library  t 

An  influential  modern  writer  upon  the  Old  Testament, 
whose  name  is  now  at  least  as  often  heard  as  that  of  Ewald, 
has  thought  it  necessary  in  the  preface  to  his  most  considerable 
work  to  defend  himself  against  the  charge  of  arguing  points 
of  criticism  upon  concealed  metaphysical  premisses.  He  ob- 
serves in  reply  ^  that,  if  he  were  to  introduce  his  researches 
by  an  explicit  statement  of  his  theory  of  the  universe,  he 
would  make  it  appear  that  his  critical  method  and  results 
are  the  outcome  of  his  views  on  theology,  and  consequently 

1  The  tone  of  Ivii.  ri*-2i  is  more  in  harmony  with  that  of  xl.-lii.  12  than  the 
earlier  part  of  the  chapter  (see  on  Ivii.  II  fl).  ,     .      .  •.       r  .u  •         a 

2  I  cannot  bring  myself  to  believe  that  chaps.  Ixv.,  Ixvi..  m  spite  of  their  unde- 
niable points  of  contact,  were  written  continuously,  much  less  (see  on  Ixv  i  that  they 
were  intended  as  a  sequel  to  chap.  bciv.  Even  chap.  Ixvi.  is  not  as  a  whole  very  co- 
herent ;  compare  vv.  1-5  with  t■^■.  6-24.  ,   ,       ,  ,  ..^„  ^. 

5  Dr  A  Kuenen.  Historisch-krthsch  onderzoek  vaar  het  ontstaan  .  .  .  .'an  cti 
boeken  des  Oiideti  Verhonds  (l.eiden,  1861),  vol.  i.  pp.  vii,  viii,  of  the  preface. 


192  ESSAYS. 

of  no  value  to  those  who  do  not  belong  to  his  own  school  of 
thought.  The  object  of  the  present  work,  as  has  been  stated 
already,  is  mainly  exegetical,  and  only  indirectly  critical  ;  but 
it  is,  perhaps,  for  that  very  reason  important  to  meet  the  ex- 
pectations of  any  section  of  its  readers  with  more  than  usual 
frankness.  For  it  is  emphatically  not  a  party  book,  but  de- 
signed to  help  as  many  students  as  possible  to  a  philologically 
sound  view  of  the  text,  from  which  they  may  proceed,  if  they 
are  so  disposed,  to  the  fruitful  investigation  of  the  ulterior 
critical  problems.  Most  English  books  on  Isaiah  carry  their 
theological  origin  on  their  forefront  ;  this  one  can  hardly  be 
said  to  do  so.  The  same  reason  which  weighed  with  Dr. 
Kuenen  has  influenced  the  writer.  But  as  he  has  not  thought 
it  right  to  express  himself  fully  in  the  main  body  of  the 
work,  he  hastens  to  repair  the  omission  in  the  supplementary 
portion. 

'  There  is  a  philological  exegesis,  and  there  is  a  Christian ' 
(Preface,  vol,  i.).  In  what  sense  this  laconic  aphorism  is 
intended,  the  present  essay  will  show.  Its  scope,  then,  is 
not  polemical.  The  '  strife  of  tongues '  too  often  leads  to  the 
'  darkening  of  counsel,'  and  the  essays  on  Biblical  subjects 
called  forth  by  controversy  have  seldom  been  those  which 
have  permanently  advanced  the  sacred  interests  of  truth, 
After  spending  even  a  short  time  in  the  hea\y  air  of  contro- 
versial theology,  the  student  is  forced  to  exclaim  with  a  kin- 
dred spirit  among  the  prophets,'  '  Oh  that  I  had  in  the  wilder- 
ness a  lodging-place  of  wayfaring  men  !  '  And  if  in  these 
days  of  toleration  he  cannot  join  in  the  same  prophet's  watch- 
word, '  Fear  is  on  every  side,'  ^  yet  the  misunderstanding  and 
suspicion  which  from  opposite  sides  meet  the  Biblical  inves- 
tigator may  well  render  him  as  reluctant  to  publish  on  ques- 
tions of  the  day  as  Jeremiah  was  to  prophesy.  Still  there  is 
a  worse  fate  than  being  misunderstood,  and  that  is  to  be  '  to 
truth  a  timid  friend  ; '  and  if  the  conclusions  of  this  essay 
should  incur  the  reproach  of  triteness,  yet  there  may  be 
something  a  little  new  and  suggestive  in  the  road  by  which 
they  have  been  reached.  For  they  were  certainly  as  great 
a  surprise  to  the  writer  as  any  of  his  results  in  the  critical  or 
exegetical  field,  and,  as  the  preceding  commentary  will  have 
shown,  he  belongs  to  a  school  of  interpretation  mainly,  at 

1  See  Jer.  ix.  2.  Jeremiah  was  evidently  a  profound  student  of  the  writings  of 
inspired  men,  and  has,  I  think,  a  better  title  than  Ezra  to  be  regarded  as  the  father  of 
the  So'^erim  (students  of  Scripture  ;  A.  V.  '  scribes'). 

2  Jer.  vi.  25,  XX.  3,  10,  xlvi.  5,  xlix.  29,  comp.  Ps.  xxxi.  14.  (Hitzig  and  Ewald 
ascribe  I's.  xxxi.  to  leremiah.  It  would,  however,  be  too  bold  to  assert  that  all  pas- 
sages with  affinities  to  Jeremiah  were  actually  written  by  that  prophet,  who  seems,  in 
fact,  to  have  been  the  founder  of  a  school  of  writers.) 


ESSAYS. 


193 


any  rate,  composed  of  rationalists.  It  is  true  he  has  come 
to  believe  in  a  definitely  Christian  interpretation  of  the  Old 
Testament,  but  this  he  thinks  should  be  based  entirely 
upon  the  obvious  grammatical  meaning.  To  give  even  the 
slightest  stretch  to  a  word  or  construction  in  deference  to 
theological  presuppositions,  is  a  fault  of  which  he  has  an  un- 
feigned horror.  Believing  personally  in  the  Virgin-born,  he 
dares  not  render  a  certain  famous  text  in  Isaiah,  '  The  virgin 
shall  conceive  ; '  and  while  accepting  the  narrative  in  Matt, 
xxvii.  57-60,  he  scruples  to  translate  another  celebrated  pas- 
sage, '  He  was  with  the  rich  in  his  death.' 

It  will  perhaps  be  said  that  all  Biblical  expositors  are  now 
agreed  in  admitting  the  full  supremacy  of  the  grammar  and 
the  lexicon.  They  are  doubtless  agreed  in  theory,  but  their 
practice  does  not  always  correspond.  I  may  seem  to  be  un- 
necessarily earnest,  and  even,  I  fear,  discourteous,  and  I  am 
eager  to  proceed  to  still  more  interesting  matters.  But  even 
this  point  has  a  degree  of  importance,  and  the  evidence  for  it 
cannot  be  relegated  to  a  footnote.  Let  me  refer,  then,  to  the 
two  passages  quoted  above  —Isa.  vii.  14,  liii.  9.'  It  is  a  fact 
which  I  have  myself  emphatically  stated,  that  the  word  'alinah 
is  used  everywhere  else  of  an  unmarried  woman.  But  it  is  also 
a  fact  that  this  is  only  inferred  from  the  context,  and  there  is 
nothing  in  Isa.  vii.  14-16  to  enable  us  to  determine  positively 
whether  the  mother  of  Immanuel  was  a  married  or  simply  a 
marriageable  woman.  We  may,  indeed,  suspect  from  the 
somewhat  remarkable  word  selected  that  Isaiah  meant  to  call 
attention  to  the  mother  ;  but  we  cannot  venture  to  go  an 
inch  further.  Just  as  'elern  might  legitimately  be  used  of  a 
young  man  who  happened  also  to  be  married,  so  might  'abuak 
be  used  of  a  young  woman  who  was  also  a  wife.  It  is  stretch- 
ing language  unduly,  and  converting  translation  into  exegesis, 
to  exclude  this  full  possibility  with  such  a  meagre  context  as 
the  prophecy  of  Immanuel. 

With  regard  to  the  second  passage  referred  to,  a  protest  is 
perhaps  still  more  necessary,  because  two  eminent  scholars 
(Dr.  Delitzsch  and  Dr.  Kay),  while  rejecting  the  ungramma- 
tical  rendering  of  Vitringa  (and  Auth.  Vers.),  continue  to 
illustrate  the  passage  by  quoting  Matt,  xxvii.  57-60.  How 
this  can  be  done  without  a  violation  of  the  rules  of  parallelism, 
and  an  injury  to  the  harmony  of  the  style,  it  is  difficult  to 
understand  (see  note  p.  49)-  This,  then,  appears  to  be  a  case 
of  the  involuntary  nullification  of  a  rendering  by  the  exegesis, 
and  reminds  us    forcibly    of   the   words  of    Scaliger,    '' Non 

'  On  tlie  Christian  interpretation  of  these  passages,  see  below. 
VOL.    II,  Q 


194  ESSAYS. 

aliunde  dis.sidia  in  rcli<^ione  pendent,  quam  ab  ignoratione 
grammaticce,' 

I  have  ventured  to  use  the  phrase  '  a  definitely  Christian 
interpretation  of  the  Old  Testament.'  I  do  not  thoroughly 
like  it,  any  more  than  I  like  the  distinction  between  the  na- 
tural and  the  supernatural.  Both  expressions,  however  con- 
venient and  for  purposes  of  classification  indispensable,  are 
but  provisional  to  those  who  have  learned  '  to  sum  up  all 
things  in  Christ '  (words  which  have  happily  not  yet  become 
a  Shibboleth,  and  which  have  as  profound  a  philosophical  as 
religious  significance).  Everything  in  the  Old  Testament 
stands  in  some  relation  to  Christ,  whether  '  definitely'  or  not. 
Nor  is  this  all.  Every  revolution  of  the  ancient  heathen 
world,  whether  in  politics  or  in  thought,  is  a  stage  in  its 
journey  towards  that  central  event,  which  is  the  fulfilment  of 
its  highest  aspirations.  Plato  speaks  almost  as  if  he  foresaw 
the  crucifixion,'  and  Seneca  insists  on  the  historic  character 
of  the  ideal  wise  man,  '  even  though  within  long  periods  one 
only  may  be  found.'  ^  As  an  accomplished  historical  theologian 
has  well  said  : 

'  The  fact  that  such  a  character  [as  Jesus  Christ],  so  unique, 
so  divine,  should  have  come  into  the  world,  leads  us  to  feel 
that  there  surely  must  have  been  in  earlier  times  some  shadows 
at  least,  or  images,  to  represent,  dimly  it  may  be,  to  former 
generations  that  great  thing  which  they  were  not  actually  to 
witness.  It  would  lead  us  to  believe  that  there  must  have 
been  some  prophetic  voice  to  announce  the  future  coming  of 
the  Lord,  or  else  the  very  stones  would  have  cried  out.'  ^ 

But  provisionally  one  must  draw  a  distinction  between 
some  foreshadowings,  some  prophecies,  and  others.  There 
are  not,  indeed,  two  Spirits  of  prophecy,  the  one  for  the  Gen- 
tile, the  other  for  the  Jewish  world  ;  but  in  our  present  condi- 
tion of  ignorance  it  is  at  least  not  irrational  to  maintain  that 
the  '  prophetic  voices  '  which  announce  the  Messiah  in  the  Old 
Testament  are  so  definite  and  distinct,  and  in  such  agreement 
with  history,  as  to  prove  that  God  has  in  very  deed  revealed 
himself  to  Israel  (not  for  Israel's  sake  alone)  in  a  fuller  sense 
than  to  other  nations. 

It  is  not,  however,  everyone  who  is  honestly  able  to  come 

'  Pl;ito,  De  rcpubl.,  ii.  jip.  361-2.  It  is  just  possible  that  Pinto's  imaginative  pic- 
ture of  the  sufferings  of  the  riglUcous  man  was  inspired  by  the  story  of  Osiris  (though 
the  important  detail  of  the  resurrection  is  wanting)  ;  but  from  a  Christian  point  of 
view  this  most  touching  story  is,  in  its  post-mythic  or  spiritualised  form,  an  uncon- 
scious prophecy  of  the  Gospel.     TertuUian,  I  think,  calls  our  Lord  '  alter  Osiris.' 

'^  Seneca,  De  constant.,  c.  7,  §  i. 

'  Sermon  preached  in  Westminster  Abbey  by  the  Very  Rev.  Dr.  Stanley,  Christmas 
Day,  1879.  (.Abstract  in  Daily  Telegraph,  Dec.  26.)  On  revising  my  work,  I  cannot 
help  adding,  Quis  desiderio  sit  pudor  aut  modus  Tarn  cari  capitis  ? 


ESSAYS.  195 

to  this  conclusion.  It  depends  on  one's  moral  attitude  to- 
wards the  two  great  Biblical  doctrines  summed  up  in  the  ex- 
pressions '  the  Living  God,'  and  '  the  God-man  Jesus  Christ' 
If  you  believe  heartily  in  the  God  of  Revelation  and  of  Pro- 
vidence, you  are  irresistibly  impelled  to  a  view  of  the  Scrip- 
tures, which,  though  it  may  be  difficult  to  demonstrate,  is 
none  the  less  in  the  highest  degree  reasonable.  It  is  only 
half  of  your  belief  that  the  Biblical  writers  saw  deeper  into 
spiritual  things  and  spoke  more  forcibly  of  what  they  had 
seen  than  ordinary  men.  It  seems  to  you  the  most  natural 
thing  in  the  world  that,  at  important  moments  in  the  history 
of  God's  people,  and  at  the  high-water  marks  of  the  inspira- 
tion of  His  prophets,  typical  personages  should  have  been 
raised  up,  and  specially  definite  prophecies  have  been  uttered. 
Not  that  the  laws  of  human  nature  were  violated,  nor  that 
Christian  interpreters  are  to  explain  the  prophets  unphilo- 
logically,  but  that  God  overruled  the  actions  and  words  of 
His  servants,  so  as  to  cast  a  shadow  of  the  coming  Christ. 
If,  again,  you  believe  in  the  true  though  'veiled'  Divinity  of 
Jesus  Christ,  and  humbly  accept  His  decrees  on  all  points 
essentially  connected  with  His  Messiahship,  you  will  feel 
loyally  anxious  to  interpret  the  Old  Testament  as  He  beyond 
question  interpreted  it.^  You  will  believe  His  words  when 
He  says  (and  I  attach  no  special  importance  to  the  accuracy 
of  this  particular  report  of  His  words,  for  the  idea  of  it  per- 
vades all  the  four  Gospels)  :  *  The  Scriptures  are  they  which 
testify  of  me.'  You  will  reply  to  non-Christian  critics,  '  In 
spite  of  modern  criticism  and  exegesis,  there  must  be  some 
sense  in  which  the  words  of  my  Lord  are  true.  He  cannot 
have  mistaken  the  meaning  of  His  own  Bible,  the  book  on 
which  in  His  youth  and  early  manhood  He  nourished  His 
spiritual  life.  He  who  received  not  the  Spirit  by  measure, 
cannot  have  been  fundamentally  mistaken  in  the  Messianic 
character  of  psalms  and  prcphecies.' 

In  short,  there  are  two  fixed  points  with  the  class  of 
students  here  represented  :  i.  that  in  order  to  prepare  suscep- 
tible minds  for  the  Saviour,  a  special  providential  guidance 
may  be  presumed  to  have  been  given  to  the  course  of  certain 
selected  lives  and  the  utterances  of  certain  inspired  person- 
ages ;  and  2.  that  this  presumption  is  converted  into  a  certainty 
by  our  Lord's  authoritative  interpretation  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment.    To  accept  these  two  fixed  points  is  to  many  persons 

1  Prof.  J.  E.  Carpenter  remarks,  '  This  position  betrays  a  confident  assurance  con- 
cerning the  views  entertained  by  Jesus  upon  these  passages  which  we  cannot  share' 
{Modern  Review,  i£8i,  p.  250).  But  allowing  for  errors  as  to  this  or  that  detail  of 
Messianic  interpretation  ascribed  to  Jesus,  can  we  really  be  mistaken  in  assuming  that 
He  did  interpret  psalms  and  prophecies  Messianically  ? 

O  2 


1 96  ESSAYS. 

a  very  real  '  cross.'  The  torrents  of  ridicule  which  have  been 
poured  out  upon  '  circumstantial  fulfilments '  have  left  a 
general  impression  that  they  can  only  be  admitted  by  doing 
violence  to  grammar  and  context,  which  to  a  modern  student 
is  nothing  short  of  '  plucking  out '  his  '  right  eye.'  Hence 
many  '  liberal '  theologians  '  have  been  fain  to  stunt  their  re- 
ligion in  favour,  as  they  suppose,  of  their  philology,  and  their 
example  has  been  followed  with  less  excuse  by  many  who 
are  guiltless  of  special  study.  But  must  there  not  be  some 
mistake  both  on  the  side  of  the  cross-bearers  and  of  the  cross- 
rejecters  ?  Can  it  be  that  human  nature  is  '  divided  against 
itself,'  and  left  to  choose  between  intellectual  and  religious 
mutilation  ?  Here  at  least  scepticism  is  the  truest  piety.  It 
is  the  conviction  of  the  writer  that  there  is  a  '  more  excellent 
way,'  and  that  the  philological  and  the  Christian  interpretation 
can  be  honestly  combined,  without  any  unworthy  compromise. 


2. 

The  definitely  Christian  elements  in  the  Old  Testament 
are  mainly  (not  by  any  means  entirely)  of  two  kinds:  i.  fore- 
shadowings  of  special  circumstances  in  the  life  of  Christ, 
occurring  as  it  zuere  casually  in  the  midst  of  apparently 
rhetorical  descriptions  ;  and  2.  distinct  pictures  of  Jesus  Christ, 
the  suffering  Messiah.  It  is  of  the  former  that  I  speak  at 
present.  We  have  a  right  to  expect  them,  and  we,  as  a 
matter  of  fact,  find  them.  But  it  must  be  remembered,  in 
deference  to  common  sense,  that  the  passages  in  which  they 
occur  admit  of  another  but  a  perfectly  combinable  interpre- 
tation. The  object  of  special  or  circumstantial  features  in 
an  Old  Testament  description  is  primarily  to  symbolise  the 
character  of  the  person  or  work  referred  to,  and  the  literal 
fulfilment  of  the  clause  or  verse  containing  them  in  some 
event  of  the  life  of  Jesus  Christ  is  a  superabundant  favour  to 
those  who  believe  in  the  Providence  of  a  '  Living  God.'  ^  For 
prophecy  has  in  the  first  place  to  do  with  principles  and 
broad  general   characteristics,  and   only  in  the  second  with 

'  It  is  a  pleasure  to  be  able  to  except  F.  D.  Maurice.  Speaking  of  the  attractive- 
ness to  the  Rabbis  of  the  time  of  Christ  of  '  merely  incidental  '  statements,  such  as 
Mic.  V.  2,  he  observes,  '  I  do  not  see  that  it  was  any  disparagement  to  their  wisdom 
that  they  recognised  a  divine  order  and  contrivance  even  in  such  circumstances  as 
these.  .  .  .  Devout  men  welcome  such  coincidences  and  recurrences  as  proofs  that 
they  are  under  a  divine  education.  Why  should  the  like  be  wanting  in  a  national 
story?  Why  should  they  not  be  noted  in  a  book  whith  traces  all  the  parts  of  it  as 
the  fulfilnicnt  of  a  divine  purpose?'  [I'rophets  and  Kin^s  of  the  Old  Testament, 
p.  341- ) 

■''  It  has  been  well  said  that  '  the  prophecy  [of  Zech.  ix.  9]  would  have  been  as 
truly  and  really  fulfilled  if  the  triumphal  procession  of  Palm  Sunday  had  never  taken 
place'  (Dr.  C.  Wright.  Dampton  Ltclures  011  Zechariah,  p.  239). 


ESSAYS.  197 

details.  This  caution  should  be  borne  in  mind  to  avoid 
misunderstanding  the  sequel. — The  special  foreshadowin^s 
spoken  of  are  exemplified  in  no  portion  of  the  Old  Testament 
to  the  same  extent  as  in  the  Psalms  ;  they  relate  especially  in 
this  book  to  scenes  or  features  of  the  Passion.  The  following 
references  have  already  been  given  in  the  New  Testament : — 

Ps.  xxxiv.  20,  in  John  xix.  36  ; 

Ps.  xli.  9,  in  John  xiii.  18  ; 

Ps.  xxii.  18,'  in  John  xix.  24  {tiot  Matt,  xxvii.  35) ; 

Ps.  Ixix.  10,  in  Rom.  xv.  3  ; 

Ps.  Ixix.  21,  in  John  xix.  28. 

But  the  Biblical  writers  have  only  given  us  specimens — 
the  parallelisms  are  both  more  numerous  and  more  striking 
than  might  be  supposed  from  these  few  instances.  In  Ps. 
XXXV.  II,  we  have  a  foreshadowing  of  the  false  testimony 
against  Jesus  ;  in  Ps.  xxii.  7,  8,  Ixix.  12,  of  the  revilings  ;  in 
Ps.  xxii.  16,  of  the  piercing  of  the  hands  and  the  feet  (or,  if  the 
other  reading  be  adopted,  the  cruel,  '  lion-like  '  worrying  of 
the  helpless  prey);  in  Ps.  Ixix.  21,  of  the  offering  of  the  gall 
and  vinegar.  It  should  be  observed  that  these  parallels  are 
not  such  as  can  be  disputed  (like  some  of  the  Old  Testament 
references  in  the  Epistles)  on  the  ground  of  far-fetched 
Rabbinic  exegesis  ;  they  are  taken  from  psalms  which,  with 
one  exception,^  are,  as  we  shall  see  presently,  in  a  very  strict 
sense  Messianic,  and,  in  fact,  also  supply  instances  of  our 
second  class  of  prophecies — viz.  distinct  pictures  of  the  suffer- 
ing Messiah.  It  is  of  course  possible  to  maintain  ^  that  the 
whole  of  the  narrative  of  our  Lord's  Passion  was  suggested 
by  reminiscences  of  these  passages  of  the  Psalms  ;  but  the 
conjecture  would  not  be  a  plausible  one,  i.  because  of  the 
extreme  casualness.of  the  Psalm-parallels,^  and  2.  because  the 
whole  of  the  Gospel-narrative,  from  the  beginning  of  Mat- 
thew to  the  end  of  John,  is  pervaded  by  a  parallelism  to  the 
Old  Testament.  Yet  Strauss  himself  did  not  suppose  that 
the  whole  narrative  was  a  conscious  or  unconscious  fiction  on 
the  basis  of  Old  Testament  reminiscences.      It  may  be  con- 

1  Our  Lord  Himself  regarded  the  whole  psalm  as  prophetic  of  Himself,  as  we  must 
infer  from  His  utterance  of  the  opening  words  (Matt,  xxvii.  46,  Mark  xv.  34). 

^  The  exception  is  of  course  Ps.  xxxiv.,  which  is  only  Messianic  in  so  far  as  any- 
characteristic  utterance  of  a  pious  sufferer  is  in  the  highest  degree  true  of  Christ.  But 
the  overruling  of  Providence  is  as  manifest  in  the  literal  fulfilment  of  John  xix.  36  as 
in  any  other  passage  of  the  group. 

3  Strauss  did  in  fact  hold  that  Psalms  xxii.  and  Ixix.,  'together  with  the  extract 
from  Isa.  liii.,'  '  form,  as  it  were,  the  programme  according  to  which  the  whole  history 
of  the  Crucifixion  in  our  Gospels  is  drawn  up'  {New  Life  of  Jesus,  Eng.  Trans!., 
ii.  369). 

•*  I  mean  that  except  in  the  light  of  the  Gospel-narratives  no  one  would  have 
thought  of  regarding  these  incidental  phrases  in  the  Psalms  as  anticipations  of  scenes 
in  the  Passion. 


1 98  ESSAYS. 

tended,  therefore,  that  the  existence  of  these  circumstantial 
prophecies  in  the  Book  of  Psalms  confirms  the  view  that  there 
are  similar  circumstantial  prophecies  in  the  Book  of  Isaiah. 
That  they  were  conscious  prophecies  the  writer  does  not  sup- 
pose, and  to  many  they  will  only  seem  accidental  coincidences. 
It  is  their  amount  and  quality  which  give  them  significance  ; 
and  the  full  Christian  explanation  of  them  as  due  to  Providen- 
tial overruling  (a  '  pre-established  harmony')  is  therefore  in 
sole  possession  of  the  field.' 

I  have  ventured  to  state  my  belief  that  the  psalms  to 
which  these  circumstantial  foreshadowings  belong  are  Mes- 
sianic. Let  me  briefly  explain  my  position.  There  is  much 
haziness  in  the  minds  of  most  persons  as  to  the  meaning  of 
the  words  Messiah  and  Messianic.  I  have,  therefore,  first  of 
all  to  state  in  what  sense  I  use  these  expressions.  I  think  I 
am  in  harmony  with  the  Biblical  writers  if  I  define  the  word 
Messiah  as  meaning  one  who  has  received  some  direct  com- 
mission from  God  determining  his  life's  work,  with  the  single 
limitation  that  the  commission  must  be  unique,  and  must 
have  a  religious  character.  Thus  Cyrus  will  not  be  a  Messiah, 
because  '  his  function  was  merely  preparatory  ;  he  was  to  be 
instrumental  in  the  removal  of  obstacles  to  the  realisation  of 
[God's  kingdom]'  (/.  C.  A.,  p.  i66).  An  individual  priest  will 
not  be  a  Messiah,  because  he  has  received  no  unique  personal 
commission  ;  even  the  High  Priest  Joshua  is  only  represented 
as  t}'pical  of  Him  who  was  to  be  pre-eminently  the  Messiah 
(Zech.  iii.  8).  David  was  a  Messiah  (compare  Ps.  xviii.  50), 
because  he  was  God's  vicegerent  in  the  government  of  His 
people  Israel  ;  the  laws  which  David  was  to  carry  out  were 
not  merely  secular,  but  religious,  and  of  Divine  appointment. 
Each  of  David's  successors  was  in  like  manner  theoretically 
a  Messiah.  The  people  of  Israel  was  theoretically  a  Messiah, 
because  specially  chosen  to  show  forth  an  example  of 
obedience  to  God's  laws  (P2x.  xix.  5,  6),  and  to  preach 
His  religion  to  the  Gentiles  (Isa.  ii.  3,  Iv.  5).  Above  all, 
a  descendant  of  David  who  should  take  up  the  ill-performed 
functions  of  his  royal  ancestors  was  to  be,  both  in  theory 
and  in  fact,  the  Messiah  (Isa.  ix.  6,  7,  &c.);  and  so,  too,  was 
the  personal  Servant  of  Jehovah  (Isa.  Ixi.  i),  who  was  both 
to  redeem  His  people  from  their  sins,  and  to  lead  them  in  the 
performance  of  their  commission. 

1  Icnce  we  may  reckon  five  groups  of  Messianic  psalms: — 
I.  Psalms  which  refer  to  a  contemporary  Davidic  king, 
.setting  him,  either  directly  or  by  implication,  in  the  light  of 

'  Spc  Dclitzscli,  '  Der  Mebbiiib  ali  Vcrsohncr,'  Haat  auj Hoffnung,  1866,  pp.  116- 
138,  tbpccially  p.  136. 


ESSAYS.  199 

his  Messianic  mission.  II.  Those  rehiting  to  the  future  ideal 
Davidic  sovereign,  or  to  a  contemporary  king  idcahzed  into 
a  Messiah.  III.  Those  which  refer  to  the  future  glories  of 
the  kingdom  of  God,  but  without  expressly  mentioning  any 
Messiah.  IV,  Those  which,  though  seemingly  spoken  by  an 
individual,  in  reality  describe  the  experiences  of  the  Jewish 
nation  in  their  unsteady  performance  of  their  Messianic  com- 
mission. V.  Those  in  which,  with  more  or  less  consistency, 
the  psalmist  dramatically  introduces  the  personal  and  ideally 
perfect  '  Servant  of  Jehovah'  (to  adopt  the  phrase  in  Isa.  xlii. 
&c.)  as  the  speaker. 

On  the  first  group  there  cannot  be  much  difference  of 
opinion.  It  contains  Psalms  xx.,  xxi.,  xlv.,  ci.,  cxxxii.  The 
interest  of  the  interpreter  is  more  awakened  by  the  second 
group,  containing  Psalms  ii.,  Ixxii.,  ex.  In  Ps.  ii.  we  are 
presented  first  with  a  picture  of  the  whole  world  subject  to 
an  Israclitish  king,  and  vainly  plotting  to  throw  off  the  yoke  ; 
then  with  the  Divine  decree  assuring  universal  dominion  to 
this  particular  king  ;  then  with  an  exhortation  to  the  kings 
of  the  earth  to  submit  to  Jehovah's  Son.^  It  is,  I  know, 
commonly  supposed  that  the  psalm  has  a  primary  reference 
to  circumstances  in  the  life  of  David,  but  the  ordinary  Chris- 
tian instinct  seems  to  me  much  nearer  the  truth.  P^ven 
granting  for  the  moment  that  the  chiefs  of  the  Syrians  and 
the  Ammonites  could  be  dignified  in  liturgical  poetry  with  the 
title  '  kings  of  the  earth,'  there  is  not  the  slightest  indication 
in  2  Sam.  vii.  or  elsewhere,  that  a  prophet  ever  conveyed  an 
offer  to  David  of  the  sovereignty  of  the  whole  world.  Even 
Jewish  tradition,  so  zealous  for  the  honour  of  the  Davidic  lyre, 
has  not  ascribed  this  psalm  to  David.  Who,  then,  can  the 
Son  of  Jehovah  and  Lord  of  the  whole  earth  be  but  the 
future  Messiah,  whom  the  prophets  describe  in  such  extra- 
ordinary terms  ?  Why  should  we  expect  the  psalms  always  to 
have  a  contemporary  political  reference  ?  If  one  psalmist  (see 
below)  takes  for  his  theme  the  Messianic  glories  of  Jerusalem, 
why  may  not  another  adopt  for  his  the  glories  of  the  Messiah 
himself? 

The  same  arguments  apply  to  Ps.  Ixxii.,  which  a  Uni- 
tarian divine  pronounces  *  the  most  Messianic  in  the  collection,' 
adding  that  it  '  is  applied  by  Bible  readers  in  general  Vvith- 
out  hesitation  or  conscious  difficulty,  to  the  Messiah  of 
Nazareth,  as  beautifully  describing  the  spirit  of  his  reign.'  '•* 
The  judgment  of  the  plain  reader  is  not  to  be  lightly  dis- 

•  The  Aramaic  bar,  not  admitting  ilic  article,  suited  the  unique  poiiiion  of  the 
personage  spoken  of.     Comp.  note  in  the  Pan/imciil  Series  Psalms,  cd.  2. 
'■*  Higginson,  Eccc  Mcssias,  p.  30. 


200  ESSAYS. 

regarded,  and  though  Mr.  Higginson  goes  on  to  speak  of  'its 
true  historic  marks,  which  assign  it  distinctly  to  the  accession 
of  Solomon,'  other  critics  {e.g.  Hupfeld)  altogether  deny  these, 
and  the  Messianic  interpretation  has  not  yet  been  altogether 
refuted.  The  psalm  is  not,  indeed,  a  prediction  (as  King 
James's  Bible  makes  it),  but  is  at  any  rate  a  prayer  for  the 
advent  of  the  Prince  of  peace  and  of  the  world,  whom  the 
psalmist  in  the  ardour  of  hope  identified  with  some  Israelitish 
king.  Ps.  ex.,  again,  is  as  a  whole  only  obscure  to  those 
who  will  not  admit  directly  Messianic  psalms.'  How  signifi- 
cantly the  first  of  the  two  Divine  oracles  opens,  with  an  in- 
vitation to  sit  on  the  throne,  '  high  and  lifted  up'  (Isa,  vi.  i), 
where  the  Lord  Himself  is  seated  !  Can  we  help  thinking  of 
the  'El  gibbor  in  Isaiah  (ix.  6),  and  still  more  of  the  '  one 
like  a  son  of  man '  who  '  came  with  the  clouds  of  heaven,' 
and  was  '  brought  near  before  the  Ancient  of  days  '  (Dan, 
vii.  13)  ?  True,  that  '  son  of  man'  is  not  said  to  be  a  priest, 
but  he  agrees  with  the  personage  in  the  psalm  in  that  he  is 
conceived  of  as  in  heaven,  and  as  waging  war  and  exercising 
sov^ereignty  on  earth  from  heaven.  Neither  in  Daniel  nor  in 
the  psalm  is  anything  said  about  the  Davidic  origin  of  the 
high  potentate,  but  his  nature  and  functions  are  clearly  those 
of  the  Davidic  Messiah.  The  priestly  character  of  the  '  lord  ' 
in  Ps.  ex.  I  can  be  fully  explained  from  Zech,  iii.  8,  vi.  1 1-13, 
where  a  priestly  element  in  the  Messianic  functions  is  dis- 
tinctly recognised  ;  not,  however,  in  a  sacrificial  sense,  but 
with  regard  to  a  not  less  characteristic  function  of  the  priest, 
as  the  spiritual  head  and  representative  of  God's  people.^ 

Over  the  third  group  I  may  pass  lightly.  It  contains 
some  late  psalms,  such  as  xcvi.-c,  in  which  the  happiness  of 
being  under  Jehovah's  personal  government  is  celebrated,  and 
also  Ps.  Ixxxvii.,  in  which,  chief  among  the  Messianic  privi- 
leges of  Jerusalem,  the  conversion  of  the  heathen  is  represented 
as  their  being  '  born  again  in  Zion  '  (comp.  Isa.  xliv.  5). 

The  fourth  contains  a  number  of  psalms  commonly  re- 
garded as  Davidic,  and  as  typically  Messianic,  and  some 
which  are  merely  supposed  to  describe  the  sufferings  of  a 
pious  individual.  In  both  subdivisions  the  language  is  often 
hyperbolical,  which  is  explained  in  the  case  of  the  former  by 
the  typical  character  of  the  writer,  and  the  overruling  influence 
of  the  Spirit.  A  similar  explanation  might  plausibly  be 
offered  for  the  seeming  hyperboles  of  the  latter  subdivision, 
for    every  pious  sufferer  is  in  a  true  sense  a  type  of  Jesus 


'   Comp.  vol.  i.,  p.  62,  n.  2. 

-    Kicliin,  Messianic  I'ropheiy,  p.  202. 


ESSAYS.  20 1 

Christ.  But  it  is  much  simpler  to  suppose  that  these  psahns 
really  describe  the  experiences  of  the  Jewish  nation  in  the 
pursuit  of  its  Messianic  ideal  :  the  supposed  speaker  is  a  per- 
sonification. This  is  no  arbitrary  conjecture.  The  Jewish 
nation  and  its  divinely  appointed  ideal  were,  in  fact,  to  the 
later  prophets  and  students  of  Scripture  a  familiar  subject 
of  meditation.  I  need  hardly  remind  the  reader  of  the 
'  Servant  of  Jehovah'  in  some  parts  of  II.  Isaiah,  and  of  the 
striking  monologue  of  the  true  Israel  in  Mic.  vii.,  but  may  be 
allowed  to  state  my  opinion  that  one  principal  object  of  the 
Book  of  Jonah  was  to  typify  the  spiritual  career  of  Israel,  and 
that  the  so-called  Song  of  Solomon  was  admitted  into  the 
Canon  on  the  ground  that  the  Bride  of  the  poem  symbolised 
the  chosen  people.  Can  we  wonder  that  some  of  the  psalmists 
(as  also  the  author  of  the  third  Lamentation)  adopted  a 
similar  imaginative  figure  ? 

One  of  the  most  remarkable  of  these  psalms  is  the  eigh- 
teenth.   It  is  probable  enough  that  the  psalmist  in  writing  it  had 
the  life  of  David  in  his  mind's  eye  ;  but  it  would  be  unreasonable 
to  suppose  that  he  merely  wished  to  idealise  a  deceased  king, 
or  even  the  Davidic  family.     The  world-wide  empire  claimed 
by  the  supposed  speaker,  and  the  analogy  of  cognate  psalms, 
are  totally  opposed  to  such  a  hypothesis.     But  when  we  con- 
sider  that  the  filial  relation  to  God  predicated  of  David  as 
king  in  2  Sam.  vii.  is  also  asserted  of  the  Israelitish  nation 
(Ex.  iv.  22,  Hos.  xi.  i,  Ps.  Ixxx,   15),  and  that  in  Isa.  Iv.  3-5 
the  blessings  promised  to  David  are  assured  in  perpetuity  to 
the  faithful  Israel,  it  becomes  difficult  to  den}' that  David  may 
have  been  regarded  as  typical  of  the  nation  of  Israel. — Another 
of   these  psalms  is  the  eighty-ninth,  which  supplies  further 
evidence  of  the  typological  use  of  David.     The  psalmist  has 
been  describing  the  ruin  which   has  overtaken   the   Davidic 
family,  but  insensibly  passes  into  a  picture  of  the  ruin  of  the 
state,    and    identifies    '  the    reproach    of   the    heels  of   thine 
anointed '  (t-.  51)  with  '  the  reproach  of  thy  servants  '  (v.  50). 
— Ps.  Ixxi.  is  another  important  member  of  this  group,  as 
anyone  must  admit  who  will  candidly  apply  this  key  ;   see 
especially  v.  20,  where  the  reading  of  the  Hebrew  text  is  not 
'  me,'  but  '  us.'     Perhaps  also   Ps.   cii.  may  be  added.     The 
expressions  in  vt.  3-9  are,  some  of  them   at  least,  far  too 
strong  for  an  individual,  whereas  in  the  mouth  of  the  perso- 
nified people  they  are  not  inappropriate.     The  words  in  v.  23 
'  he  hath   shortened   my  days  '  (virtually  retracted  in  v.   28) 
remind  us  of  Ps.  Ixxxix.  45  ;  and  those  in  the  parallel  clause, 
'  he  hath  weakened   my  strength   in   the  way,'  are  perhaps  an 
allusion   to   the  '  travail  in  the  way  '  of  the   Israelites  in  the 


202  ESSAYS. 

wilderness  (Ex.  xviii.  8).     There  are  some  reasons,  however, 
for  rather  placing  this  psalm  in  the  next  group. 

The  remaining  members  of  the  fourth  group  are  the  so- 
called  imprecatory  psalms'  {e.g.  v.,  xxxv.,  xl.,  Iv.,  Iviii.,  Ixix., 
cix.).  As  long  as  these  are  interpreted  of  an  individual 
Israelite,  they  seem  strangely  inconsistent  with  the  injunctions 
to  benevolence  with  which  the  Old  Testament  is  interspersed.^ 
If,  however,  they  are  spoken  in  the  name  of  the  nation — 
'  Jehovah's  Son,'  their  intensity  of  feeling  becomes  intelligible. 
Certainly  it  was  not  '  obstinate  virulence  and  morbid  morose- 
ness '  which  inspired  them,  for  '  each  of  the  psalms  in  which 
the  strongest  imprecatory  passages  are  found  contains  also 
gentle  undertones,  breathings  of  beneficent  love.  Thus, 
"  When  they  were  sick,  I  humbled  my  soul  with  fasting  ;  I 
behaved  myself  as  though  it  had  been  my  friend  or  brother." 
"  When  I  wept  and  chastened  my  soul  with  fasting,  that  was 
to  my  reproach."  "  They  have  rewarded  me  evil  for  good, 
and  hatred  for  my  love  !  "  '  ^  And, '  finally  in  the  most  awful  of 
these  psalms,  the  denunciations  die  away  into  a  strain  which, 
in  the  original,  falls  upon  a  modern  car  with  something  of 
the  cadence  of  pathetic  rhyme  {vlibb^  khaldl  b'kirbee,  "  and 
my  heart  is  pierced  through  within  me  ").' ' 

Among  the  psalms  not  ascribed  to  David  which  belong 
to  this  group  is  the  forty-first,  from  which  a  quotation  is  made 
in  a  Messianic  sense  in  John  xiii.  i8.  It  is  only  the  people 
of  Israel  which  can  at  once  confess  its  former  sins  {v.  4), 
and  appeal  to  its  present  'integrity'  {v.  12). — The  fifth  and 
last  group  marks  the  highest  level  attained  by  the  inspired 
poets.  It  contains  (see  note '  below),  Ps.  xxii.,  xxxv.,  xl., 
Iv.,  Ixix.,  cii.  I  cannot  think  that  the  persistency  of  the 
traditional  interpretation,  at  any  rate  as  regards  the  two  first 
of  these  psalms,  is  wholly  due  to  theological  prepossessions. 
In  some  of  its  details,  the  traditional  Christian  interpretation 
is  no  doubt  critically  untenable,  but  in  essentials  it  seems  to 
me  truer  than  any  of  the  current  literary  theories.  Let  me 
briefly  refer  to  the  twenty-second  psalm,  which  jircscnts  such 
striking  affinities  with  II.  Isaiah.  In  two  respects  it  is  distin- 
guished from  most  others  of  the  same  group  ;  it  contains  no 
imprecations  and  no  confession  of  sinfulness.  It  falls  into 
two  parts.     The  first  and  longer  of  these  is  a  pathetic  appeal 

>  Some  of  these  psalms,  however  (xxxv.,  xl.,  Iv.,  Ixix.),  belong  more  projxrly  to 
the  fifth  group. 

2  Ex.  xxiii.  4,  S  ;  Lev.  xix.  i8  ;  Prov.  xx.  22,  x\iv.  17.  18,  29,  xxv.  21,  22,  comp. 
Job  xx\i.  29,  30. 

3  Hibhop  Alexander,  liaiiipioii  Lecluro  cii  tlic  Psalms,  1876,  p.  53  (Ps.  xxxv.  13, 
Kix.  10,  II  ;  cix.  4,  5). 

♦  Ibid.,  p.  t;?.  (It  is  not  necessary  to  assume  lliat  the  faitiiless  friends  in  I  s.  xxxv., 
Iv.,  are  mere  figures  of  speech.) 


ESSAYS.  203 

to  Jehovah  from  the  lowest  depth  of  affliction.  The  speaker 
has  been  God's  servant  from  the  beginning  (z>v.  9,  10),  }'et 
he  is  now  conscious  of  being  God-forsaken  (v.  i).  Not  only- 
are  his  physical  sufferings  extreme  (vz>.  14-17),  but  he  is  the 
butt  of  scoffers  and  a  public  laughing-stock  (vz'.  6,  7).  Who 
his  enemies  are — whether  heathen  oppressors  or  unbelieving 
Israelites — is  not  here  stated  ;  but  from  a  parallel  passage 
(Ps.  Ixix.  8)  it  is  clear  that  the  hostility  arises,  partly  at  least, 
from  the  sufferer's  fellow-countrymen.  Only  after  long 
wrestling  with  God  does  the  psalmist  attain  the  confidence 
that  he  has  been  heard  of  Him  (7>.  21).  At  this  point  the 
tone  suddenly  changes.  The  prayer  becomes  a  joyous 
declaration  of  the  answer  which  has  been  vouchsafed,  and  a 
promise  of  thank-offerings.  *  But  he  does  not  end  there. 
He  treats  his  deliverance  as  a  matter  of  national  congratula- 
tion, and  a  cause  of  more  than  national  blessings.  He  not 
only  calls  upon  his  fellow-countrymen  to  join  him  in  his 
thanksgiving  (■?'.  23),  but  breaks  out  into  an  announcement 
which  draws  the  whole  world  within  the  sphere  of  his  triumph 
(z'v.  27,  28,  31).' '  I  need  not  stay  to  point  out  how  unsuitable 
is  language  of  this  description  to  any  of  the  Israelites  men- 
tioned in  the  Old  Testament,  and  how  unnatural  it  is  that 
the  establishment  of  God's  universal  kingdom  should  be 
placed  in  sequence  to  the  deliverance  of  an  individual  sufferer.^ 
The  difficulties  are  strikingly  analogous  to  those  which  meet 
us  in  II.  Isaiah.^  There,  as  here,  some  features  of  the  de- 
scription seem  to  compel  us  to  explain  them  of  an  individual 
Israelite,  while  others  remain  unintelligible  unless  referred  in 
some  way  to  the  people  of  Israel,  with  its  Messianic,'*  mission- 
ary functions.  There,  as  here,  the  deliverance  of  the  sufferer 
has  a  vital  influence  on  the  spiritual  life,  first  of  all  of  his  own 
people,  and  then  of  all  mankind.  There,  as  here,  the  newly- 
acquired  spiritual  blessings  are  described  under  the  figure  of 
a  feast.  Is  it  so  very  bold  to  explain  Ps.  xxii.  and  the  psalms 
like  it  as  utterances  of  that  ideal  and  yet  most  real  personage, 

'   Maitland,   T/ic  Argumcnf/rom  Prof /len'  {S.  P. C.K.),  pp.  95,  96. 

*  Hupfeld,  I  know,  denies  that  the  anticipations  expressed  in  vv.  27-31  stand  in 
any  relation  to  the  dehverance  of  the  speaker.  But  by  this  denial  he  destroys  the 
unity  of  plan  of  the  poem  ;  it  is  certain,  too,  that  the  later  O.  T.  writers  often  con- 
nect the  conversion  of  the  heathen  with  the  sight  of  the  wonderful  deliverance  of 
Israel.  And  the  very  connection  which  Hupfeld  denies  in  Ps.  xxii.,  he  grants  in  the 
parallel  passage  in  Ps.  cii.  {vv.  15-17/. 

3  It  would  be  instructive  to  make  out  a  list  of  the  numerous  parallels  in  these 
psalms  to  II.  Isaiah  and  the  Book  of  Job  (for  the  author  of  Job,  as  we  have  seen,  is 
not  without  flashes  of  Gospel  light).  Comp.  for  instance,  Ps.  xxii.  6,  '  I  am  a  worm,' 
with  Isa.  xli.  14,  Job  xxv.  6  ;  tfiid.  'and  no  man,'  with  Isa.  lii.  14,  liii.  2  ;  i'ii'd.  'de- 
spised of  people,  with  Isa.  xlix.  7  ;  vi:  16,  17,  with  job's  descriptions  of  his  sickness  ; 
vv.  26,  28  with  Isa.  Iv.  I,  21.      Iv.  27-29  also  find  "their  best  commentary  in  Isa.  lii. 

14.  IS- 

*  On  the  sense  of  the  word  Messianic,  see  above,  p.  198. 


204  ESSAYS. 

who  in  II.  Isaiah  is  the  fruit,  from  one  point  of  view,  no  doubt, 
of  special  revelation,  but  from  another  equally  justified  and 
perfectly  consistent  with  the  former,  of  an  intense  longing  for 
the  fulfilment  of  Israel's  ideal  ?  To  assume  that  both  the 
sacred  poets  and  the  poet-prophet  are  feeling  their  way  (not, 
however,  at  random)  to  the  presence  of  the  Redeemer  ?  That 
they  have  abandoned  the  hope  of  an  earthly  King  of  Israel, 
and  are  conscious,  too,  that  even  the  noblest  members  of  the 
nation  are  inadequate  to  the  Messianic  functions  ?  And  that 
hence  they  throw  out  in  colossal  outlines  an  indistinct  because 
imaginatively  expressed  conception  of  One  who  shall  perfectly 
fulfil  these  functions  for  and  with  his  people  ? 

The  above  is  but  a  bare  statement  of  results,  which,  what- 
ever be  their  intrinsic  value,  may  claim  a  certain  degree  of 
attention  on  account  of  the  process  by  which  they  were  gained. 
It  is  not  often  that  a  Saul,  in  searching  for  his  father's  asses, 
finds  a  kingdom.  The  object  of  the  special  study,  of  which 
these  results  are  the  principal  fruit,  was  the  composition  of 
a  chapter  in  a  literary  history  of  the  Old  Testament.  It  now 
appears  to  the  author  that  they  supply  a  sound  basis  for  the 
'  Christian  interpretation  '  at  any  rate  of  the  Psalter  ;  but  this 
is  entirely  an  after-thought.  That  there  is  a  mysterious  x  in 
this  wonderful  book  became  clear  to  the  author  from  a  purely 
literary  point  of  view.  Applying  the  key  furnished  by  the 
Christian  theory,  he  then  found  himself  in  a  position  to  ex- 
plain this  mystery,  and  was  further  enabled  to  rediscover  those 
peculiar,  circumstantial  prophecies  which  are  so  natural  and 
intelligible  upon  the  Christian  presuppositions. 


Such  being  the  case  with  the  Psalter,  arc  we  not  justified 
in  expecting  corresponding  phenomena  in  the  Book  of  Isaiah, 
viz.  I.  foreshadowings  of  special  circumstances  in  the  life  of 
our  Saviour  ;  and  2.  distinct  pictures  of  Jesus  Christ,  the 
suffering  Messiah  .''  We  may  for  our  present  purpose  leave 
on  one  side  the  question  whether  or  not  this  book  is  of  com- 
posite origin.  It  is  at  any  rate  a  very  comprehensive  work, 
by  no  means  limited  to  the  thoughts  and  prospects  of  the 
age  of  Isaiah.  Indeed,  it  may  be  called  a  text-book  of  pro- 
phetic religion,  and  strange  would  it  be  if  belief  in  the 
Messiah  were  the  only  dumb  note  in  its  scale. 

The  foreshadowings  of  special  events  in  the  life  of  Christ 
pointed  out  in  the  Book  of  Isaiah  by  New  Testament  writers, 
are  even  fewer  in  number  than  those  in  the  Psalms.      I  pass 


ESSAYS.  205 

over  the  general  reference  in  Acts  viii.  27-35,  and  confine 
myself  to  the  following  : — 

Isa.  vii.  14,  Matt.  i.  23  ; 

Isa.  ix.  I,  2,  Matt.  iv.  15,  16; 

Isa.  liii.  4,  Matt.  viii.  17  ; 

Isa.  liii.  12  (fourth  clause),  Luke  xxii.  37. 

To  these  are  added  by  the  higher  exegesis '  1.  6,  liii.  5  (first 
clause),  liii.  9,  and  the  last  clause  of  liii.  12 — added,  we  can 
hardly  doubt,  in  the  spirit  of  the  apostolic  age,  which,  as  the 
use  of  rracs  in  Acts  iii.  13,  26,  iv.  27,  30,  shows,  interpreted 
the  'Servant'  to  mean  Jesus  Christ.  Let  me  touch  upon 
each  of  these  passages. 

(a)  Isa.  vii.  14.-  It  is  true  that  the  sign  given  to  Ahaz 
consists  chiefly  in  the  name  and  fortunes  of  the  child  Imma- 
nuel,  but  the  mother  is  not  to  be  left  entirely  out  of  account  ^ 
(see  note  ad  /oc).  Isaiah's  '  dim  intuition  '  of  something  re- 
markable in  the  circumstances  of  the  mother  may,  from  a 
Christian  point  of  view,  be  ascribed  to  the  '  Spirit  of  Christ 
which  was  in'  the  prophet  (i  Pet.  i.  11).  This,  to  many 
minds,  will  be  one  part  of  the  unexpected  'pre-established 
harmony '  between  the  verbal  form  of  the  prophecy  and  its 
fulfilment.  Another  part,  less  open  of  course  to  objection,  is 
the  prophetic  significance  of  the  child's  name.  Isaiah  and 
Ahaz  may  have  understood  it  to  mean  simply  '  God  is  on 
our  side  ; '  but  the  fulfilment  in  the  Person  of  Jesus  Christ 
revealed  a  depth  of  meaning  which  Isaiah  (though  with 
'El gibbor,  '  God-the-Mighty-One,'  before  us  in  Isa.  ix.  6,  w^e 
should  speak  hesitatingly)  did  not  probably  suspect. 

{U)  Isa.  ix.  I,  2. — It  is  most  remarkable  (and  might  at 
first  sight  justify  a  suspicion  of  interpolation)  that  Isaiah,  a 
man  of  Judah,  should  have  delivered  this  exuberant  promise 
to  the  border-districts  of  Israel,  especially  as  their  inhabitants 
had  most  likely  approximated  more  to  heathenism  than  those 
of  the  rest  of  Israel.  The  coincidence  with  the  circumstances 
of  Jesus  Christ  is  too  remarkable  to  be  explained  away.  The 
Jews  certainly  inferred  from  this  passage  of  Isaiah  that  the 
Messiah  would  appear  in  Galilee.^ 

ic)  Isa.  liii.  4. — This  is  applied  by  the  evangelist  to  the 
healing  ministry  of  our  Lord.     It  is  a  purely  verbal  applica- 

1  If  we  admit  the  phrases  '  higlier '  and  '  lower  criticism,'  why  not  also  '  higher  '  and 
'  lower  exegesis  '  ?  By  '  higher  exegesis  '  I  understand  one  which  '  interprets  prophecy 
in  the  light  of  fulfilment,  and  develops  the  germs  of  doctrine  in  a  New  Testament 
sense'  (Preface  to  vol.  i.). 

5*  I  admit  an  error  of  judgment  in  /.  C.  A.,  p.  31. 

•'  Eisenmenger,  Entdecktes  J iideiithum,  ii.  747.  Delitzsch  also  refers  to  Liferatur- 
llatt  des  Orients,  1S43,  col.  776. 


206  ESSAYS. 

tion,  with  no  support  in  the  context,  of  the  prophecy  (comp. 
Weiss  on  Matt.  /.  c),  and  therefore  stands  far  below  the  other 
evangeHcal  interpretations  referred  to. 

{d)  Isa.  liii.  1 2  (fourth  clause). — The  prophet  merely  meant 
that  the  Servant  of  Jehovah  was  regarded  as  a  transgressor  ; 
but  by  a  providentially  *  pre-established  harmony  '  the  coinci- 
dence with  facts  is  even  literally  exact.  I  do  not,  however, 
claim  the  authority  of  our  Lord  for  the  application  of  the 
prophecy  ;  the  whole  context  in  St.  Luke  is  uncertain,  see 
Mark  xiv.  26.   ' 

{e)  Isa.  1.  6. — There  is  surely  an  unsought  parallelism 
between  prophecy  and  gospel-narrative. 

(/)  Isa.  liii.  5  (first  clause).— The  context  shows  that  by 
*  pierced '  the  prophet  intended  to  signify  a  violent  death 
accompanied  by  torture.  As  Vitringa  remarks,  '  there  is  no 
word  in  Hebrew  which  can  more  appropriately  be  referred  to 
the  torture  of  the  cross  of  Christ.' 

{g)  Isa.  liii.  9. — The  evangelical  narrative  corresponds 
with  the  prophecy,  however  we  interpret  some  words  of  this 
verse.  But  there  is  absolutely  no  philological  ground  for 
applying  the  second  clause  to  the  burial  of  Christ  in  the  tomb 
of  Joseph.  As  Dr.  Weir  remarks,  '  It  would,  indeed,  be 
scarcely  consistent  with  the  spirit  of  the  Bible,  which  makes 
little  account  of  the  mere  possession  of  riches,  to  give 
prominence  in  the  prophetic  page  to  the  circumstance  of 
Christ's  being  buried  in  a  rich  man's  grave.  Surely  it  added 
nothing  to  the  glory  of  the  Saviour  to  have  his  body  en- 
tombed in  Joseph's  sepulchre  ;  it  was  a  high  honour  to 
Joseph  that  he  was  privileged  to  supply  a  resting-place  for 
the  body  of  Jesus  ;  but  surely  it  did  not  add  to  the  honour  of 
Jesus  to  lie  in  the  rich  man's  tomb.'  I  need  not  repeat  what 
I  have  said  above  on  the  inconsistency  into  which  some 
eminent  expositors  appear  to  have  fallen.  Those  who,  like 
Stier,  appeal  to  the  singular  '  rich  man  '  in  the  second  clause, 
as  indicating  Joseph  of  Arimathea,  forget  that  the  alter- 
nation of  numbers  is  a  characteristic  Hebrew  idiom  (comp. 
Lsa.  X.  4). 

(//)  Isa.  liii.  12  (last  clause).— This  is  one  of  the  passages 
which,  from  an  evangelical  point  of  view,  place  Isa.  liii.  as 
much  above  Ps.  xxii.,  as  that  psalm,  owing  to  its  complete 
freedom  from  imprecations,  is  (as  it  may  seem  to  us  in  some 
of  our  moods)  above  Ps.  Ixix.  It  received  a  fulfilment  of 
which  the  prophet  could  never  have  dreamed  in  Luke  xxiii.  33. 

Let  us  now  turn  to  the  other  group  of  passages  in  Isaiah, 
containing  a  distinctly  Christian  clement,  viz.  the  portraits  of 
the  teaching,  suffering,  but  in  and  through  his  suffering  trium- 


ESSAYS.  207 

phant  Messiah  (xHi.  1-7,  xlix.  1-6,  I.  4-9,  Hi.  13-liii.  12).  No 
greater  problem,  whether  we  regard  its  intrinsic  difficulty  or 
the  importance  of  its  issues,  is  presented  to  the  Old  Testa- 
ment interpreter  than  that  of  explaining  these  wonderful 
passages.  Their  difficulty  arises  partly  from  the  abruptness 
with  which  they  are  introduced,  partly  from  the  apparent  in- 
consistency of  some  of  the  expressions,  partly  (if  we  may 
judge  from  the  efforts  of  some  to  explain  it  away)  from  the 
extraordinary  distinctness  with  which  the  most  striking  of 
them  at  any  rate  prefigure  the  life  of  Jesus  Christ.  Let  us 
first  of  all  clearly  understand  the  alternatives  set  before  us. 
{a)  It  is  one  source  of  difficulty,  that  the  portrait-passages 
are  introduced  abruptly.  (There  is  an  analogy  for  this,  how- 
ever, in  the  abruptness  of  the  two  earliest  Messianic  pro- 
phecies in  chaps,  vii.  and  ix.).  The  alternatives  in  this  case 
are  to  suppose  (i)  that  these  passages  are  based  on  extracts 
from  a  separate  work,  which,  perhaps,  contained  a  spiritualised 
biography  of  the  great  martyr-prophet,  Jeremiah  ;  and  (2) 
that  the  prophetic  writer  is  carried  beyond  himself  by  a  spe- 
cially strong  inspiration  of  the  '  Spirit  of  Christ.'  The  former 
alternative  is  proposed  by  Dr.  Duhm,  of  Gottingen,'  The 
theory  partly  agrees  with  that  of  Ewald,  according  to  whom 
xl.  I,  2,  lii.  13-liv.  12,  Ivi.  9-lvii.  II,  were  taken  from  an  earlier 
prophet,  but  the  difference  is  sufficient  to  allow  us  to  quote 
Ewald's  authority  as  opposed  to  the  view  of  Dr.  Duhm. 
The  objections  to  the  latter  are  (i)  stylistic  (how,  e.g.,  can 
xlii.  1-6  be  ascribed  to  a  different  author  from  the  rest  of  the 
prophecy?)  ;  and  (2)  that  the  theory  makes  the  prophet  re- 
sponsible for  gratuitously  misleading  his  readers,  {b)  It  is 
also  said  that  some  of  the  expressions  used  of  the  Servant 
are  inconsistent.  This  may  be  explained,  i.  on  the  quota- 
tion-theory just  mentioned  ;  2.  as  due  to  a  haziness  in  the 
author's  conception  of  the  Servant  (a  view  unfavourable  to  his 
poetic  vigour,  and  not  to  be  adopted  without  compulsion),  or 
3.  on  a  subtle  but  beautiful  and  (as  it  seems  to  me)  well-sup- 
ported theory  to  be  mentioned  presently,  (r)  Another  source 
of  difficulty  to  some  minds  is  the  extraordinary  resemblance 
of  the  description  to  the  Person  of  Jesus  Christ.  Here,  again, 
we  have  our  choice  of  alternatives,  (i)  We  may  say  with  Mr. 
Matthew  Arnold,  that  this  harmony  between  II.  Isaiah  and 
the  Gospels  is  perfectly  natural.  '  To  a  delicate  and  penetrat- 
ing criticism  it  has  long  been  manifest  that  the  chief  literal 
fulfilment  by  Christ  of  things  said  by  the  prophets  was 
the  fulfilment  such  as  would  naturally  be  given  by  one  who 
nourished  his  spirit  on  the  prophets  and  on  living  and  acting 

1  Duhm,  Die  Theologie  dcr  Projheten  (Bonn,  1875),  p.  289. 


2^)8  ESSAYS. 

their  words.''  Or  (2)  \vc  may  hold  that  the  Divine  Spirit 
overruled  in  such  a  way  the  mental  process  of  the  prophet 
that  he  chose  expressions  which,  while  completely  conveying; 
his  own  meaning,  also  corresponded  to  a  future  fact  in  the  life 
of  Jesus  Christ.  This  does  not  exclude  us  from  searching 
for  a  point  of  contact  in  the  prophet's  consciousness,  and  such, 
I  think,  it  will  be  possible  to  find.'^  Nor  does  it  prevent  us 
from  accepting  thankfully  the  element  of  truth  in  Mr.  Matthew 
Arnold's  too  self-eulogistic  observation.  The  harmony  be- 
tween Isaiah  and  the  Gospels  is,  in  fact,  perfectly  natural. 
But  it  is  also  perfectly  unique,  and  what  is  unique  may  in  one 
very  good  sense  be  called  supernatural.  And  so  we  come 
round  again  to  the  judgment  of  the  plain  reader,  that  the 
hand  of  God  is  in  this  extraordinary  correspondence,  and  as 
we  read  the  chapter  afresh  we  are  conscious  of  something  of 
the  impression  which  it  produced  upon  the  Earl  of  Rochester, 
whose  vivid  language  is  traceable  in  his  biographer's  report. 
'  He  said  to  me,'  says  Bishop  Burnet,  '  that,  as  he  heard  it 
read,  he  felt  an  inward  force  upon  him,  which  did  so  enlighten 
his  mind,  and  convince  him,  that  he  could  resist  it  no  longer  : 
for  the  words  had  an  authority,  which  did  shoot  like  rays  or 
beams,  in  his  mind  ;  so  that  he  was  convinced,  not  only  by  the 
reasonings  he  had  about  it,  which  satisfied  his  understanding, 
but  by  a  power  which  did  so  effectually  constrain  him,  that 
he  did,  ever  after,  as  firml>'  believe  in  his  Saviour,  as  if  he  had 
seen  him  in  the  clouds.'^ 

4- 
With  this  striking  confession,  with  which  nothing  need 
prevent  even  a  philologist  from  agreeing,  it  would  be  natural 
to  close  this  essay.  Definitely  Christian  elements  of  the  two 
principal  kinds  mentioned  above  have,  it  is  believed,  been 
found,  without  any  injury  cither  to  common  sense  or  to  lite- 
rary exegesis,  in  the  noblest  of  all  the  prophetic  books,  l^ut 
a  few  remarks  seem  at  an)'  rate  expedient  on  what  ma)-  be 
called  the  secondary  Christian  elements  in  the  book  of  Isaiah 
—secondary,  only  so  far  as  they  relate  to  doctrines,  and  not 
to  material,  objective  facts  in  the  life  of  the  Saviour.  To 
treat  these  fully  would  require  a  peculiar  spiritual  x"P'^H-"> 
not  to  mention  the  heavy  demand  which  it  would  make  on 
the  remaining  space.  Stier,  with  all  his  faults,  still  deserves 
a  most  honourable  place  among  Christian  interpreters  for  the 

'  Arnold,  I.iteratitre  and  Dos^tna  (Lond.,  1873),  p.  114. 

2  Some  suggestions  in  aid  of    this  are  given   in   the  Essay  on  the  Servant  of 
Jcliovah. 

5  liiinK"!';  hfc  of  John   Earl  of  Rochester   (Lives  and  Characters,  cd.  Jehh,    p. 

229). 


ESSAYS. 


209 


spiritual  insight  with  which  he  has  treated  this  department  of 
exegesis,  and  to  his  important  work  I  provisionally  refer  the 
reader.  Two  of  these  '  secondary '  Christian  elements,  how- 
ever, imperatively  require  to  be  noticed. 

(^)  First,  the  divinity  of  the   Messiah  (I  take  the  word 
Messiah  in  an  enlarged  sense,  thus  including  the  truths  em- 
bodied in  the  Messianic  king,  and  in  the  personal  '  Servant  of 
Jehovah  ').    Both  parts  of  Isaiah  give  us  to  understand  clearly 
(and  not  as  a  mere  vtvovolo)  that  the  agent  of  Jehovah  in  the 
work  of  government  and  redemption  is  himself  divine.     Not, 
indeed,  the  much-vexed  passage  in  iv.  2,  where,  even  if  the 
date  of  this  prophecy  allowed  us  to  suppose  an  allusion  to 
the  Messiah,  '  sprout  of  Jehovah '  is  much  too  vague  a  phrase 
to  be  a  synonym  for  '  God's  Only-begotten  Son.'     But  the 
not  less  famous   'EI  gibbdr  in  ix.  6  may  and  must  still  be 
quoted.     As  Hengstenberg  remarks,  it '  can  only  signify  God- 
Hero,  a  Hero  who  is  infinitely  exalted  above  all  human  heroes 
by   the  circumstance  that  he  is   God.     To  the  attempts  at 
weakening  the  import  of  the  name,  the  passage  x.  21  '  [where 
'El  gibbdr '\s  used  of  Jehovah]  'appears  a  very  inconvenient 
obstacle.' '     And  who  can  doubt  that,  granting  the  subject  of 
chap.  liii.  to  be  an  individual,  he  must  be  an  incarnation  of 
the  Divine  }     That  such  a  conception — such  a  revelation — was 
not  opposed  to  primitive  religious  beliefs  has  been  already 
pointed  out  in  the  notes  on  ix.  6,  xiv.  14. 

{b)  Next,  Vicarious  Atonement.     It  is  not  surprising  that 
most  of  those  who  deny  the  personal  Servant  are  unwilhng  to 
allow  the  presence  of  this  doctrine  in  Isa.  liii.^     Yet  in  itself 
it  cannot  be  regarded  as   an   unexpected  phenomenon,  nor 
ought  it  to  be  described  as  a  '  heathenish  idea.'     As  Oehler 
has  well  observed,  '  That  the  intercession  of  the  righteous  for 
a  sinful  nation  is  effectual,  is  a  thought  running  through  the 
entire  Old  Testament,  from  Gen.  xviii.  23  j^^.  and  Ex.  xxxii. 
32  sqq.  (comp.  Ps.  cvi.  23,  and  subsequently  Amos  vii.  r  sqq) 
onwards.' 3      And    though  no    doubt    it  is  also  stated  'that 
guilt  may  reach  a  height  at  which  God  will  no  longer  accept 
the  intercession  of  His  servants  '  (Jer.  xv.    i,  comp.  xi.    14), 
yet  this  is  not  inconsistent  with  the  idea  of  Vicarious  Atone- 
ment, as  even  Christians  understand  it,  and  in  chap,  liii.,  the 
blessings  promised  by  the  Servant  (whatever  we  understand 

1  Christology  of  the  Old  Tfstament,  iii.  88. 
.  u'  i"  ^"  ^•,^-'  P-  ^91.  I  fully  admitted  this  idea,  but  my  inadequate  explfination  of 
the  Servant  compelled  me  to  give  the  vicariousness  an  artificial  turn.  For  a  survey 
ot  the  interpretations  opposed  to  the  full  Christian  one,  see  V.  F.  Oehler,  Dcr  Knecht 
Jehovas  tm  Deuterojesaia,  ii.  66  136.  To  the  list  might  now  be  added  Riehm's  in 
his  Mfssu^ntc  Prophecy  (Eng.  Transl.),  p.  147,  and  Albrecht  Kitschl's.  in  his  Die 
chrijtliche  Lehre  von  dcr  Rechlfcrtiguii^,  &c..  ii.  64,  65. 

■"  Oehler,  0/d  Testament  Theology  (En^.  Transl.),  ii.  425. 

VOL.    II,  '  "  „ 


2  10  ESSAYS. 

them  to  be)  are  not  promised  unconditionally  to  every  member 
of  the  community.'      Now,  intercession  is  one  form  of  substi- 
tution.    ISut  there  was  another  and  a  more  striking  form  of 
it  constantly  before  the  eyes  of  the  Israelites  in  their  sacrifices, 
whether  the  taking  of  life  was   involved   in  them  or  not,  for 
the  offerer  was  represented  -  by  his  offering.     And  so  the  way 
was  prepared  for   the  revelation  (comp.  Isa.  liii.)  of  One  to 
whom  a  prohibition  like  that  addressed  to  Jeremiah  could  not 
apply,  because  He  was  not  only  perfectly  righteous  Himself, 
but  able,  by  uniting  them  mystically  to  Himself,  to  '  make 
the  many  righteous  ; '  of  One  whose  sacrifice  of  Himself  was 
so  precious  that  it  could  be  accepted  even  for  a  people  which 
had  deliberately  broken  its  covenant  with  Jehovah,  and  which 
therefore  was  legally  liable  to   the  punishment  of  extermina- 
tion.    (Here  the  conception  implied,  as  it  would  seem,  b)-  the 
prophet  passes,  strictly  speaking,   beyond   the  range  of  the 
sacrificial  ideas  of  the  Old  Testament.     For  the  law  recog- 
nised no  sacrifice  for  deliberate  violations  of  the  covenant. 
Be  it  remembered,  however,  that  even  chap.  liii.  and  the  lead- 
ing New  Testament  writers  make  a  distinction  among  those 
who  are  equally  liable  to  the  legal  sentence  of  death  ;  some, 
though  rebels,  are  at  least  susceptible  of  penitence.)    It  is  true 
that  none  of  the  other  foreshadowings  of  Christ  contain  this 
characteristically  (though  not  exclusively)  Christian  element 
of  Vicarious  Atonement.     But  that  constitutes  no  reason  why 
it  should  not  occur  once.      In  fact,  it  is  really  necessary  that 
it  should  occur  somewhere,  to  explain  that  wonderful  psalm 
which,  next  to  Isa.  liii.,  contains  the  clearest  anticipation  of 
Jesus  Christ  in  the  Old  Testament,  for  there  is  a  gap  between 
the  former   and  the  latter  part  of  Ps.  xxii.,  which  can  only 
be  filled  up  by  assuming  the  Vicarious  Atcmement  from  Isa. 
liii.     The  writer  of  the  psalm   foresaw,  as  it  were  in  a  vision, 
the  sufferings  of  Christ  and  the  glory  that  should  follow,  but 
it  was  not  revealed  to  him  how  those  sufferings   produced 
so  immense  a  result.     His  spiritual  intuitions  were  true,  but 


1  See  commentary  on  liii.  ii  ('  the  many'). 

'  In  every  case  of  a  s-icrifice  (whether  with  or  without  sheddinp  of  blood)  there  is 
representation  (or,  nsinp  tlie  word  Ijosely,  'substitution').  But  we  must  carefully 
guard  ai^n'n.-t  an  error  of  the  older  divines,  viz.  that  when  a  victim  was  put  to  death,  it 
wa^  as  a  substitute  for  the  pi^nal  death  of  the  sacrificer.  This  view  is  now  generally 
abandoned  by  Old  Testament  .scholars.  The  truth  is  that  the  blood,  .according  to 
the  Hebrew  concption,  is  the  vehii-le  of  the  '  soul '  ( I  .ev.  xvii.  1 1),  and  the  shedding  of 
the  blood  of  the  victim  signifies  the  offering  of  its  life  in  place  of  the  life  of  him  who 
offers   it.     The  pure  'soul'  of  the  victim  'covers'  ("^33)  or  atones  for  the  impure 

'  soul '  of  the  offerer  ;  the  innocence  of  the  one  neutralises  the  sin  of  the  other.     (It 
must  be  remembered,  however,  that  the  verb  in  question  sometimes  ha-s  for  its  subject 

iehovah,  especially  in  the  P. alms;  God  '  covers'  or  cancels  sin,  without  our  being  told 
ow  this  is  I  ossilir.) 


KSSAVS.  2  I  r 


limited.  Ikit  the  prophet  ul'  the  Servant  of  Jehovah  saw 
further,  and  it  is  upon  this  ground  especially  that  he  has  been 
rightly  called  an  Evangelist  before  the  Gospel. 


IV.    THE  SERVANT  OF  JEHOVAH. 


Who  has  not  heard  of  '  one  of  the  great  results  of  German 
criticism  '  that  the  personage  called  the  '  Servant  of  Jehovah  ' 
is  not  really  an  individual  at  all,  but  a  .collective  term  for  the 
Jewish  people  ?  And  that  the  view  which  formerly  prevailed 
was  due  to  a  theological  prejudice  in  favour  of  orthodox 
Christianity?  Such  at  least  is  the  form  in  which  popular 
writers  set  forth  this  '  result,'  though  their  teachers  at  any 
rate  are  too  learned  to  maintain  the  second,  contrary  to  the 
notorious  facts  of  early  Jewish  exegesis.'  Now  Strauss  and 
Dr.  Kuenen  (whose  names  may  in  the  present  context  with- 
out offence  be  combined)  are  both  extremely  able  critics, 
but  both,  as  it  seems  to  me,  more  skilful  in  the  analysis  of 
composite  literary  works  than  in  fellow-feeling  {Nachempfind- 
tiiig,  to  borrow  an  expressive  German  word)  for  the  imagi- 
native conceptions  of  great  poets.  The  facts,  in  the  lan- 
guage of  a  Review  not  usually  favourable  to  orthodoxy,  may 
be  briefly  stated  thus: — '"The  Servant  of  Yahveh  "'is,  at 
least  sometimes,  a  collective  term  for  the  people  of  Israel. 
He  is,  however,  at  other  times  described  in  language  quite 
unsuitable  to  a  body  of  persons.  The  Christian  view  '  [in 
its  crudest  form,  which  rejects  points  of  contact  for  revelation 
in  the  consciousness  of  the  prophets]  '  is  opposed  to  the 
analogy  of  Hebrew  prophecy.  What  third  theory  is  open  ?  '  '^ 
The  '  Westminster  Reviewer'  here  complains  of  '  liberal  critics  ' 
for  'not  having  given  enough  attention  to  the  phenomena 
which  partly  prevent  a  more  general  acceptance  of  their  own 
views.'  He  charitably  conjectures  that  there  is  something  in 
the  opposition  of  conservative  critics  besides  theologicafrc- 
pulsion,  viz.  a  sense  that  the  'collective'  theory  does'not  do 
justice  to  the  most  salient  and  impressive  passages  devoted  to 
'  the  Servant.'  And  does  not  this  suggest  the  real  point  of 
difference  between  the  two  sides,  viz.  that  Dr.  Kuenen  starts 
from  the  passages  in  which  the  conception  of  '  the  Servant  ' 

>  Strauss  A^«t.Z/^  of  Jesus,  Eng.  Transl.,  i.  314-8;  Kuenen.  The  Prophets  and 
Prophecy  ni  Israel,  pp.  221-2.  Conip.  Neubauer  and  Driver,  The  Jewish  InterPreteis 
of  Isaiah  liii.  ' 

♦    Westminster  Revieru,  Oct.  1875.  p.  475. 

P  2 


2  I  2  ESSAYS. 

is  least  developed,  and  conservative  critics  from  the  highest 
points  which  the  prophet's  poetic  intuition  (not  to  speak 
theologically)  has  reached  ?  And  is  it  not  fairer  to  estimate 
a  poet's  ideas  rather  by  their  strongest  than  by  their  weakest 
expression — rather  by  the  passages  in  which  he  has  fully 
found  his  voice,  than  by  those  in  which  he  is  still  labouring 
after  fitting  accents  ? 

The  cxegetical  facts  have  been  sufficiently  laid  before  the 
reader  in  the  preceding  commentary.  It  has,  I  hope,  been 
shown  that  '  the  Servant '  is  neither  exclusively  the  people  of 
Israel  as  a  whole,  nor  the  pious  portion  of  it,  nor  the  class 
of  prophets,  nor  any  single  individual,  but  that  some  form  of 
conception  must  be  found  which  docs  justice  to  the  elements 
of  truth  contained  in  all  these  theories.  In  my  earlier  work  ' 
I  was  captivated  by  an  extremely  tempting  theory  of  Ewald, 
which  has  hardly  met  with  the  attention  which  it  deserves. 
'  Sometimes,'  I  said,  'the  prophet  views  the  people  of  Israel 
from  an  ideal,  sometimes  from  an  historical  point  of  view. 
Hence  in  several  important  sections  the  "  Servant  of  Jeho- 
vah "  (like  the  Zion  of  xl.  9,  &c.)  is  a  purely  poetical  figure, 
personifying  the  ideal  character  of  the  pious  Israelite, 
and  decorated  by  the  prophet  with  all  the  noblest  achieve- 
ments of  faith,  whether  actually  realised  in  the  past,  or  merely 
hoped  for  from  the  future  '  (/.  C.  A.,  p.  i  55).  This  theory  docs 
not  exclude  the  possibility  that  some  features  in  the  descrip- 
tion may  have  been  taken  from  individual  righteous  men  (such 
as  Jeremiah),  just  as  Dante  in  his  pilgrimage  through  the 
unseen  world  is  at  once  a  banished  Florentine  and  the  repre- 
sentative of  humanity  ;  and  as  Calderon's  Philotca  is  said  to 
be  sometimes  the  ideal  of  the  Church,  and  sometimes  a  single 
soul.  But  I  erred,  and  Ewald  erred,  in  regarding  this  per- 
sonage as  a  '  purely  poetical  figure.'  The  truth  in  the  theory 
is,  that  '  the  Servant '  does  in  reality  embody  the  highest 
qualities  of  the  Israelite — he  is  not  merely  a  collective  term. 
But  the  truth  which  it  has  entirely  missed  is,  that  the  prophet 
actually  sees  as  it  were  in  vision  (such  is  the  strength  of  his 
faith)  the  advent  of  such  an  ideal  Israelite.  And  one  whole 
side  of  the  difficulty  connected  with  the  Servant  it  has  left  out 
of  view,  viz.  the  application  of  the  very  same  term  to  the 
actual  people  of  Israel.  Well  may  the  '  Westminster  Re- 
viewer '  call  out  for  some  fresh  theory  to  reconcile  the 
apparently  conflicting  phenomena  ! 

'  A  complete  retractation  of  the  writer's  former  opinions  might  justly  expose  him  to 
the  charge  of  instability.  But  in  his  pnsont  view  he  hopes  to  retain  the  element  of 
truth  in  his  form'-r  position.  The  most  widely  known  living  commt-ntaior  on  Isaiah 
(Dr.  Delitzsch)  h.is  liimself  not  alw;iys  held  his  present  theory.     See  above,  p.  .(o. 


ESSAYS. 


213 


I  believe  myself  that  the  theory  of  Dclitzsch  and  Oehler 
(see  vol.  i.  p.  264)  meets  the  requirements  of  the  case  ;  but 
that  it  admits  of  a  fuller  and  more  complete  justification  than 
those  eminent  scholars  have  supplied.     I  reached  it  myself 
from   the  starting-point  of  the  fragment  of  truth  taught  me 
by    Ewald.     Let  me    attempt   to  explain   the  course  of  my 
thought. —  I.  The   truth  in   Evvald's  theory  (as   I  ventured  to 
state  above)  is,  that  '  the  Servant '  in  the  finest  and  therefore 
regulative  passages  does  really  embody  the  highest  Israelitish 
ideal.     We  Aryans  of  the  West  are  accustomed  to  draw  a 
hard  and  fast  line  between  the   ideal  and  the  real  ;  but  the 
unphilosophical    Israelite   made    no    such    distinction.       The 
kingdom  of  God  he  regarded    as   really  in  heaven,  waiting  to 
be  revealed  ;  and  ^D-  the  ideal  of  Israel  was  to  an  Israelite 
Xeally  in  heaven,  in   the  super-sensible  world,  waiting  for  its 
_iTianifestation.     But  in  order  to  be  real,  this  ideal  must  at  the       / 
,samc  time  be  personal.     This  is  one  important  element  in        ' 
the   solution  of  our  question.     2.  Next   let  us  consider    the 
sta.te._DX_iiiiiid-  of  the  Jewish  exiles,  for  whom  i^as  all  agree) 
chaps,  xl.-lxvi.  of  Isaiah  were  (mainly,  at  any  rate)  written.    1 
During  the  interruption  of  the  ceremonial  system  they  felt 
the  want  of  a  more  spiritual   type  of  religion,  and  above  all 
of  a  new  ideal,  high  enough  for  veneration,  but  not  too  high 
to  be  imitated.     They  belonged,  as  we  have  seen,  to  an  ima- 
ginative race,  prone  to  symbolism,  and  averse  to  abstract  con- 
ceptions.    One  of  their  number,  less  absorbed  than  some  in 
the  national  traditions,'  and  not  without  some  flashes  of  the 
light  of  the  Gospel,  produced  a  wonderfully  striking  type  of 
character,  divested  of  everything  Israelitish  in  appearance,  into 
which  he  flung  in  profuse  abundance  the  new  divinely-inspired 
thoughts  which   were  craving  for  utterance.     The  result  (as  \ 
after  long  thought  I  have  satisfied  myself)  was  the  poem  of 
Job,   in  which  Job  is  the  type  of  the  ideal  righteous  man,  I 
'  made  perfect  through  suffering.'     But  there  were  others  who, 
with  all    their  admiration  for  Job,  retained  an  overpowering 
interest  in    the  national   institutions.      One    of  these  was  a 
]3rophet,  for  the  author  of  the  40th  and  following  chapters  of 
the  Book  of  Isaiah,  as  all  will   agree,  either   is  one  of  the 
Jewish  exiles,  or  (to  use  the  language  of  Delitzsch)  '  leads  a  life 
in  the  spirit  among  the  exiles,'  reaching  in  the  power  of  the 
Spirit  across  the  centuries  to  the  contemporaries  of  the  author 
of  Job.     Others  were  psalmists  ;  for  it  must,  as  we  have  seen, 
be  admitted,  that  some  at  least  of  the  psalms  refer,  not  to  an 

»  That  the  publication  of  tlie  '  Book  of  the  L;i\v  '  by  Ezra  presuppos  s  a  lonj,' 
study  of  the  Pentatcuchal  (or  Hexateuchal)  narrative.',  and  laws,  and  a  band  of  patient 
students,  all  erilies  will  probablv  agree. 


2  I  4  ESSAYS. 

historical  individual,  but  (in  different  shades  of  the  concep- 
tion) to  an  ideal  and  yet  (in  the  psalmist's  mind)  real  repre- 
sentative of  the  people  of  Israel.  3.  Here  I  come  to  the 
point  where  I  have  felt  obliged  to  diverge  from  Ewald.  These 
devout  and  inspired  men  were  acutely  sensible  of  the  incom- 
petency of  the  actual  Israel  for  the  embodiment  of  the  newly 
revealed  ideal.  They  felt  that,  if  expressed  at  all,  it  must  be 
through  a  person  ;  and  the  longings  which  they  felt  for  the 
appearance  of  such  a  person,  and  their  faith  that  Jehovah  had 
not  deserted  his  people,  prepared  their  minds  for  a  special 
revelation  that  such  a  Person  would  appear.  Only  it  was  not 
in  a  definite  prediction  that  their  newly  attained  conviction 
found  expression.  Theirs  was  rather  a  presentiment  {A/mtmg) 
than  a  clear  view  of  the  future,  and  hence  a  certain  vagueness 
in  it,  which,  however,  almost  if  not  quite  disappears  at  the 
two  highest  points  of  the  Old  Testament  revelation.  Psalm 
xxii.  and  Isaiah  liii.  It  was  not,  therefore  (as  I  once  thought), 
the  ideal  and  yet  real  Genius  of  Israel,  who  preached  to  an 
unbelieving  generation,  who  was  slain  but  not  given  up  to  the 
power  of  Hades,  and  for  whom  an  endless  life  and  a  posterity 
I  .were  reserved — but  a  literal  human  being  perfectly  righteous 
I  pimself,  and  able  therefore  to  '  make  the  many  righteous.' 

Thus  much  to  account  for  the  assertion  that  in  the  more 
salient  and  elaborate  passages  (xlii.  1-7,  xlix.  1-9,  1.  4-10, 
lii.  i3-liii.  12)  the  '  Servant  of  Jehovah  '  embodies  a  presenti- 
ment of  the  historical  Redeemer  of  Israel  and  the  world.  I 
am  not  without  hope  that  the  difficulty  felt  by  some  in  con- 
ceiving of  such  a  surpassing  revelation  may  have  been 
relieved  by  showing  the  point  of  contact  for  it  in  the  mind 
of  the  prophet.  The  remaining  portion  of  the  theory  of 
Delitzsch  and  Oehler  does  not  seem  to  require  a  lengthened 
justification.  In  xlii.  19  and  xliii.  10  the  '  Servant '  is  evi- 
dently the  people  of  Israel  as  a  whole  ;  while  in  xli.  8,  9, 
xliv.  I,  2,  21,  xlv.  4,  and  xlviii.  20,  it  is  the  kernel  of  the 
nation,  the  spiritual  Israel.'  No  doubt  '  Servant  of  Jehovah  ' 
was  a  common  prophetic  title  for  the  people  of  Israel,  and 
the  sublime  interpretation  given  to  it  sometimes  in  chaps, 
xlii. -liii.  is  superimposed  upon  this.  It,  ^^'•^^  ^^^'^  ^'^^^  ^^^^^ 
Israel  did  not  act  up  to  his  title  'Servant  of  Jehovah,'  which 
01lcd    the  pious  exiles  with  a  longing    for  a  person-  who 

•  Dr.- A.  B.  Davidson  objects  to  this  way  of  stating  the  case  (Expositor,  1884,  p. 
03),  but  how  else  can  the  difference  in  the  prophet's  language  be  accounted  for  ? 
B-sides,  there  is  a  mass  of  evidence  in  the  F^saiins  that  religious  writers  did  abstract 
from  the  notion  of  the  phenomenal  Israel,  ;iiid  form  the  new  iilea  of  the  Israel  according 
to  the  Spirit — ^Jesluirun — the  '  assembly  of  llie  upr'glit '  (I's.  cxi.  1). 

*  Elsewhere  Ur.  Davidson  remarks  that  '  il  may  be  s-ifely  said  that  if  this  prophet 
was  himself  a  contemporary  of  the  lixile,  he  cannot  have  meant  by  the  .Servant  nn 
individual "  (Amdemy,  Aug.  25,   1B83,  p.    125).     Rut  this  is  pure  dogmatism.      The 


ESSAYS.  2  I  5 

should  realise  it,  and  by  redeeming  the  Israelites  from  their 
sins  enable  them  to  realise  it  likewise.  Difficult  it  was  of 
course  to  imagine  how  such  a  redeemer  could  arise.  '  Oh 
for  a  clean  among  the  unclean  ! '  cried  mournfully  one  of  the 
inspired  writers  among  the  exiles  (Job  xiv.  4).  Yet  he  must 
be  '  bone  of  our  bone,  and  flesh  of  our  flesh  ; '  else  how  can 
he  offer  himself  a  sacrifice  for  us,  and  be  our  teacher  ?  The 
prophet  in  Isa.  liii.  leaves  the  solution  of  the  problem  to  God  ; 
he  trusts  Him  who  cannot  abandon  His  people  to  produce 
such  an  Israelite.  And  here  is  the  point  of  contact  between 
the  personal  and  the  national  'Servant  of  Jehovah,'  viz.  that 
the  person  is,  strange  as  it  seems,  the  mature  product,  the 
flower  and  fruit,  of  the  Jewish  nation.  If  all  this  has  a  New 
Testament  sound, —  if  Jesus  Christ,  c/er  g-rosse /7((i^e,  a.s  Zinzen- 
dorf  calls  him,'  answers  to  this  description, — so  much  the 
better  I  But  the  present  writer,  at  any  rate,  started  from  a 
point  of  view — viz.  that  of  Ewald — which  is  not  in  the  faintest 
degree  theological.  Is  not  the  theological  prc'udice  rather 
on  the  side  of  our  liberal  critics  ?  Why  shoi  1  they  grant 
the  personality  of  the  Messiah  (who  might  surely  be  a  '  col- 
lective term'  ;  comp.  Isa.  xxxii.  i,  2),  but  not  that  of  the  Ser- 
vant .''  May  not  one  of  their  motives  unconsciously  be  that 
the  Servant,  as  described  in  Isa.  xHi.-liii.,  is  more  distinctly 
superhuman  than  the  Messiah  ? 


2. 

I  have  spoken  in  the  preceding  section  of  the  need  felt 
by  the  Jewish  exiles  (among  whom  the  author  of  II.  Isaiah, 
to  say  the  least,  moves  in  spirit)  of  a  new  ideal,  a  new  object 
of  hope,  and  tried  to  show  how  this  want  was  actually  sup- 
plied. It  must  not,  however,  be  supposed  that  there  was  no 
point  of  contact  between  the  new  ideal  and  the  old.  New 
phases  of  prophecy  are  as  carefully  adapted  to  the  old,  as  to 
the  moral  and  social  state  of  the  persons  for  whom  they 
are  primarily  designed.  Thus  the  '  one  increasing  purpose  ' 
becomes  more  and  more  manifest,  and  no  past  phase  can  be 
set  aside  as  useless  or  un instructive.  The  connection  of  the 
new  ideal  with  the  old  is  the  subject  of  the  conclusion  of  this 
essay. '^ 

nation  might  not  be  rich  in  great  psrsonalities,  and  yet  the  pious  might  cherish  the 
longinqfs  desci  ibcd  above. 

'  '  Wann,  grosser  Jude,  vvann  kommt  deine  Stund'-?  '  A  line  in  a  metrical  prayer 
sung  by  Zinzendorf  before  the  Moravian  Church  on  the  Jewish  Day  of  Atonement, 
Oct.  12,  1739. 

^  The  boarin;;-s  of  this  section  will   perhap?  be   more   fully  appvrcnt  in  the  ne 
essay. 


2  1 6  ESSAYS. 

The  Old  Testament  is  pervaded  by  a  longing  for  the 
'  kingdom  of  God  '  to  be  set  up  on  earth.  Jehovah  no  doubt 
was  Israel's  heavenly  king — a  conception,  the  roots  of  which 
run  far  back  into  Semitic  antiquity — but  the  prophets  and 
other  holy  men  yearned  for  a  time,  when  He  whom  with 
more  and  more  intensity  they  believed  to  be  the  rightful 
Lord  of  the  world  should  be  universally  acknowledged  by  his 
liege  subjects.  The  universal  and  (for  the  Semitic  king  was 
not  an  arbitrary  despot)  spontaneous  obedience  of  mankind 
to  the  will  of  Jehovah  is  the  kernel  of  the  conception  of '  the 
kingdorri  of  God.'  There  is,  however,  a  certain  variety  in  the 
way  of  expressing  this  conception.  According  to  some  Old 
Testament  passages,  Jehovah  himself,  after  an  act  of  swift 
and  sure  judgment,  is  to  undertake  the  personal  government 
of  the  world  ;  according  to  others,  a  wonderfully  endowed 
descendant  of  David  is  to  be  enthroned  as  his  representative. 
The  former  type  of  expression  is  particularly  prominent  in 
the  later  psalms,  but  is  also  found  in  the  prophets  (see  Isa. 
iv.  5,  6,  xxiv.  23,  Joel  iii.  21,  Zech.  xiv.  3-1 1)  ;  the  latter  be- 
came current  in  the  prophetic  literature  through  the  splendid 
revelations  of  Isaiah,  but  is  far  from  unrepresented  in  the 
Book  of  Psalms,  though  to  what  extent  is  a  matter  of  much 
controversy. —  These  two  forms  of  the  conception  are  never 
entirely  fused  in  the  Old  Testament,  though  an  incipient 
union,  pointing  in  a  New  Testament  direction,  cannot  (see  pp. 
200,  209)  fairly  be  denied. 

It  is  one  of  the  great  peculiarities  of  the  last  twenty-seven 
chapters  of  Isaiah  that  they  contain  no  distinct  reference  to  the 
royal  Messiah.  The  '  David  '  in  Iv.  3, 4  is  not  the  second  David 
predicted  in  Hos.  iii.  5,  Jer.  xxx.  9,  Ezek.  xxxiv.  23,  24,  but  the 
David  of  the  historical  books  and  the  Psalms.  Still  we  must 
not  conclude  too  hastily  that  the  older  Messianic  belief  has 
left  no  traces  in  the  second  part  of  Isaiah.  This  would  be  a 
strange  result  indeed — a  dumb  note  in  the  scale  of  prophetic 
harmony  1  Even  if  the  author  of  the  prophecies  of  '  the  Ser- 
vant '  be  not  Isaiah,  he  has  certainly  formed  himself,  to  say 
the  least,  in  no  slight  degree  on  his  predecesst^r  ;  and  in 
limning  the  portrait  of  Jehovah's  ideal  Servant,  he  was  in 
a  manner  bound  to  preserve  some  at  least  of  the  features  of 
the  Messianic  king.  And  this  is  what  we  actually  find  in  the 
j)rophetic  description  of  the  Servant.  In  the  statement  that 
'kings  shall  shut  their  mouths  because  of  him  '  (Hi.  15),  and 
that  'he  shall  divide  spoil  with  the  powerful'  (liii.  12),  it  is 
clear  that  for  the  moment  the  humble-minded  Servant  is 
represented  as  a  contjueror  in   the  midst  of  a  victorious  host. 


ESSAYS.  2  I  7 

This  is  not  without  analogy,'  nor  is  it  so  anomalous  as  it  may 
seem.  It  was  natural  and  necessary  that  the  die,  from  which 
the  coins  with  the  royal  stamp  had  proceeded,  should  be  broken, 
the  royalistic  form  of  the  Messianic  conception  having  become 
antiquated  with  the  hopeless  downfall  of  the  kingdom  of 
Judah  ;  but  equally  so  that  fragments  of  the  die  should 
be  gathered  up  and  fused  with  other  elements  into  a  new 
whole.  The  ideal  and  yet  real  Israelite  of  the  future  has 
therefore  some  points  in  common  with  a  king,  but  withal 
he  is  much  more  than  an  earthly  king.  He  is  a  prophet, 
for  it  is  written  that  'he  shall  bring  forth  (God's)  law  to 
the  Gentiles '  (xlii.  i)  ;  a  priest,  for '  he  shall  make  ...  an  offer- 
ing for  guilt'  (liii.  lo)  :  and  yet  he  is  more  than  a  prophet,  for 
he  is  in  his  own  person  '  a  covenant  of  the  people  and  a  light 
of  the  Gentiles  '  (xlii.  6)  ;  and  more  than  a  priest,  for  the  vic- 
tim which  he  lays  down  is  his  own  life  (liii.  lo).  Exclusively, 
he  is  neither  king  nor  prophet  nor  priest,  but  all  of  them 
together,  and  more.^  These  are  but  words  '  thrown  out '  (to 
adopt  a  phrase  from  Mr.  Matthew  Arnold)  at  an  object  beyond 
the  power  of  language  to  describe.  Of  the  Servant  of  Jeho- 
vah, as  well  as  of  the  earlier  Messiah,  it  may  be  said,  '  His 
name  is  called  Wonderful.' 


V.     THE    SUFFERING    MESSIAH. 


'We,'  says  St.  Paul,  'proclaim  Christ  crucified' — in  other 
words,  the  suffering  Messiah — 'unto  the  Jews  a  stumbling- 
block.'  The  Christian  student  may  fairly  ask,  '  Is  this  text 
a  legitimate  inference  from  the  Old  Testament,  or  is  it  an 
altogether  new  phenomenon,  and  inconsistent  with  the  elder 
Scriptures  ? '  The  question  is  important,  for  to  say  that  the 
Old  Testament  is  contrary  to  the  New  would  destroy  one  of 
the  historical  foundations  of  Christianity.  Perfect  honesty  is 
essential  in  replying  ;  the  truth  is  often  different  from  what 
either  of  the  patties  to  a  controversy  imagine. 

It  is  held  by  many  orthodox  writers  that  the  presence  of 
the  doctrine  of  a  suffering  Messiah  in  the  Talmuds  implies 
that  it  was  found  by  the  Talmudists  in  the  Old  Testament. 
However  this  may  be,  the  Talmudic  doctrine  of  the  Messiah 
is  in  itself  sufficiently  remarkable  to  deserve  special  attention. 

'  There  is,  in  fact,  a  parallel  for  it  in  Zech.  ix.  9  (see  next  essay). 
-  Delitzsch,  Zeitschr.  f.  luthcrische  Theologic,  1830,  p.  34. 


2  I  S  ESSAYS. 

The  common  statement  is  that  the  Jewish  divines,  being  un- 
able to  deny  the  prophetic  Old  Testament  references  to  the 
sufferings  of  the  Messiah,  assumed  that  there  were  two 
Messiahs,  one  the  suffering  Messiah,  the  son  of  Joseph,  the 
other  the  triumphant  Messiah,  the  son  of  David.  This  does 
not,  however,  appear  to  be  correct.  In  the  first  place,  the 
very  title  '  Messiah  the  son  of  Joseph  '  is  opposed  to  this  view, 
for  it  was  probably  suggested  by  the  Deuteronomic  blessing 
of  Joseph,  where  it  is  said  that  with  horns  like  the  wild  bull's 
he  shall  push  the  people  to  the  ends  of  the  earth.'  In  the 
second,  it  appears  that  in  many  places  he  is  called  the 
Messiah  of  war,  from  which  it  is  to  be  inferred  that  his 
principal  office  is  to  do  battle  with  the  enemies  of  Israel. 
This  is  still  more  evident  when  it  is  said  that  the  kings  of  the 
earth  shall  go  against  him  ;  that  he  is  destined  to  conquer 
the  kingdom  of  Edom,  or,  according  to  others,  Gog  and 
Magog  ;  or  again,  according  to  a  third  opinion,  that  wonder- 
ful king,  the  Antichrist  of  the  Jews,  who  by  a  corruption  of 
the  Zoroastrian  Ahriman  is  called  Armilus.- 

So  much,  however,  is  true,  and  it  is  this  which  gives  colour 
to  the  prevalent  view  of  this  so-called  Messiah,  that  after  a 
certain  time  other  adversaries  are,  according  to  the  Aggada, 
to  rise  up  against  the  Messiah  and  his  people,  viz.,  either  the 
enemies  for  a  time  subdued,  or  else  the  Arabs,  who  shall  con- 
ciuer  the  Jews,  and  slay  the  Messiah  the  son  of  Joseph.  And 
then  the  Jews  shall  mourn  exceeding  bitterly,  as  the  prophet 
Zechariah  (xii.  12)  foretold,  for  he  who  they  hoped  would 
deliver  them  with  an  everlasting  deliverance  is  dead.  But 
when  Elijah  shall  come  with  Messiah  Ben-David,  and  shall 
perform  great  wonders,  and  raise  the  son  of  Joscj^h  from  the 
dead,  then  they  shall  bclisve  in  I?en-David  as  the  Messiah, 
and  recognise  him  as  their  full  deliverer. 

But  if  we  reject  the  view  that  the  Messiah  called  the  son 
of  Joseph  was  invented  to  correspond  to  the  prophecies  of  a 
suffering  Messiah,  we  are  bound  to  offer  some  account  of  the 
origin  of  the  conception,  l^ccausc,  on  the  view  that  has  just 
now  been  given,  the  Joscphite  Messiah  is  entirely  provisional, 
and  might,  it  woukl  seem,  have  been  dispensed  with.  Various 
explanations   have,  in  fact,  been  given.     Some  have  thought 

'   Dcut.  xxxiii.  17. 

*  See  references  in  Castdii,  //  Afrssia  secondo  i^li  Ebrci  (Firenze,  1874),  pp.  230-1, 
and  the  tr.inslatioa  from  the  Midiasli  Vayosha  in  app.  xi.  See  also  Targiim  on  Cant, 
iv.  5.  where  the  two  Messiah?  are  both  callccl  '  redeemers,"  and  compared  to  Mcses 
and  Aaron.  This,  which  is  given  at  the  head  of  the  article  .Armilfts  in  the  Tartjumic 
and  Talmuflic  Lexicon  called  the  .Aruch  (7th  cent.),  seems  to  me  a  much  more  satis- 
f.ictory  explanation  than  those  discus.sed  i)y  ("a<;telli.  which  conm^ct  the  word  either 
with  Romilos  (Romulus^  the  Romans)  or  with  ArmilLUus  (the  epithet  Riven  by  .Sueto- 
nius to  Caligula),  or  than  that  atlopt -d  by  Grri.>rer  from  the  Aruch  («pijM<'Aao«). 


ESSAYS.  2  I  9 

that  the  proper  function  of  the  son  of  Joseph  was  to  re- 
assemble the  ten  tribes,  the  final  redemption  of  all  the 
Israelites  being  reserved  for  the  true  Messiah,  the  son  of 
David.  This  does  not  seem  in  accordance  with  the  Jewish 
statements,  and  it  is  better  to  suppose '  that  the  Josephite 
Messiah  is  a  fanciful  embodiment  of  the  prophetic  word,  that 
in  the  Messianic  times  Ephraim  shall  not  envy  Judah,  and 
Judah  shall  not  vex  Ephraim  (Isa.  xi.  13).  To  show  how 
unavailing  an  irregular  Messiah,  corresponding  to  the  ir- 
regular northern  kingdom,  would  be 'to  effect  a  permanent 
deliverance,  the  Aggadic  writers,  with  their  characteristic 
propensity  to  romance,  invented  the  idea  of  a  provisional 
Messiah  springing  from  the  greatest  of  the  northern  tribes, 
whose  early  successes  did  but  heighten  the  gloom  of  his 
premature  and  decisive  catastrophe. 

In  spite  of  this  error  (as  it  would  seem  to  be)  on  the  part 
of  Christian  controversialists,  it  was  not  without  reason  that 
they  drew  the  Jewish  doctrine  of  the  Messiah  within  the 
range  of  their  argument.  The  truth  is  that  there  are  two 
suffering  and  two  victorious  Messiahs  ;  Ben-David  and  Ren- 
Joseph  have  each  of  them  a  claim  to  both  these  epithets.  It 
is  evidently  the  Messiah  Ben-David  of  whom  a  beautiful 
apologue  is  related  in  one  of  the  Talmudic  treatises.^  Let  me 
quote  a  few  lines  from  it,  as  it  is  instructive  in  more  respects 
than  one.  '  Rabbi  Joshua  Bcn-Levi  found  Elijah  (the  pre- 
cursor of  the  second  Messiah,  the  son  of  David)  standing  at 
the  gate  of  Paradise  ;  and  he  asked  him.  When  will  the 
Messiah  come  ?  Elijah  answered  him.  As  soon  as  it  is  the 
Lord's  good  pleasure.  Then  said  Joshua  Ben-Levi  again, 
When  will  the  Messiah  come  ?  Elijah  answered.  Go  and  ask 
him  thyself  And  where  doth  he  tarry  ?  At  the  gate  of  the 
city  (that  is,  Rome).  And  by  what  sign  may  he  be  dis- 
tinguished ?  He  sitteth  among  the  poor  who  are  laden  with 
sickness,  and  he  unbindeth  one  wound  after  another,  and 
bindeth  it  up  again.'  It  is  again  the  Messiah  Ben-David 
of  whom  it  is  said  in  a  Midrash^  that  while  the  Messiah  was 
yet  in  heaven,  Elijah  embraced  his  head,  and  exhorted  him 
to  suffer,  because  it  had  been  prophesied  by  Isaiah  that 
he  should  be  pained  for  our  transgressions,  and  oppressed 
for  our  iniquities.  Here  and  in  other  places  there  is  no 
suspicion  of  a  Messiah  Ben-Joseph.  Let  us  drop  the  dis- 
tinction therefore  as  unimportant  for  our    present  purpose, 

•  Following  Castclli,  p.  235.  Of  course,  the  division  of  the  Messiahship  could  only 
be  provisional  (conip.  Hos.  i.  11). 

-  Sanhediin,  98  (/  ;  see  the  passage  in  full  in  Wiinsche,  Die  Leiden  des  Mcssias 
(Leipz.,  1870). 

'  (rasteili,  p.  2 


2  20  ESSAYS. 

ami  briefly  examine  the  significance  of  the  doctrine  of  the 
suffering  Messiah  in  general.  First,  however,  let  me  quote 
one  or  two  more  passages  from  traditional  sources,  without 
inquiring  to  which  Messiah  they  refer.  It  is  said  in  one  place 
that  at  the  creation  God  told  the  Messiah  that  the  very  same 
men  whose  iniquities  he  atones  for  would  place  him  under  a 
yoke  of  iron,  and  so  afflict  him  that  his  tongue  should  cleave 
to  the  roof  of  his  mouth  ;  and  that  God  asked  him  if  he  was 
willing  to  undergo  such  tortures.  The  Messiah  asked  how 
many  years  they  should  last,  and  being  told  not  more  than 
seven  years,  he  replied  that  he  underwent  them  with  joy  and 
gladness,  on  condition  that  not  a  single  soul  of  Israel  should 
be  lost.'  Elsewhere  we  read  (it  is  in  a  commentary  on  Zech. 
ix.  9^^),  '"  Righteous  and  having  salvation,"  i.e.,  the  Messiah, 
who  has  justified  his  judgment  upon  Israel,  when  they 
laughed  at  him  as  he  sat  in  the  house  of  bondmen.  There- 
fore he  is  called  "  righteous."  And  why  is  he  called  "  having 
salvation  "  ?  For  no  other  reason  than  that  he  has  justified  his 
judgment  upon  them.  He  said  unto  them,  "  Ye  are  all  my 
children,  for  shall  ye  not  all  be  delivered  by  the  mercy  of  the 
Holy  One?"  "Humble  and  riding  upon  an  ass,"  i.e.,  the 
Messiah.  Why  is  he  called  humble  }  Because  the  whole 
of  the  time  he  was  humiliated  in  the  house  of  bondmen,  and 
the  transgressors  of  Israel  derided  him  when  they  saw  that 
because  of  the  ungodly,  who  have  no  merits,  he  rode  upon  an 
ass.  But  the  Holy  One  will  remember  the  fathers,  because 
of  the  merits  of  the  Messiah.'  Here  the  Messiah  is  evidently 
represented  as  at  once  atoning  for  the  sins  of  his  people, 
and  acquiring  merit  which  ensures  eternal  felicity  to  all 
mankind. 


And  now  the  question  arises,  did  this  remarkable  parallel 
to  the  Christian  doctrine  arise  from  the  exegctical  study 
of  the  Old  Testament,  or  in  some  other  way?  Let  us  first  of 
all  remark  that  it  is  not  enough  to  prove  to  our  own  satisfac- 
tion that  the  doctrine  of  the  suffering  Messiah  is,  at  least 
germinally,  in  the  Old  Testament  ;  we  have  to  show  that 
.there  is  reasonable  ground  for  supposing  that  the  Jews  were 
led  to  it  simply  by  tbe  exegctical  study  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment. Such  a  ground  will  be  produced  if  we  can  prove 
be)-ond  contradiction  that  at  the  Christian  era  the  Jews 
already  believed  in  it.  Unfortunately  this  is  not  the  case. 
Many  critics  deny  that  Jesus  Christ  looked  forward  from  the 

'    Valkiit  Shneoiii,  Isa.  Iv.  ((  a..tclli,  p.  337).  '  (JiioUil  by  Wiinbclu-. 


ESSAY'S.  221 

first  to  the  possibility  of  a  violent  death,  and  refer  to  the 
undeniable  fact  that  Joscphus  and  Philo  arc  only  acquainted 
with  a  Messiah  who  shall  follow  the  road  of  material  con- 
quests. And  on  their  side  they  offer  the  conjecture  that  the 
Jewish  notion  of  a  suffering-  Messiah  was  the  result  of  the 
action  of  two  combined  forces — first,  the  suffering  condition 
of  the  Jews  before  and  after  the  Roman  war  ;  and  secondly, 
the  Christian  atmosphere  which  more  and  more  surrounded 
them.  It  cannot  be  denied  that  this  conjecture  is  in  the 
highest  degree  a  reasonable  one.  Even  granting  that  other 
forces  were  at  work,  it  would  seem  that  those  forces  must 
at  least  be  included.  The  mutual  influence  of  Jewish  and 
Christian  theology,  and  especially  that  of  Christian  upon 
Jewish  theology,  is  no  secret  to  anyone  who  is  acquainted 
with  Church  history  and  recent  Jewish  researches  ;  while 
the  longing  of  the  Jews  for  a  sympathetic  Messiah,  who 
should  go  in  and  out  among  themselves,  and  have  experience 
of  suffering,  is  eloquently  depicted  in  that  exquisite  apologue 
already  quoted  from  the  Talmud. 

I  say,  '  even  granting  that  other  forces  were  at  work '  ; 
for  I  believe  that  the  suffering  Messiah  is,  at  least  germinally, 
in  the  Old  Testament.  Only  I  would  ask  to  be  allowed  to 
draw  a  distinction.  The  Jews  and  the  Christian  rationalists 
are  perfectly  correct  in  their  statement  that  there  is  no  Old 
Testament  reference  to  the  sufferings  of  the  Messiah,  if  only 
it  be  granted  that  the  definition  of  Messiah  is  'a  victorious 
King  of  Israel  of  the  house  of  David.'  Such  a  pedantic 
definition,  however,  plain  students  of  the  Scriptures  are  not 
likely  to  accept.  It  cannot,  or  at  least  it  ought  not  to  be 
denied  that  there  are  two  classes  of  Old  Testament  passages 
relative  to  the  ideal  future  of  the  people  of  God — one  in  which 
the  agent  of  the  happy  change  in  their  fortunes  is  a  royal 
personage  of  the  line  of  David,  and  the  other  in  which  he  is 
on  the  whole  rather  a  persuasive  teacher  than  a  king  or  a 
warrior,  deeply  tried  by  affliction,  and  in  and  through  this 
affliction  the  author  of  a  higher  salvation  than  the  most 
powerful  and  most  warlike  king  could  effect.  It  cannot 
be  denied  that  the  functions  of  these  personages  (I  use  the 
plural  simply  provisionally)  present  manifest  points  of  affinity. 
In  a  word,  the  object  of  both  is  to  bring  the  people  of  Israel 
into  accordance  with  its  high  ideal  and  mission.  It  cannot 
be  denied,  further,  that  there  are  here  and  there  points  in  the 
prophetic  descriptions  connecting  the  ideal  David ic  king  with 
the  lofty  sufferer  and  spiritual  redeemer.  One  of  the  most 
famous  prophecies  of  the  Messianic  king  was  in  these  re- 
markable words  :— '  Rejoice    grcatl>%   O    daughter  of  Zion  : 


2  2  2  ESSAYS. 

shout,  O  daughter  of  Jerusalem  ;  behold,  thy  king  cometh 
unto  thee  ;  he  is  righteous,  and  hath  been  delivered  ;  humble, 
and  riding  upon  an  ass,  even  upon  a  colt  the  foal  of  an  ass.'  ' 
There  is  nothing,  I  admit,  to  put  by  the  side  of  this  among 
the  other  prophecies  of  the  Messianic  king.  But  we  have  no 
right  on  the  ground  of  its  uniqueness  to  explain  this  one  away. 
There  is  no  question  that  the  Hebrew  "JU  means  '  humble,'  or 
'humiliated  by  sufferings,'  i.e.  'afflicted.'  By  having  this 
epithet  applied  to  him,  the  ideal  king  of  Israel  is  identified 
with  that  large  class  of  persons  in  the  Book  of  Psalms,  of 
whose  sufferings  so  heart-rending  a  description  is  given.-  It 
is  clear  that  when  the  Psalms  were  written,  and  when  this 
passage  of  the  Book  of  Zechariah  was  written,  the  people  of 
Israel  were,  nationally,  far  from  prosperous,  and  sighed  and 
groaned  for  a  powerful  deliverer.  But  it  was  not  enough  for 
the  prophet  from  whom  I  quote,  and  for  those  to  Vvhom  he 
prophesied,  that  the  deliverer  should  be  a  just  judge  and 
a  virtuous  warrior  ;  he  must  also  be  one  with  his  people 
in  experience  of  suffering,  and  one  who  could  be  touched 
with  the  feeling  of  their  infirmities. 

And  in  like  manner  there  are  undeniable  points  of  con- 
tact between  the  principal  of  the  prophetic  pictures  of  the 
teacher,  sufferer,  and  redeemer,  and  the  descriptions  of  the 
ideal  King.  I  do  not  refer  to  Isa.  Iv.  3,  4,  'And  I  will 
make  an  everlasting  covenant  with  you,  even  the  sure  mercies 
of  David,'  because  the  view  that  the  word  '  David  '  there  used 
is  a  synonym  for  the  Messianic  king  is  the  least  probable 
interpretation.  But  why  should  I  not  refer  to  the  great 
culminating  passage  of  the  Book  of  the  Servant  of  Jehovah, 
in  which  it  is  said  that  '  he  shall  be  exalted,  and  lifted  up, 
and  be  very  high,'  that  kings  shall  see  his  deeds,  and  shut 
their  mouths  in  reverential  awe  ;  and  that  he  shall  be  given  a 
portion  among  the  great,  and  divide  the  spoil  with  the  strong 
(Isa.  lii.  13-15,  liii.  12)?  Surely  an  open-minded  reader 
must  allow  that  the  writer  of  these  words  identifies  the 
Messianic  king  with  the  afflicted  teacher  and  redeemer  ;  that, 
in  a  word,  both  arc  Messianic,  and  that  we  have  to  look  out 
for  a  wider  definition  of  the  word  Messiah  tlian  the  pedantry 
begotten  of  controversy  would  allow.  That,  in  fact,  the 
progress  of  revelation  or  (if  rationalists  will  not  allow  this) 
the  progress  of  religious  thought  has  introduced  new  ele- 
ments into  the  conception  of  the  Messiah,  so  that  he  is  no 
longer  'anointed,'  ix.  commissionctl  of  God,  principally  to 
overthrow    material    obstacles    to   the   establishment   of  the 

'  Zeth.  ix.  9. 

*  Dr.  Griilz  {Psulmcn.  Pd.  i.)  strangely  idcniifics  these  with  the  Lovitos- 


ESSAYS.  223 

Divine  kingdom,  but  rather  to  work  from  within  outwards, 
conquering'the  heart  of  the  rebellious  by  his  perfect  sacrifice 
of    himself,   and    regenerating    Israel    for    the    good    of    the 

^°Yet  it  be  granted,  then— i.  That  the  Jews  and  the  ration- 
alists are  in  the  main  correct  in  their  denial  of  the  suffermg 
Messiah,  but  only  according  to  their   own    unnaturally   re- 
stricted definition  of  that  word.     2.  That  those  who  carry  on 
the  orthodox,  i.e.  definite  Christian,  tradition  have  enlarged 
the  meaning  of  the  word  Messiah,  but  in  full  accordance  with 
the  laws  of  historical  development,  and  with  the  author  of  the 
prophecy  of  the  Servant  of  Jehovah.     3.  That  there  was  at 
the  Christian  era  an  influential  body  of  Jewish  students  of  the 
Scriptures,  both  in  Palestine  and  in  Alexandria,  who  enter- 
tained   the    same    restricted    views    of    the    Messiah   as    the 
modern  Jews,  though  it   is  a  theory  incapable  at  least  of  dis- 
proof that  there  were  others  in  a  more  obscure  position   who 
instinctively  adopted  higher  views.     4.  That  the  troubles  of 
the  Jewish  war,  if  they  did  not,  as  some  modern  Jews  sup- 
pose, suggest  the  doctrine  of  the  suffering  Messiah,  yet  very 
greatly  Increased  the  number  of  those  who  adopted  it,  and 
that  it   is  not  improbable  that   Christian    influences,   uncon- 
sciously to  the  Jews,  promoted  their  faith  in  it. 

All  these  concessions  may  and,  I  think,  must  in  fairness  be 
made.     They  are  perfectly  consistent   both   with   themsehes 
and  with  the  exegesis  of  the  New  Testament  writers.     But 
they  rcciuire  a  not  inconsiderable  modification  of  the  apolo- 
cretic  treatment  of  this  subject  which  has  hitherto  been  pre- 
valent, especially  among  ourselves.     But  how  can  the  apolo- 
getic of  one  age  bind  that  of  another?     Why  should  the 
section   of  apologetic  which   is  concerned  with  prophecy  be 
deprived  of  the  privilege  of  growth  which   is  extended   to 
other  sections  .?     What  would  Bishop  Pearson  have  said  to 
the    apologetical    text-books    current    in   our    universities    in 
other   theological    departments    than    that    of   which    I    am 
speaking  ?     Progress  is  not  revolution  ;  progress  may  involve 
a  recasfing  of  some  of  our  ideas,  but  is  it  not  a  condition  of 
life  ?  is  it  not  even  a  sacred,  a  religious  duty  to  press  on  into 
'all  the   truth'?      Is   there   any  reason  why  Old  Testament 
criticism  and  exegesis  should  be  excluded  from  the  range  of 
the  providential  government  and  overruling  .?     Certainly  not ; 
the  hearts  of  myVeaders  are  with  me  ;  for  I  am  pleading  first 
of  all  for  an  honest  exegesis,  and  secondly  for  the  interests, 
rightly  understood,  of  the  Christian  faith. 

[The  above  is  taken,  with  a  few  unimportant  alterations,  from  a  univer- 
sity sermon,  by  the  author,  on  'The  Jewish  Interpretation  of  Prophecy,' 


2  24  ESSAYS. 

preached  at  Oxford,  March  20,  1881.  The  Jewish  authorities  will  be 
found  in  the  two  works  of  Castelli  and  Wiinsche  referred  to  ;  the  expla- 
nation of  the  division  of  the  Messiahship  is  from  Castelli.  On  the  question 
how  to  account  for  the  difference  (already  present  to  the  Emperor  Julian) 
between  the  Messianic  king  of  prophecy  and  the  picture  of  Christ  in  the 
Gospels,  suggestive  remarks  are  given  by  Dr.  Robertson  Smith  in  the 
I'lucyclop.  Britannica,  art.  '  Messiah.'] 


VI.      THE    PRESENT    STATE    OF    THE    CRmCAL 
CONTROVERSY. 

I. 

It  is  with  some    hesitation  that    I  cross    tlie  border  which 
separates  exegesis    from   the    higher  criticism.      The  pubh'c 
is  eager  for  results  ;  a  Chaldean  Genesis,  a  Babylonian  Isaiah, 
and  even   M.    Jacolliot's    Sanscrit   life  of  'Jeseus   Christna* 
receive   the   same    undiscriminating   welcome.      For   though 
keenly  interested    in   criticism,  the   public  takes  wonderfully 
little  pains  to  master  the  preliminaries.      It  demands  the  truth 
about  Homer,  with  the  slenderest  knowledge  of  the  Homeric 
poems  ;  and  to  have  the  mystery  of  Isaiah  dispelled,  when 
it  has  but  skimmed  the  surface  of  the  Isaianic  prophecies. 
And  yet,  without  calling  it   '  a  malady  of  the    Greeks '  to 
inquire  if  the  Iliad  and  the  Ody.sscy  (or,  let  us  say,  the  first 
and  the  second  part  of  Isaiah)  arc  by  the  same  author,'  the 
principal    thing  for   the    student    of  a    prophecy    is,    not  to 
know  who  wrote  it,  but  to  understand   its  essential   ideas  ; 
this  is  important  for  all — the  rest  can  be  fully  utilised  only  by 
the    historical    critic.     Parts    there   may  be  of  the  exegesis 
which  remain  vague  and  obscure  till  we  know  the  circum- 
stances under  which  a  prophecy  was  written,  but  these  in  the 
case  of  II.  Isaiah  form  but  a  small  proportion  of  the  whole. 
'  Like  the  Book  of  Job,  the  piece  is  almost  purely  theological 
and  occupied  with  ideas.     It   is  a  structure  based   upon  and 
built  out  of  the  monothei.stic  conception — the  idea  that  Jeho- 
vah, God  of  Israel,  is  the  true  and  onl)-  God.'  ^     There  is  no 
absolute  necessity  for  an  honest  exegete  to  give  any  detailed 
treatment  to  the  higher  criticism. 

A  comprehensive  discussion  of  the  problems  of  the  dis- 
puted chapters  of  Isaiah  (with  which  Jer.  1.,  li.  arc  naturally 
combined)  is  therefore  not  to  be  looked  for  ;  and  it  is  chiefly 
because  I  have  given  the  outlines  of  such  a  discussion  clsc- 

'  9>t^noca.,  De  hmiilaii- vitiT,  c  13. 

'  Dr.  .\.  n.  Davidson,  The  Expositor,  1883,  p.  85. 


ESSAYS. 


-'2:) 


where  '  that  I  return  to  the  subject  here.  For  though  the 
pages  devoted  to  it  in  my  earlier  work  are  not  yet  by  any 
means  superseded,  they  require  both  filHng  up  and  correcting, 
especially  in  the  survey  of  the  arguments  for  the  unity  of  the 
authorship.  The  present  essay  will  therefore  be  necessarily 
in  a  high  degree  incomplete  and  fragmentary  ;  in  particular, 
it  omits  that  comparison  of  the  ideas  of  the  two  parts  of 
Isaiah  which  is  essential  to  a  just  appreciation  of  the  rival 
theories  of  authorship,  but  which  can  hardly  be  given  without 
disclosing  some  bias  in  favour  of  one  or  another  of  these 
theories.^  It  relates  exclusively  to  the  last  twenty-seven 
chapters  :  not  as  if  chaps,  i.-xxxix.  constituted  '  the  First 
Isaiah,'  and  chaps,  xl.-lxvi.  'the  Second,'^  but  simply  be- 
cause the  data  furnished  by  the  disputed  chapters  in  the  first 
part  of  the  book  are  found  with  important  additions  in  the 
second  ;  and  it  is  mainly  concerned  with  one  special  question 
relative  to  these  chapters,  viz.,  what  evidence  do  they  afford 
as  to  the  locality  in  which  they  were  composed  .'' 

The  section  in  The  Book  of  Isaiah  Chronologically 
Arranged  headed  'Arguments  in  Favour  of  the  Unity  of 
Authorship '  is  introduced  by  a  quotation  from  Dr.  Franz 
Delitzsch,  containing  the  admission  that  '  there  is  not  a  single 
passage  in  the  book  (Isa,  xl.-lxvi.)  which  betrays  that  the 
times  of  the  Exile  are  only  ideally,  and  not  actually,  present 
to  the  prophetic  writer.'  '^  It  was  tempting  to  make  the  most 
of  these  suggestive  words  ;  but  it  was  a  mistake.  One  may 
still  admire  the  childlike  candour  and  the  strong  faith  in  the 
absolute  security  of  prophecy,  which  rendered  the  admission 
possible,  but  a  renewed  examination  has  shown  that  it  was  en- 
tirely uncalled  for,  and  that  some  passages  of  II.  Isaiah  are  in 
various  degrees  really  favourable  to  the  theory  of  a  Palestinian 
origin.  Thus,  in  Ivii.  5,  the  reference  to  torrent-beds  is  alto- 
gether inapplicable  to  the  alluvial  plains  of  Babylonia  ;  and 
equally  so  is  that  to  subterranean  '  holes  '  in  xlii.  22.  And 
though,  no  doubt,  Babylonia  was  more  w^ooded  in  ancient 
times  than  it  is  at  present,-^  it  is  certain  that  the  trees  men- 

1  /.  C.  A.,  introduction  ;  Jeremiah  in  Pulpit  Commentary,  introd.  to  cliaps.  1. 
and  li. 

-  Duhm's  Die  Tlieologie  der  Propheten  (Bonn,  1875)  contains  such  a  comparison  ; 
but,  though  clever  and  suggestive,  it  is  crudely  written  and  unsympathetic.  Kuenen's 
The  Prophets  and  Prophecy  ill  /sraet  (Lond.,  1877),  though  not  directly  comparative, 
will  also  be  helpful.     Both  books  exhibit  a  strong  bias. 

■'  Yet  the  author  of  one  of  the  most  remarkable  products  of  rationalistic  criticism 
in  England  asserts  that  '  only  the  most  uncompromising  champions  of  what  is  taken 
for  orthodoxy  now  venture  to  deny  that  the  Book  of  Isaiah  is  the  work  of  two  per- 
sons. .  .  .  [cc.  i.-xxxix.  constitute  the  work  of  the  former,  cc.  xl.-lxvi.  that  of  the 
latter.]'     {The  //eirew  Migration  from  Egypt,  Lond.,  1879,  p.  61,  note.) 

*  See  /.  C.  A.,  Introduction,  p.  xvii,  but  comp.  the  qualifications  of  this  admission 
in  the  new  (third)  edition  of  Delitzsch's  Jesaia,  p.  406. 

^  Rawlinson's  note  on  Herod.,  i.  193. 

VOL.    II.  O 


2  26  ESSAYS. 

tioncd  in  xH.  19  were  not  for  the  most  part  natives  of  that 
country,  while  the  date-palm,  the  commonest  of  all  the 
Babylonian  trees,  is  not  once  referred  to.  The  fact  has  not 
escaped  the  observation  of  Mr.  Urwick,  who  has  devoted 
special  attention  to  the  agricultural  and  botanical  references 
in  both  parts  of  Isaiah,  with  the  view  of  obtaining  a  subsi- 
diary argument  in  favour  of  the  unity  of  the  book.'  Mr. 
Urwick,  however,  does  not  seem  to  have  noticed  that  the 
argument  is  a  two-edged  one.  For  the  trees  mentioned  in 
xli.  19  are  for  the  most  part  as  unfamiliar  to  a  native  of 
Judita  as  to  a  man  of  Babylonia.^  By  a  similar  method  it 
could  be  proved  that  the  Book  of  Jeremiah  was  written 
in  northern  Israel,  because  in  xvii.  8  a  figure  is  taken  from 
perennial  streams,  which  were  unknown  in  the  drier  south  ; 
and  even  that  the  book  of  the  exile-prophet  Ezckiel  is  a  for- 
gery, because  of  his  frequent  references  to  the  mountains  and 
rivers  of  Israel  (vi,  2,  3,  xxxiv.  13,  14,  xxxvi.  1-12,  &c.).  As 
has  been  remarked  elsewhere,  '  a  Semitic  race,  when  trans- 
planted to  a  distant  country,  preserves  a  lively  recollection  of 
its  earlier  home.  The  Arabic  poets  in  Spain  delighted  in 
allusions  to  Arabian  localities,  and  descriptions  of  the  events  of 
desert-life.  Why  should  not  a  prophecy  of  the  Exile  contain 
some  such  allusions  to  the  scenery  of  Palestine,'  ^  especially, 
it  may  be  added,  if  the  natural  objects  referred  to  have  a  sym- 
bolical meaning  ?  The  allusions  will,  at  any  rate,  be  of  small 
critical  value  unless  they  be  supported  by  historical  references, 
which  unmistakably  point  away  from  the  period  of  the  Exile. 

Such  references,  however,  are  really  forthcoming,  as  the 
elder  traditionalists  rightly  saw.  They  are  most  numerous 
and  striking  in  chapters  Ivi.,  Ivii.,  Ixv.,  Ixvi.,  where,  however, 
they  are  probabl}'  often  under-estimated  owing  to  the  preju- 
dice produced  by  the  earlier  chapters.  Let  us  read  them  by 
themselves,  and  I  think  we  shall  hardly  doubt  that  the  de- 
scriptions refer  to  some  period  or  periods  other  than  the 
Exile.  And  yet,  on  the  other  hand,  it  cannot  be  denied  that 
there  are  still  more  numerous  passages  which  presuppose  the 
destruction  of  Jerusalem  and  the  exile  of  the  Jews  in  Babylon. 
Mow  arc  these  conHicting  phenomena  to  be  reconciled  ? 

One  w  ay  (a)  is  to  suppose  that  they  are  Isaiah's  involun- 

•  The  Sct'^'antof  ychcri'ah,  p.  49.  Mr.  Urwick  rcm.-irks  that  there  were  no  vine- 
yards in  Babylonia.  But  M.  1  .enormanl  has  shown  that  Mesopotamia  produced  an 
.-ibundance  of  valuable  wines  (.V)'//,;/'<7/ri'j  r///;<^//()rw<-.f,  Par.  1876,  pp.  121-129). 

-'  The  myrtle  is  probably  one  of  the  inifamiliiir  trees.  It  is  only  nientioned  (ex- 
cluding Isa.  xli.  19,  Iv.  13)  in  two  books  of  post-e.xile  origin  (Zcch.  i.  8,  10,  11,  Neh. 
viii.  15),  and  in  the  parallel  I'entati  uch-jjassage  to  Neh.  loc.  cit.  the  myrtle  is  omitted 
(Lev.  xxiii.  40).  De;ui  I'erowne  has  suggested  that  it  may  have  been  imported  into 
Palestine  from  Babylonia  (Smith's  liihk  Did.,  art.  '  Zcchariah  '). 

s  /.  C.  A.,  p.  201. 


ESSAYS,  227 

tary  betrayals  of  his  authorship.  It  will  be  remembered  that, 
according  to  a  prevalent  theory,  Isa.  xl.-lxvi.  is  a  'mono- 
graph '  written  by  Isaiah  in  a  quasi-ecstatic  state  for  the 
future  use  of  the  exiles.  No  one  perhaps  (putting  aside 
Dr.  Delitzsch)  has  better  expressed  this  view  than  the  present 
Dean  of  Westminster,  who  does  not,  however,  venture  to 
decide  upon  its  merits.  '  The  Isaiah,'  he  says,  '  of  the  vexed 
and  stormy  times  of  Ahaz  and  of  Hezekiah  is  supposed  in 
his  later  days  to  have  been  transported  by  God's  Spirit  into 
a  time  and  a  region  other  than  his  own.  .  .  .  He  is  led  in 
prolonged  and  solitary  visions  into  a  land  that  he  has  never 
trodden,  and  to  a  generation  on  whom  he  has  never  looked. 
The  familiar  scenes  and  faces,  among  which  he  had  lived 
and  laboured,  have  grown  dim  and  disappeared.  All  sounds 
and  voices  of  the  present  are  hushed,  and  the  interests  and 
passions  into  which  he  had  thrown  himself  with  all  the 
intensity  of  his  race  and  character  move  him  no  more.  The 
present  has  died  out  of  the  horizon  of  his  soul's  vision.  .  .  . 
The  voices  in  his  ears  are  those  of  men  unborn,  and  he  lives  a 
second  life  among  events  and  persons,  sins  and  suffering,  and 
fears  and  hopes,  photographed  sometimes  with  the  minutest 
accuracy  on  the  sensitive  and  sympathetic  medium  of  his  own 
spirit ;  and  he  becomes  the  denouncer  of  the  special  sins  of  a 
distant  generation,  and  the  spokesman  of  the  faith  and  hope 
and  passionate  yearning  of  an  exiled  nation,  the  descendants 
of  men  living  w^hen  he  wrote  in  the  profound  peace  of  a  re- 
newed prosperity.'  ^ 

It  would  carry  me  too  far  from  my  present  object  to 
criticise  this  theory,  but  let  me  observe  in  passing  that,  if  the 
passages  with  Palestinian  references  can  be  taken  as  uncon- 
scious self-betrayals,  they  furnish  a  reply  to  one  of  the  chief 
objections  by  which  it  has  been  met.  It  is  commonly  said 
(and  with  much  justice)  that  so  long-continued  a  transference 
of  a  prophet's  point  of  view  into  the  ideal  future  is  without  a 
parallel.  For  a  short  time  a  prophet  of  the  classical  period 
may  indeed  pass  beyond  his  habitual  horizon,  but  he  cannot 
help  betraying  his  own  date  in  the  course  of  a  very  few 
verses  or  paragraphs.  Whether  or  not  this  inference  from  the 
classical  prophecies  is  justified,  need  not  here  be  discussed. 
Suffice  it  to  say  that  the  reply  to  the  objection  furnished  by 
the  proposed  view  of  the  Palestinian  references  is  at  any  rate 
plausible,  supposing  that  the  passages  containing  them  form 
an  integral  portion  of  the  book. 

(d)  Another  conceivable  view  (which  again  I  do  not  pro- 

'  Abstract  of  University  sermon  by  the  Rev.  G.  G.  Bradley,  in  the  Oxford  Under- 
graduates' yournal,  Feb.  18,  1875. 

Q  t 


2  28  ESSAYS. 

nounce  upon,  but  only  mention)  is  this  -  that  the  Palestinian 
references  are  the  involuntary  self-betrayal  of  a  prophetic  writer 
living  in  Palestine  during  the  Exile}  It  is  clear  from  several 
passages  (especially  Ezek.  xxxiii.  24),  and  from  the  fact 
that,  unlike  the  northern  kingdom,  Judah  was  not  colonised 
by  foreigners  after  the  fall  of  the  state,  that  a  considerable 
number  of  Jews  remained  behind  in  their  own  country.^  It 
is  far  from  incredible  that  some  literary  men  should  have 
formed  part  of  this  remnant,  and  that  one  of  them,  at  least, 
should  have  been  a  prophet.  In  fact,  it  seems  almost  certain 
that  Lam.  v.  was  written  in  Judah  during  the  Exile,  and  we 
cannot  suppose  that  this  was  the  only  Palestinian  production 
of  that  long  period.  There  are  passages  in  II.  Isaiah,  besides 
those  already  referred  to,  which  may  be  considered  to  favour 
the  view  under  consideration  {e.g.  xl.  9,  Hi.  i,  2,  5  \}\  7-9), 
though  perfectly  capable  of  explanation  on  the  ordinary 
theory.  It  is  no  doubt  a  little  clifficult  to  realise  the  selec- 
tion of  a  prophet  in  Judah  to  address  the  whole  body  of 
the  nation  (the  most  important  and  most  cultivated  part  of 
which  was  in  exile),  but  if  there  was  no  equally  great  prophet 
in  Babylonia,  it  was  the  only  possible  choice.  There  may 
even  have  been  special  advantages  in  his  distance  from  the 
centre  of  the  nation,  of  which  we  are  ignorant.  Certainly 
this  theory  has  the  merit  of  simplicity  ;  it  accounts,  not  only 
for  the  Palestinian  features  in  some  of  the  descriptions,  but 
for  the  paucity  of  the  references  to  Babylonian  circumstances. 
Yes,  it  has  the  merit  of  simplicity  ;  but  that  is  hardly 
a  recommendation  to  '  those  who  know.'  If  the  solution 
of  this  problem  is  so  extremely  simple,  it  will  be  almost 
unique.  Complication,  and  not  simplicity,  is  the  note  of  the 
questions  and  of  the  answers  which  constitute  Old  Testament 
criticism.  It  is  becoming  more  and  more  certain  that  the 
])resent  form  especially  of  the  prophetic  Scriptures  is  due  to 
a  literary  class  (the  so-called  Soferim,  'scribes'  or  '  Scrip- 
turists  '),  whose  principal  function  was  collecting  and  supple- 
menting the  scattered  records  of  prophetic  revelation.  This 
function  they  performed  with  rare  self-abnegation.  Of  a  regard 
on  their  part  for  personal  distinction  there  is  not  a  trace  ; 
self-consciousness  is  swallowed  up  in  the  sense  of  belonging, 
if  only  in  a  secondar)'  degree,  to  the  com]>any  of  inspired 
men.     They  wrote,  they  recast,  they  edited,  in  the  same  spirit 

'  So  F.  W.  Seinecke,  Der  Evungelist  des  Alten  Testaments  (Leipzig,  1870) ;  also 
apparently  H.  Oorl  (at  least  for  some  part  of  II.  Isaiah),  Theologisch  Tijdschrift,  1876, 
pp.  528-536.  .    ,        _, 

'  Kuenen,  Religion  of  Israel,  ii.  176  ;  comp.  his  Historisch-kritisch  onderzoek, 
ii.  150,  note  8,  iii.  357-8  (on  Lam.  v.). 


ESSAYS.  229 

in  which  a  gifted  artist  of  our  own  day  devoted  himself  to 
the  glory  of  '  modern  painters.'  To  apply  the  words  of  a  great 
American  prose-poet,  '  They  chose  the  better,  and  loftier,  and 
more  unselfish  part,  laying  their  individual  hopes,  their  fame, 
their  prospects  of  enduring  remembrance,  at  the  feet  of  those 
great  departed  ones,  whom  they  so  loved  and  venerated.'  ' 
Surely  if  the  prophets  were  inspired,  a  younger  son's  portion 
of  the  Spirit  was  granted  to  their  self-denying  editors."'^ 

St.  Jerome  had  evidently  more  than  a  mere  suspicion  of 
the  activity  of  the  Soferim,  when  he  significantly  remarked 
that  Ezra  might  be  plausibly  described  as  the  '  instaurator  ' 
of  the  Pentateuch.  It  is,  however,  to  Ewald  that  we  owe  the 
first  rough  sketch  of  their  probable  proceedings.  The  sub- 
jective element  is  unreasonably  strong  in  all  that  great 
master's  work  ;  and  a  careful  re-examination  of  the  Old 
Testament  records  from  the  same  literary  point  of  view  as 
Ewald's  is  urgently  needed.  At  the  same  time  his  treatment 
of  the  latter  part  of  the  Book  of  Isaiah  cannot  be  com- 
plained of  on  the  score  of  excessive  analysis.  The  only 
passages  which  he  denies  to  have  been  written  by  '  the  Great 
Unnamed'^  are  xl.  i,  2,  Hi.  13-liv.  12,  Ivi.  9-lvii.  ii  (by  a 
prophet  of  the  reign  of  Manasseh),  Iviii.  i-lix.  20  (written 
soon  after  Ezekiel).  He  also  maintains,  however,  that  the 
author  is  well  acquainted  with  the  works  of  the  older  pro- 
phets, from  which  he  now  and  again  borrows  the  text  of 
his  discourse  (see,  e.g:,  the  description  of  the  folly  of  idolatry 
in  Jer.  x.).  It  is  this  free  use  of  'motives'  from  the  earlier 
literature,  and  this  combination  of  old  material  with  new  in 
the  manner  of  mosaic-work,  which  is  characteristic  of  the 
Soferim. 

But  though  Ewald  has  been  the  first,  or  one  of  the  first, 

'   Hawthorne's  TraJisformation  ;  character  of  Hilda  (chap.  vi.  'She  chose,'  <S:c.). 

^  This  habit  of  recasting  and  re-editing  ancient  writings  was  still  characteristic  of 
Jewish  literary  men  at  a  much  later  period.  As  Dr.  Edersheim  observes,  'There  are 
scarcely  any  ancient  Rabbinical  documents  which  have  not  been  interpolated  by  later 
writers,  or,  as  we  might  euphemistically  call  it,  been  recast  and  re-edited'  [Sketches  of 
ycivish  Social  Life,  p.  131).  The  habit,  I  say,  survived,  but  the  spirit  which  vivified 
the  habit  was  changed.  For  the  editors  of  the  Old  Testament  are  in  more  than 
historical  continuity  with  the  subjects  of  that  peculiar  influence  which  we  call  inspira- 
tion, and  for  the  later  manifestations  of  which  they  help  to  prepare  tlie  way.  I  am 
glad  to  notice  that  one  so  free  from  the  suspicion  of  Rationalism  or  Romanism  as 
Rudolf  Stier  adopts  the  Jewish  theory  of  grades  of  inspiration,  remarking,  however, 
that  even  the  lowest  grade  remains  one  of  faith's  mysteries. 

"'  Such  is  Ewald  s  title  for  the  autbor  of  the  greater  part  of  Isa.  xl.-lwi.,  and 
abundant  has  been  the  contumely  it  has  brought  upon  him.  '  As  if,"  remarks  a  well- 
known  Scotch  divine,  'the  praise  of  greatness  from  human  lips  could  ever  compensate 
the  loss  of  degrading  the  noblest  of  God's  prophets  into  a.  man  nameless  and  unknown  ' 
{The  Old  Isaiah,  by  A.  Moody  Stuart,  D.  D.,  Edinb.  1880,  p.  7).  Such  writers  forget 
the  self-abnegation  characteristic  of  Biblical  authors  (where  there  was  no  special  reason 
tor  mentioning  their  names),  and  the  remark  of  Origen  with  regard  to  the  Epistle  to 

the  Hebrews,  Tis  6t  6  ■ypai//as  ^■<\v  JTriaToArji',  TO  \i.'f.v  a\rjfff^  9«6s  flStr. 


230  ESSAYS. 

in  the  field,  he  has  left  much  land  still  to  be  occupied.  First 
of  all,  he  has  taken  no  account  of  the  possibility  that  the 
author  of  chaps,  xl.-lxvi.  not  only  put  old  ideas  and  phrases 
into  a  new  setting,  but  also  incorporated  the  substance  of 
connected  discourses  of  that  great  prophet,  of  whose  style  we 
arc  so  often  reminded  in  these  chapters — Isaiah.  This  is  a  pos- 
sibility which  it  is  impossible  to  raise  to  a  certainty,  or  even 
to  such  an  approximate  certainty  as  we  are  so  often  fain  to 
be  content  with  in  literary  criticism.  For  if  the  work  of  Isaiah 
has  been  utilised,  it  has  been  so  skilfully  fused  in  the  mind 
and  imagination  of  the  later  prophet,  that  a  discrimination 
between  the  old  and  the  new  is  scarcely  feasible.  But  the 
view  is  quite  in  harmony  with  what  we  know  of  th  '.oferim. 
Some  of  the  class  were,  from  a  literary  point  of  view,  mere 
workers  in  mosaic  (to  repeat  an  expressive  figure),  others  were 
real  artists,  real  poets  and  orators,  quite  capable,  therefore,  of 
such  work  as  we  are  supposing  II.  Isaiah  to  contain.  Moreover, 
the  view  offers  two  especial  adv-antages  :  i.  It  gives  a  very 
simple  explanation  (though  simplicity,  as  we  have  seen,  is  not 
always  a  mark  of  truth)  of  the  linguistic  points  of  contact 
between  the  original  and  the  '  Babylonian  '  Isaiah  ;  and  2.  it 
dispenses  us  from  the  necessity  of  assuming  (against  the  con- 
text) such  a  suspension  of  the  laws  of  psychology  as  is  implied 
on  the  traditional  theory  by  the  mention  of  '  Cyrus  '  in  xliv.  28 
(see  note),  xlv.  i.  I  may  add  that  it  is  partly  parallel  to  the 
case  of  certain  portions  of  I.  Isaiah,  where  the  preceding  com- 
mentary has  recognised  the  hand  of  another  writer,  perhaps 
that  of  a  disciple  of  Isaiah,  reproducing  in  a  new  connection 
authentic  remains  of  the  master's  teaching  (see  vol.  i.  pp.  42, 
189,  240).  Still  it  appears  to  me  that  the  objections  urged 
in  another  connection  (vol.  i.  p.  240)  against  Isaiah's  having 
foretold  the  fall  of  Babylon  have  to  be  met,  before  this  hypo- 
thesis can  be  said  to  be  securely  grounded.' 

Secondly,  there  are  other  parts  of  II.  Isaiah  as  difficult  to 
interpret  on  the  theory  of  the  original  unity  of  the  book  as 
any  of  those  which  Ewald  has  mentioned.  In  fact,  from 
chap.  liii.  onwards,  it  is  the  exception  to  find  a  chapter 
without  at  least  some  passages  which  only  a  careless  or  an 
imaginative  exegesis  can  harmonise  with  the  unitarian  theory, 
lilcck,  who,  I  need  not  say,  enjoys  a  high  reputation  for  the 

'  The  hypothesis  is  supported  by  Dr.  Klostemiann  of  Kiel  in  a  disscrt.ition  in  the 
I.itlherisfhe  Zeifn/iri/t  for  1876  (pp.  1-60),  and  in  the  ailicle  'Jo-saja'  in  the  second 
edition  of  Hcrzog's  Real-encyclopiidie.  A  worse  advocate  for  a  good  cause  could  hardly 
be  found  ;  Mich  perverse  reasoniiijj  surprises  one  in  a  trained  theologian,  ."^till  the 
fundamental  idea  deserves  attention.  Botli  in  the  first  and  in  the  second  part  of 
Isaiah  the  presence  of  exilic  prophecies  appears  as  certain  to  Dr.  Klobtcrnumn  as  to 
an>  of  the  rationalistic  critics. 


ESSAYS.  231 

caution  and  reverence  of  his  criticism,  points  out  especially 
the  three  prophecies,  Ixiii.  1-6,  Ixiii.  7-lxv.  25,  and  chap. 
Ixvi.,  which,  according  to  him,  were  composed  shortly  after 
the  close  of  the  Exile ; '  and  even  Naegelsbach,  commenting 
on  Isaiah  in  Lange's  Bibchverk,  is  so  impressed  by  the  pecu- 
liarities of  chaps.  Ixv.,  Ixvi.,  that  he  somewhat  arbitrarily  sup- 
poses them  to  have  been  interpolated.  '  It  appears,'  he  says, 
*  that  one  of  the  faithful  Israelites  used  every  opportunity  of 
attaching  to  the  words  of  the  prophet  a  threat  against  the 
abhorred  apostates.'  His  instances  are  Ixiv.  9-1 1,  Ixv.  3^  5(t, 
Ixv.  II,  12,  Ixv.  25,  Ixvi.  "^ib-^,  Ixvi.  17. 

But  I  must  postpone  further  remarks  on  this  too  seduc- 
tive theme.  Suffice  it  if  I  have  made  it  plain  that  a  number 
of  important  exegetical  questions  have  to  be  settled  before  the 
Isaianic  authorship  of  Isa.xl.-lxvi.can  be  thoroughly  discussed. 
It  is  possible  that  it  may  some  day  become  an  approximate 
certainty  that  the  latter  part  of  II.  Isaiah  was  once  much 
shorter,  and  that  the  author,  or  one  of  the  Soferim,  enlarged 
it  by  the  insertion  of  passages  from  other  prophets,  intro- 
ducing at  the  same  time  an  artificial  semblance  of  unity  by 
the  insertion  of  a  slightly  altered  version  of  the  gnomic  say- 
ing in  xlviii.  22  as  a  refrain  in  Ivii.  21.  There  is  nothing  dis- 
paraging to  prophecy  in  such  a  view,^  as  long  as  we  maintain 
the  divine  inspiring  and  overruling  influence  for  which  I  have 
pleaded  above.  On  the  contrary,  it  appears  to  me  that  it 
does  honour  to  the  Spirit  of  prophecy  by  enlarging  the  range 
of  His  operations,  according  to  that  saying  of  the  Man  of 
God  in  reply  to  those  who  '  envied  for  his  sake,'  *  Would  God 
that  all  Jehovah's  people  were  prophets  ! '  It  must  be  re- 
membered, however,  that  this  view  can  only  become  an  ap- 
proximate certainty  when  the  outlines  have  been  sketched  of 
a  history  of  the  later  Old  Testament  literature,  in  which  the 
place  of  these  and  similar  insertions  has  on  reasonable  grounds 
been  indicated.  The  fault  of  modern  critics  has  been  that 
they  have  considered  the  Old  Testament  writings  too  much 
as  isolated  phenomena,  whereas  the  complicated  nature  of 
the  problems  urgently  demands  that  the  books  should  be 
treated  in  connection.  It  may,  indeed,  be  confidently  antici- 
pated that  the  history  of  Old  Testament  literature  will  prove 
the  most  effectual  justification  of  Old  Testament  criticism. 

'  Introduction  to  the  Old  Testament  (Eng.  Transl.),  ii.  49,  50.  Bleck,  indeed,  is  of 
opinion  that  the  passages  referred  to  were  by  the  same  author  as  the  earlier  prophecies  ; 
but  th:s  may  on  plausible  grounds  be  contested. 


232  ESSAYS. 


There  are  still  a  few  other  points  in  which  I  desire  to 
.supplement  my  earlier  statement,  i.  As  to  the  paucity  of 
allusions  in  chaps,  xl.-lxvi.  to  the  special  circumstances  of 
Habylon.  The  fact  must  be  allowed  ;  it  was,  indeed,  so  con- 
spicuous as  to  induce  Ewald  to  suppose  that  the  author 
resided  in  Kg>'pt.  It  is  not  unfavourable  to  the  authorship 
oC  Isaiah,  who  might  have  learned  almost  as  much  about 
Babylon  as  is  mentioned  in  these  chapters  either  from  travel- 
ling merchants,  or  from  the  ambassadors  of  Merodach-Baladan. 
The  only  possible  allusion  of  this  kind  (if  we  may  press  the 
letter  of  the  prophecy)  distinctly  in  favour  of  an  exilic  date, 
is  that  in  xlvi.  i,  to  the  worship  of  Bel-Merodach  and  Nebo, 
which  specially  characterised  the  later  Babylonian  empire. ' 
This  paucity  of  Babylonian  references  would  be  less  surprising 
(for  prophets  and  apostles  were  not  curious  observers),  were 
it  not  for  the  very  specific  allusions  to  Palestinian  circum- 
stances in  some  of  the  later  chapters.  As  I  have  indicated, 
there  is  more  than  one  way  of  accounting  for  it. 

2.  With  regard  to  style.  It  is  proverbially  difficult  to 
obtain  unanimity  on  a  question  of  style,  but  I  think  it  will 
hardly  be  gainsaid  that  the  style  of  the  second  part  of  Isaiah 
is  on  the  whole  in  many  ways  different  from  that  of  the  first. 
This  judgment  will  be  none  the  less  valid  because  it  is  founded 
on  an  impression.  The  impression  is  no  casual  or  arbitrary 
one,  but  produced,  as  Professor  A.  B.  Davidson  truly  sa)-s, 
by  the  combined  force  of  many  elements.  '  It  is  quite  pos- 
sible to  subject  this  impression  to  the  crucible  and  dissolve 
it,  reasoning  it  away  bit  by  bit,  and  then  to  assert  that  the 
testimony  of  style  is  worth  nothing.  .  .  .  But  when  the  tide 
of  logic  recedes,  the  impression  remains  as  distinct  as  ever.' 
The  question  is,  whether  such  a  diversit)'  of  style  as  we  arc 
supposing  necessarily  argues  a  diversity  of  authorship.  This 
can  only  be  decided  by  a  careful  examination  of  the  elements 
of  the  diversity  ;  and  here  I  cannot  but  think  that  recent 
English  scholars  have  failed  ;  Professor  Stanley  Leathes, 
Professor  Birks,  and  Dr.  Kay,  all  endeavour  unduly  to  mini- 
mise the  diversity  in  phraseology  between  Land  II.  Isaiah. 
None  of  them  appear  to  understand  what  it  is  that  the  dis- 
integrating critics  mean  by  their  appeal  to  phraseolog)-,  and 
one  can  well  imagine  that  they  have  all  felt  inclined  to  use 

'  See.  r.c-.  the  Mirs  .N'imrud  Inscription  of  Nebiuhadnezzar,  Refonis  of  the  Pm-I. 
vii.  7.^-78,  in  which  the  names  of  Manluk  and  Nabu  (and  no  other  gods)  constantly 
recur.  Sargon,  it  is  true,  also  mentions  the^c  deities  with  high  honour,  hut  makes 
Assur  precede  them  (A*.  P.,  vii.  25). 


KSSAYS.  233 

language  in  which  Dr.  Payne  Smith  has  actually  expressed 
himself;   that   'the   aberrations   of  the  human    intellect   are 
infinite.'' '     The  truth  is,  however,  that  it  is  not  merely  upon 
isolated  words  or  phrases  that  those  critics  found  their  argu- 
ment, but   upon  '  the  peculiar  articulation  of  sentences  and 
the  movement  of  the  whole  discourse  ; '  and  even  within  the 
field  of  phraseology,  it  is  not  so  much  upon  the  fact  that 
some  words  are  peculiar  to  the  second  part  of  Isaiah,  as  upon 
this,  that  certain  words,  though  common  to  both  parts,  are 
used  in  the  second  in  a  peculiar  sense,  and  one  which  implies 
a  great  development  of  thought.     And  so  the  argument  from 
phraseology  runs  up  into  another  (3)  based  upon   the  new 
ideas  and  forms  of  representing  ideas  in  the  disputed  pro- 
phecies, on  which    on    a    former   occasion    some   may   have 
thought  that  I  placed  undue  reliance.    I  f  I  erred,  I  did  so  in  good 
company,  for  the  tendency  of  the  most  thoughtful  Continental 
scholars  is   in    the  same   direction.      Dr.  Paul  Kleinert,  for 
instance,  in  his  condensation  of  the  Old  Testament  Prolego- 
mena into  tables  for  the  use  of  students,  mentions  as  the  second 
argument  for  the   non-Isaianic  origin   of  II.  Isaiah  that  'the 
development  of  many  primary  ideas  (pnv,  ODt^'O,  nin^  12V,  &c.) 
is  subsequent  not  only  to   Isaiah  but   to   Jeremiah."^      Still 
it  is  well,  perhaps,  to  be  reminded  of  the  necessity  of  caution, 
lest  one  should  be  so  far  carried  away  in  the  ardour  of  criti- 
cism as  to  relegate  to  a  later  '  stage '  an  idea  which  an  early 
inspired  prophet  might  perhaps  under  peculiar  circumstances 
have  conceived.     On  the   other  hand,   conservative  scholars 
should  take  into  careful  consideration  whether  it  is  admissible 
to  maintain  that  an  ideais  Isaianic,  if  it  can  only  be  justified 
as    such  by  assuming,  contrary  to  the  analogy  of  classical 
prophecy,  a  suspension  of  the  ordinary  laws  of  psychology.-* 
Too  many  theologians  rush  into  the  thick  of  prophetic  inter- 
pretation without  any  deep  study  of  this  most  fundamental  of 
questions. 

If  I  might  return  for  a  moment  to  the  argument  from 
diversity  of  style,  I  would  venture  to  supplement  the  question 
as  to  its  critical  value  raised  above  by  another,  Does  unity  of 
style  necessarily  argue  unity  of  authorship?  Dr.  Colenso 
obviously  replied  to  this  in  the  affirmative  when  he  main- 
tained that  the  Book  of  Deuteronomy  was  written  by  the 
prophet  Jeremiah,  and  Ewald  and  Hitzig,  by  their  treatment 
of  the  Psalms,  have  given  some  support  to  such  a  position. 

1    T/ie  Old  Testa  men  I,  until  a  Brief  Commentary  by  VarioH!.    IKW/^nr  (S  P.C.K  ). 
-'  Abrhs  dcr  Einlcitung  zum  Allen    Testament  im   Tabcllenjorm  (Berlin,  1878). 

'^'  ^-^'On  the  point  thus  raised,  the  student  should  reler  to  Prof.   Riehm's  Messia.nic 
Propheey  (V.\\g.   Trans).,  Edinb.  1876). 


234  ESSAYS. 

But  I  suppose  all  that  need  be  inferred  from  unity  of  style  is 
that  one  of  the  books  which  display  this  unity  exercised  a 
strong  influence  on  the  author  of  the  other.  We  know  that 
the  Soferim  had  their  favourite  Scriptures,  and  it  is  a  conjec- 
ture of  recent  critics  that  when  the  prophetic  Epigoni  edited 
the  older  prophecies,  they  sometimes  added  parallel  works  of 
their  own  {BegleitscJireiben'),  in  which  they  sought  to  treat 
existing  circumstances  in  the  spirit  of  their  predecessors. 
This  is  at  least  a  good  working  hypothesis,  and  is  not  in 
itself  inconsistent  with  a  belief  in  prophetic  inspiration. 

4.  The  argument  from  parallel  passages  is  sometimes 
much  overrated.  How  prone  we  are  to  fancy  an  imitation 
where  there  is  none,  has  been  strikingly  shown  by  Mr.  Munro's 
parallels  between  the  plays  of  Shakspere  and  Seneca  ;  '  and 
even  when  an  imitation  on  one  side  or  the  other  must  be  sup- 
posed, how  difficult  it  is  to  choose  between  the  alternatives  ! 
That  there  are  parallels  between  II.  Isaiah  on  the  one  hand 
and  Zephaniah  or  Jeremiah  on  the  other  is  certain,  and  that 
the  one  prophet  imitated  the  other  is  probable  ;  but  which  is 
the  original  one  }  As  I  have  remarked  elsewhere,  our  view 
of  the  relation  between  two  authors  is  apt  to  be  biassed  by  a 
prejudice  in  favour  of  the  more  brilliant  genius  ;  we  can 
hardly  help  believing  that  the  more  strikingly  expressed 
passage  must  be  the  more  original.  A  recent  revolution  of 
opinion  among  patristic  students  may  be  a  warning  to  us  not 
to  be  too  premature  in  deciding  such  questions.  It  has  been 
the  custom  to  argue  from  the  occurrence  of  almost  identical 
sentences  in  the  Octavius  of  Minucius  Felix  and  the  Apolo- 
gettann  of  Tertullian,  that  Minucius  must  have  written  later 
than  the  beginning  of  the  third  century,  on  the  ground  that 
a  brilliant  genius  like  Tertullian  cannot  have  been  such  a 
servile  imitator  as  the  hypothesis  of  the  priority  of  Minucius 
would  imply.  But  Adolf  Ebert  seems  to  have  definitively 
proved  ^  that  Tertullian  not  only  made  use  of  Minucius,  but 
did  not  even  understand  his  author  rightly. 

I  do  not,  on  the  ground  of  the  difficulties  encompassing 
ft,  desire  to  expel  this  argument  from  our  critical  apparatus, 
l^ut  I  do  think  that  it  can  only  be  properly  used  in  a  compre- 
hensive work  on  the  liiblical  and  especially  the  prophetic 
literature  as  a  whole.  And  so  I  come  round  to  my  original 
proposition  that  he  who  would  take  part,  whether  as  a  teacher 
or  a  student,  in  the  controversies  of  the  higher  criticism,  must 
first    of   all    have   cquip[)cd    himself   by   a   sclf-dcn)-ing   and 

'  Journal  of  Philology,  vol.  vi.  (Caiiih.  1876),  pp.  70-72. 

*  Ebert,  TerlulUans  Verhaltniss  zu  Miniuius  Felix,  reviewed  in  Jahrituhcr fur 
deutsche  Thcologie,  1869,  pp.  740-743. 


ESSAYS,  235 

theory-denying  examination  of  the  texts.  Can  it  be  said  that 
all  our  critics  have  so  equipped  themselves,  or  that  all  even 
of  our  interpreters  have  been  fully  conscious  of  the  moral 
pre-requisites  ? 


VII.  CORRECTION  OF  THE  HEBREW  TEXT. 

The  subject  described  in  the  above  title  is  one  peculiarly  unfit 
for  an  essay  ;  it  is  obviously  not  a  dissertation,  but  facts,  which 
the  reader  requires  in  order  to  form  a  well-grounded  opinion 
upon  it ;  and  the  facts  cannot  be  condensed  into  a  few  pages. 
Still,  for  the  same  reason  that  I  ventured  to  sketch  the  con- 
nection which,  as  I  think,  exists  between  the  philological  and 
the  theological  interpretation  of  Isaiah,  I  will  devote  a  brief 
study  to  clearing  away  some  possible  misunderstandings  aris- 
ing out  of  my  treatment  of  the  text. 

It  is  a  depressing  discovery  to  the  student  when  he  first 
realises  the  weakness  of  the  authority  for  the  received  Hebrew 
text.  And  yet  the  state  of  the  case  might  fairly  have  been 
anticipated.  If,  in  the  judgment  of  Lachmann  and  Tischen- 
dorf,  corruptions  of  some  moment  have  taken  place  even  in 
the  text  of  the  New  Testament,  almost  infinitely  greater  is 
the  probability  that  a  similar  misfortune  on  a  larger  scale  has 
befallen  the  text  of  the  Old.  If  Mr.  Munro  can  declare, 
speaking  of  Lucretius,  that  he  is  more  and  more  convinced 
'  that  many  manifest  errors  had  their  rise  in  the  circumstances 
under  which  our  poem  first  saw  the  light,'  how  much  more 
can  this  be  said  of  texts,  written  and  then  copied  in  a  far  less 
critical  age,  and  in  characters  peculiarly  liable  to  confusion  ! 
The  wonder  is,  indeed,  that  the  Old  Testament  writings  are 
as  intelligible  as  they  are,  though  the  question  may  in  some 
cases  force  itself  upon  us,  how  far  this  intelligibility  is  due 
to  the  original  writer,  and  how  far  to  a  later  editor's  adapta- 
tion of  his  fragmentary  materials.  Fully  to  explain  the 
causes  and  investigate  the  degree  of  the  uncertainty  of  the 
Old  Testament  text  would  be  a  subject  well  worthy  of  a 
scholar's  pen  ;  but  it  is  outside  my  immediate  province.  A 
few  hints,  however,  may  fairly  be  expected,  to  justify  the 
critical  attitude  of  the  present  work.  Among  the  manifold 
sources  of  corruption  we  may  specially  mention  the  great 
though  slowly  effected  changes  of  the  characters  employed 
in  writing  Hebrew.  M.  de  Vogue,  an  authority  on  Semitic 
palaeography,  writes  thus:--- 

'  If  we  consider  in   its  entirely  the  history  of  the  Hebrew 


J 


6  ESSAYS. 


writing,  as  it  results  from  the  study  of  the  monuments  alone, 
we  may  resume  it  thus  : 

'A  first  period,  during  which  the  only  writing  in  use  is  the 
archaic  Hebrew,  a  character  closely  resembling  the  Phoeni- 
cian ; 

'  A  second  period,  during  which  the  Aramaic  writing  is 
employed  simultaneously  with  the  first,  and  is  little  by  little 
substituted  for  it  ; 

'  A  third  period,  during  which  the  Aramaic  writing,  now 
become  square,  is  the  only  one  in  use. 

'  The  first  period  is  anterior  to  the  Captivity,  and  the  third 
posterior  to  Jesus  Christ. 

'  The  limits  of  the  second  cannot  be  determined  exactly  by 
the  aid  of  the  monuments  alone,  for  these  are  entirely  wanting  ; 
but  here  the  traditions  and  the  texts  come  to  our  help.  The 
name  of  ashurltlL  "  Assyrian,"  given  by  the  Rabbinic  school 
to  the  square  alphabet ;  the  part  in  the  introduction  of  that 
alphabet  which  it  assigns  to  Ezra,  a  collective  term  for  the 
totality  of  the  traditions  relative  to  the  return  of  the  Jews, 
seem  to  prove  that  the  introduction  of  the  Aramaic  writing 
coincides  with  the  great  Aramaic  movement  which  invaded 
the  whole  of  Syria  and  Palestine  in  the  sixth  and  seventh 
centuries  before  our  era.'  ' 

It  need  hardly  be  pointed  out  what  a  wide  door  this  series 
of  changes  opens  for  confusions  of  various  kinds.  In  each 
of  the  alphabets  referred  to  some  letters  are  more  easily  con- 
founded than  others.  We  have,  therefore,  presumably  in  the 
received  or  Massoretic  Hebrew  text  a  combination  of  the  errors 
which  arose  (i)  from  the  confusion  of  similar  letters  in  the 
archaic  Hebrew  character  ;  (2)  from  the  confusion  of  letters 
in  the  archaic  alphabet  with  similar  letters  in  the  Aramaic  ; 

(3)  from  the  transliteration  into  the  later  square  character  ;  and 

(4)  from  the  confusion  of  similar  letters  in  the  square  character 
itself,  after  the  texts  had  been  transliterated.  We  have  not 
yet  made  half  enough  of  palaeography  as  an  index  of  possible 
corrections  ;  and  it  would  probably  be  worth  while,  as  M. 
Renan  has  suggested,  to  publish  selected  books  of  the  Hebrew 
Bible  in  the  Phoenician  character.'-* 

'  De  Vogiic,  MiLins;cs  d'archc'ologic  oricntalc  [Vxr.  1868),  p.  164.  M.  Lenormant, 
in  his  P.ssai  sur  la propai^iition  dc  l alphabet plidniiien,  assigns  the  introduction  of  the 
scjuarc  character  to  the  first  century  before  the  Christian  era. 

*  Vox  a  compact  summary  of  facts,  see  Dilhnann's  article  BibcUcxt  d(s  A.  T.  in 
the  second  edition  of  IIor/og"s  Reah'ncyclopddie,  or  M.  Bergcr's  elaborate  article 
lit  fit  lire,  in  the  theological  encyclopjvdia  pulilished  by  MM.  Sandoz  et  Fischbacher. 
Upon  the  whole,  the  student  will  find  no  sounder  anrl  more  experienced  guide  (so 
lucid  is  his  style  and  so  clear  his  insight)  than  M.  Renan"s  able  'collaborateur '  in 
the  Corpus  of  .Semitic  inscriptions.  For  a  v.ilual)le  list  of  instances  of  pal.Teographic 
confusions  in  the  texts  of  the  Hebrew  Bible  and  the  Septuagint,  sec  1  lerzfclds  Gese/iithlc 


ESSAYS.  237 

Hardly  less  striking  are  the  facts  relative  to  the  date  of 
the  received  Hebrew  text,  and  the  extant  Hebrew  MSS. 
The  former  appears  to  have  been  settled  during  the  Talmudic 
period  which  preceded  the  Massoretic,  i.e.  some  time  before 
the  close  of  the  fifth  century  A.D.  Since  then  the  text  has 
no  doubt  been  handed  down  with  scrupulous  fidelity,  but 
whether  '  the  oracles  of  God  '  had  been  as  jealously  guarded 
in  the  earlier  periods,  at  any  rate  before  the  idea  of  the 
canon  had  attained  complete  precision,  may  well  be  doubted. 
In  Egypt,  as  the  Septuagint  sufficiently  proves,  the  transcribers 
of  the  Old  Testament  were  specially  careless  :  but  even  in 
Palestine,  judging  from  the  present  state  of  the  Hebrew  Bible, 
its  guardians  do  not  appear  to  have  been  fully  conscious  of 
their  responsibility.  True,  there  was  a  higher  guardian.  Pro- 
vidence :  true,  the  defects  of  the  letter  have  been  overruled  to 
the  good  of  the  Church,  which  might  otherwise  have  fallen  (as 
fragments  of  the  Church  doubtless  have  fallen)  into  worship 
of  the  letter.  But  the  difficulties  arising  out  of  these  circum- 
stances to  the  exegete  are  great  indeed.  Could  we  feel  sure 
that  the  standard  text  had  been  formed  on  a  critical,  diplo- 
matic basis,  we  might  to  some  extent  be  reassured.  But  though 
it  is  only  a  conjecture,  it  comes  from  perhaps  the  most  com- 
petent of  non-Jewish  scholars,  and  has  great  probability  on  its 
side,  that  the  received  text  is  derived  from  a  single  archetype, 
the  peculiarities  of  which  were  preserved  with  a  '  servile 
fidelity.' '  And  even  apart  from  this,  it  is  but  too  obvious  to 
any  one  with  a  sense  for  language  that  parts  of  the  texts  are 
extremely  incorrect  ;  and  it  stands  to  reason  that  the  post- 
Massoretic  MSS.  (the  oldest  are  not  older  than  the  tenth 
century)  cannot  help  us  in  healing  pre-Massoretic  corrup- 
tions.'-^ 

These  are  the  grounds  on  which  I  venture  to  urge  that 
without  a  temperate  use  of  conjectural  (but  not  purely  sub- 
jective) emendation,  but  little  progress  can  be  made  in  Old 
Testament  exegesis.  It  is  from  a  real  sense  of  duty  that  I 
have  utilised  a  number  of  such  corrections  of  the  text  in  my 
translation  of  Isaiah.  My  experienced  reviewer,  Mr.  Samuel 
Cox,  fresh  from  the  study  of  New  Testament  criticism,  is 
slightly  shocked  at  this,  and  kindly  attributes  it  to  '  the  influ- 
ence of  Ewald's  somewhat  too  arbitrary  and  impatient  genius.'  •' 

des  Volkes  Jisrael,  iii.  80-84  ;  and  in  the  Sept.  of  the  Minor  Prophets  only,  Vollers  in 
Stade's  Zeitschrift,  1883,  p.  231. 

•  I^RgO-rde,  Ammer/:u7ige>i  ziir  griechischen  Uebersetzung  der  Proverbien  (Leipz. 
1863),  pp.  I,  2  ;  Symmicta  (Getting-.  1877),  p.  50.    Comp.  Olshausen  on  Ps.  Ixxx.  14,  16. 

-  On  the  extant  Hebrew  MSS.,  and  en  the  state  of  the  text  in  the  Talmudic  period, 
see  Hermann  Strack's  Frologomena  Critica  in  Veins  Tesiamenium  (Lips.  1873),  PP- 
59-131- 

5  Expositor,  May  1880,  p.  400. 


238  ESSAYS. 

This  is  a  misconception  which  will  interfere  with  the  usefulness 
of  my  work.  I  am  in  no  other  sense  a  follower  of  that  great 
critic  than  is  Professor  Delitzsch  or  Professor  Kuenen,  and,  in 
the  days  when  the  name  might  not  unjustly  have  been  applied 
to  me,  my  treatment  of  the  text  was  much  more  conservative 
than  at  present.  Purely  subjective  emendation,  I  repeat,  is 
not  to  be  admitted  on  any  excuse.  If  a  passage  is  so  utterly 
corrupt  as  to  give  no  clue  to  the  correct  reading,  a  commen- 
tator, penetrated  with  the  spirit  of  Hebrew,  may  suggest  an 
approximation  to  what  may  have  been  in  the  writer's  mind  ; 
but  his  suggestion  should  be  confined  to  the  commentary. 
Some  of  the  corrections  proposed  with  the  utmost  confidence 
by  Ewald  and  Hitzig  are  as  arbitrary  as  most  of  those  of  the 
too  brilliant  Oratorian,  C.  F.  Houbigant,  in  the  last  century. 
But  when  a  conjecture  has  some  external  support,  especially 
from  the  versions  or  from  palaeography,  it  is  more  respectful 
to  the  Hebrew  writer  to  adopt  it  than  to  '  make  sense '  by 
sheer  force  out  of  an  unnatural  reading.  I  would  not  propose 
to  introduce  even  these  justifiable  emendations  into  a  version 
for  ecclesiastical  use  (though  King  James's  translators  con- 
sciously or  unconsciously  did  admit  a  few  emendations),'  but  in 
a  work  intended  solely  for  students,  it  is  sometimes  necessary 
to  emphasise  them  as  I  have  done  (never  without  stating  in  a 
prominent  place  the  received  reading),  that  the  reader  may 
^el  the  difficulty  of  the  passage,  and  judge  of  the  effect  of  the 
alteration.  Otherwise  we  may  go  on  for  ever,  crying  Shalom, 
shdlom,  when  the  text  is  far  indeed  from  '  peace'  or  'soundness.' 
With  a  good  will  and  some  poetic  imagination  most  readings, 
at  least  in  the  poetical  and  prophetical  books,  admit  of  a 
plausible  translation  ;  but  at  what  a  grievous  cost  to  grammar 
(some  grammatical  rules  must  surely  be  admitted),  and  to  a 
critical  conception  of  the  duties  of  an  interpreter  ! 

The  slightest  changes  are,  of  course,  those  which  affect 
the  vowel-points,  which,  as  we  are  too  prone  to  forget,  form, 
properly  speaking,  no  part  of  the  text.^  They  represent  a 
comparatively  ancient  exegetical  tradition,  and  stand  on  a 
somewhat  similar  footing  to  the  versions,  especially  to  the 
Targums,  which  in  some  obscure  places  enable  us  to  interpret 
the  pointed  text.  But  the  early  exegetical  schools  had  pre- 
judices of  their  own  (see,  e.g.,  on  xliii.  28,  Ixiii.  3,  6),  and  we 
ought  not  to  regard  any  of  them  as  infallible.  The  Church 
has  abstained  in  her  wisdom  from  giving  more  than  a  negative 

'  See,  e.g.,  i  Sam.  xiii.  i,  xiv.  21,  2  Sam.  xv.  19,  Jer.  1.  5,  Hos.  i.  9,  Ps.  viii.  i, 
cvii.  3,  Eccles.  ii.  24.  Alterations  of  the  Hebrew  text  in  accordance  with  one  or 
more  of  the  ancient  versions  [e.g.  2  Sam.  xiii,  39,  Jer.  xix.  13,  Job  xxxiii.  17)  are  also 
not  altogether  uncommon  in  the  Authorised  Version. 

^  On  the  origin  of  the  punctuation,  see  Gr.^tz,  Gcnhichte  dcr  Jiiden.  v.  154. 


ESSAYS.  239 

rule  of  interpretation  ;  why  should  we  submit  to  the  yoke  of 
the  doctors  of  the  Synagogue  i*  I  would  not,  however,  be  in 
a  hurry  to  forsake  the  reading  of  the  points.  Doubtless  future 
critics  may  find  much  to  amend,  but  the  alterations  of  Dr. 
Klostermann  ^  are  rather  beacons  of  warning  than  examples 
of  critical  tact. 

It  will  surprise  no  student  of  the  Septuagint  that  I  have 
followed  Gesenius,  Ewald,  and  Hitzig  in  omitting,  or  bracket- 
ing, certain  intrusive  glosses  (see  iii.  i,  vii.  17,  20,  viii.  7,  ix. 
15,  xxviii.  20,  xxix.  10,  xxx.  6,  part  of  xxxv.  8,  li.  ii,  Ixiii. 
II,  Ixiv.  T^b),  analogous  to  those  which  disfigure  the  Alexan- 
drine version.  The  only  question  can  be  whether  a  more 
advanced  critical  study  of  the  text  may  not  add  to  their 
number.  For  instance,  the  concluding  verse  of  chap,  ii.,  verses 
10  and  1 1  of  chap,  iii.,  a  word  in  xxx.  23,  and  a  phrase  in 
xxx,  26  seem  very  suspicious.  The  first  and  last  of  these 
are  omitted  in  the  Septuagint,  which  gives  a  certain  external 
support  to  the  view  that  they  are  interpolations  ;  the  one,  as 
it  is  in  itself  fine,  has  been  retained  in  this  edition,  the  latter 
has  been  expunged,  because  it  spoils  a  fine  poetical  passage. 
I  feel,  however,  that  great  caution  is  necessary,  and  only  wish 
to  make  a  practical  protest  against  the  infallibility  of  the 
text. 

Without  idolising  the  Septuagint  (the  Hebrew  text  of 
which  contained  many  of  the  same  corruptions  as  our  own), 
its  value  as  a  text- critical  help  is  great  indeed.  It  is  true. 
Professor  de  Lagarde  would  have  critics  postpone  using 
it  altogether  until  its  text  has  been  restored  to  the  '  original 
form.' 2  There  are  two  objections  to  this: — i,  the  valuable 
results  which  have  been  already  attained  by  the  critical 
use  of  the  Septuagint  (it  is  sufficient  to  refer  to  the  labours 
of  Thenius  and  especially  of  Wellhausen  on  the  text  of 
Samuel) — results  which  would  have  had  to  be  foregone 
if  Professor  de  Lagarde's  wishes  had  been  consulted  ;  and  2, 
the  extreme  difficulty  of  his  own  plan  for  a  critical  edition  of 
the  Septuagint,  which  in  fact  seems  to  relegate  the  desired 
end  almost  to  the  Greek  Calends.  Surely  we  cannot  be 
justified  in  neglecting  so  important  a  witness  to  the  Egyptian 
form  of  the  pre-Massoretic  text,  provided  that  we  remember, 
I,  that  our  best  MSS.  of  the  Septuagint  (not  excepting  B) 
are  very  faulty,  and  2,  that  the  Hebrew  MSS.  which  the 
Alexandrine  translators  employed  were  probably  still  faultier. 

But  is  it  not  hopeless  to  correct  the  text  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, when  the  critical  authority  both  of  the  Hebrew  and  of 

1  In  the  article  in  the  Lutherische  Zcifsckri/t  already  referred  to  (1876,  pp.  1-60). 
*  Ammerkungen  zur gricch.  Uebers.  d.  Proveibien,  pp.  2,  3. 


240  ESSAYS. 

the  Greek  is  so  lamentably  scanty  ?  Modifying  a  well-known 
German  proverb,  I  would  reply  that  we  ought  not  to  allow 
an  impossible  Better  to  be  the  enemy  of  the  Good.  A 
perfect  text  is  unattainable,  and  perhaps  in  one  sense  un- 
desirable ;  but  a  more  perfect  one  than  we  now  possess  is 
within  our  reach.  It  would  not  be  right,  from  a  philological 
point  of  view,  to  exclude  the  Hebrew  text  from  the  operation 
of  improved  critical  methods  ;  and  much  more,  from  a  theo- 
logical point  of  view,  to  exhibit  any  certainly  or  all  but 
certainly  corrupt  passage  as  the  inspired  '  Word  of  God.'  The 
needs  of  the  period  of  the  Reformation  were  met  by  the  Re- 
formation scholars  ;  those  of  a  more  scientific  and  historical 
age  require  the  application  of  sounder  critical  principles.  The 
time  for  indifference  on  the  part  of  religious  students  has  gone 
by.  It  may  be  the  fact  that  the  leaders  of  modern  criticism, 
whether  in  the  correction  of  the  text  or  in  still  thornier  fields, 
have  been  often  devoid  of  interest  in  spiritual  truths.  But 
there  is  no  law  either  of  nature  or  of  grace  that  it  should  be 
so.  It  is  a  pure  loss  to  reverent  readers  of  the  Bible  to  be 
shut  off  from  the  invigorating  influences  of  critical  research. 
For  the  true  spiritual  meaning  of  the  Scriptures  can  only  be 
reached  through  the  door  of  the  letter  ;  and  the  nearer  we 
approach  to  a  correct  reading  of  the  text,  the  more  vivid  will 
be  our  apprehension  of  the  sacred  truths  which  it  conveys. 


[Three  recent  dissertations  are  concerned  with  the  textual  criticism 
of  the  Book  of  Isaiah  :— 

Hermann  L.  Strack,  '  Zur  Textkritik  des  Jesaias'  in  Zcitschrift  fiir 
lutherische  T/ieoloc^ie,  1877,  pp.  17-52.  Valuable  from  its  account  of  the 
St.  Petersburg  MSS. 

G.  L.  Studcr,  '  Beitrage  zur  Textkritik  des  Jesaja,'  in  Jahrbiichcr  fiir 
protesianiische  Theologie,  1877,  Heft  4  ;  1881,  Heft  i.  Confirms  the 
view  that  an  editor  of  Isaiah  has  to  strike  the  mean  between  conservative 
immobility  and  the  'chartered  libertinism'  of  hypothesis. 

Paul  de  Lagarde,  Scmitica,  Part  I.  (Gottingen,  1878).  Pp.  1-32  con- 
tain critical  notes,  occasionally  very  strikinj^,  on  chaps,  i.-xvii.  of  Isaiah. 

I  ought  also  to  mention  Abraham  Krochmal's  collection  of  emenda- 
tions of  the  text  of  the  Old  Testament,  always  acute,  and  sometimes 
hitting  the  mark,  under  the  title  Haksaiuivehaniichtoii^  odcr  Sc/iri/t  und 
Urschrift  (Lemberg,  1875).  Among  older  books,  Kocher's  reply  to  Bishop 
Lowth  in  behalf  of  the  Klassoretic  text,  called  I'indicice  S.  Tcxtiis  Hcbriri 
Esaia  Vatis  (Berne,  1736),  is  little  known,  but  worth  consulting.] 


ESSAYS.  2  J  I 


VIII.   THE  CRITICAL  STUDY  OF  PARALLEL  PASSAGES. 

I. 

The  exaggerated  value  sometimes  attached  to  the  argument 
from  parallel  passages  must  not  drive  us  to  the  other  extreme 
of  treating  them  as  non-existent  or  unimportant.  This 
thought,  among  others,  has  suggested  the  present  essay,  one 
object  of  which  is  to  qualify  and  supplement  the  discouraging 
remarks  which  the  over-statements  of  some  critics  obliged  me 
to  offer  (p.  234).  It  would  indeed  be  an  unfortunate  result, 
were  any  of  my  student-readers  to  draw  an  inference  from 
words  of  mine  unfavourable  to  the  study  of  parallelisms  of 
expression — a  study  which  is,  in  my  own  opinion,  a  whole- 
some and  much-needed  corrective  of  the  various  kinds  of 
theoretical  bias.  The  criticism  of  the  Old  Testament,  which 
draws  its  material  from  so  many  sources,  may  yet  derive  some 
light  from  a  discriminating  selection  of  parallel  passages  ;  and 
so,  still  more  manifestly,  may  its  exegesis.  The  principle  of  ex- 
plaining the  Scriptures  by  themselves  has,  it  is  to  be  feared, 
ifallen  into  some  disrepute,  for  which  the  blunders  of  our 
popular  'Reference  Bibles'  supply  an  ample  justification. 
And  yet  our  forefathers,  whose  uncritical  but  devout  Scripture- 
knowledge  is  piled  up,  stratum  above  stratum,  in  these  editions, 
were  doubtless  right  in  their  principle,  however  widely  they 
may  have  erred  in  its  application.  A  few  pages  will  not  be 
wasted  on  the  enforcement  of  this  doctrine,  especially  as  a 
request^  made  in  my  first  preface  fell  but  too  probably  on 
unheeding  ears. 

Self-abnegation  is  the  mark  of  prophetic  writers  quite  as 
much  as  of  their  editors  (comp.  p.  228).  They  experienced 
no  Sturm  und  Drang,  no  '  storm  and  stress  '  of  an  unchastened 
individuality.  They  never  attempted  to  set  themselves  on 
high,  on  the  pedestal  of  original  genius.  Isaiah,  che  sovra  gli 
altri  come  aquila  vola,  is  as  dependent  on  his  less  famous  pre- 
decessors as  a  Marlowe  or  a  Shakspere.  On  at  least  two 
occasions  (such  at  least  is  the  most  probable  view  of  chap, 
ii.  2-4  and  the  main  part  of  chaps,  xv.  i-xvi.  12)  he  inserts 
passages  from  earlier  prophets,  whose  entire  works  have  not 
come  down  to  us  ;  and  he  is  not  without  some  striking  affini- 
ties (some  of  which  at  least  will  be  reminiscences)  of  contem- 
porary prophets.  Look  again  at  his  elaborate  style,  and  the 
artistic  distribution  of  his  poetic  material !  His  art  is  no 
doubt  subordinate  to  his  inspiration,   but  in   no  disparaging 


VOL.  II. 


R 


242  ESSAYS. 

sense  ;  and  its  comparatively  high  perfection  attests  a  longer 
history  of  Hebrew  poetry  and  prophecy,  and  a  more  numerous 
band  of  unrecorded  prophetic  writers,  than  we  are  accustomed 
to  suppose.  But  it  is  enough  on  this  head  to  refer  to  the 
Introduction  to  Ewald's  great  work  on  the  prophets  (now 
translated)  ;  I  content  myself  here  with  grouping  (and  observe 
it  is  on  this  grouping  that  the  value  of  '  references '  largely 
depends)  a  few  striking  parallels  between  the  prophet  Isaiah 
and  other  writers — first  of  all,  those  who  are  acknowledged 
on  all  hands  to  be  his  predecessors  or  contemporaries  ;'  next, 
those  respecting  whose  chronological  relation  to  Isaiah  more  or 
less  doubt  has  arisen  ;  and  lastly,  some  of  those  who  certainly 
belong  to  a  later  age.  In  conclusion,  it  will  be  only  fair  to  set 
down  some  of  the  striking  parallels  between  the  acknowledged 
and  the  disputed  portions  of  the  Book  of  Isaiah,  and  also 
some  of  the  parallel  passages  for  the  latter  in  other  books  of 
the  Old  Testament. 

To  the  first  of  the  three  classes  of  writers  mentioned  belong 
Amos,  Hosea,  and  Micah,  the  two  former  being  older,  the 
latter  probably  younger,  than  our  prophet.  It  has  been  well 
observed  that  the  characteristics  of  Amos  and  Hosea  have 
found  their  synthesis  in  Isaiah.^  It  is  not  surprising,  there- 
fore, that  there  should  be  striking  points  of  affinity  between 
these  three  prophets — of  an  affinity,  moreover,  which  extends 
beyond  mere  forms  of  expression  to  fundamental  conceptions 
and  beliefs.  Take  the  following  carefully  selected  instances  : 
the  student  will  be  repaid  for  the  trouble  of  examining  them 
by  a  more  critical  and  comprehensive  knowledge  of  the 
prophetic  Scriptures. 

Am.  V.  21,  22,  Hos.  vi.  6,  Mic.  vi.  6-8  (against  formal 
worship). 

„     ix.  13,  Hos.  ii.  21,  22  (fertility  in  the  Messianic  age). 

„     vi.  5-7  (lu.xury  of  the  princes). 

,,     V.  7,  vi.  12  (confusion  of  morals). 

„     ix.  II,  12  (the  Messianic  empire). 
Hos.  iv.  15  (spiritual  adultery). 

„     ix.  1 5  ('  law-makers,  law-breakers  '). 

„     iv.  13  (idolatrous  groves). 
Mic.  i.  2  (prosopopoeia  of  inanimate  nature). 

"   iy.-  ^-3] 

„      iii.  2,  3  (strong  figure  of  oppression). 

„      ii.  2  (violent  extension  of  landed  estates). 

»»     V.  3-5  (the  Messiah  and  his  birth). 

„     V.  13  (idols  to  be  destroyed  in  the  Messianic  age). 

1  I.e.  the  predecessors  or  contemporaries  of  the  author  of  the  acknowledged  pro- 
phecies.    The  disputed  pro]ihocics  require,  of  coursf,  to  bo  considered  sejiarately. 
*  Dulim,  Die  Theologie  dcr  Propheteti,  p.  104. 


Isa. 

i.   II,  14 

>> 

iv.  2 

)» 

V.    II,   12 

9) 

V.  20 

» 

ix.  10,  <S:c. 

It 

i.  21 

11 

i.  23 

11 

i.  29 

11 

i.  2 

M 

ii.  2-4 

11 

11 

iii.  15 
V.  8 

11 

vii.  14,    1 

11 

ix.  7        i 

11 

XXX.  22 

ESSAYS. 


243 


Isa.  xxxii.  13,  14  Mic.  iii.  12  (destruction  of  Jerusalem). 
„     xxxviii.  17       „     vii.  19  (strong  figure  for  the  forgiveness  of  sin). 

The  second  class  of  writings  to  be  compared  with  Isaiah  in- 
cludes especially  Job,  Joel,  Zech.  ix.-xi.,  the  Psalms,  and  the 
Pentateuch.'  I  venture  to  offer  these  as  fair  specimens  of 
parallel  passages  : — 

Isa.  i.  8 

„  V.  24 

„  xix.  5 

„  XIX.  13,  14 

„  xxviii.  29* 

„  xxxiii.  1 1 

„  xxxviii.   12 


Job  xxvii.  18  (figure  from  a  booth  in  a  vineyard). 
„    xviii.  16  (root  and  branch  consumed). 
„    xiv.  II  (rivers  dried  up — a  quotation). 
„    xii.  24, 2  5  (figurative  description  of  general  unwisdom). 
„    xi.  6  (God's  wisdom  marvellous). 
,,    XV.  35  (reap  as  you  sow). 

„    iv.  21,  vii.  6  (figures  from  the  tent  and  the  weaver's 
shuttle). 


(See  also  the  other  parallels  between  the  Song  of  Hezekiah 
and  the  Book  of  Job  in  vol.  1.  p.  228.) 


Isa.  ii.  4 


IV.  2 
X.  23 
xxviii.  22 
xxxii.  15 
xi.  1-4 
xxxii.  I 
xi.  II 
xxvii.  13 
vii.  14 
viii.  8,  10 
viii.  7,  8 
xvii.  12 

^^-  5 . 
xxxiii.  13 

xxxiii.  18 

xxxiii.  21 
xxxiii.  22 
xxxiii.  22 


1.  2a 
i.  26 
XXX.  9 


Joel  iii.  10  ('  swords  into  ploughshares,'  and  the  reverse). 
„    iii.  18  (fertility  in  the  Messianic  age). 

I     „    iv.  14  (pn). 

„    ii.  22-29  (outpouring  of  the  Spirit,  &c.). 

>  Zech.ix.  9  (the  Messianic  King). 

>  „     X.  10  (return  of  captives  from  Egypt  and  Assyria). 

>  Ps.    xlvi.  7,  II  (God,  or  Jehovah,  is  with  us). 

"     xlvi.  3,  6  (the  enemies  compared  to  a  flcod). 

„     xlvi.  9  (the  instruments  of  war  broken). 

„     xlvi.   10  (summons  to  the  heathen  to  acknowledge 
Jehovah). 

„     xlviii.   13  ('counting  the  towers;'  see  my  note  on 
Isa.  /.  c). 

„     xlvi.  4  (Jehovah  comp.  to  a  river  ;  see  on  Isa.  /.  c). 

„     xlvii.  6  ('  our  king '). 

„  xlviii.  14  (the  nation's  divine  patron  ;  Delitzsch  re- 
marks :  '  There  is  reason  to  conjecture 
that  the  proper  concluding  words  [of 
Ps.  xlviii.]  are  lost.  The  original  close 
may  have  been  in  fuller  tones,  and  have 
run  somewhat  as  Isa.  xxxiii.  22'). 
Deut.  xxxii.  i  ('  Hear,  O  heavens '). 

„     xxxii.  6,  20  (faithless  children) 


XXVIII.    21 


1  I  might  have  added  Judges,  Joshua,  and  2  Samuel  (see  notes  on  ix.  4,  x.  26, 
viii.  21).  Joel  and  Zech.  ix.-xi.  are  included  out  of  deference  to  the  traditional 
opinion  ;  for  personally  I  have  no  doubt  that  Joel,  and,  in  its  present  form,  the  whole 
of  the  latter  part  of  Zechariah,  belong  to  post-Exile  times.  The  question  of  the  date 
of  the  Book  of  Job  is  too  intimately  connected  with  that  of  the  date  of  II.  Isaiah  lor 
me  to  hazard  an  opinion  upon  it  here. 

^  See  critical  note,  p.  154  of  this  volume. 


2  44  ESSAYS. 


Isa. 

i-  3 
i.  6 

)> 

«•  7 

5» 

i.  9,  lo 

,> 

i-  17,  23      1 

>) 

X.  2                 f 

)> 

i.  19 

» 

i.  24,  iii.  1,1 
X.  1 6,  23, 

» 

XIX.  4        J 

iii,  i^          1 

(but  see  | 

note)      J 

>> 

iii.  9 

>> 
>1 

iv.  5 
V.  8 

J> 

V.  lO 

V.  23 

V.26            1 

» 

xxxiii.  19    1 
X.  26            ( 

» 

xi.  15,  16    1 
xii.  lb 

» 

XXX.  17 

Deut.  xxxii.  6,  28,  29  ('  Israel  is  without  knowledge'). 
„     xxviii.  35  (Israel's  sickness). 
„     xxix.  22,  Auth.  Vers.  23  (nSCHD). 
„     x.\xii.  32  ('  Sodom,  Gomorrah  '). 

Ex.  xxii.  22,  Deut.  xxvii.  19  (the  orphan  and  the  widow). 

Lev.  XXV.  18,   19,  xxvi.  18,  25  (prosperity  through  obe- 
dience). 

Ex.  xxiii.  17,  xxxiv.  23  (jnsn  ;  also  Mai.  iii.  i). 


Lev.  xxvi.  26  (the  staff  of  bread). 

Gen.  xix.  5  ('  their  sin  as  Sodom '). 

Ex.  xiii.  21,  Num.  ix.  15,  16  ('a  cloud  by  day,'  &c.). 

Deut.  xix.  14  (violent  extension  of  estates). 

„      xxviii.  39  (curse  upon  the  vineyards). 

„     xvi.  19,  Lev.  xi.x.  15  (unjust  judgment). 

„     xxviii.  49  (the  swift,  unintelligible  foe). 

Ex.  xiv.  21,  22  (the  passage  of  the  Red  Sea). 

„     XV.  2  (song  of  Moses  quoted). 

Deut.  xxxii.  30,  Lev.  xxvi.  8  ('one  thousand  at  the  re- 
buke of  one'). 

The  excgctlcal  value  of  the.se  parallels  is  too  obvious  to 
need  exhibiting.  Their  critical  significance,  however,  which 
is  sometimes  even  greater,  may  not  be  at  once  apparent. 
First  with  regard  to  Job.  I  would  not  venture  to  assert  that 
all  the  passages  quoted  involve  reminiscences  on  the  one  side 
or  the  other  ;  and  yet  in  some  cases  this  is  too  plain  to  be 
mistaken.  Thus  {a)  between  Isa.  xix.  5  and  Job  xiv.  1 1  the 
most  scrupulous  critic  must  admit  a  direct  relation  of  debtor 
and  creditor,  though  which  passage  is  the  original  is  a  ques- 
tion differently  answered.  And  (/^)  the  parallels  referred  to 
on  Isa.  xxxviii.  12,  &c.  are  held  by  one  of  our  leading  com- 
mentators {HezekialCs  authorship  of  the  Song  being-  assumed) 
to  prove  the  Solomonic  (or,  more  strictly,  the  pre-Hezekianic) 
origin  of  the  l^ook  of  Job.  Secondly,  with  regard  to  the 
Pentateuch.  The  number  of  references  to  Pentatcuchal  nar- 
ratives is  smaller  in  the  acknowledged  than  the  disputed  pro- 
phecies, and  appears  to  me  insufficient  to  justify  even  a  con- 
jecture as  to  Isaiah's  acquaintance  or  non-acquaintance  with 
that  famous  Elohistic  document,  the  date  of  which  is  so  excit- 
ing a  subject  to  motlcrn  critics.  We  cannot  even  be  sure  that 
Isaiah  refers  to  any  written  narrative  ;  his  language  may  be 
perfectly  explained  from  oral  tradition.  It  is  different,  I  think, 
with  regard  to  the  apparent  allusions  to  Deuteronomy.  The 
presumption  from  the  number  of  such  references  in  the  first 


ESSAYS.  245 

chapter  of  Isaiah  certainly  is  that  the  author  or  editor  of 
that  chapter  had  the  book,  or  a  part  of  the  book,  of  Deutero- 
nomy before  him.  But  I  must  not  allow  myself  to  wander 
too  far  from  the  exegetical  frontier  (p.  224),  and  will  only  add 
a  remark  on  the  parallels  between  Isaiah  and  Psalms  xlvi- 
xlviii.  It  has  been  conjectured  by  Hitzig  (with  whom  I  was 
formerly  inclined  to  agree)  that  the  latter  are  the  lyric  effusions 
of  the  prophet  Isaiah  on  occasion  of  the  successive  overthrows 
of  the  Syrians,  Philistines,  and  Assyrians.^  It  is,  however, 
simpler,  and  therefore  perhaps  in  this  case  safer  to  explain 
their  Isaianic  affinities  from  the  influence  of  the  prophet  upon 
contemporary  writers.  I  say  '  contemporary  writers '  advisedly  ; 
for  though,  in  deference  to  Dr.  Delitzsch,"'^  I  have  placed  these 
psalms  in  the  second  rather  than  in  the  first  class,  I  can 
entertain  no  doubt  that  they  belong  at  any  rate  to  the  age  of 
Isaiah  and  Hezekiah. 

Class  III.  includes  Nahum,  Habakkuk,  Zephaniah.  Zech.  i. 
-viii.,  xii.-xiv.,^  Ezekiel,  and  above  all,  Jeremiah,  upon  whom 
the  acknowledged  prophecies  of  Isaiah  exercised  a  most 
powerful  influence.     Compare 

Nahum  iii.  12  (simile  of  the  early  fig). 

Hab.  ii.  14  ('the  earth  full  of  the  glory  of  Jehovah  '). 

„     ii.  8  (retribution  to  the  tyrant). 
Zeph.  iii.  10  (tribute  from  beyond  Ethiopia). 
Zech.  viii.  21-23  (spiritual  honour  of  Jerusalem  and  the 
Jews). 
„    viii.  13  (Israel  a  source  of  blessing). 
„     xiii.  9  (repeated  purifications). 
Jer.  viii.  7  (irrational  creatures  wiser  than  Israel). 
„     vi.  20,  vii.  21  (formal  worship  unacceptable). 
„     ii.  21  (Israel  compared  to  a  vine). 
„     i.  (inaugurating  vision). 
„     V.  21  (judicial  blindness). 
„     xlviii.  (against  Moab). 

>  „     .\xiii.  5,  xxxiii.  1 5  (the  righteous  King). 

„     V.  15  (the  unintelligible  foe). 
Ezek.  vi.  8,  xii.  16  (the  remnant  of  Israel). 
„     vii.  18  ('on  all  their  heads  baldness'). 
„     xxix.  6,  7  (Egypt  a  '  cracked  reed  '). 

I  now  turn  to  the  parallels  between  the  acknowledged 
and  the  disputed  prophecies  of  Isaiah,  less  with  the  view  of 
furnishing  material  for  the  higher  criticism  than  of  helping 
the  reader  to  form  a  fuller  idea  of  the  literary  and  prophetic 

'   Hitzig,  Die  Psalmcn  (I^pipz.  1863),  vol.  i.  p.  xxiii.  ;  I.C.A.,  Introduction,  p.  xv. 

-  This  critic,  followed  by  Canon  Cook  in  the  Speaker's  Commentary,  places  these 
psalms  in  the  reign  of  Jehoshaphat  (comp.  2  Chron.  xx.). 

•'  Zech.  ix.-xi.  ought,  however,  in  my  opinion,  to  be  included  ;  see  above,  p.  243, 
note  '. 


Isa. 

xxviii.  4 

» 

xi.  9 

» 

x:ixiii.  i 

11 

xviii.  I,  7 

» 

ii.  3,  iv.  I 

It 

xix.  24 

11 

vi.  13 

J) 

i-  3 

» 

i.  II,  12 

»> 

v.  1-7 

>) 

vi. 

»> 

vi.  9,  10 

» 

XV.  xvi. 

1' 

xxxii.  I 

)) 

xi.  I 

)> 

xxxiii.  19 

5J 

x.  20-22 

)J 

xv.  2 

5? 

xxxvi.  6 

246 


ESSAYS. 


physiognomy  of  the  book.  For,  to  be  quite  candid,  I  do  not 
believe  that  the  existence  of  such  numerous  links  between  the 
two  portions  of  Isaiah  is  of  much  critical  moment.  There  are 
points  of  contact,  as  striking,  if  not  as  abundant,  between  Old 
Testament  books  which  no  sober  critic  will  ascribe  to  the 
same  author.  Dr.  Moody  Stuart's  remark,  questionable  even 
in  reference  to  ordinary  literature,  is  especially  so  in  its 
application  to  inspired  writers  : — '  An  assiduous  author  might 
become  the  double  of  another  by  a  skilful  repetition  of  his 
ideas.  But  he  cannot  by  any  art  fashion  himself  into  his  second 
half ;  he  cannot  engraft  his  own  conceptions  into  the  other's 
mind  by  completing  his  deepest  thoughts,  and  so  fit  them  in, 
and  fill  all  up,  as  if  only  one  thinker  had  conceived  the 
whole.''  On  the  contrary,  it  is  a  characteristic  of  the  prophetic 
literature  that,  in  the  midst  of  superficial  divergences,  there 
is  a  fundamental  affinity  between  its  various  elements.  As- 
cribe it,  as  you  please,  to  the  overruling  divine  Spirit,  or  to 
the  literary  activity  of  the  Soferim  (see  p.  228),  or  to  both 
working  in  harmony,  but  the  fact  cannot  be  denied.  We  may 
now  proceed  to  compare — 


with 


.  13,  vi.  I2,xi."| 
II,  xxii.  18,    j-  „ 
xxxix.  5-7  (.'')  J 


VI.    I 

vi.  9,  10,  xxix.  I 

vi.  II 

ix.  8 

xi.  I 

xi.  2 

xi.  6  9,  XXX.  26 

xxviii.  5 

xxviii.  I,  7,  8 
xxix.  16 
xxxii.  1 5 


Ixvi.  3  (against  formal  worship), 
li.x.  2,  3  (prayers  unanswered  through  sin). 
Ivii.  3-9  (spiritual  adultei-y). 

Ixi.  3  ('  City  of  righteousness,'  '  Oaks  of  righteous- 
ness ')• 

xlviii.    10,  lix.  20,  Ixv.  8,  9  (doctrine  of  the  'rem- 
nant '). 

ivii.  5,  Ixv.  3,  Ixvi.  17  (idolatrous  gardens). 

Ixiv.  6  (figure  of  the  fading  leaf). 

hi.  7,  Ix.  12-14  (pilgrimages  to  the  temple). 

xl.  4  (high  things  abased). 

li.  17,  lii.  I,  2,  Ix.  I  (Zion  sitting  on  the  ground). 

Ix.  21,  Ixi.  3  (Israel,  Jehovah's  planting). 

xl.-lxvi.  (captivity,  though  the  parallel  is  incomplete). 

Ivii.  15,  Ixvi.  I  (the  two  divine  thrones). 

xlii.  7,  18  20,  xliii.  8,  xliv.  18,  Ixiii.  17  (judicial  blind- 
ness). 

Ixiv.  10,  1 1  (cities  laid  waste). 

xlii.  9,  Iv.  II  (self-fulfilling  power  of  prophecy). 

liii.  2  (the  puny  Plant). 

Ixi.  I  (the  Spirit  rests  upon  the  divine  Agent). 

Ixv.  17-25,  Ixvi.  22  (future  glorification  of  nature). 

Ixii.  3  (Jehovah  a  'crown'  to  His  people;  His 
people  a  'crown'  to  Him). 

Ivi.  II,  12  (carousing  habits  of  the  rulers). 

xlv.  9,  Ixiv.  8  (the  clay  and  the  potter). 

xliv.  3,  1 1  (outpouring  of  the  Spirit). 

>   The  Old  Isaiah   (Edinb.  1880),  p.  41. 


ESSAYS.  247 

Better  proofs  than  these  can  hardly  be  required  of  the 
intimate  connection  between  I.  and  II.  Isaiah.  The  writer  of 
the  latter  prophecies  evidently  knows  the  former,  as  our 
native  idiom  finely  has  it,  '  by  heart.'  Some  readers,  however, 
may  perhaps  be  impressed  more  by  exact  verbal  correspon- 
dences, such  as  the  following  : — 

!?K1K'*  tJ'np  '  Israel's  Holy  One,'  fourteen  times  in  the  acknowledged 

prophecies  (including  x.  17),  and  fourteen  times  in  the  disputed  ones 

(including  xlix.  7).     Comp.  also  '  your  Holy  One,'  xliii.   15.     Rare 

outside  Isaiah. 
12T  '">  ^2  '  the  mouth  of  Jehovah  hath  spoken,'  i.  2,  20 ;  also   xl.    5, 

Iviii.  14.     Peculiar  to  Isaiah  (but  Mic.  iv.  4  has  'l  niN3V  '*  *Q). 
'*  ")DK^  '  saith  Jehovah'  (the  imperfect  tense),  i.  11,  18,  xxxiii.  10  ;  also 

xli.  21,  Ixvi.  9  (comp.   xl.    i,  25).     Peculiar  to  the  Book  of  Isaiah, 

Ps.  xii.  6  being  an  echo  of  Isa.  xxxiii.  10. 
Tins  '  hero,'  as  a  title  of  Jehovah  in  relation  to  his  people,  i.  24  (see 

note) ;  also  xlix.  26,  Ix.  16.     Only  parallels,  Gen.  xlix.  24,  Ps.  cxxxii. 

2,  5. 
NJJ*31  D"l  'high  and  exalted,'  ii.  13,  vi.  i  ;  also  Ivii.  15  (comp.  Hi.  13,  Ivii. 

7).     Peculiar  to  Isaiah. 
Q>Q  >^2''  'streams  of  water'  or  'water  courses,'  xxx.  25  ;  also  xliv.  4. 

Peculiar  to  Isaiah. 
My  mountains,' xiv.  25;  also  xlix.    11,  Ixv.  9.     So  Ezek.  xxxviii.   21 

(omitted  in  Fiirst's  Concordance),  and  Zech.  xiv.  5. 

It  would  be  easy  to  make  out  a  longer  list,  but  the  gain 
would,  in  my  opinion,  be  problematical.  I  am  not  a  Pro- 
fessor of  Philosophy,  and  cannot  think  that  a  valuable 
*  cumulative  argument '  is  produced  for  the  unity  of  Isaiah  by 
counting  up  words  like  nax  and  P^^x,  niX  and  ITX,  which  occur 
(how  could  they  help  occurring  ?)  in  both  parts  of  the  book  ; 
and  it  is  with  real  sorrow  that  I  notice  a  '  tutor  in  Hebrew ' 
priding  himself  on  the  discovery  that  '  i?SJ>^,and  its  participle 
or  noun,  occurs  fourteen  times  in  the  later  portion,  and  seven 
times  in  the  earlier.'^  Perhaps,  however,  the  following  data 
deserve  to  be  mentioned,  if  it  be  only  to  warn  the  student 
against  overrating  the  force  of  the  previous  instances  : — 

"1-1N  'glow'  or  'glowing  fire,'  xxxi.  19;  also  xxiv.  I5(.?),  xliv.  16,  xlvii. 
14,  1.  II.     Elsewhere  only  Ezek.  v.  2. 

D''''K  '  countries '  (specially  used  of  the  maritime  countries  of  the 
West),  xi.  11;  also  xxiv.  15  (.?),  xl.  15,  xli.  i,  and  ten  other  pas- 
sages. (But  note  the  infrequency  in  I.  Isaiah,  and  see  further 
below.) 

N"l3  '  to  create,'  iv.  5  ;  also  xl.  26,  xli.  20,  xliii.  7,  and  thirteen  other 
passages.  (But  the  infrequency  of  this  word  in  the  first  part  con- 
trasts remarkably  with  its  frequency  in  the  second.  It  is  not 
specially  Isaianic,  where  as  the  emphasison  the  divine  creatorship 
is  peculiarly  deutero-Isaianic.     See  Lasi  Words  on  iv.  5.) 

UTJ  'the  stock  of  a  tree,'  xi.  i  ;  also  xl.  24.     Elsewhere  only  Job  xiv.  8. 

nL"3  'to  dry  up,'  xix.  5  (Nifal) ;  also  xli.  17  (Kal).  Elsewhere  only 
Jer.  xviii.  14  (Nifal  ;  transposing  letters),  li.  30  (Kal). 

'  Urvvick,  T/te  Scii'aiil  of  Jehovah,  p.  37. 


24S  ESSAYS. 

D'XVNX  'offspring,'  xxii.  24  ;  also  xxxiv.  i,  xlii.  5,  xliv.  3,  xlviii.  19,  Ixi. 

9,  Ixv.  23.     Elsewhere  only  four  times  in  Job. 
inn  'chaos,'  or  'a  thing  of  nought':  a  characteristic    word  derived 

from  the  narrative    of  the   cosmogony:    xxix.    21,   also  xxiv.    10, 

xxxiv.  II,  xl.  17,  23,  and  six  other  passages.     The  same  remark 

applies  as  in  the  case  of  N^3. 
D^SlSyn   'vexatious  petulance,'  iii.   4;    also  Ixvi.  4.     Peculiar  to  this 

book.     (But  the  related  verbal  stem  is  not  uncommon.) 

To  these  we  may  add  two  phrases  :  (a)  ^^y^^  >nnj  *  the 
outcasts  of  Israel,'  xi.  12,  Ivi.  8  ;  elsewhere  only  Ps.  cxlvii.  2. 
But  the  value  of  this  correspondence  will  be  diminished  by 
comparing  xvi.  3,  4,  xxvii.  13,  Jcr.  xl.  12,  xliii.  5,  Dcut.  xxx. 
4 ;  (d)  n33*K''  ^o  '  who  can  turn  it  back '  (said  of  God's  work), 
xiv.  27  ;  also  xliii.  13  (see  note),  and  three  times  in  Job  (with  a 
different  suffix).  And,  lastly,  a  linguistic  fact  of  much  more 
importance,  viz.  the  habit  of  repeating  a  leading  word  in 
successive  clauses,  which  is  characteristic  of  both  portions 
of  the  Book  of  Isaiah.  See  i.  7,  iv.  3,  vi.  11,  xiv.  25,  xv.  8, 
xxx.  20,  xxxvii.  33,  34;  and  also  xiii.  10,  xxxiv.  9,  xl.  19, 
xlii.  15,  19,  xlviii.  21,  1.  4,  li.  13,  liii.  6,  7,  liv.  4,  13,  Iviii.  2, 
lix.  8.'  In  grammatical  parlance,  it  is  the  figure  i7rava(f)opd, 
another  variety  of  which  abounds  in  the  so-called  Stcp-psalms 
(as  the  very  name,  perhaps,  is  intended  to  indicate)  and  in  the 
Song  of  Deborah. 

It  still  remains  to  furnish  references  to  parallel  passages 
for  the  disputed  portions  of  Isaiah,  corresponding  to  those 
which  have  been  already  given  for  the  undisputed  ones.  Some 
of  these,  of  course,  will  be  originals,  some  will  involve  re- 
miniscences, while  a  few  may  perhaps  arise  from  undesigned  co- 
incidences. We  must  also  allow  for  the  bare  possibility  that,  in 
the  case  of  two  parallel  passages,  neither  one  may  be  original, 
but  both  dependent  on  some  lost  work.  It  is  specially  im- 
portant to  bear  this  in  mind  in  an  enquiry  peculiarly  liable  to 
be  impeded  by  prejudice,  that  prejudice  I  mean  which  is 
unavoidably  caused  by  the  combination  of  the  acknowledged 
and  the  disputed  prophecies  in  one  volume.  Let  me  also 
remind  the  reader  of  the  grounds  for  caution  which  I  have 
mentioned  above,  derived  from  the  phenomena  of  non-Biblical 
literatures  (p.  234).     Compare,  then — 

Isa.  xiii.  19  with  Deut.  xxix.  23,  Heb.  22  (the  'overthrow'  of  Sodom 

and  Gomorrah)  ;  but  Am.  iv.  1 1  is  a  closer 
parallel) 

„     xxiv.  18  f        „     Gen.  vii.  1 1  (' windows  opened  '  at  the  Deluge). 

„     xl.  2  „     Lev.  xxvi.  41,  43,  comp.  34  ('guilt  paid  off'). 

"    ^''-  4'  •-^''^-    \         Deut.  xxxii.  39  ('  I  am  He  '). 
(see  note)    |    "  •'^  ^  ' 

„     xliii.  13  „        „         „     ('none  that  rescueth  out  of  my  hand '). 

>  The  examples  are  t:\ki  11  from  Dclitrsch,  who  rem.-irks  that  the  list  is  not  ofTercd  as 
complete. 


ESSAYS.  249 

Isa.  xli.  8,  9       1  ^^,-i(h  Gen.  xi.  31-xii.  4  (call  of  Abraham  and  Israel). 
„     li.  2  ( 

„        Xliil.    16,  17    I  r     ,         Tl      J    O         \ 

li.  9,  10       \  „    Ex.  xiv.  21-31  (passage  of  the  Red  Sea). 

W     Ixiii.  11-13J  ..    ,-       u,      ■     \ 

„     xliii.  27  „  Gen.  XXV.  29-34,  xxvn.  (Jacob's  sms) 

xliv.  2  „  Deut.  xxxii.  15,  xxxiii.  5,  6  (Jeshurun). 

"     xlviii   19  „  Gen.  xxii.  17,  xxxii.  12  (Israel  as  the  sand). 

",     xlviii.  21  „  Ex.  xvii.  5-7,  Num.  xx.  7-13  (water  from  the  rock). 

„     1.  I  (but      1  £^  ^^i_  y  j3)gu,._  xxiv.  I  (law  of  divorce). 

see  note)    (  "  " 

li.  3  „  Gen.  ii.  8  (Eden).  .        . 

'^    lii.  4  „        „    xlvii.  4  ;  comp.  xii.  10  (Israel's  guest-right  m 

Egypt). 

Hi   12  „  E.x.  xii.  II,  51,  xiii.  21,  22  ('in  trembling  haste'; 
"        '  Jehovah  in  the  van  and  in  the  rear). 

„     liv.  9  (see  I  q^^  ^,jjj_  21,  ix.  11  (the  Deluge,  and  Jehovah's  oath), 

note)  (    "  ,     ,    ■  ,        i-  ,.    1      1  )\ 

Iviii   14  „  Deut.  xxxii.  13  ('  riding  over  the  heights  of  the  land  ). 

!'     lix.  10  „  „     xxviii.  29  ('groping  like  the blmd'). 

Ixiii  9  „  Ex.  ii.  24,  iii.  7,  xxiii.  20-23  (Jehovah's  sympathy  with 

"  Israel,  and  the  guidance  of  His  Angel). 

Ixiii    1 1  „  Deut.  xxxii.  7  ('  remembering  the  days  of  old '). 

"     Ixiii!  14  „  Ex.  xxxiii.  14,  Deut.  iii.  20,  xii.  9  ('rest'  in  Canaan). 

"     Ixv.  22  „  Deut.  xxviii.  30  (a  promise  modelled  on  a  threat). 

''     Ixv!  25  „  Gen.  iii.  14  (dust,  the  serpent's  food). 

Notice  also  the  mention  of  Sarah  (unique  outside  the  Pen- 
tateuch) in  li.  2,  of  Noah  in  liv.  9  (comp.  Ezek.  xiv.  14,  20), 
and  of  the  'shepherds'  of  Israel  (i.e.  Moses,  Aaron,  and 
perhaps  Miriam)  in  Ixiii.  11.  These  allusions  to  the  Penta- 
teuch in  the  disputed  prophecies  are  a  fact  of  some  critical 
moment  ;  not  so  much  on  account  of  their  number  (for  such 
references  arc  not  wanting  in  I.  Isaiah)  as  of  their  phraseo- 
logical exactness  and  of  their  referring  almost,  if  not  quite, 
exclusively '  either  to  Deuteronomy  or  to  the  portions  of  the 
first  four  books  of  the  Pentateuch  commonly  regarded  (by 
Uclitzsch  no  less  than  by  Knobel)  as  Jehovistic.  I  do  not 
wish  to  prejudge  the  still  open  questions  relative  to  the 
higher  criticism,  but  am  bound  to  give  some  indications  of 
the  critical  bearings  of  textual  and  exegetical  data.  A 
study  which  has  such  a  varied  outlook  on  history  as  well  as 
theology  ought  not  surely  to  be  put  aside  as  dull  and  un- 
profitable. 

The  next  group  of  parallels  which  invites  us  connects  the 
second  part  of  Isaiah  with  Job.  There  are  parallelisms,  as 
we  have  seen,  between  the  first  as  well  as  the  second  part  and 
the  Book  of  Job  ;  but  comparatively  few.  The  illustrative 
value  of  those  which  I  have  now  to  mention  is  so  great  that 

•  The  only  exceptions  which  occur  to  me  are  the  allusions  in  xl.  2  to  Ley.  xxvi.  41, 
.,  (a  passace  of  a  section  of  Leviticus-xvii.-xxvi.— which  presents  striking  resem- 
Wances  to  the  Rook  of  l-:zckicl),  and  in  liv.  9  to  Gen.  ix.  11  (Elohistic),  which  is,  how- 
ever, not  certain  (sec  my  note). 


2^0 


ESSAYS. 


be  required  to  unfold  their  significance. 

»  xxvi.  12,  13  (mythic  expressions), 
vii.  1 1  (a  '  warfare '  of  trouble), 
xii.  2  ('the  people '  =  mankind). 

xxi.  22  (God's  perfect  wisdom ;  He  has  no 
teachers). 

xii.  17-21  (God's  omnipotence  shown  in  revolu- 
tions). 

iii.  23,  xix.  7,  8,  xxvii.  2  (complaints  against  Pro- 
vidence). 

XXV.  6  (man  likened  to  a  worm). 

ix.  8.  (God  '  alone  stretched  forth  the  heavens '). 

xl.  2  (murmuring  rebuked). 

xii.  4,  5,  xvi.  ID,  xix.  18,  19,  xxx.  10  (humiliation 
and  scorn,  the  lot  of  the  righteous). 

xiii.  28  (human  frailty  ;  a  close  verbal  parallel). 

ii.  12,  Ps.  xxii.  6  a  (the  unrecognisable  form  of 
the  righteous  sufferer). 

xix.  14  (desertion  of  friends  ;  verbal  parallelism). 

xvi.  17,  vi.  29,  2'^j  xxvii.  4  ('although  he  had 
done  no  wrong,'  &c.). 

XV.  35  (pernicious  scheming  ;  a  proverbial  ex- 
pression). 

xxx.  21   (God  'turning  himself  into  an  enemy). 

xiv.  4  (none  without  sin  : — in  Job  /.c.  render, '  Oh 
for  a  clean  one  among  the  unclean  ! '). 

Next  come  the  parallelisms  of  the  Psalms,  on  which  I  need 
not  delay  long.  They  chiefly  occur  in  the  later  psalms,  the 
authors  of  which  may  be  truly  said  (as  I  have  remarked,  on 
Iii.  9,  of  the  author  of  Ps.  xcviii.)  to  have  known  II.  Isaiah 
'  by  heart.'  Canon  Elliott  has  given  a  list  of  the  most  striking 
of  these  passages,  and  it  will  be  noticed  as  a  singular  fact  that 
only  one  of  them  relates  to  the  acknowledged  prophecies  of 
Isaiah.^  This  of  course  docs  not  prove  that  the  latter  part  of 
Isaiah  was  a  work  of  recent  composition— we  know  how  long 
it  was  after  Shakspere's  death  before  his  works  received  the 
honour  of  quotation.  It  docs,  however,  show  that  these  later 
prophecies  exercised  a  special  attraction  upon  post-Exile 
writers,  which  is  a  fact  of  no  small  significance. — The  most 
interesting  parallels  in  the  earlier  psalms  are  undoubtedly 
those  in  Ps.  xxii.,  to  which  I  have  referred  already  (p.  203, 
note  3).  See  also  those  relative  to  Jehovah's  '  highway  in  the 
desert'  (note  on  xl.  3),  His  care  of  'grey-headed'  Israel  (on 

•  speaker's  Commentary,  vol.  iv.  pp.  506-512  ('  Excursus  on  Psalms  xci.-c.').  The 
solitary  parallel  alluded  to  is  that  between  Ps.  xcix.  3,  5,  9  and  Isa.  vi.  3,  by  no  means 
one  of  the  closest.  Two  parallels  are  given  for  Isa.  xii.,  but  the  Isaianic  authorship 
of  this  chapter  is  disputed  on  plausible  grounds  by  Ewald  and  Lagardc,  though  ac- 
knowledged by  most  critics. 


a  s 

eparate  essay  will 

Compare 

Isa 

.  xxvii.  I 

1 

with 

T      1 

5J 

li.  9,  10 

Jot 

» 

Xl.2 

)) 

11 

J) 

xl.  7 

i 

5> 

xlii.  5 

\ 

)> 

11 

» 

xl.  14 

>) 

11 

» 

xl.  23,  24 

\ 

11 

11 

J> 

xliv.  25 

\ 

» 

xl.  27 

\ 

11 

11 

)> 

xlix.   14 

\ 

II 

xii.   14 

11 

11 

» 

xliv.  24 

11 

11 

)> 

xlv.  9 

» 

11 

» 

1.6 

11 

11 

VI 

1.9 

11 

11 

5) 

hi.  14,  15 

\ 

11 

11 

)) 

liii.  3 

\ 

11 

liii.  3 

11 

11 

11 

liii.  9  (see 
note) 

\ 

» 

11 

J> 

lix.  4 

11 

11 

11 

Ixiii.  10 

11 

11 

11 

Ixiv.  5 

11 

11 

ESSAYS. 


251 


xlvi.  4),  '  Rahab '  (on  li.  9),  '  the  loving-kindnesses  of  David  ' 
(on  Iv.  3),  and  'the  holy  Spirit '  (on  Ixiii.  10). 

A  large  and  important  group  follows.     Compare 


Isa.  xiii.  19-22 

„     xxxiv.  14 

„     xxxiv.  6,  7 

„     xl.  5,  6 
and  pa- 
rallels 

„  xL  12,  22  1 
and  pa-  > 
rallels    J 

„     xl.  13,  14 

„  xl.  18-20 
and  pa 
rallels 

„     xliii.  5 

„     xliv.  12 

„     xlv.  9 

„     xlvi.  I 

„     xlvii.  I 

„     xlviii.  I 

,,     xlviii.  6 

„     xlviii.  20 

„     lii.   II 

„     xlix.  I 

„     li.  15 


with  Jer.  1.  39,  40  (Babylon  '  overturned '  like  Sodom  ; 
desolate,  and  haunted). 
„     xlvi.  10, 1.  27,  H.  40  (Jehovah's  '  sacrifice,'  &c.). 


}■ 


Iv.  3  (see 

note) 
Ixi.  8 
Ivi.  9 
Ivii.  20 
Iviii.  1 1 
Ixv.  7 

Lxvi.  16 


}■■ 


xii.  12,  &c.  (*  all  flesh  ;'  see  vol.  1.  p.  245,  col.  2). 


X.  12  (description  of  creation). 

xxiii.  18  (who  is  Jehovah's  counsellor  ?). 

X.  3-1 1  (Jehovah  contrasted  with  the  idol-gods, 

and  an  ironical   description   of  the 

origin  of  the  latter). 
XXX.  10,  xlvi.  27,  28  ('  my  servant  Jacob ; '  pro- 
mises of  restoration). 
xviii.  1-6  (the  symbol  of  the  potter). 
1.  2  (gods  of  Babylon  broken), 
xlviii.  18  (2  ('  sit  in  the  dust '). 
iv.  2,  V.  2  (true  and  false  swearing), 
xxxiii.  3  (see  critical  note  above). 

1.  8,  li.  6,  45  ('  Go  ye  out  of  Babylon  '). 

i.  5  (predestination). 

xxxi.  35  ('  who  stirreth  up  the  sea,'  &c. ;  a  quo- 
tation). 

xxxii.  40  ('  an  everlasting  covenant '). 

xii.  9  ('  wild  beasts,  come  to  devour '). 

xlix.  23  ('  the  sea  which  cannot  rest '). 

xxxi.  12  ('like  a  watered  garden  ). 

xvi.    18,   comp.    xxxii.    18    ('their    recompence 

first '). 
XXV.     31,     33    ('holding    judgment     with     all 
flesh,'  &c.). 


The  number  and  closeness  of  these  parallels  (as  compared 
with  those  connected  with  I.  Isaiah)  is  a  phenomenon  which 
prepares  us  for  the  still  greater  abundance  of  parallel  passages 
in  the  post-Exile  psalms.  The  fact  is  not  without  its  bearing 
on  the  '  higher  criticism.'  ^  Some  scholars  have  even  offered 
the  hypothesis  that,  where  the  parallelism  is  the  strongest  (viz. 
in  Jer.  x.,  1.,  li.),  the  text  of  Jeremiah  has  been  interpolated  by 
the  same  exiled  prophet  who,  as  they  suppose,  was  the  author 

1  On  this  subject  see,  besides  the  critical  and  exegetical  works  of  Movers,  Hitzig, 
Graf,  &c.,  Kiiper's  Jcrcmias  libroruin  sacrortim  interpres  atque  vindcx  ("Rerl.  1837),  or 
better,  the  excursus  in  pp.  274-2.71  of  his  Das  Prop/ie/cnl/uim  dcs  Altai  Bundes  (Leipz. 
1870),  and  Caspari's  'Jesaianische  Studien'  in  the  Zeitschriftfiir  lutherische  Theologie, 
1843,  pp.  1-73.  Both  these  works  discuss  the  relation  of  the  disputed  prophecies  of 
Isaiah  to  the  other  prophecies  between  Isaiah  and  the  Exile  besides  those  of  Jere- 
miah. 


252  ESSAYS. 

of  Isa.  xl.-lxvi.  This  view  (supported  by  the  eminent  names 
of  Movers  and  Hitzig)  is  too  peremptorily  rejected  by  Dean 
Payne  Smith,'  who  has  perhaps  not  given  much  thought  to 
the  complication  of  such  critical  questions.  Each  field  of 
philological  inquiry  calls  peculiar  faculties  into  exercise,  and 
our  distinguished  Syriac  lexicographer  would  be  the  last 
person  willingly  to  put  a  stigma  through  his  dogmatism  on  the 
inquiries  of  some  as  conscientious,  and  even  as  reverent,  as 
himself.  In  the  spirit  of  confraternity,  I  venture  to  protest 
against  the  irritating  and  inaccurate  statements  which  so 
repeatedly  occur  in  the  Dean's  contribution  to  the  Speakers 
Commetitary,  whenever  he  has  occasion  to  deal  incidentally 
with  questions  of  date  and  authorship.  But  I  am  not  called 
upon  to  arbitrate  between  the  contending  parties.  Suffice 
it  to  have  indicated  anew  the  variety  of  interest  attaching 
to  the  comparative  study  of  the  Hebrew  prophets. 

The  most  important  parallels  to  Ezekiel  are  suggested  by 
chaps.  Ivii.-lix.  of  Isaiah.  These  chapters,  it  will  be  remem- 
bered, stand  out  from  the  rest  of  the  '  Book  of  the  Servant ' 
by  their  striking  peculiarities  of  form  and  content.  Indeed, 
with  regard  to  chaps.  Iviii.-lix.,  the  impression  formed  by 
Ewald  ^  on  stylistic  grounds  was  so  strong  that  he  ascribed 
them  to  a  younger  contemporary  of  Ezekiel.  A  general 
impression  cannot  of  course  be  analysed  ;  but  the  following 
passages  will  at  least  establish  the  real  affinity  of  these 
chapters  with  Ezekiel : — 

Isa.  Ivi.  1-8  comp.  Ezek.  xx.  11-21  (see  above,  p.  64). 
„     Ivi.  9  „  „     xxxiv.  8,  xxxix.  4. 

»     Ivii.  7,  9  „  „     xxiii.  40,  41- 

„     Iviii.  7  ,5  ?,     xviii.  7,  16  (works  pleasing  to  God). 

,,     lix.  II  „  „     vii.  16  ('mourning  like  doves'). 

As  a  rule  the  tone  of  Ezekiel  is  too  different  from  that  of 
II.  Isaiah  to  admit  of  much  parallelism  cither  of  thought  or  of 
expression  ;  he  is  rather  a  legal  than  an  'evangelical  prophet.' 
Yet  a  few  parallels  may  be  traced.  The  description  of  Sheol 
in  Isa.  xiv.  9,  &c.,  closely  resembles  the  dirge  upon  Egypt  in 
Ezek.  xxxii.  18-32.  Isa.  xxvi.  19  may  be  illustrated  from 
Ezek.  xxxvii.  i-  10,  Isa.  li.  2  from  Ezek.  xxxiii.  24,  and  Isa. 
li.  17  from  Ezek.  xxiii.  32-34. 

The  so-called  Minor  Prophets  follow.     Compare — 

Isa.  XXVI.  19  I    j^Qg  yj  2  (Israel's  resurrection). 

(see  note)  j  ^  ' 

„     xliii.  II  „  xiii.  4  (' no  saviour  beside  me '). 

„     Ivii.  3  „  i.  2,  ii.  4  (spiritual  adultery). 

'   Speaker's  Commentary,  vol.  v.  pp.  387,  554. 

*   The  Prophets  of  the  Old  Testament,  Eng.  Transl.,  vol.  iv.  p.  253. 


ESSAYS.  253 

Isa.  Iviii.  i  Hos.  viii.  i,  Mic.  iii.  8  (a  mission  to  rebuke). 

„  xiii.  1 9  (J         Am.  iv.  11  (see  xviy Jeremiah.,  introd.  to  chap.  1.). 

„  xxvi.  21  Mic.  i.  3  (a  strong  anthropomorphism). 

„  xxiv.  23  „     iv.  7  (Jehovah  '  become  king '  in  mount  Zion). 

„  xH.  15  „     iv.  13  (Israel's  threshing-tirne  announced). 

„  Ivii.  I,  2  „     vii.  I,  2  (the  pious  have  become  extinct). 

„  xiii.  6,  9         Joel  i.  15  (a  striking  assonance  quoted). 

„  xliv.  3  „     ii.  28  (the  outpouring  of  the  Spirit). 

„  xlix.  23  „     ii.  27  ('  knowing  Jehovah,'  &;c.). 

„  Iii.  I  „     iii.  17  (Jerusalem  free  from  foreigners). 

„  xxiv.  I  Nah.  ii.  11,  A.  V.  10  (assonances). 

„  Ii.  19  „     iii.  7  (' who  condoleth  with  thee  ?'). 

„  11.  20  „     iii.  10  (a  verbal  parallelism). 

„  Hi.  I,  7  »     ii-  I)  A.  V.  i.  15  ('the feet  upon  the  mountains,'  &c.). 

„  xxxiv.  16  1 

„  xiii.  21  \  Zeph.  ii.  14  (the  desolate  city). 

„  xxxiv.  1 1  J 

„  xlvii.  8,  10        „     ii.  15  ('I  and  none  beside'). 

The  critical  importance  of  some  of  these  parallels  (viz. 
those  in  Joel,  Nahum,  and  Zephaniah)  has  no  doubt  been 
exaggerated  ;  but  no  thoughtful  person  will  disregard  them. 
They  show  how  instinctively  the  prophets  formed  as  it  were 
a  canon  of  prophetic  Scriptures  for  themselves,  and  also  how 
free  they  were  from  the  morbid  craving  for  originality.  But 
they  have  not  the  interest  of  the  parallelisms  in  some  of  the 
former  groups.' 

2. 

Enough,  I  hope,  has  been  said  to  show  the  value  of  a 
careful  examination  of  parallel  passages,  which  is  indeed  a 
great  step  towards  the  comparative  study  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment. Here  I  might  lay  down  the  pen,  were  it  not  for  certain 
peculiar  phenomena  of  the  Book  of  Isaiah,  which  the  student 
is  in  some  danger  of  overlooking.  That  Isaiah,  taken  as  a 
whole,  has  divergences  as  well  as  affinities  relatively  to  other 
books,  none  will  be  tempted  to  deny  ;  but  it  is  not  every- 
one who  has  a  clear  and  single  eye  for  discerning  linguistic 
differences  within  the  Book  of  Isaiah  itself.  The  prejudice 
of  the  unity  of  authorship  is  of  such  a  natural  growth  that 
I  seem  bound  in  fairness  to  supplement  my  list  of  parallelisms 
between  I.  and  II.  Isaiah  by  a  corresponding  conspectus  of 
the  principal  phrases  and  expressions  peculiar,  at  any  rate,  to 
the  latter  prophecies.  To  be  absolutely  complete,  it  would 
no  doubt  be  necessary  to  go  further,  and  collect  the  words 
and  formulae  found  in  the  acknowledged,  but  absent  or  rare 

1  Mr.  W.  H.  Cobb  thinks  he  has  proved  the  single  authorship  of  Isaiah  by  show- 
ing from  the  Concordance  that  the  vocabulary  of  Isaiah  xl.-lxvi.  (taken  as  a  whole) 
does  not  agree  with  that  of  the  later  prophets,  Ezekiel,  Haggai,  Zechariah,  and  Mala- 
chi  ('Two  Isaiahs  or  One,'  Bibliotheca  Sacra,  1881,  p.  230,  &c.).  But  no  one  has 
ever  identified  '  the  Great  Unnamed  '  with  any  of  these  prophets. 


2  54  ESSAYS. 

in  the  disputed  prophecies  ;  in  fact,  nothing  short  of  a 
thorough  analysis  of  the  two  parts  of  the  book  would  enable 
the  reader  to  estimate  the  state  of  the  evidence  with  mathe- 
matical precision.  Such,  however,  is  not  my  object.  I  would 
rather  allure  the  student  to  work  for  himself  with  his  Hebrew 
Bible  and  his  Concordance  on  the  lines  which  I  have  marked 
out  ;  and  should  indeed  be  somewhat  afraid  of  weakening  the 
force  of  the  more  striking  portions  of  the  evidence  by  com- 
bining them  with  those  of  less  significance.  Now,  the  most 
essential  of  the  linguistic  peculiarities  within  the  Book  of 
Isaiah  itself  are  those  which  meet  us  in  the  disputed  pro- 
phecies. The  natural  tendency  is  to  accommodate  II.  Isaiah 
to  I.  Isaiah,  volatilising  the  differences  between  them,  rather 
than  vice  versd  ;  so  that  if,  in  pursuance  of  my  object,  a 
selection  has  to  be  made,  it  will  not  appear  strange  if  I  devote 
the  remainder  of  this  Essay  to  the  peculiar  words,  phrases, 
and  forms  of  the  disputed  portion  of  the  Book  of  Isaiah. 

It  has  been  said  by  Dr.  Franz  Delitzsch  'that  though 
the  disputed  prophecies  contain  some  things  which  cannot 
be  paralleled  from  the  others,  that  which  is  characteristically 
Isaianic  predominates.'  '  Now,  I  admit  that  it  requires  great 
nicety  of  judgment  to  determine  such  a  point  ;  but  I  must 
confess  that,  after  a  careful  revision  of  the  data,  I  have  come 
to  an  opposite  conclusion.  Not  that  I  suppose  this  conclu- 
sion to  carry  with  it  the  non-Isaianic  origin  of  the  latter  pro- 
phecies. If  on  general  grounds  it  is  probable  that  Isaiah  in 
his  old  age  entered  upon  a  new  field  of  prophetic  discourse, 
it  will  appear  natural  to  suppose  that  new  forms  of  expres- 
sion should  have  met  the  promptings  of  his  intellect.  The 
occurrence  of  numerous  peculiar  phrases  and  expressions  in 
II.  Isaiah  will  only  become  a  matter  of  primary  importance, 
should  they  warrant  the  inference  that  the  author  belonged  to 
a  different  linguistic  stage  from  the  historical  Isaiah.  Two 
writers  of  the  same  period  may  conceivably  differ  very 
widely  in  the  character  of  their  diction  ;  but  it  can  hardly  be 
admitted  that  a  writer,  conspicuous  for  the  purity  of  his 
style  in  one  prophetic  book,  should  have  sunk  to  a  lower 
level  in  another,  while  soaring  higher  than  ever  in  thought 
and  imagination.  My  own  opinion  is  that  the  peculiar  ex- 
pressions of  the  latter  prophecies  are,  on  the  whole,  not  such 
as  to  necessitate  a  different  linguistic  stage  from  the  historical 
Isaiah  ;  and  that  consequently  the  decision  of  the  critical 
question  will  mainly  depend  on  other  than  phraseological 
considerations.      Whatever   may  be   said  of  the   vocabular}- 

'  Der  Prophet  Jaaia,  310  Ausg.,  p.  xxxi. 


ESSAYS.  255 

of  II.  Isaiah,  the  general  effect  of  the  style,  and  still  more  the 
character  of  the  ideas,  strike  most  readers  as  widely  different 
in  the  two  parts  of  the  Book  of  Isaiah.  But  more  of  this 
elsewhere. 

I.  Among  the  most  characteristic  expressions  of  the  latter 
prophecies  are — 

(i)  Those  descriptive  of  the  attributes  of  Jehovah,  and 
emphasising  especially  His  uniqueness,  eternity,  creatorship, 
and  predictive  power  : — 

(a)  '  I  am  Jehovah,  and  there  is  none  else  (or,  beside),' 
xlv.  5,  6,  18,  22,  xlvi.  9. 

(d)  *  The  First  and  the  Last,'  xli.  4,  xliv.  6,  xlviii.  12. 

(c)  'To  what  will  ye  liken  me  .-' '  xl.  18,  25,  xlvi.  5. 

(d)  'The  creator  of  the  heavens'  (xlii.  5,  xlv.  18),  'the 
maker  of  everything  '  (xliv.  24)  ;  comp.  xl.  22  {iiote),  xlv.  12. 

{e)  'Who  announced  (this)  from  the  beginning,' and  pa- 
rallel expressions.  See  xli.  26,  xliii.  9,  xliv.  7,  xlv.  21, 
xlviii.  14. 

(/)  '  The  arm  of  Jehovah,'  for  the  self-revealing  aspect  of 
the  Deity,  xl.  10,  and  six  other  passages  (see  on  xl.  10). 

{g)  The  use  of  '  Holy  One  '  {Qdddsh)  as  a  proper  name, 
xl.  25,  Ivii.  15,  for  which  no  doubt  a  point  of  contact  may  be 
found  in  the  characteristically  Isaianic  '  Israel's  Holy  One,' 
comp.  also  '  God,  the  Holy  One  '  {hagqddos/i,  with  the  article), 
V.  16,  but  which  may  by  some  be  regarded  as  a  later  develop- 
ment (it  is  only  found  elsewhere  in  a  prophecy  of  the  Baby- 
lonian period — Hab.  ii.  3,  and  in  writings  possibly  belonging 
to  the  age  of  the  Captivity — Job  vi.  10,  Ps.  xxii.  4). 

(2)  Equally  characteristic  is  the  ironical  language  of  II, 
Isaiah  with  regard  to  idolatry — see  xl.  19,  20,  xli.  7,  xHv.  9-17, 
xlvi.  6,  and  note  the  parallels  referred  to  in  my  note  on  the 
first-mentioned  passage.  In  the  acknowledged  prophecies 
idolatry  does  not  receive  a  large  share  of  the  prophet's  atten- 
tion, though  contemptuous  expressions,  side-thrusts  as  it  were, 
are  not  wanting  (ii.  20,  xxxi.  7). 

(3)  So,  too,  is  the  abundant  use  of  personification.  Zion, 
Jerusalem,  Israel,  constantly  appear  in  the  character  of  per- 
sons. See  on  xl.  9,  and  comp.  essay  on  '  The  Servant  of 
Jehovah.' 

II.  Passing  to  the  vocabulary,  let  me  mention  (i)  peculiar 
words,  and  (2)  peculiar  significations,  first  reminding  the 
student  that  in  order  to  estimate  the  importance  of  any  single 
instance,  he  will  have  to  consider  whether  the  word  or  the 
signification  is  strictly  peculiar  to  II.  Isaiah,'  or  whether  it 

»  Under  the  name  'II.  Isaiah'  I  include  all  the  disputed  prophecies— not  merely 
chaps,  xl.-lxvi. 


256 


ESSAYS. 


occurs  elsewhere  (though  not  in  I.  Isaiah),  and  if  so,  where 
(the  comparative  study  of  the  vocabularies  of  Job  and  II. 
Isaiah  would  be  a  real  critical  and  exegetical  service).  It 
should  also  be  borne  in  mind  that  lists  similar  to  those  which 
follow  might  be  made  out  for  I.  Isaiah.  I  have  mostly  chosen 
words  which  occur  but  once  in  chaps,  xl.-lxvi.' 


pi 

monn 

bnt 

aiT 

St 

vt 

mr 

mnn 

hm 

3in 

Dtan 

ID' 

nnD 

n-iD-i3 
D^nio 


xli.  9 
Iviii.  8 
lix.  10 

li.  7 

'to  be  impure'  (Nif.  and 

Hif.)  lix.  3,  Ixiii.  3 
Ixiii.  4 

'  to  stir  up  (strife),'  liv.   1 5 
(Piel)  li.x.  10 
xl.  22 
Ixvi.  24 
Ivi.  10 
Ixiv.  I 
xlix.  19 
Ixiii.  15 
xlviii.  21 
xlvi  6 
Ixvi.  II 
Ix.  3 
liii.  3 
liii.  3 
xl.  22 
xlviii.  9 
1.  10 
xlviii.  13 
(Hilhp.)  Ixi.  6 
Ixi.  ro 
xliii.  19,  20 
(verb  and  noun)  xlii.  3,  4, 

Ixi.  3 
(Piel)  Ixi.  10 
(Piel)  xliv.  5  ;  xlv.  4 
Ixiii.  7  (repeated,  lix.  18) 

xl.  2 
1.  I 

Ixvi.  20 
xlvii.  9,  12 
xli.  15 
liii.  9 


D*30130 
3«3D 

Dnno 

n33 
n-i3 

nVA 
bo 

PD 

n:ny 

niu 

n3:y 

D-DU 

miQ 

nys 


nipnps 


xlv.  3 

(plural)  liii.  3,  4 
(Nifal)  li.  6 
liii.  3 

.xlviii.  19 

Iviii.  7  (.?) 

Hi.  14 

xlv.  I 

Ivi.   10 

(plural)  lix.  9 

Ixvi.  5 

Ivii.  10 

(Hifil)  Hi.   15    (?);    (Kal) 

l.xiii.  3 
Lxiii.  3,  6 

xliv.  15,  17,  19  ;  xlvi.  6 

xli.  25 

xliv.  25 

(Pual)  xl.  20 

Ixiv.  5 

xlvii.  8 

1.4 

xlvii.  I 

xlix.  26 

(verb)  Ixvi.  3 

lxiii.  3 

xlii.   14 

(always  with   np  or  ]3")) 

xiv.  7  ;  xliv.  23  ;   xlix. 

13;  Hi.  9;  liv.  I  ;  Iv.  12 
Ixi.  I 
Ixv.  4 
Ixvi.  20 
Ix.  4  ;  Ixvi.  12 
xlii.  1 1 
xxiv.  1 1 
xliv.  27 


'  The  list,  which  is  not  complete,  is  based  upon  the  invaluable  Zusamtnfnslellung 
at  the  end  ofNacgcibbach's  Jesaiu. 


ESSAYS. 

257 

O'i 

Iviii.  3,  4 

"int?' 

xlvii.  II 

nyv 

li.  14  ;  Ixiii.  i 

tr^^K' 

xl.  12 

nynp 

li.  17,  22 

flViJ' 

liv.  8 

Tl-I 

xlv.  I 

n:nn 

xl.  14  (plur.),  28  ;  xliv 

DD-I 

(plural)  xl.  4 

19  (sing.) 

up-i 

(Piel  denommat) 

xl 

19 

nonn 

xl.  20 

To  these  may  be  added  the  following  peculiar  forms  : — 

(a)  1^?  (for  yp)  xliv.  15,  liii.  8.    (If,  however,  my  view  is  correct,  there 

is  an  analogy  for  this  in  viii.  15,  on  which  see  crit.  note,  p.  141.) 

(d)  '•nix  for  ''^^^^  liv.  15      1   No  doubt  Aramaisms.    The  same  usage 

(«^)  DniX  for  DriX  Hx.  21    I        is  found  in    i  and  2   Kings,  Jeremiah 

and  Ezeziel.   It  also  occurs,  however,  in 
Josh.  xiv.  12  (perhaps  Gen.  xxxiv.  2), 
where,  as  here,  it  may  possibly  be  due  to 
a  later  editor. 
(<■/)  ''ri^XiX  for  •'riSxJn  Ixiii.  3.     An  Aramaism. 
(<?)  fXiap  Hi.  5.     Hithpoal  (with  n  assimilated). 
(/)    iPv  li'i-  lo-     Hif  from  Hpn  (Aramaising),  or  from  X^n,  another 
form  of  n'pn  (2  Chron.  xvi.  12),  with  the  final  X  omitted  before 
the  initial  X  of  the  next  word  :  for  parallel  cases,  see  2  Kings 
xiii.  6,  Jer.  xxxii.  35.  So  Olshausen,  Lehrbuch^  §  255/,  followed 
by  Klostermann  and  Delitzsch  (ed.  3). 
{g)  •IPNJJ  lix.  3.     The  form  reminds  one  of  the  Rabbinic  Nithpael  ; 
see,  however,  crit.  note  above,  p.  159. 

2.  Words  used  with  a  peculiar  shade  of  meaning.     (Not  a 
complete  list.) 

(«)  "linx  '  future  time '  ;  xli.  23,  xlii.  23. 

ip)  D^''X  'maritime  lands  of  the  west'  ;  xlii.   15  (see  note),  and  other 

passages. 
{c)  "ina  '  to  test'  for  jn3,  as  in  Aramaic  ;  xlviii.  10. 
{A)  T'Jn  'to  declare '  =  ' to  prophesy'  ;  xliii.  12,  xliv.  8,  xlviii.  3. 
if)  Dyn  '  the  people  '  = '  mankind  '  ;  xl.  7,  xlii.  5,  comp.  xliv.  7. 
(y )  VJin  '  to  fix  '  or  '  found ' ;  li.  4. 
(.^)  |*Sn  'business,'  Iviii.  3,  13  (as  in  Ecclesiastes). 
ill)  in"*  'abundance,'  used  adverbially  for  'exceedingly,'  Ivi.  12. 
(z)  Mitpj^  '  interpreter '  =  '  prophet,'  xliii.  27. 
{k)  pDQ  '  impoverished,'  xl.  20. 
(/)  tSSt^'O  '  ordinance  '  or  '  law,'  used  technically  for  (the  true)  religion 

in  its  practical  aspect ;  xlii.  i,  3,  4,  li.  4. 
{in)  pnv  '  true'  ;  xli.  26,  comp.  lix.  4. 
(«)  pTV  '  righteousness '  =  ' success  '  (God's  justification  of  His  people 

before  the  world)  ;   xlv.  8,  24,  xlvi.  13,  li.  5,  6,  8,  Ivi.  i,  lix.  17 

Ixi.  10,  I  i,lxii.  I. 
ip)  Sip  'to  call' =  ' to  prophesy' ;  xl.  2,  xliv.  7,  Iviii.  i,  comp.  Ixi.  i,  2. 

Looking  back  upon  the  preceding  lists,  it  is  obvious  that 
VOL.    II.  S 


258  ESSAYS. 

there  is  not  only  a  large  genuine!}'   Hebrew  clement  peculiar 
to   II.  Isaiah,  but  also  a  certain  Aramaising  tendency.     In 
l)X)   *  to  be  impure  '  we  notice  an  Aramaic  weakening  of  v 
into  K  (comp.  ^yj  '  to  reject ').      ^^}  '  to  grope,'   is  suggested 
by  the  Aramaic  ^as/i '  palpavit' ;  the  genuine  Hebrew  synonym 
is    t'UV    (Dcut.    xxviii.   29,    Job  v.   14).       ")p'    'exceedingly,' 
reminds    one  of  Aram.  "I'Jii: ;  y^n  '  busin3ss '  (a  sense   which 
can    hardly   be  avoided    in   Iviii.    3,    13)  of  g'd/ifi  'business,' 
in    Syriac,    from    cdM   '  to    desire,'   and  tihiil^  '  a    matter,'  in 
Chaldee,    from  h^^  '  to  ask.'     ^3D  '  to   worship '  (which    only 
occurs  in  II.  Isaiah)  is  the  Syriac  s'^cd,  Chald.  s'^^ic/,  though 
the    use   of  the    Hebrew    word    is    more   limited    than  that 
of   the    Aramaic,  IJD  being  only  used  of  idolatry  («lt^'3  and 
other  similar  technical  words  of  Aramaic  origin  are  limited 
in  the  same  way).     n33  '  to  give  an  honourable  surname  to ' 
(peculiar  to  II.  Isaiah  and  Job),  though  it  has  both  Aramaic 
and  Arabic  affinities,  is  yet  most  probably  suggested  by  the 
Aramaic.  D^3JD,  '  viceroys,'  the   Hebraised  form   of  an   Assy- 
rian and  Babylonian  word  (see  note,  p.  153),  doubtless  came 
to  the  Jews  through  the  Chaldee  s'gan,  plur.  signin  (Dan.  ii. 
48,  Sic).    Add  to  these  the  harsh  idiom  in  xxvi.  11  (see  note), 
which  would  lose  its  harshness  in  an  Aramaic  sentence  ;  and 
the  phrase  'all  nations  and  tongues'  (Ixvi.  18),  which  reminds 
us  of  a  well-known  expression  in  the  Chaldee  portions  of  the 
Book  of  Daniel  (see  note,  p.  129).     If  the  Massoretic  text 
were  correct  in  xiv.  4,  we  should   also   include  the  singular 
form  nsn-ii^,   '  exactrcss  of  gold  '  (Auth.   Vers.,  margin),  from 
Chald.  nn"^   Hebr.  nnr   'gold.'     And    yet,  when  all  has  been 
said,   most  will  probably  admit  with   Dr.  S.  Davidson  '  that 
'  the  diction  of  the  second  part  of  Isaiah  is  tolerably  pure  and 
free  from  Chaldaisms.'     Sporadic  Chaldaisms  are  in  fact  no 
novelty  in  Hebrew  literature,  and  with  our  very  conjectural 
knowledge  of  the  phases  of  the  Hebrew   language,  and   the 
process  of  the  final  editing  of  the  Hebrew  Scriptures,  it  seems 
rash  to  trust  to  them  as  a  decisive  criterion  of  language.    Cer- 
tainly the  case  for  the  antiquity  of  II.  Isaiah,  on  the  linguistic 
side,  is  more  favourable  than  for  that  of  the  Book  of  Job,  and 
almost  infinitely  more  so  than  for  that  of  Ecclcsiastes.     We 
must  not,  indeed,  build  too  much  on  this  comparative  purity  of 
diction  ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  we  must  not  fail  to  recognise  it. 

'  Introduction  to  the  Old  Testament,  ii.  54. 


ESSAYS.  259 


IX.    JOB    AND   THE   SECOND   PART   OF   ISAIAH  : 
A   PARALLEL. 

I. 

If  it  is  no  easy  task  in  the  case  of  parallel  passages  to  dis- 
tini^uish  the  original  from  the  imitation,  how  much  more 
difficult  must  it  be  in  the  case  oi  parallel  books  \  This  reflec- 
tion forms  the  link  between  the  present  and  the  preceding 
essay.  The  allusion,  I  need  hardly  tell  the  reader,  is  on  the 
one  hand  to  the  '  Book  of  the  Servant  of  Jehovah,'  and  on  the 
other  to  the  twenty-second  Psalm  and  the  Book  of  Job.  It 
is  not  my  object,  however,  to  discuss  the  literary  relation  be- 
tween these  books,  but  rather  to  show  by  a  few  details  that 
the  parallelism  actually  exists.  Nothing,  perhaps,  is  more 
helpful  to  a  right  appreciation  of  books  than  to  compare  those 
which  amidst  some  divergences  have  a  real  and  predominant 
affinity.  The  twenty-second  Psalm,  short  as  it  is,  embodies 
the  essence  of  some  of  the  most  striking  passages  of  the 
'  Book  of  the  Servant,'  but  I  must  content  myself  with  the 
brief  enforcement  of  this  view  in  a  previous  essay  (pp.  203-4). 
The  Book  of  Job  claims  a  fuller  treatment,  not  with  regard 
to  its  literary  aspects,  however  tempting  these  may  be, '  but 
to  the  fundamental  parallelism  of  thought  between  it  and 
II.  Isaiah. 

The  common  view  that  the  hero  of  the  poem  of  Job  is 
simply  an  individual  must,  it  is  clear,  be  abandoned.  I  do 
not  know  whether  Chateaubriand's  views  on  Biblical  subjects 
are  original,  or  whether  he  drew  from  some  Catholic  theo- 
logian ;  but  his  comment  on  the  speeches  of  Job  is  too 
strikingly  true  to  be  withheld.  He  says,  '  II  y  a  dans  la  m^- 
lancolie  de  Job  quelque  chose  de  surnaturel.  L'homme  i7idi- 
vidiiel,  si  malheureux  qu'il  puisse  etre,  ne  peut  tirer  de  pareils 
soupirs  de  son  ame.  Job  est  la  figure  de  r/uDuanitc  soiif- 
fj-ante,  et  I'ecrivain  inspire  a  trouvedes  soupirs,  pour  cxprimcr 
tous  les  maux  partag^s  entre  la  race  humaine.'^'  This  is,  in 
fact,  the  thesis  which  the  following  pages  are  to  defend,  though 
not  without  giving  the  fullest  weight  to  the  elements  of  the 
poem  which  compel  us  to  regard  the  hero  as  an  individual. 

'  I  have  touched  upon  these  in  a  paper  called  '  The  Rook  of  Job  ;  a  Literary  and 
Biographical  Study,'  in  Eraser's  Magazine,  July  i8So,  pp.  126-134.  The  parallelism 
between  job  and  the  Introduction  to  Proverbs  lias  but  little  corresponding  to  it  in  TI. 
Isaiah,  the  influence  of  proverbial  wisdom  upon  the  latter  being  comparatively  flight. 
The  range  both  of  thought  and  expression  in  tl.e  Book  of  Job  is  wider  than  that  in 
II.  Isaiah. 

*  Ghiie  du  christianismc  (Paris  1802),  ii.  305. 


26o  ESSAYS. 

The  truth  is  that  Job  is  at  once  an  individual  and  a  type  : 
need  I  remark  how  interesting  a  parallel  is  suggested  with 
the  Servant  of  Jehovah? 

But  I  must  first  of  all  invite  the  reader  to  accompany  me 
in  a  brief  preliminary  survey.  I  leave  the  Prologue  for  the 
present  out  of  the  question,  and  turn  at  once  to  the  speeches, 
which,  indeed,  are  capable  of  standing  independently  of  both 
Prologue  and  Epilogue.  An  analysis  would  occupy  us  too 
long  ;  I  will  only  point  to  the  continually  recurring  passages 
in  which  the  sufferings  of  Job  are  spoken  of  in  terms  hardly 
suitable  to  an  individual.  Sometimes,  for  instance,  we  are 
startled  at  the  ejaculation. 

My  days  are  swifter  than  a  runner, 

They  have  fled  away  without  having  seen  prosperity  (ix.  25), 

although  we  have  learned  from  the  Prologue  that  '  this  man 
was  the  greatest  of  all  the  sons  of  the  east '  (i.  3)  ;  and  then 
by  still  more  excessive  complaints,  in  which  Job's  Oriental 
sense  of  dignity  seems  to  vanish  altogether,  and  which  must 
sound  strangely  enough  to  those  who  have  watched  in  real 
life  the  calm  heroism  of  great  sufferers  — 

O  that  my  vexation  were  duly  weighed, 
And  my  calamity  lifted  with  it  into  balances  ! 
For  it  would  then  be  heavier  than  sand  of  seas  ; 
Therefore  have  my  words  been  rash  (vi.  2,  3). 

How  surprising  it  is  again,  when  Job  falls  to  meditating  on 
the  hardships  of  humanity — 

Has  not  frail  man  a  hard  service  upon  earth. 

And  are  not  his  days  like  the  days  of  a  hireling.?  (vii.  i). 

One  would  have  thought  that  it  would  be  some  comfort  to 
the  sufferer,  that  he  was  not  worse  off  than  the  rest  of  his 
kind  !  But  no  ;  it  docs  but  open  the  floodgates  of  lamenta- 
tion— 

Like  a  slave,  who  panteth  for  shade. 
And  like  a  hireling  who  waiteth  for  his  recompence. 
So  am  I  made  to  possess  months  of  disappointment, 
And  troublous  nights  have  been  allotted  to  me  (vii.  2,  3). 

And  again,  after  the  pathetic  reflection, 

Man,  born  of  woman, 

Short  of  days  and  full  of  unrest, 

Cometh  forth  like  a  flower,  and  is  cut  down, 

Fleeth  like  a  shadow  and  stayeth  not  (xiv.  1,  2), 

how  liard  it  is,  on  the  ordinar)-  hj'pothcsis,  to  accotmt  for  the 


ESSAYS.  261 

(apparent)  invasion  of  self-consciousness  in  the  second  line  of 
the  next  verse, 

Yet  upon  him  dost  thou  keep  open  thine  eyes, 

And  me  dost  thou  bring  into  judgment  with  thee  (xiv.  3)  ! 

Equally  strange  phenomena  are  the  political  and  social 
digressions  in  which  Job  repeatedly  indulges.  The  changes 
of  empires,  the  violence  of  tyrants,  and  their  immunity  (not 
universal,  however,  as  Job  virtually  admits  in  chap,  xxvii.) 
from  punishment,  the  hardships  of  slavery  and  poverty,  the 
calamities  of  war,  pestilence,  famine,  and  wild  beasts,  are 
mingled  inextricably  with  the  personal  theme  of  his  unmerited 
sufferings. 

It  is  strange,  no  doubt  ;  but  Job  himself  seems  to  give  us 
the  clue  to  the  mystery,  when  he  and  his  friends  unexpectedly 
fall  into  language  implying  that  he  is  not  an  individual,  but  a 
plurality  of  persons.  '  For  me  the  graves  '  (Job  ;  xvii.  i).  '  How 
long  will  ye  hunt  for  words,'  '  Wherefore  are  we  .  .  .  held  un- 
clean in  your  sight '  (Bildad  ;  xviii.  2,  3).  '  He  countcth  me 
as  his  adversaries  ''  (Job  ;  xix.  ir).  Perhaps  I  might  add,  in 
illustration,  xvi.  10  and  xxvii.  11,  12,  where  Job  addresses 
his  friends  as  if  they  were  the  assembled  multitude  of '  wise 
men.'  Certainly,  I  can  see  no  other  explanation  of  those 
apparently  hyperbolical  complaints,  that  strange  invasion  of 
self-consciousness,  and  that  no  less  strange  '  enthusiasm  of 
humanity,'  of  which  I  have  spoken  above,  than  the  view  ex- 
pressed or  implied  by  Chateaubriand,  that  Job  is  a  type  of 
righteous  men  in  affliction — not  merely  in  the  land  of  Uz,  nor 
among  the  Jews  in  Babylonia,^  nor  yet,  on  Warburton's  theory 
of  the  poem,  in  the  Judaea  of  the  time  of  Nehemiah,  but  wher- 
ever on  the  wide  earth  tears  are  shed  and  hearts  are  broken. 
Not  that  Job  ceases  to  be  an  individual  ;  it  is  evident,  not 
merely  from  the  Prologue,  but  from  Ezek.  xiv.  14,  20,  that 
there  was  an  ancient  tradition  of  a  Hebrew  king  Priam,  whose 
name  had  become  a  symbol  of  immeasurable  woe.  That 
Job  is  a  type  no  more  destroys  his  claim  to  be  an  individual 
than  the  typical  character  of  Dante  in  his  pilgrimage  and  of 
Faust  in  Goethe's  great  poem  annuls  the  historical  element  in 
these  two  poetical  figures.  Job,  in  fact,  if  I  read  him  aright, 
is  '  not  merely  a  patriarch  in  the  already  remote  youth  of  the 
world,  but  the  idealised  portrait  of  the  author  himself.' ^  The 
sacred    poet,    we    may    reverently   conjecture,  was    prepared 

•  See,  howevi-r,  above,  p.  25  (foot  of  col.  2). 

*  See  on  xl.  12  (vol.  i.  p.  247]. 

'  The  passages  within  inverted  commas  are  quoted   from  the  paper  in  Fraser't 
Afog i3iif!r,  referred  to  above. 


262  ESSAYS. 

by  providential  discipline  for  his  appointed  work.  '  In  the 
rhythmic  swell  of  Job's  passionate  complaints,  there  is  an 
echo  of  the  heart-beats  of  a  great  poet  and  a  great  sufferer. 
The  cry,  "  Perish  the  day  in  which  I  was  born  "  (iii.  3),  is  a 
true  expression  of  the  first  effects  of  some  unrecorded  sorrow. 
In  the  lifelike  description  beginning  "  Oh  that  I  were  as  in 
months  of  old  "  (xxix.  2),  the  writer  is  thinking  probably  of 
his  own  happier  days,  before  misfortune  overtook  him.  Like 
Job  (xxix.  7,  21-25),  he  had  sat  in  the  "  broad  place  "  by  the 
gate,  and  solved  the  doubts  of  perplexed  clients.  Like  Job, 
he  had  maintained  his  position  triumphantly  against  other 
wise  men.  He  had  a  fellow-feeling  with  Job  in  the  distress- 
ful passage  through  doubt  to  faith.  Like  Job  (xxi.  16),  he 
had  resisted  the  suggestion  of  practical  atheism,  and  with  the 
confession  of  his  error  (xlii.  2-6)  had  recovered  spiritual  peace.' 
All  this  is  credible,  and  more  than  credible,  if  we  remember 
that  mere  artistic  creations  are  not  in  harmony  with  the  old 
Semitic  mind — that  personal  experience  is  the  basis  of  the 
Biblical  Hebrew  as  well  as  of  the  old  Arabian  poetry.  This 
is  not,  however,  the  only  channel  by  which  the  author's  subjec- 
tivism has  impressed  itself  on  the  traditional  story.  '  There 
is  yet  another  aspect  to  the  personality  of  the  author  of  "  Job  " 
— his  open  eye  and  ear  for  the  sights  and  lessons  of  external 
nature.  He  might  have  said  with  a  better  right  than  Goethe, 
"  What  I  have  not  gained  by  learning,  I  have  by  travel."  • 
He  is  such  a  one  as  Sirach  describes  (Ecclus.  xxxix.  4),  "  He 
will  travel  through  strange  countries,  for  he  hath  tried  the 
good  and  the  evil  among  men."  From  a  wide  observation 
of  nature  he  derived  the  magnificent  scenery — scenery,  how- 
ever, which  is  more  than  scenery,  for  it  furnishes  important 
elements  of  his  sacred  philosophy.  Not  that  the  imagination 
is  allowed  to  be  inactive.  .  .  .  For  the  full  and  free  considera- 
tion of  his  subject,  he  felt  that  he  required  an  absolutely  clear 
medium,  disengaged  from  the  associations  even  of  the  true, 
the  revealed  religion.  (Is  he  not  in  this  point  a  warrant  for 
the  *'  apologetic  "  treatment  to  which  we,  like  the  author  of 
"Job,"  though  in  other  forms,  are  obliged  to  subject  our  re- 
ligion ?)  With  a  poet's  tact,  and  with  a  true  sympathy  for 
doubters,  he  created  an  ideal  medium,  in  which  hardly  any- 
thing Israclitish  is  visible.  The  elements  which  he  fused 
together  came  from  the  three  countries  with  which  he  seems 
to  have  been  best  acquainted  — Arabia,  Judah,  Egypt.  From 
Arabia  he  takes  the  position  which  he  assigns  to  Jf)b,  of  a 
great  agriculturist-chieftain.     The   stars  of  the  Aiabian  sky 

'   '  Was  ich  nicht  crlcrnt  habe,  das  hal)'  ich  ervvamlert.' 


ESSAYS.  263 

must  have  deepened  his  unmistakable  interest  in  astronomy 
(ix.  9,  xxxviii.  31-33).  Personal  knowledge  of  caravan  life 
seems  to  have  suggested  that  most  touching  figure,  which 
our  own  Thomson  has  so  finely,  though  so  inaccurately,  para- 
phrased '  (vi.  1 5-20).  And  the  same  desert  regions  doubtless 
inspired  those  splendid  descriptions  of  the  wild  goat,  the  wild 
ass,  and  the  horse  (chap,  xxxix.)  which  extorted  a  tribute  of 
admiration  from  the  traveller  Humboldt.  But  neither  agri- 
cultural life  alone,  nor  the  phenomena  of  the  desert,  have  fur- 
nished him  with  sufficient  poetic  material.  He  who  would 
"  rise  to  the  height  of  this  great  argument "  must  have  gained 
his  experience  of  life  on  a  more  extensive  and  changeful 
theatre.  From  Judah,  then,  the  poet  borrows  his  picture  of 
city-life,  which  presupposes  a  complex  social  organism,  with 
kings,  priests,  judges,  physicians,  authors,  and  wise  men.  This 
description  of  the  sessions  of  Job  in  the  gate  (chap,  xxix.)  is 
distinctly  Judeean  in  character.  It  was  the  Nile-valley,  how- 
ever, which  supplied  the  most  vivid  colours  to  his  palette. 
He  is  acquainted  with  the  Nile  and  its  papyrus-boats  (ix.  26), 
with  the  plants  which  grow  on  its  bank  (viii.  11,  xl.  21),  and 
with  the  habits  of  the  two  wonderful  animals  which  frequent 
its  shores  (xl.  1 5-xli.  34).  He  is  no  less  familiar  with  mining 
operations  (xxviii.  i-ii),  such  as  were  practised  since  the 
earliest  times  by  the  Egyptians.  But  the  author  of  "  Job  " 
is  no  mere  observer  of  details.  Phenomena  are  in  his  eyes 
but  manifestations  of  the  perfect  and  all-ruling  but  incompre- 
hensible wisdom  of  God.'  No  contrast  can  be  greater  than 
that  of  the  over-taught,  sophisticated  modern,  who  exclaims 
with  Leopardi, 

.     .     .     conosciuto  il  mondo 
Non  cresce,  anzi  si  scema, 

and  the  author  of  'Job,'  who  beholds  the  universe  with  an 
eye  quickened  by  the  thought  of  God.  In  him,  the  fountain 
of  admiration  has  not  been  dried  up  by  an  ill-assimilated 
science.  '  Orion  and  the  Pleiades  above,  the  forests  and  the 
torrents  below  .  .  .  the  neck  of  the  war-horse,  the  scales  of 
Leviathan,  are  marvels  in  hisi  eyes.— the  speaking  fragments 
of  an  almighty  life  behind.!  Erom  usy  the- wonder  of  these 
things  is  gone.'  ^  But  the  more  we  live  ourselves  into  the 
Biblical  literature,  especially  into  the  inspired  and  inspiring 
p.oem  of  '  Job,'  the  more  the  wonder  comes  back  to  us.  '  My 
Father  made  them  all.' 

1  In  Cairo's  crowded  streets 

The  impatient  merchant,  wondering,  waits  in  vain, 

And  Mecca  saddens  at  the  long  delay. 

(Summer,  980-2  ;  of  tho  caravan  which  perished  in  the  storm.) 
'  James  Martineau,  Hour^  cf  .I'/ioughl,  first  series,  p.  31. 


264  ESSAYS. 

The  infinite  wisdom  of  God — this  is  one  of  the  sacred 
poet's  two  solutions  (or  substitutes  for  solutions)  of  the  pro- 
blem before  him,  How  are  the  sufferings  of  Job  to  be  recon- 
ciled with  the  Divine  justice  ?  The  other  is  embodied  in  the 
I-Ipilogue,  which  seems  to  have  been  appended  by  an  after- 
thouj^ht,  either  by  the  poet  himself  or  by  one  of  the  Soferim 
or  Scripturists.  It  is  this,  that  Job,  after  passing  victoriously 
through  his  trial,  was  restored  to  twice  his  former  prosperity. 
The  two  solutions  are  seemingly  inconsistent :  but  are  not  so 
in  reality.  The  one  applies  to  the  case  of  Job  both  as  an 
individual  and  as  a  type  ;  the  other  only  as  a  t)'pc.  The 
sufferings  of  any  innocent  individual  could  not,  at  that  early 
stage  of  revelation,  be  accounted  for  ;  God  is  All-wise,  was 
the  only  thought  which  could  quiet  the  troubled  mind.  The 
same  truth  had,  no  doubt,  its  bearing  on  the  sufferings  of  the 
innocent  as  a  class  ;  but  there  was  also  another  still  more 
comforting  thought  in  reserve,  viz.  that  they  would  yet  receive 
compensation  ;  they  would  '  inherit  the  earth  ; '  there  would 
be,  in  Christian  language,  a  millennium.  Now  let  us  turn  to 
the  Book  of  the  Servant.  The  people  whom  the  prophet 
addresses  (whether  as  a  contemporary  or  across  the  centuries, 
we  need  not  here  enquire)  are  preoccupied  by  the  thought, 
Why  is  redemption  so  slow  in  coming  ?  And  the  answer  is, 
Because  of  your  sins,  especially  your  unbelief.  Only  a 
righteous  people  can  be  delivered  ;  a  people  which  trusts  its 
God  implicitly,  and  dev'Otes  itself  to  carrying  out  His  high 
purposes.  But  how  faint  and  dim  the  prospect  of  the  people's 
ever  becoming  righteous  !  Hence  (not  to  repeat  my  former 
explanations)  the  inner  necessity  for  a  special  Divine  interpo- 
sition. A  divine-human  representative  must  appear,  and  at 
once  atone  for  the  breach  of  the  covenant,  and  '  make  the  many 
righteous.'  And  so  the  Ser\ant,  like  another  Job,  aj)pcars  on 
the  stage,  and  suffers  more  than  even  Job  suffered,  and  through 
his  suffering  wins  the  reward  of  eternal  life  for  all  who  become 
his  spiritual  children.  The  sufferings  of  the  Servant  are  those 
of  an  individual,  but  they  are  also  those  of  the  representative 
of  a  class  ;  his  reward,  too,  is  not  merely  that  of  an  indivi- 
dual, but  inu'chascd  for  a  great  company.  This  is,  in  brief, 
the  parallelism  between  the  liook  of  Job  and  of  the  Servant 
of  Jehovah. 


Let  me  now  briefly  indicate  some  of  the  points  of  detail 
in  which  this  affniity  can  be  traced. 

!.  Botii  Job  and  the  Terson  in  whom  the  predictions  of 
II.  Isaiah  culminate  are  Jehovah's  righteous  servants.     '  Hast 


ESSAYS.  265 

thou  considered  my  servant  Job,  that  there  is  none  like  him 
in  the  earth,  a  blameless  and  an  upright  man,  one  that  feareth 
God  and  escheweth  evil?'  (Job  i.  8).  'The  righteous  one, 
my  servant '  (Isa.  liii.  9).  Job  has,  indeed,  a  fault,  but  it  only 
appears  in  the  course  of  his  trial — he  misinterprets  the  All- 
wise  Creator. 

2.  Both  in  the  Prologue  and  in  the  body  of  the  poem  Job 
is  represented  as  a  leper  (ii.  7,  vii.  5,  15,  &c.).  The  sufferings 
of  the  Servant  in  II.  Isaiah  are  also  described  in  language 
suggestive  of  this  fell  disease  (see  on  liii.  3,  4).  The  leprosy  of 
the  Servant  is  doubtless  typical  ;  but  so  also  is  that  of  Job,  if 
at  least  we  have  been  right  in  regarding  Job  as  at  once  an 
individual  and  a  type.  It  is,  moreover,  worth  noticing  that, 
in  the  pictures  drawn  by  Job's  friend  of  the  prosperity  to 
which  he  would  be  restored  upon  his  repentance,  and  in  the 
narrative  of  the  Epilogue,  no  allusion  is  made  to  his  recovery 
from  leprosy.  (See  v.  17-26,  viii.  5-7,  20-22,  xi.  13-20,  xxii.  21- 
30,  xlii.  7-17.)  May  we  not  infer  that  the  leprosy  of  Job  was 
in  its  highest  meaning  only  one  form  of  expression  among 
others  for  the  manifold  misery  of  '  the  woman-born  '  ? 

3.  The  hcrror  with  which  Job's  appearance  fills  his  friends 
reminds  one  strongly  of  the  similar  effect  of  the  disfigured 
form  of  the  Servant  (see  parallel  passages  in  preceding  essay). 

4.  The  mockery  and  desertion  by  his  friends  of  which 
Job  complains  find  a  close  parallel  in  the  experience  of  the 
Servant  (see  parallel  passages). 

5.  Job  is  restored  to  more  than  his  former  prosperity  ; 
'  Jehovah  gave  Job  twice  as  much  as  he  had  before '  (xlii.  10). 
The  Servant  passes  through  trial  to  a  glorious  reward  (liii.  12), 
and  the  faithful  remnant  of  Israel,  which  is  mystically  united 
to  Him,  receives  '  double  instead  of  its  shame '  (Ixi.  7). 

6.  So  near  does  Job  stand  to  his  God  that  he  can  inter- 
cede effectually  for  his  guilty  friends  (xlii.  8,  10).  Of  the 
Servant  the  same  is  told  us  (liii.  12).  We  must  not  dilute 
the  parallelism,  but  neither  must  we  exaggerate  it.  l^'or  the 
Servant  '  makes  intercession  for  the  rebellious,'  z.e.,  for  the 
breakers  of  the  covenant,  who  had  committed  the  'sin  unto 
death,'  for  which  none  but  a  Divine  intercessor  is  allowed  to 
pray  (i  John  v.  16). 

7.  Last  of  all  (for  I  will  leave  some  parallels  for  the  stu- 
dent to  glean),  let  me  mention  the  obvious  correspondence 
between  the  happy  immortality  anticipated  b)'  Job  (xix.  25- 
27)  and  the  triumphant  life  after  death  of  the  Servant  of 
Jehovah  (Isa.  liii.  10-12). 

It  will  be  admitted  that  these  are  strong  points  of  re- 
semblance between  the  Books  of  Job  and  of  II.   Isaiah,  and 


2  66  ESSAYS. 

especially  between  the  portraits  of  the  patriarch  and  of  the 
Servant.  Some,  indeed,  as  a  learned  Jewish  Rabbinist '  in- 
forms us,  have  been  so  impressed  by  them  as  even  to  identify 
these  two  personages.  But  if  we  will  only  look  closely  at  the 
portraiture,  there  are  equally  strong  elements  of  contrast. 
That  luxuriant  growth  of  imaginative  ornament  which  twines 
around  the  Book  of  the  Patriarch  has  but  a  slender  counter- 
part in  the  Book  of  the  Servant.  The  author  of  the  latter 
never  forgets  that  he  is  a  prophet,  and  though  he  does  not 
literally  address  the  people  in  the  market-place,  his  style  is 
chiefly  modelled  on  that  of  the  spoken  prophecies.  He  does 
not,  indeed,  refuse  a  large  literary  and,  as  one  may  say,  poetical 
element  ;  ^  writing  in  private,  without  any  view  to  oral  delivery, 
he  could  not  wholly  exclude  the  graces  of  literature  ;  but 
there  are  times  when,  as  in  chap.  Iviii.  1-7,^  the  reproduction 
of  the  true  prophetic  style  is  so  complete  that  we  could  be- 
lieve ourselves  standing  in  the  crowd  gathered  round  a  pro- 
phetic orator. — Another  consequence  of  his  prophetic  character 
which  equally  distinguishes  him  from  the  poet  of  '  Job '  is 
his  studious  self-concealment.  True,  he  does  apparently  refer 
to  himself  on  four  occasions  (xl.  6,  xliv.  26,  xlviii.  16,  Ivii.  21), 
whereas  the  Book  of  Job  contains  no  direct  allusion  to  the 
author  ;  but  the  four  references  to  himself  are  in  no  sense 
autobiographical,  while  the  Book  of  Job  is  so  eloquent  in  its 
seeming  silence  that  we  can  venture  to  read  '  between  the 
lines '  the  life  of  the  author  himself.  Whether  the  prophetic 
writer  of  II.  Isaiah  had  passed  through  such  great  deeps  of 
spiritual  experience  as  the  author  of  '  Job,'  whether  he  took 
as  wide  an  interest  in  nature  and  in  man,  wlicther  he  was  a 
traveller,  or  had  never  moved  from  Jerusalem,  we  may  feel 
inclined  to  question,  but  cannot  venture  to  pronounce  dogma- 
tically. It  is  of  course  possible  that  being  a  prophet  and  a 
confessor,  in  picturing  Him  who  was  both  and  more  than  both, 
he  may  to  some  extent  have  pictured  himself ;  but  there  could, 
from  the  nature  of  the  case,  be  no  design  in  this  partial  co- 
incidence. The  vocations  of  the  two  writers  were  different, 
though  not  unrelated.  The  author  of  '  Job  '  wrote  as  a  theistic 
moral  teacher,  excluding,  for  more  than  merely  artistic  reasons, 
considerations  drawn  from  revealed  religion.  '  He  has  not, 
indeed,  solved,  nor  even  tried  theoretically  to  solve,  the 
problem  of  human  suffering,  but  at  least  concentrated  into 
a  focus  the  data  for  its  discussion,  so  far  as  they  could  be 

'   Dr.  Scliiller-.S;inossy,  /-In  F.xpoiition  of  Isaitih  Hi.,  &c.     (Canibr.  i88a),  p.  5. 
'  It  is  noti-worihy  ibai  the  afTmiiy  of  'Job'  with  the  Book  of  I'roverbs  has  nuthmf; 
rcilly  corresponrljnj;  to  it  in  II.  Is-ii-ih. 
'  .See  also  note  on  xlviii.  6. 


ESSAYS.  267 

derived  from  the  experience  of  his  day.  The  author  of  II. 
Isaiah  wrote  as  an  interpreter  of  the  signs  of  the  times  to  the 
Jewish  exiles,  as  an  agent  in  the  great  work  of  preparation 
for  redemption,  and  as  the  final  revealer  of  that  wonderful 
personage  who  should  by  his  life  and  death  explain  all  the 
problems  and  fulfil  all  the  aspirations  both  of  Israel  and 
of  humanity.  But  the  one  beyond  question  helped  the  other. 
I  cannot  say  with  some  recent  writers  '  that  the  poet  of '  Job  ' 
was  '  inspired  '  by  the  prophet  of  II.  Isaiah,  for  it  can,  I  think, 
be  made  reasonably  certain  that  'Job'  is  the  earlier  of  the 
two  works,  and  that  if  any  work  has  suggested  the  theme  and 
the  mode  of  treatment  of  'Job'  it  is,  not  II.  Isaiah,  but  the 
glorious  little  treatise  (chaps  i.-ix.)  w^hich  opens  the  Book  of 
Proverbs."'^  Nor  can  I  even  adopt  the  converse  of  this  pro- 
position, and  maintain  that  the  Book  of  the  Servant  was 
suggested  by  that  of  the  Patriarch,  for  the  influence  of  the 
latter  appears  to  me  rather  indirect  than  immediate,  and  the 
author  of  the  former  to  have  immensely  outrun  his  pre- 
decessor : — how  could  it  be  otherwise  when  he  was  a  prophet  ? 
But  I  do  most  fully  admit  the  importance  of  the  general  and, 
if  I  may  say  so,  atmospheric  influence  of  the  Book  of  Job, 
which  must  have  contributed  to  a  'fit  audience,  though  few,' 
most  precious  elements  of  thought  preparing  them  for  higher 
truths.  In  a  word,  I  think  with  Dr.  Mozley  that  from  a 
Christian  point  of  view  this  great  work  was  the  providentially 
appointed  pioneer  of  the  supreme  revelation  of  the  suffering 
Saviour.  '  If  the  Jew  was  to  accept  a  Messiah  who  was  to 
lead  a  life  of  sorrow  and  abasement,  and  to  be  crucified  be- 
tween thieves,  it  was  necessary  that  he  should  be  somewhere 
or  other  distinctly  taught  that  virtue  was  not  always  rewarded 
here,  and  that  therefore  no  argument  could  be  drawn  from 
affliction  and  ignominy  against  the  person  who  suffered  it. 
The  Book  of  Job  does  this.  It  devotes  itself  to  the  enunciation 
of  this  injustice  and  irregularity  as  a  law  or  principle  of  the 
present  order  of  things.  However  the  mass  might  cling  to 
the  idea  of  a  visibly  successful  Messiah,  such  a  book  would 
insensibly  direct  the  minds  of  the  better  sort  into  another 
channel,  and  prepare  them  for  the  truth  of  the  case.  It  spoke 
things  (^(ovdvra  avvsrolaiv,  in  describing  the  afflictions  of  one, 
whom  when  the  car  heard,  it  "  blessed  him,  and  when  the  eye 
saw,  it  gave  witness  to  him  ;  who  delivered  the  poor  that 
cried,  the  fatherless  and  him  that  had  none  to  help  him."  * 

1  Scinccke,  Dcr  Evangelist  des  Alten  Testametrts  (Leipz.  1870),  and  Hoekstm,  in  an 
essay  entitled  'Job,  the  Servant  of  Jehovah,'  which  opens  the  Thcologisch  Tijdschrift 
for  1871. 

*  Sec  the  paper  in  Fraser  already  referred  to,  pp.  129-130. 

'  ]ob  xxix.  II,  li. 


268  ESSAYS. 

And  thus  [to  the  few  who  had  "ears  to  hear"]  it  stood  in  a 
particular  relation  to  the  prophetic  books  of  Scripture — a  kind 
of  interpretative  one  ;  supplying  a  caution  where  they  raised 
hopes,  suggesting  suspicions  of  apparent  meaning  and  con- 
jectures as  to  a  deeper  one,  and  drawing  men  from  a  too 
material  to  a  refined  faith.  By  the  side  of  a  long  line  of 
prophecy,  as  a  whole  outwardly  gorgeous  and  flattering,  and 
promising  in  the  Messiah  a  successful  potentate,  and  opener 
of  a  glorious  temporal  future  for  the  Jewish  nation,  there  rose 
one  sad  but  faithful  memento,  and  all  that  appearance  of  ap- 
proaching splendour  was  seen  in  qualifying  connection  with 
other  truths.' ' 


X.     ISAIAH  AND   HIS  COMMENTATORS. 

I. 

It  is  an  unfortunate  custom  which,  though  of  modern  origin, 
promises  to  be  difficult  to  eradicate — that  of  interpolating 
exegetical  observations  with  a  long  array  of  names  of 
authorities.  In  spite  of  the  eminent  precedents  which  may 
be  claimed  on  behalf  of  the  practice,  its  extension  is,  I  think, 
very  much  to  be  deprecated.  If,  indeed,  '  always,  everywhere, 
and  by  all '  complete  unanimity  were  enjoyed  as  to  the  objects 
and  method  of  exegesis,  we  might  safely  allow  the  commen- 
tator the  same  liberty  which  we  grant  the  poet  ;  it  is  pleasant 
to  read  a  Miltonic  roll  of  famous  names.  But  in  the  unidcal 
conditions  of  human  thought  it  is  not  open  to  us  to  make 
light  of  the  distinctions  of  ages  and  schools.  To  mix  up  a 
St.  Augustine  with  an  Ibn  Ezra,  an  Estius  with  a  Calvin,  a 
Mengstenberg  with  a  Ilitzig,  is  equally  offensive  to  the 
historical  sense  and  injurious  to  the  exegetical  student. 
Perhaps  the  practical  point  of  view  is  that  from  which  one 
may  have  most  hope  of  disestablishing  the  custom  ;  the 
practical  danger  is  too  manifest  to  be  ignored.  Commen- 
taries are  not  written  primarily  for  the  finished  scholar,  and 
nine  students  out  of  ten  are  without  a  living  conception  of 
what  these  bare  lists  of  names  symbolise.  Not  only  are 
their  memories  clogged  with  a  useless  skeleton  of  knowledge, 
but  their  judgments  are  biased  by  a  misplaced  regard  to 
often  very  questionable  authorities.  Authority  has  no  doubt 
a  value,  but  only  to  those  who  possess  a  clear  insight  into 
the  grounds  of  its  existence.     'I'hcre  are  commentators  whom 

'    Mozlry,  I'.sfays  J/istot  iml  ,i>id  /'Aiv/.'^Uti/,  li.  227-8. 


ESSAYS.  269 

\vc  may  gladly  hear  on  a  theological  inference,'  but  whose 
opinion  is  of  little  or  no  importance  on  a  point  of  grammar. 
It  is  history  which  alone  enables  us  to  discern  between 
various  charismata — the  history,  that  is,  of  exegesis,  which 
is  itself  the  history  of  philology,  philosophy,  and  theology  in 
miniature. 

It  is  impossible  here  even  to  sketch  the  outlines  of  these 
three  great  subjects  ;  but  some  of  my  readers  may  thank  me 
for  that  elementary  information  which  will  vivify  the  few 
names  of  commentators  which  I  have  thought  it  necessary 
to  mention.  Besides,  it  is  of  consequence  to  the  student  not 
to  tie  himself  to  any  single  commentator  or  school  of  com- 
mentators. The  Scriptures  shine  with  a  prismatic  radiance, 
and  the  gifts  and  perceptions  of  their  expositors  are  equally 
manifold.  The  richest  stores  of  the  intellect  have  been 
lavished  on  the  illustration  of  the  prophecies,  and  it  were 
self-impoverishment  to  neglect  to  turn  them  to  account.  A 
really  good  commentary  on  a  many-sided  author  is  never 
cjuite  superseded.  Two  or  three  representative  works  should 
always  be  at  hand,  not  as  crutches  for  the  indolent,  but  as 
friendly  guides  to  those  who  have  already  a  preliminary 
knowledge  of  the  text.  I  speak  here  only  of  commentators  ; 
a  special  handbook  is  required  for  the  versions,  and  in  its 
absence  the  Introductions  of  Bleek  and  Keil  are  familiar  to 
all.  And  I  can  say  but  little  of  the  earlier  exegetical  writers,^ 
who  would  involve  me  in  too  many  digressions,  and,  indeed, 
like  the  versions,  require  a  very  special  treatment.  The 
object  of  my  work  has  been  to  place  the  reader  in  the  centre 
of  the  great  modern  exegetical  movement,  and  it  is  on  the 
merits  and  demerits  of  those  who  have  taken  part  in  this 
movement  that  the  reader  is  entitled  to  expect  a  word  of 
guidance. 

But  how  can  I  omit  St.  Jerome,  who  in  his  seclusion  at 
Bethlehem  laid  the  foundation  of  a  philological  exegesis,  and 
bridged  over  the  gulf  between  the  Synagogue  and  the  Church  ? 
The  only  ancient  Latin  commentary  on  Isaiah  comes  from 
his  facile  pen  (a.d.  410).  It  is  divided  into  eighteen  books, 
and,  like  this  Father's  exegesis  in  general,  may  be  described 

'  See  e.g.,  the  quotation  from  St.  Athanasius  in  the  supplementary  note  on 
xlv.  14. 

-  My  plan  prevents  me  from  more  than  mentioning  R.  Saadvah  (892-942),  born 
in  the  Fayyuni  in  Upper  Egypt,  who  was  one  of  the  early  lights  of  Jewish-Arabir 
philology^  and  whom  I  have  referred  to  occasionally  .as  a  translator.  His  Arabic  ver- 
sion of  Isaiah  was  edited  in  a  very  faulty  manner  by  Paulus  (Jenae,  1790-1),  and  will 
be  re-edited,  it  is  hoped,  by  Prof,  de  Lagarde.  Salomon  Munk  made  important  con- 
tributions to  a  more  accurate  text  in  vol.  ix.  of  (Jahens  great  Bible  (Paris,  1838).  It 
would  be  interesting  to  examine  his  commen!ar)',  which  has  been  discovered  (in  Arabic) 
in  a  new  collection  of  MSS.  in  the  St.  Petersburg  library,  though,  from  his  date  and 
theological  position,  we  cannot  expect  it  to  be  seiioiisly  philological. 


270  ESSAYS. 

with  Dr.  Mcrx  as  'cine  flcissigc,  elegante,  abcr  principlose 
Compilation.'  Not  the  least  valuable  clement  in  its  multi- 
farious contents  is  that  derived  from  St.  Jerome's  Jewish 
rabbis  (.see  his  notes  on  i.  10,  vi.  i,  vii.  8,  xiii.  10,  xiv.  19, 
XX.  6)  ;  there  are  also  golden  grains  in  his  geographical 
and  archaeological  notices  (see  e.g.  on  a%t  xix.  6,  and  on 
t,v6os  xix.  10).'  Among  Christian  teachers,  St.  Jerome 
probably  owes  much  to  Origcn,  like  whom  he  expatiates 
freely  in  the  allegoric  mysticism  of  'tropology.'  His  merit, 
however,  and  it  is  not  a  slight  one,  is  this — he  distinctly  lays 
down  that  '  tropology '  must  never  violate  text  and  context, 
his  tantiim  legibus  cirauiiscripta,  lit  pictatem  scquatur  ct 
intelligcniicc  scrtnonisqiic  tcxtuni^  and  that  the  fundamental 
sense  of  the  Scriptures  is  the  literal  {fiindavienta  jaciens 
Scripturaruni)?  In  the  preface  to  the  fifth  book  (on  Isa. 
xiii.-xxiii.),  written  in  a  simpler  style  than  usual  at  the 
request  of  the  bishop  Amabilis,  he  even  hazards  a  gentle 
censure  of  his  great  predecessor  Origen,  who  libcris  allegoricE 
spatiis  evagatur,  et  intcrprctatis  noviinibus  singulonini  in- 
geniuvi  S7iuni  facit  ccdesiiB  sacramcnta.'^ 

The  next  great  link  between  Jewish  and  Christian  scholar- 
ship was  Nicolas  De  Lyra  (died  1349),  a  Franciscan 
monk  at  Paris,  the  author  of  Postillcs  pcrpctuce,  in  85  books 
(Benedictine  edition,  Antwerp,  1634).  The  well-known 
verse,  '  Si  Lyra  non  lyra.sset,  Luthcrus  non  saltasset,'  *  is 
in  reality  a  tribute  to  Jewish  scholarship,  for  Lyra  was  so 
largely  dependent  on  Jewish  exegesis  as  to  receive  the  not 
unmerited  nickname  '  simia  Salomonis  '  (Rashi's  name  being 
properly  R.  Solomon  Yicjkhaki).  Let  us  pa}-  the  debt  of 
gratitude  to  the  name  of  Lyra,  and  be  thankful  that  we  are 
not  reduced,  like  Luther,  to  submit  to  his  infiltration  of 
Jewish  exegesis.  Lyra's  great  teacher,  Rasiii  (died  1 107), 
was  the  glory  of  the  rabbinical  school  of  northern  France. 
He  has  left  commentaries  on  nearly  the  whole  of  the  Old 
Testament,  printed  in  the  rabbinical  Bibles,  and  partly 
translated  into  Latin  by  Breithaupt  (3  vols.  Gotha,  17 10). 
His  merits  are  thus  summed  up  by  Gratz  the  historian  :  — 
'  His  accurate  tact  and  his  sen.se  of  truth  guided  him  to  the 
right  meaning  and  the  appropriate  connection.  Only  he  too 
often  allowed  himself  to  be  diverted  by  the  Agadic  exegesis, 

•  Gcscniu-s,  Der  Prophet  Jcsaia,  p.  115. 
'  Comment,  in  Abac.  i.  11. 

'  I'r.-Ef  in  libr.  quint.  Is. 
«  Ibid. 

*  Or.  '  tolusmundus  dclirassct.'  There  .ire  also  other  forms  of  tlic  couplet.  With 
regard  to  Raslii's  influence  on  Lyra  and  on  Luther.  «;ce  Dr.  SieRfri.d  s  p.ip  -rs  in  the 
Archiv  fur  wiisensihaftlicke  Erfonchung  dti  Altm  Tiifiiments,  i.  428.  ike,  ii. 
39.  &<-•• 


ESSAYS.  271 

assuming  that  the  exposition  in  the  Talmud  and  in  the 
Agadic  literature  was  meant  to  be  taken  seriously.  Yet  he 
was  conscious,  though  somewhat  vaguely,  that  the  simple 
sense  (ts^'f)  was  the  contradictory  of  the  Agadic  explanation 
(t^'n*:?).  In  his  old  age  this  consciousness  became  more  dis- 
tinct, and  he  expressed  the  intention  to  his  learned  grandson 
and  disciple  (Rashbam)  of  recasting  his  commentaries  on  the 
Bible  in  the  sense  of  a  sober,  literal  exegesis.' '  A  greater 
genius  than  Rashi  was  the  illustrious  Abraham  Ibn  Ezra 
of  Toledo  (died  1167),  poet,  philosopher,  theologian,  and 
exegete.  His  commentary  on  Isaiah  (one  of  his  earlier  works) 
has  received  the  honour  of  a  critical  edition  from  Dr.  Fried- 
lander,  who  has  appended  a  valuable  glossary  for  the  benefit 
of  those  who  are  not  conversant  with  the  technical  terms  of 
the  rabbis,  and  who  has  also  published  a  translation.^  As 
Dr.  C.  Taylor,  editor  of  TJie  Sayings  of  the  JewisJi  FatJicrs, 
remarks :  '  The  large  class  to  whom  the  term  Rabbinic 
suggests  a  futile  display  of  misapplied  subtlety  will  see  occa- 
sion to  revise  their  judgment  after  some  study  of  the  work 
now  presented  to  them  in  a  comparatively  popular  form.' ' 
The  obscurity  of  the  author's  style  is  the  chief  drawback  to 
the  perusal  of  his  works  in  the  original. 

David  Kimchi  of  Narbonne  (died  1235)  was  distin- 
guished alike  as  a  grammarian,  a  lexicographer,  and  an 
exegete,  though  less  by  any  original  contributions  of  his  own 
than  by  his  sound  judgment,  and  his  discriminating  use  of 
the  labours  of  others. 

Of  these  three  celebrated  commentators,  Ibn  Ezra  is 
decidedly  the  most  original,  and  it  is  not  perfectly  clear  why 
Dr.  Mcrx  denies  him  the  capacity  of  historical  criticism,'* 
when  he  has  certainly  anticipated  modern  historical  scepti- 
cism (in  the  good  sense)  on  such  a  salient  point  as  the  author- 
ship of  Isa.  xl.-lxvi.  Gesenius  more  plausibly  complains  of 
the  Jews  for  '  preferring  the  superstitious  and  often  crazy 
Rashi  to  the  clear-headed  and  thorough  Ibn  Ezra.' ^  None 
of  them  present  us,  however,  with  what  we  naturally  look 
for  at  supposed  Messianic  passages,  viz.  a  traditional  Jewish 
exegesis.  Ibn  Ezra  is  the  most  eccentric  ;  many  passages 
commonly  regarded  as  Messianic  are  explained  by  him  from 
the    history    of  David,    Hezekiah,    &c.,    though    he   protests 

1  Griitz,  Gcsckichte  dcr  Judcn,  vi.  73  Rabbi  Eleaz.ir,  of  Beaiigcnci,  whose 
Hebrew  commentary  on  Isaiah  has  been  edited  by  Mr.  Nutt  (1879),  was  a  pupil  of 
Rashbam,  the  second  grandson  of  Rashi. 

*  Published  for  the  Society  of  Hebrew  Literature  by  Triibncr  &  Co.,  1873  (trans- 
lation), 1877  (text). 

'   The  Academy,  Dec.  i.  1873,  p.  451. 

■*  Die  Prop/ht'ie  des  Joel  [WnWe,  1879),  p.  255. 

•'•  Der  Pnfhct  yesaiu,  p.  123. 


2-}  2  ESSAYS. 

against  being  supposed  to  be  a  disbeliever  in  the  Messiah's 
advent.'  Kimchi  is  the  most  polemical  ;  he  loses  no  op- 
portunity of  expressing  his  horror  at  the  idolatry  of  the 
Christians  (D'J'O),  But  a  common  '  Jewish  interpretation 
of  prophecy  '  is  altogether  wanting  ;  the  most  striking  proof 
of  this  is  the  thick  octavo  volume  in  which  the  comments  of 
Jewish  writers  on  the  fifty-third  chapter  of  Isaiah  were 
brought  together  by  Dr.  Neubauer  and  Mr.  (now  Prof.) 
Driver  at  the  instance  of  the  late  Dr.  Pusey.  There  was 
evidently  no  tradition,  no  rule  of  interpretation,  to  bind 
the  Jewish  rabbis.  All  that  we  have  in  this  admirably 
edited  work  is  the  anti-Christian  interpretations  of  individual 
Jews,  '  privatmeinung,  notbehilf,  abfindung  mit  christlichcr 
theologie.'  ^ 

To  return  to  Christian  exegesis.  It  is  sad  but  true  that, 
by  the  unhistorical  antedating  of  '  unwritten  traditions,'  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church  has  done  its  utmost  to  cut  the  ner\-e 
of  historical  exegesis.  It  has  even,  by  its  declaration  of  the 
'  authenticity '  of  the  Vulgate  (without,  however,  providing  a 
critical  text  of  that  version),  and  by  the  ominous  decree,  '  ad 
coercenda  petulantia  ingenia,'  made  it  practically  all  but 
impossible  to  be,  even  in  the  most  humble  sense,  an  exegcte 
of  the  original  texts."*  Non  ragiotiiaui  di  lor,  we  must  say 
but  in  a  very  different  tone  from  the  stern  Florentine,  via 
guarda  e  passa.  The  leaders  of  the  Reformation  took  a 
directly  opposite  attitude.  They  appealed,  in  the  interest, 
as  they  believed,  of  spiritual  religion,  from  an  unverifiable 
tradition  to  the  text  of  the  sacred  Scriptures,  and  the  study 
of  the  Bible  immediately  rose  to  a  position  of  primary 
importance.  Plxegesis,  without  becomingless  Christian,  be- 
came distinctly  more  scientific.  In  the  Old  Testament,  for 
instance,  the  Protestant  divines  sought  to  harmonise  their 
exegesis,  not  merely  with  their  Christian  assumptions,  but 
with  the  rules  of  the  new  philology.  The  atomistic  mode  of 
treatment  gave  way  to  a  patient,  thoughtful  study  of  contexts. 

'  Fricdlander,  Essays  on  the  Writitigs  of  Abraham  Ibn  Ezra,  p.  98. 

*  Lagarde,  Symmikta,  vol.  ii.  (Gutting.  1880),  p.  13. 

*'....  rcr^picicnsqiic  banc  vcritatcin  ct  disciplinam  contineri  in  libris  scriptis 
et  sine  scripto  traditlonibus,  quai  .ib  ipsius  Chrisli  ore  ab  apostolis  accepta;,  aiit  ab 
ipsius  apost(jIis,  Spiritu  Sancto  dictante,  quasi  per  nianus  traditae,  ad  nos  usque 
pcrvfnerunt."  '  Pra'terea,  ad  coercenda  petulantia  ingenia,  decrrnit,  lU  nemo,  suae 
prudential  innixus,  in  rebus  fidei,  et  morum  ad  jedificationoni  doctnnx'  cliristianx- 
pcrtineniium,  sacram  scriptumn)  ad  suos  sensus  contorqucns,  contra  eum  scnsum, 
quern  tenuit  et  tenet  sancta  mater  ecclcsia,  cujus  est  jndicare  dc  vero  sensu  et  interpre- 
tatione  scripturarum  sanclarum,  aut  ctiam  contra  unaniniem  consensum  patrum  ipsam 
scripturam  sacram  intcrprctari  audcut,  ctiamsi  hujusmodi  interpretationes  nullo 
unqiiain  tempore  in  luceni  edcnda-  forent  '  Canones  Confilii  TriJentini,  Sessio 
Quarta.  (I  fail  to  see  how  the  former  quotation  is  reconcileable  with  any  thix)ty  of 
liistorical  devel(}]iinent,  or  how  the  ait  of  exegesis  is  ever  to  l)e  practised  either  by 
iii.ister  or  by  schol.ar  witli  such  a  swor<l  of  Damocles  suspended  over  liiir 


ESSAYS.  273 

The  reaction  a<jainst  doj^inatic  accretions  inspired  a  whole- 
some drv.iui  of  the  Hcence  of  allegory.  A  growing  distrust 
set  in  of  the  manifold  senses  of  the  older  expositors  ;  in  fact, 
one  of  the  greatest  dangers  of  Protestant  exegesis  became  the 
identification  (so  unnatural,  if  it  be  understood  extensively,  and 
not  intensively)  of  the  literal  interpretation  with  the  Christian. 
I  speak,  of  course,  merely  of  tendencies,  not  of  accomplished 
results. 

It  was  in  the  Reformed  Church,  which  attached  greater 
importance  than  the  Lutheran  to  the  authority  of  the  Scrip- 
tures on  a//  points  of  doctrine,  that  the  problem  of  Biblical 
exegesis  was  apprehended  with  most  distinctness.  Mus- 
CUI.US,  however  (whom  I  have  had  occasion  to  cite  once), 
has  been  praised  by  a  competent  judge  for  his  careful  dis- 
tinction between  the  .scientific  and  the  practical  elements 
of  exegesis,  and  his  special  attention  to  the  former  ;  '  and 
Musculus  was  an  adherent  of  the  doctrines  of  Luther.  In 
the  Reformed  Church  the  name  of  the  ardent  Hebraist  Pel- 
LICAXUS  deserves  honourable  mention,  as  we  have  been 
reminded  by  a  recent  discovery  in  our  national  library.'^  His 
notes  upon  Isaiah,  which  are  concise,  and  mainly  devoted  to 
paraphrasing  the  grammatical  sense,  occur  in  the  third  volume 
of  his  Coinnioitaria  Sacra  (Zurich,  1 540).  But  the  only 
writer  of  this  age  who  still  retains,  and  is  likely  to  retain,  his 
importance  is  Calvin  (1509-64).  'Unrivalled  in  his  own 
age,'  says  Diestel,  'his  works  offer  even  )'et  a  rich  store  of 
Biblical  knowledge.'"'  Mercerus^  was  no  doubt  a  far  deeper 
Hebraist  (though  the  scholarship  of  Calvin  has  been  most 
undul}-  dis[)aragcd  by  Richard  Simon),  but  if  we  consider 
Calvin's  deep  insight  into  the  aim  and  method  of  historico- 
philological  exegesis,  the  extent  of  his  exegetical  labours,  and 
the  high  average  level  which,  in  spite  of  the  enforced  rapidity 
of  his  work,  he  attained,  we  shall  probably  come  to  the  con- 
clusion that,  even  as  an  Old  Testament  interpreter  (and  he  is 

'  Musculus:  In  Bsaiam  prophclam  conimcniarii  locuplctissimi,  Basil.,  1570. 
Comp.  Diestel,  Geschichte  dcs  Alfen  Tcstamentes  in  der  cluistlichm  Kirchc  (Jena, 
1869),  p.  268. 

-  Pellicanus  was  the  predecessor  of  Reuclilin  as  a  writer  on  Hebrew  grammar 
The  story  of  his  exertions  to  Ic.trn  the  sacred  tongue  can  be  read  in  his  autobiography, 
edited  by  Professor  Riggenbach  for  the  festival  of  the  fourth  centenary  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Tiibingen,  in  1877.  His  Grammar  (entitled  De  luodo  lej^tiidi  et  intcl/igendi 
Hehrcri/in)  was  lost  sight  of,  till  Dr.  E.  Nestle  discovered  it  in  the  British  Museum 
copy  of  the  150^  Strasburg  edition  of  Rtisch's  Margaritha  pliiloMphic<i,  of  which 
Pellicanus's  Hebrew  Grammar  forms  part.  A  photo-iithograiihic  reproduction  of  this 
curious  work  was  brought  out  by  the  discoverer  in  honour  of  the  Tubingen  festival. 

^  Diestel,  op.  cit.  p.  267. 

^  Mercerus  (Lc  Mcrcier)  was,  although  a  Huguenot,  regius  professor  of  Hebrew  at 
Paris.  He  died  1570.  Schlottmann  calls  him  '  the  greatest  Old  Testament  exegete 
of  the  si.vteenth  century  '  ( A«  Bmh  lliob,  p.  121)  It  is  to  be  regretted  that  he  hai 
left  no  commenfiry  on  Isaiah, 

VOL.  II.  T 


2  74  ESSAYS. 

more  than  tliis),  there  is  no  greater  name  in  the  Reformation 
age  (nor  perhaps  in  any  subsequent  one)  than  that  of  Calvin, 
It  is  indeed  remarkable  that  one  so  eminent  as  a  dogmatic 
theologian  should  also  have  shown  himself  so  loyal  to  the 
principles  of  philology.  The  only  apparent  effect  of  his 
dogmatic  speculations  upon  his  Biblical  exegesis  is  to  give 
it  a  greater  depth.  The  most  celebrated  specimen  of  his 
exegesis  is  his  commentaiy  on  the  Psalms,  of  which  it  is 
hardly  possible  to  speak  too  favourably  ;  but  even  his  work 
on  Isaiah,'  though  neither  so  mature  nor  so  elaborate,  well 
deserves  to  be  consulted.  It  certainl)^  gives  one  a  high  idea 
of  the  e.xegetical  lectures — not  by  any  means  confined  within 
a  narrow  range — which  this  great  Reformer  was  constantly 
delivering  to  the  future  '  ministers  of  the  word  of  God.' 

In  the  seventeenth  century  the  centre  of  Biblical  studies 
was  transferred  to  Holland.  The  national  characteristics  of 
coolness,  good  sense,  and  thoroughness  appear  in  the  Dutch 
exegesis  :  let  it  suffice  to  mention  GrOTIUS  and  De  Dieu. 
The  former  (i  583-1645)  was  primarily  a  statesman  and  a 
jurist.  His  peculiarity  as  an  exegete  consists  in  his 
thoroughly  secular  attitude  towards  the  Biblical  writings  ;  he 
writes  as  a  layman  for  laymen.  Of  the  depth  of  meaning  of 
the  Scriptures  he  has  no  real  comprehension  ;  but  he  has  done 
yeoman's  service  for  the  letter.  He  wrote  '  annotationes ' 
in  the  strict  sense  of  the  word — i.e.  scattered,  unconnected 
notes  on  certain  difficult  passages  — extending  over  the  whole 
of  the  Old  Testament,  including  the  Apocrypha.  De  Dieu 
( I  590-1642)  excels  where  Grotius  is  deficient,  as  a  grammarian 
and  a  lexicographer  ;  he  not  only  sifted  the  vast  and  multi- 
farious Rabbinical  tradition,  but  actually  advanced  Hebrew 
philology  by  an  independent  comparison  of  the  cognate 
languages.-  He  had  also  a  keen  and  subtle  judgment,  and 
stimulates  even  where  he  does  not  convince.  Well  qualified 
as  he  was,  however,  he  seems  to  have  objected  on  principle 
to  add  to  the  number  of  continuously  written  commentaries  ; 
he  has  therefore  only  given  us  a  spicilcgium.  Nor  did  any 
of  the  great  Orientalists  (not  even  our  own  Pococke),  who 
formed  a  kind  of  philological  'succession  '  in  the  seventeenth 
and  the  early  part  of  the  eighteenth  century,  choose  the 
prophet  Isaiah  as  the  subject  of  special  study.^  Ali?ERT 
SCHULTENS  (1686-1750),  who  has  left  an  ineffaceable  mark 

•  Printed  at  Geneva,  1551,  ami  dedicated  to  Kinjj  Edward  VI. 

2  See  his  postliuniovis  work,  Aniin.tdversioncs  in  I'c/cris  Tcstamcnfi  lihroi  omncs 
(Lu^d.  Bat.,  1548),  a  sliort  e.\lract  Uu\\\  which  is  given  in  crit.  note  on  .\liii.  27. 

=*  Bochart,  the  P'rench  Protestant  (died  1667),  only  touclied  on  antiquarian  and 
especially  zoological  allusions  ;  here,  however,  he  shows  va'st  reading.  His  works  arc 
— C,ei\i;rnphia  sacra,  Caen,  1646  ;  IJirivzoiiott,  London,  1663. 


ESSAYS,  2/5 

on  Hebrew  philology,  confined  himself,  like  De  DIcu,  to 
observations  on  difficult  passages,'  which,  though  highly- 
praised  by  Gesenius,  require  to  be  read  with  caution,  on 
account  of  the  author's  illusion  as  to  the  illustrative  value  of 
the  Arabic  vocabulary.  It  was,  however,  a  remarkable  pro- 
duction for  a  youth  of  twenty-three,  and  reminds  us  forcibly 
of  the  early  achievement  of  one  of  his  greatest  successors. 

In  1722  the  academic  world  of  Franeker  was  gathered  in 
the  university  church  to  listen  to  an  oration  from  Albert 
Schultens  '  in  cxequiis  principis  theologi  Campegii  Vitringa.' 
There  is  a  refreshing  enthusiasm  in  VlTRINGA  ^  ('  ardens, 
vehemens,  et  nobile  quid  ac  magnificum  spirans,'  are  the 
epithets  of  his  friend  Schultens)  which  makes  us  wonder 
whether  he  can  be  really  the  countryman  of  Hugo  Grotius. 
But  this  ardour  is  not  inconsistent  with  a  love  of  completeness 
and  an  aicpijBsLa,  which  have  always  characterised  the  best 
type  of  Dutch  philology.  One  is  tempted  to  add,  with  a 
prolixity  peculiar  to  himself  ;  for  who  else  in  a  land  fruitful 
above  others  in  philologists  would  have  thought  of  devoting 
two  folio  volumes  of  710  and  958  pages  respectively  to  a 
commentary  on  a  single  author  of  no  great  length  .-'  Not 
that  Vitringa  is  properly  chargeable  with  verbosity,  but  that 
he  has  the  cheerful  faith  that  all  truth  is  divine  and  therefore 
reconcilable,  and  not  enough  intellectual  independence  to 
sift  the  pretensions  of  all  the  claimants  of  that  sacred  name. 
His  exegesis  is,  in  a  word,  involved  in  an  *  infinita  sensuum 
silva,'  if  I  may  borrow  an  expression  from  St.  Jerome,  who 
would  certainly  not  have  recognised  his  own  type  of  tropology 
in  Vitringa's.  The  mitigation  is  that  the  various  senses  and 
fulfilments  of  the  prophecies  are  carefully  kept  asunder,  and 
that  no  pains  are  spared  to  explain  and  illustrate  the  primary 
grammatical  sense  and  historical  background.  Vitringa  was, 
for  his  day,  a  fine  Hebrew  and  especially  Rabbinical  scholar, 
and  his  commentary  is  a  mine  of  learning,  and  even  of  sound 
sense,  which  may  still  be  worked  with  advantage.  His 
preface  on  the  aims  and  methods  of  prophetic  exegesis  is  a 
brilliant  piece  of  modern  Latin  composition,  and  reveals  the 
author  as  equally  fervent  in  his  Christianity  and  profound  in 
his  erudition.  Only  one  remembers  the  very  different  ideal 
of  a  commentary  in  Calvin's  golden  preface  to  his  work  on 
the  Romans,  and  sighs  at  the  two  folio  volumes  ! 

Vitringa  is  a  specimen  of  the  late  summer  of  Continental 

1  Schultens,  Alb. ;  Animadvcrsioncs  fhilologiccE  et  cviiiccs  ad  varia  loca  I'et.  TcsL 
Amstelod.,  1709. 

-  Vitringa  :  Commcntarius  in  Lihrum  Prophctiarum  Jesaice,  &c.  Tomi  duo. 
Lcovardice  {i.e.  Lcuwarden),  1714-20,  and  1724. 


276  ESSAYS. 

orthodoxy  ;  it  is  natural  that  when  England  has  her  word 
to  say,  it  should  be  marked  with  the  secularity  of  the  English 
eighteenth  century.  Robert  Lowth  (1710-1787),  Professor 
of  Poetry  at  Oxford,  by  his  lectures  on  the  sacred  poetry  of 
the  Hebrews  (first  edition,  1753)  began  that  important 
aestheticising  movement  in  Biblical  criticism  which,  with  all 
its  faults  and  shallowness  and  sometimes  perhaps  irreverence, 
fulfilled  (one  may  venture  to  surmise)  a  providential  purpose 
in  reviving  the  popular  interest  in  the  letter  of  the  Scriptures. 
What  Lowth  began  was  continued  with  far  greater  ability 
and  insight  by  Herder  ;  but  an  Englishman  may  be  proud 
that  Lowth  began  it.  The  principles  which  he  thus  introduced 
to  the  world  were  further  exemplified  in  his  translation  of 
Isaiah,'  in  which  the  English  text  was  for  the  first  time 
arranged  according  to  those  rules  of  parallelism,  not,  indeed, 
discovered,  but  first  brought  vividly  home,  by  the  Oxford 
professor.  A  long  preliminary  dissertation  re-states  the 
principles  and  characteristics  of  Hebrew  poetry,  and  does 
justice  to  the  acute  Rabbi  Azariah  de'  Rossi  (15 13-1576),  who 
'  treated  of  the  ancient  Hebrew  versification  upon  principles 
similar  to  those  above  proposed,  and  partly  coincident  with 
them.'  The  chief  faults  of  the  translation  are,  not  certainly 
its  fidelity,  nor  yet  (if  I  may  venture  to  differ  from  Dean 
Milman  ^)  its  inharmoniousness,but  the  inappropriate  selection 
of  a  Latinised  vocabulary,  and  further,  from  a  critical  point 
of  view,  the  recklessness  with  which  the  translator  treats  the 
Massoretic  text.  There  was,  indeed,  an  epidemic  of  arbitrary 
emendation  in  the  air,  and  Lowth  did  but  follow  the  example 
of  Cappellus  and  Houbigant  (comp.  p.  238).  I  do  not  deny, 
however,  that  he  has  often  considerable  reason  for  his  changes  ; 
it  is  rather  his  inconsiderate  haste,  which  gives  him  so  much 
the  appearance  of  holding  a  brief  against  the  traditional  text. 
Where  he  is  most  probably  right,  the  discovery  is  often  not 
due  to  himself,  but  to  one  or  another  learned  friend,  especially 
the  recently  deceased  Archbishop  Seeker.  His  emendations 
were  examined  more  or  less  successfully  by  David  Kocher  in 
a  small  volume  of  Vindicice  (Berne,  1786).  The  Bishop's 
notes    partly   justify    his    emendations,    partly   illustrate    the 

'  Isaiah.  A  New  Translation,  with  a  Preliminary  Dissertation  and  Notes, 
Critical,  Philological,  and  Explanatory.     1  ,ond.  1778. 

^  Dean  Milman  complains  of  the  Bishop  for  having  'forgotten  that  he  was  trans- 
lating a  poet,'  and  having  '  chilled  Isai.di  down  to  the  flattest— correct  perliaps — but 
unrelieved,  inharmonious  prose '  [Annals  of  St.  Patil's,  p.  468).  The  Dean  had 
evidently  not  read  the  '  [ircliminary  dis'ertation,'  in  which  the  translator  simply  claims 
the  merit  of  fidelity.  To  be  at  once  literal  and  elegant  or  harmonious  is  surely  im- 
jxjssilile.  Gesenius,  with  whom  the  Dean  compares  Pishop  I^owth  unfavourably,  is 
certainly  not  'harmonious,'  but  he  has  this  great  advantage  river  the  Bishop,  that  his 
vocabulary  is  simple  and  nntural.  Tlie  Latinised  style  of  high  society  is  the  most 
unfitted  of  all  for  a  Hebrew  prophet. 


ESSAYS. 


277 


text  from  classical  poets  and  modern  travellers.  He  does 
not  go  deeply  into  the  fulfilment  of  the  prophecies,  but  in 
the  main  adopts  the  ordinary  Christian  view  without  dis- 
cussion. His  exposition  of  the  prophecy  of  Immanuel  is, 
however,  sufficiently  peculiar  to  deserve  quotation.  After 
stating  that  '  the  obvious  and  literal  meaning  '  is  not  Messianic 
(he  explains  '  the  virgin  '  to  mean  '  one  who  is  now  a  virgin  '), 
he  continues  : — 

'  But  the  prophecy  is  introduced  in  so  solemn  a  manner  ; 
the  sign  is  so  marked,  as  a  sign  selected  and  given  by  God 
himself,  after  Ahaz  had  rejected  the  offer  of  any  sign  of  his 
own  choosing  out  of  the  whole  compass  of  nature  ;  the  terms 
of  the  prophecy  are  so  peculiar,  and  the  name  of  the  child  so 
expressive,  containing  in  them  much  more  than  the  circum- 
stances of  the  birth  of  a  common  child  required,  or  even 
admitted  ;  that  we  may  easily  suppose  that,  in  minds  pre- 
pared by  the  general  expectation  of  a  great  Deliverer  to 
spring  from  the  house  of  David,  they  raised  hopes  far  beyond 
what  the  present  occasion  suggested  ;  especially  when  it  was 
found  that  in  the  subsequent  prophecy,  delivered  immediately 
afterwards,  this  child,  called  Immanuel,  is  treated  as  the  Lord 
and  Prince  of  the  land  of  Judah.  Who  could  this  be,  other 
than  the  Heir  of  the  throne  of  David,  under  which  character 
a  great  and  even  a  Divine  person  had  been  promised  ? ' 

Both  the  works  of  Bishop  Lowth  were  translated  into  Ger- 
man, and,  with  the  notes  of  Michaelis  and  Koppe,  were,  for 
good  or  for  evil,  among  the  revolutionary  influences  of  that 
unsettled  age  in  Germany.  The  words  of  Dean  Milman  are 
therefore  true  in  their  fullest  sense  of  the  great  critical  Bishop, 
that  his  inquiries  '  make  an  epoch  unperccived  perhaps  and 
unsuspected  by  their  author.' ' 


If  Calvin  is  the  predominant  figure  in  the  Old  Testament 
exegesis  of  early  Protestantism,  the  modern  period  may 
without  any  substantial  injustice  be  said  to  date  from 
Gesenius  (1785-1842).  Himself  a  rationalist  of  the  old 
school,  and  a  zealous  promoter  of  the  rationalistic  movement 
in  his  university,  it  is  not  surprising  if  his  exegesis  fails  to 
satisfy  the  deeper  requirements  of  our  time.  He  honestly 
thought  that  to  allow  predictions  in  the  Old  Testament  was 
to  degrade  the  prophets  to  the  rank  of  soothsayers,  and 
that  a  '  Christian  interpretation  '  was  only  attainable  by  doing 
violence  to  philology.     The  truth  is  that  he  was  more  of  a 

'  Annali  of  St.  Paul i,  2nd  ed.,  p.  467. 


278  ESSAYS. 

philologist  than  a  theologian  ;  a  susceptibility  for  religious 
ideas  was  still  dormant  in  his  nature.  In  two  respects,  how- 
ever, he  marks  an  advance  ;  he  absolutely  repudiates  the 
shallow  and  now  antiquated  a^stheticising  of  the  disciples  of 
Herder,  and  the  extravagant  disintegrating  criticism  intro- 
duced by  Lowth's  editor,  Koppe,'  which, '  whenever  the  prophet 
stopped  to  draw  breath,  and  the  discourse  surged  up  anew, 
fancied  it  discovered  the  patchwork  of  uncritical  collectors.' 
His  great  work  on  Isaiah  is  hardly  yet  superseded  ;  it  marks 
precisely  the  point  which  historical  and  archaeological  research 
had  attained  at  the  date  of  its  composition.  It  contains  also 
much  lexicographical  information  ;  and  if  it  entirely  neglects 
the  prophetic  teaching,  this  is  at  any  rate  better  than  mis- 
representing it.  The  dates  of  Gesenius's  chief  works  are  : 
Hebrew  Grammar,  first  ed.  181 3  ;  Isaiah,  1821  ;  Thesaunis, 
vols,  i.-iii.  fasc.  i,  1835-42,  completion  by  Roediger,  1852-58. 
HiTZIG  ( 1 807-1 875;  resembles  Gesenius  in  his  rationalism 
(Paulus  and  Gesenius  were  his  earliest  academic  teachers), 
which  he  ever  expressed  with  the  most  fearless  sincerity. 
The  refined  monotheism  of  the  Old  Testament  was  discovered, 
according  to  him,  by  superior  intellectual  vigour '■^  {c/iirch  cine 
stdrkere  Dcjikkraff)  ;  but  the  intellect  of  the  Israelites,  he 
thinks  with  Lassen  and  M.  Renan,  was  singularly  limited, 
and  Old  Testament  prophecy  is  an  illusion  produced  by  the 
objectifying  of  the  higher  self.^  In  exegesis,  however,  Hitzig 
displays  a  rare  grammatical  sense,  and  a  tact  for  eliciting  the 
connection,  though  his  explanations  are  sometimes  charge- 
able with  over-subtlety.  Of  reverence  there  is  of  course  no 
more  trace  than  in  Gesenius,  but  his  more  flexible  intellect 
enables  him  to  sympathise  more  keenly  with  transitions  of 
thought  and  feeling.  His  discussions  of  the  historical  back- 
ground of  the  prophecies  are  in  their  way  etjually  remarkable, 
and  his  acuteness  in  combination  extorts  admiration,  even 
where  it  fails  to  produce  conviction.  Criticism  to  him  is  no 
merely  destructive  power  (as  it  was  in  the  main  to  De  Wette). 
15oth  in  the  criticism  of  the  text  and  in  that  of  history  he 
aimed  at  positive  results,  though  he  was  under  a  great  illu- 
sion as  to  the  invariable  trustworthiness  of  his  methods.  His 
faults  are,  however,  less  conspicuous  than  his  merits  in  his 

'  E.g.  in  his  introduction  to  chnp.  i.,  where  he  opposes  Koppe,  who  chvidcd  ihc 
chapter  into  three  unconnected  pities  on  the  ground  of  alle{;ed  irreconcilajjle  difHr- 
cnces  between  the  deseiiptions  of  the  internal  state  of  the  nation.  I.ngarde,  it  may  l><^ 
here  noticed,  in  his  note  on  chap.  i.  in  Siiiii/icn  i.,  simply  fulK  ws  in  tliewakeof  K<  ppe, 
except  that  he  sui>i)osis  the  disinti  };raled  fraj^ments  to  be  nul  ci  niplcte  in  llit  niscKcs. 
but  portions  of  loni;er  di.--courMS  now  lost.  He  otters  no  discuision  of  the  historicai 
b.ickgrounds  proposed  for  the  eliapti  r. 

a  CesihichU-  (les  I'olkcs  A;<;</ (I.eip.-.  iB'^.iy),  |i.  8j. 

'  Dcr  IU'lhcl  yci^ijit,  AUgeineine  iiinleilunt;,  p.  24. 


ESSAYS.  279 

early  commentary  on  Isaiah  (1833),  dedicated  to  Heinrich 
Ewald,  his  still  youthful  teacher,  whose  grammatical  labours 
he  was  the  first  to  appreciate  and  to  utilise. 

Ewald's  governing  idea  was  that  of  reconstruction.  It 
was  no  doubt  also  that  of  his  period  ;  we  find  it  in  Hitzig, 
but  not  so  strongly  developed  as  in  Ewald.  As  a  theologian, 
he  partook  (unlike  Hitzig)  in  that  yearning  for  a  deeper 
religion  which  accompanied  the  great  rising  of  the  German 
nation  ;  but  he  never  succeeded  in  dissipating  a  certain 
luminous  haze  which  blurred  the  outlines  of  his  religious 
ideas.  As  a  philologist,  he  takes  the  highest  rank.  By  his 
Hebrew  Grammar  he  earned  from  Hitzig  the  title  of  'second 
founder  of  a  science  of  the  Hebrew  language,'  and  Professor 
Pusey  cordially  admits  the  '  philosophical  acuteness  '  whereby, 
as  he  says,  '  as  a  youth  of  nineteen  {?  24)  he  laid  the  founda- 
tion of  the  scientific  treatment  of  Hebrew  grammar.' '  As  an 
interpreter  of  the  prophets  (it  would  take  too  long  even  to 
touch  upon  his  other  labours),  he  reminds  us  somewhat  of 
his  master  Eichhorn,  whose  poetic  enthusiasm  he  fully  shares, 
though  he  holds  it  in  check  by  a  strong  sense  of  the  pre- 
dominantly religious  character  of  the  prophetic  gifts.  His 
style  has  something  in  it  of  Orientalism,''^  which  conveys  a 
deep  though  vague  impression  of  the  grandeur  and  beauty  of 
prophecy  ;  his  translation  of  the  prophets  has  a  rhythmic 
flow,  which,  though  at  the  cost  of  elegance,  gives  some  faint 
idea  of  the  movement  of  the  original.  His  distinctive  merits 
appear  to  be  threefold:—!.  He  starts  with  a  conception  of 
prophecy  derived  from  the  prophets  themselves.  This  con- 
ception is  no  doubt  vague  and  indefinite,  for  he  totally  ignores 
the  New  Testament  ;  but  it  is  at  any  rate  free  from  the 
anti-dogmatic  theories  of  the  rationalists.  2.  He  has  the  eye 
of  an  historian,  and  treats  the  prophetic  literature  as  a  whole. 
No  critical  theory  (as  I  have  suggested  already)  can  be 
properly  estimated  until  we  see  how  it  dovetails  into  the 
author's  scheme  of  the  historical  development  of  the  Old 
Testament  literature.  3.  He  bestows  special  care  on  the 
connection  of  thought,  though  his  over-subtle  views  of 
Hebrew  syntax  may  have  sometimes  led  him  beyond  the 
borders  of  the  natural  and  the  probable.  I  might,  perhaps, 
add  a  fourth  merit — his  conciseness.     He  spares  his  reader 

>    The  Minor  Prophets  [OyiL  1879),  p.  iii. 

-  Karl  Hase,  himself  a  laiionalist  of  a  more  cultured  school  than  Gesenius  and 
Hitzig,  has  given  one  of  his  medallion  portraits  of  Ewald.  '  Nach  Gesenius  hat 
E.vald  die  GesuhiclUe  tlfs  alttestaincnilichen  Volkes  aufgerollt,  er  ein  riiekscliaucnder 
Prophet  mit  dcr  oritntalischen  Ziingengabe,  kiihn  und  zu  Upftrn  bewahrt  fiir  die  Frei- 
heit,  nur  diirch  seine  sillliehe  iMKriistung  gegen  jede  abv\eieheiide  Mcinung  leiehl 
vcrstort '  {Atrcheugesihhhtc,  p.  58-i). 


28o  ESSAYS. 

those  wearisome  discussions  of  rejected  opinions  which  render 
so  many  German  works  unreadable.  He  even  disdains  the 
help  of  archa-'olot^ical  and  historical  illustrations,  and  confines 
himself  mainly  to  that  which  he  rei^^ards  as  essential,  viz.  the 
prophetic  idea.s.  His  faults,  too  obvi<nis  to  need  a  lon<^  de- 
scription, are  an  overweening  self-confidence,  an  excessive 
predilection  for  minute  .systematising,  and  a  lack  of  dialectic 
power  which  often  prevents  his  reader  from  discovering  the 
real  grounds  of  his  theory  (how  unlike,  in  this  latter  respect, 
one  of  his  most  influential  successors  — the  author  of  the 
Religion  of  Israeli).  The  following  are  the  dates  of  Ewald's 
chief  works  (a  complete  list  would  occupy  nearly  three 
pages): — Hebrew  Grammar,  first  ed.,  1827,  fifth  edition  re- 
cast, 1844,  Die  Propheten  des  alien  Bundes,  first  cd.,  2  vols., 
1840-41,  second  cd  ,  3  vols.,  1867-68  ;  the  same  translated  in 
five  volumes,  1875-81, 

It  is  not  surprising  that  the  shallowness  of  Gcscnius  and 
Hit/.ig,  and  the  vagueness  of  Ewald,  were  profoundly  ob- 
noxious to  those  who  rcs(jrtcd  to  the  Scriptures  for  supplies 
of  spiritual  life.  Even  had  the  new  exegesis  been  free  from 
theological  objection,  it  would  have  required  unusual  strength 
of  faith  to  admit  in  practice  (what  all  admit  in  words)  that 
our  knowledge  of  the  sense  of  revelation  is  progressive.  '  It 
is  not  every  interpreter  who  is  able,  like  Luther  and  Calvin, 
to  place  his  novel  views  in  a  light  which  shall  appeal  as 
strongly  to  the  religious  experience  of  the  Christian  as  to  the 
.scholarly  instincts  of  the  learned.  The  rise  of  new  difficulties 
is  as  es.sential  to  the  progress  of  truth  as  the  removal  of  old 
puzzles  ;  and  it  not  seldom  happens  that  the  defects  of 
current  opinions  as  to  the  sense  of  Scripture  are  most  palpable 
to  the  man  whose  s[)iritual  interest  in  Hible  truths  is  weak.  .  . 
Thus  the  natural  conservatism  of  those  who  stud}-  the  l^iblc' 
mainly  for  purpo.ses  of  personal  edification  is  often  inten- 
sified by  suspicion  of  the  motives  of  innovating  interpreters  ; 
and  even  so  fruitful  an  idea  as  the  doctrine  of  a  gradual 
development  of  spiritual  truth  throughout  the  whole  course 
of  the  l^)ible  history  has  had  to  contciul,  from  the  da\s  of 
Calvin  down  to  our  own  time,  with  an  obstinate  suspicion  that 
nothing  but  rationalism  can  make  a  man  unwilling  to  'iwuX 
the  maximum  of  developed  s[>iritual  truth  in  every  chapter 
of  vScrij)turc.' '  Only  by  such  feelings  as  the.se  can  we  ac- 
count fi)r  the  almost  unvar)-ing  f)pposition  of  HKN(;.sri;N'r.KK(i 
(1802  69)  to  the  new  criticism  and  exegesis  an  opposition,  I 
must  add,   intensified    b}-    his   editorship  of  a   Church   ncws- 

'    Prof.   Kobcrlsoii  .Snulh,    Ihiln/i  .md  I'citij^u    l-'t\in^,-,'intl  Keview,  July  1876. 
P   47-«- 


ESSAYS.  251 

paper,'  which  kept  him  in  a  continual  atmosphere  of  party  strife. 
Anxiety  for  his  personal  reli<^ion,  which  he  had  learned  in 
the  school  of  trial,  and  not  of  this  or  the  other  theologian, 
converted  the  youthful  Hengstcnbcrg  into  an  ardent  cham- 
pion of  revelation,  and  a  certain  heaviness  of  the  intellect 
(which  no  English  reader  of  his  works  can  fail  to  observe)  made 
him  regard  any  attempt,  such  as  Bleek's,  at  a  via  media,  as 
sophistry  or  self-delusion.  Hengstenberg  had  no  historical 
gifts,  and  never  seems  to  have  really  assimilated  that  doctrine 
of  development  which,  though  rejected  by  Pietists  on  the  one 
hand  and  Tridentine  Romanists  on  the  other,  is  so  profoundly 
Christian.  He  was  therefore  indisposed  to  allow  the  hu- 
man element  in  inspiration,  denied  the  limited  nature  of  the 
Old  Testament  stage  of  revelation,  and,  as  Dr.  Dorner 
has  pointed  out,'-^  made  prophecy  nothing  but  the  symbolic 
covering  of  the  eternal  truths  of  Christianity.  These  seem 
to  Dr.  Dorner  grave  faults,  which  seriously  detract  from  the 
value  of  Hengstenberg's  exegesis.  And  yet  it  should  be 
borne  in  mind  that  the  rationalistic  exegesis  had  been  equally 
one-sided,  and  with  results  far  more  dangerous.  Even  from 
a  scientific  point  of  view,  it  was  desirable  that  the  old  cri- 
ticism and  exegesis  should  be  once  re-stated  in  a  modern 
dress,  lest  perchance  in  the  hot  haste  of  the  innovators  certain 
precious  elements  of  truth  should  be  lost.  I  do  not  think 
that  there  is  much  in  Hengstenberg  which  cannot  now  be 
found  in  a  more  acceptable  form  elsewhere  ;  and  his  works 
are  but  ill  translated.  But  it  may  be  well  for  the  student 
at  least  to  dip  into  the  CJiristology  of  t/ie  Old  Testament,^ 
which  is  still  the  most  complete  expression  of  the  theory 
which  interprets  the  Old  Testament  solely  and  entirely  in  the 
light  of  the  New. 

Hengstenberg's  exegesis  of  Isaiah  was  confined  to  the 
Messianic  passages  ;  but  a  devout  and  thoughtful  commen- 
tary on  the  whole  of  the  book  was  begun  in  the  same  spirit 
by  Dkeciisler,''  and,  on  his  death  in  185 1,  completed  by 
August  Hahn,  with  an  important  appendix  by  Franz 
Delitzsch,  indicating  the  thread  of  thought  in  chaps,  xl.-lxvi., 
and  arguing  with  great  fulness  of  detail  for  the  Isaianic  author- 
ship of  the  disputed  prophecies.  Neither  Hengstenberg  nor 
Drechsler  is  strong  on  the  linguistic  side  ;  and  they  have 
another  unfortunate  resemblance  in  the  vehemence  with  which 

'  The  Evangclisvhe  Kirchcnzcltung,  founded  1827. 

■■'  History  of  Pfuteiiiint  Theology,  vol.  ii.  pp.  436-7. 

•*  First  edition,  2  vols.,  1S29-35  ;  second,  4  vols.,  i85.t-57  (recast).  Translated  in 
Clark's  Foreign  Theological  Library  (for  Isaiah,  see  vol.  ii.). 

^  Vol.  !.,  1845;  vol.  ii.,  part  r,  1849,  part  2,  1854  (pobthunioui) ,  vol.  iii.  (con- 
taining chaps.  xi.-Lxvi.),  by  Hahn  and  Delitzsch,  1857. 


282  ESSAYS. 

they  impute  motives  to  other  critics.  With  Drechsler  may  be 
coupled  Rudolf  Stikr,'  better  loved  perhaps  in  E^^dand 
than  in  his  own  country,  who  has  left  us  an  exposition  of 
chajjs.  xl.  Ixvi.,  of  real  value  for  its  spiritual  insight  and  con- 
scientious endeavour  to  base  the  Christian  or  theological 
upon  the  philoloi^ical  meanintj.  Much  of  what  has  been  said 
above  of  Hengstenbert^  is,  however,  applicable  to  Stier.  He 
is  vehement  and  incisive  in  his  language  (but  his  vehcmenec 
somehow  hurts  less  than  that  of  others),  has  no  historical 
sense,  and  is  not  a  sound  Hebrew  scholar,  being  (unlike 
I  lengstenberg)  afraid  of  deriving  anytliing,  even  in  scholar- 
ship, from  a  rationalistic  source. 

We  are  in  a  very  different  atmosphere  as  we  read  the 
commentary  of  Knobel-  (died  1S63).  A  model  of  conden- 
sation, it  well  deserves  its  name  of  'exegetical  handbook.' 
Great  merit  is  due  to  it  for  its  linguistic  and  archaeological 
uKpijSeia,  but  the  author's  view  of  prophecy  is  low  (sec  his 
Pyol>lutis)niis,  Breslau,  1837),  and  in  the  latter  part  of  Isaiah 
his  excessive  realism  blinds  him  to  the  poetry  of  the  form  — 
he  seeins  to  expect  the  prophet  to  write  with  the  exactness 
of  a  bulletin.  One  of  the  most  useful  parts  of  Knobel's  work 
is  tlie  collection  of  stylistic  peculiarities  in  H.  Isaiah,  which, 
however,  requires  careful  sifting. 

But  without  depreciating  his  predecessors,  apart  from 
whom  his  own  achievement  would  have  been  impossible,  it  is 
but  fair  to  admit  that  far  the  most  complete  and  ecpial 
commentary  is  that  of  Dr.  FkAN/  Delitzsch.'  He  who 
will  patiently  read  and  digest  the  new  edition  of  this  masterly 
work  will  receive  a  training  both  for  head  and  heart  which 
he  will  never  regret.  I  think,  indeed,  that  the  learned  author 
is  now  and  then  over-subtle  in  his  grammatical  observations, 
and  too  positive  of  the  correctness  of  the  received  text  ;  ami 
also  that,  in  si)ite  of  his  intention  to  be  strictly  philological, 
he  has  once  or  twice  unconsciously  wrested  language  in  the 
interests  of  theology  ;  and  I  know  that  in  the  judgment  oi 
many  his  sentences  are  packed  so  full  of  meaning  as  to  have 
become  obscure.  lUit  these  are  but  spots  upon  the  sun  ;  ami 
I  heartil)'  take  for  ni}'  own  a  sentence  from  a  writer  whom  1 
have  had  occasion  to  criticise  severely — Dr.  Klostermann  :  — 
'  Delit/.sch,  from  his  full  stores  of  knowledge,  with  his  open 
eye  for  all  that  is  irregular  and  uncommon,  his  delicate  ear 
for  all  shades  of  expression,  his  reverent  enthusiasm  for  the 

•  7«Mi;/'i/.(,  nitht  I'studo-yts.iias  (HaiiiKii,  1850). 

*  First  rd.,  184J  ;  fourlli  (|>osiliuiiiuiis),  idiicil  liy  Dicbtil,  1872.  (DitsUl,  whoso 
iiniviTsity  Icciiins  on  Olil  listanu  iH  nljj^ion  wtTo  of  so  liigli  an  order  as  to  dcscnc 
puliliialion,  hits  liiiiistlf,  too  i-arly  tor  scu-nco,  siiico  passt-d  away.) 

3  Fiibt  cd.,  1U06  ;  tliird,  1879.     (Ll.irk's  irnnslatiun  is  from  the  first.) 


ESSAYS.  283 

word  of  the  prophets,  his  unremitting  toil,  and  conscientious 
regard  to  minutiit,  has  provided  a  commentary,  with  which 
it  will  not  be  easy  for  another  successfully  to  compete.' ' 
And  yet,  though  it  may  be  long  before  an  equally  finished 
work  is  produced,  there  is  still  so  much  obscurity,  so  much 
diversity  of  opinion,  that  we  cannot  regret  the  labour  which 
another  scholar  has  bestowed  from  the  same  point  of  view. 
Naegelsbacii's  recent  work  (1878)  is  fresh  and  independent 
even  to  a  fault.  Not  many,  I  fear,  of  its  new  interpretations 
are  likely  to  stand  ;  but  thoughtful  criticism  of  the  exegetical 
tradition  is  always  valuable,  and  the  book  has  in  some  pas- 
sages really  advanced  the  interpretation  of  Isaiah.  Perhaps 
its  special  characteristic  is  this — that  it  regards  the  Bible  as 
one  great  organism,  of  which  the  Book  of  Isaiah  is  a  part, 
and  that  it  canies  out  this  principle  with  greater  fulness 
than  previous  writers.  The  abundance  of  well-chosen  parallel 
passages  is  a  boon  equally  to  the  pure  linguist  and  to  the 
e.KCgete  ;  of  the  invaluable  collection  of  deutcro-Isaianic  words 
at  the  end  of  the  book  I  have  spoken  already. 

But  to  come  nearer  home.  Is  it  not  a  strange  phe- 
nomenon that  our  English  and  American  theologians  should 
be  so  little  awake  to  the  importance  of  a  thorough  study  of 
the  prophets?  General  dissertations  on  prophecy  are  not, 
indeed,  entirely  wanting,  but  calm  and  candid,  self-denying 
and  theory-denying  exposition  of  the  sacred  texts  is  still 
sadly  in  arrears.  Putting  aside  the  modest,  but  very  useful, 
compilation  of  the  American  Albert  Barnes  (Glasgow,  1845), 
I  can  call  to  mind  but  four  professedly  independent  commen- 
taries on  the  whole  of  Isaiah'^ — those  respectively  of  l)rs. 
IlKNDEKSOxN,  ALEXANDER,  and  Kav,  and  of  Professor  Bikks. 
The  first  of  the  four  certainly  supplied  with  more  or  less 
ability  a  want  painfully  felt  in  our  exegetical  literature.  It 
is  unambitious  in  its  object,  and  confines  itself  mainly  to  the 
letter  of  the  sacred  text.  But  though  full  of  valuable  in- 
formation, it  is  an  unsafe  guide  even  in  its  chosen  field  of 
scholarship.  The  colour  of  its  exegesis  is  orthodox,  but  it 
stands  entirely  apart  from  every  form  of  scientific  theology. 
The  second  is  by  far  the  most  complete,  and  does  high 
honour  to  the  American  theology  of  its  date.  It  is  at  once 
full  (some  perhaps  will  say,  too  full)  and  accurate  ;  but  its 
point  of  view  is  that  of  I  lengstenberg,  and  it  is  no  longer  at 
the  centre  of  the  exegetical  movement.  The  third,  from  its 
brevity,  would  seem  to  address  itself  to  the  class  for  whom 

«   Zciis.kri/tfiir  luthaische  Thcologic,  1876,  p.  \(\ 

-  Hi'iidcrson,  firi^t  cd.  1840;  second,  1852.     Akxandcr,   odiicd  liy   Eadic,  2  vols. , 
Edinburgh,  1S65.     Kay,  1875.     Bnks,  first  cd.,  1871  ;  sttond,  1878.' 


284  ESSAYS. 

the  Speakers  Com  men  hi  ry  was  ov'xiixwAWy  intended-  the  inquisi- 
tive but  much-occupied  laity,  and  the  practical  clergy.  In  spite 
of  its  incompleteness,  it  is  certainly  one  of  the  most  original 
contributions  to  Canon  Cook's  scries.  Like  Kwald,  the  author 
puts  aside  incre  historical  and  archicological  investigations  as 
not  touching  the  root  of  the  matter  :  the  text  itself,  both  in  its 
primary  grammatical  sense  and  in  its  spiritual  application, 
absorbs  the  energies  of  the  interi)reter.  Ikit  I  shall  best 
consult  the  interests  of  the  student  by  quoting  the  words  of  a 
courteous  and  fair  Continental  critic,  though  of  an  opposite 
school  to  the  author.  I  le  writes  thus,  in  reviewing,  with  that 
discriminating  tact  which  characterises  him,  the  two  e.\e- 
getical  works  of  Dr.  Kay  on  the  I'salms  and  on  Isaiah  :  — 
'  Dr.  Kay  is  one  whom  I  would  gladly  see  on  our  side.  lie 
is  not  only  a  good  Hebrew  scholar;  not  only  very  well  read 
in  the  Old  Testament  ;  but  also,  if  I  am  not  altogether  deceived, 
a  thoroughly  earnest  and  above  all  an  upright  man.' '  The 
drawback  which  Dr.  Kuenen  finds  is  a  'self-confidence'  which 
goes  hand  in  hand  with  '  very  subjective  and  fantastic  views, 
in  which  he  often  stands  entirely  alone,  or  which,  at  least. 
have  hardly  an  adherent  besides  himself,  but  which  not- 
withstanding are  propounded  in  so  positive  a  tone  that  the 
unsuspicious  reader  may  well  be  taken  by  surprise.'  -  I  have 
myself  been  often  struck  by  the  'subjective'  character  of  Dr. 
Kay's  Hebrew  philology,  though  I  gladly  admit  that  one 
may  learn  much  from  his  rare  command  of  the  facts  of 
the  language.  His  theological  arguments  would,  I  venture  to 
think,  have  gained  considerably  both  in  intrinsic  value  and  in 
effectiveness,  if  he  had  been  able  to  recognise  the  elements  of 
good  in  those  who  are  still  struggling  towards  the  light.  In 
one  sense,  no  doubt,  '  the  true  light  now  shincth,'  ami  I  at 
least  must  agree  with  Dr.  Ka)',  as  against  Dr.  Kuenen  in  his 
review,  that  '  no  one  who  is  held  in  tiic  chains  of  naturalistic 
speculation  is  ([ualified  to  expound  the  writings  of  the 
l)rophets'  {\\  3).  Hut  this  general  principle  will  not,  I 
submit,  justify  the  learned  author  in  throwing  down  the 
gauntlet  (as  he  has  done)  to  all  critical  incjuiry  into  the 
historic  antl  proi)helic  literature  of  the  Old  Testament.  If 
>-ou  wish  to  overcome  heterodox}-,  \  ou  must  surely  do  so 
from  within,  and  not  from  without.  IbtenKloxy  is  a  i)r(Hiuct 
of  mixed  origin,  and  you  must  not  violate  charity  ami  truth 
b\-  imputing  it  to  a  single  cause.  Are  you  sure  that  \(>ur 
own  form  of  '  supernaluralism  '  is  ailequatc  to  all  the  facts 
of  the  Scriptures  (to  say  nothing  of  physical  science)  ?     Have 

'    T/uofo/;isik  I'lidsi  hi ifl,  1871,  p.  3^. 
»  Itid..  1875,  p.  569. 


ESSAYS.  285 

you,  indecil,  already  discovered  all  those  facts,  so  that  }'ou 
have  no  further  '  lij^dit  '  to  wish  for  ?  I^veii  if  )'ou  rep!)-  in  the 
affirmatix'C,  charit\-  and  truth  both  forbid  you  to  assume  that 
all  who  are  not  equally  confident  are  cither  already  'natu- 
ralists,' or  drifting  into  '  naturalism.'  Surely  it  is  as  plain 
as  the  day  that  there  is  a  growing  school  of  criticism  and 
exegesis,  neither  in  any  stiff  sense  orthodox,  nor  yet  ratio- 
nalistic, which  welcomes  and  assimilates  fragments  of  truth 
from  all  quarters.  Dr.  Kay  will,  I  trust,  listen  to  this  echo 
of  a  younger  and  more  hopeful  generation. 

Some  of  these  remarks  are  equally  applicable  to  Professor 
Birks,  who  is,  however,  without  the  counterbalancing  merit  of 
sound  Hebrew  scholarship.  Of  his  painfully  unphilological 
treatment  of  the  stylistic  peculiarities  of  II.  Isaiah  I  have 
spoken  elsewhere  ;  his  historical  tact  may  be  estimated  by 
his  contemptuous  attitude  towards  '  the  boastful  bulletins  of 
idolatrous  kings '  (p.  376) — i.e.  the  royal  Assyrian  inscrip- 
tions. 'Independence'  of  this  kind  is  not  a  merit  but  a 
failing;  how  different  is  the  winning  humility  of  the  accom- 
plished author  of  our  best  popular  commentary  on  Isaiah, 
Ucan  Plu.MPTRE,'  and  the  liberal  spirit  and  historic  insight 
of  Sir  Edward  Strachey  in  the  work  of  which  the  title  is 
given  below.^  This  too  is  emphatically  a  popular  work  ;  it 
seeks  primarily  for  the  moral  and  political  lessons  of  the  great 
prophet,  and  treats  of  the  historic  background  in  complete 
subordination  to  these.  There  is  much,  therefore,  which 
strongly  attracts  the  cultivated  lay  reader  ;  it  is  only  critics  of 
the  new  historical  school  (of  the  existence  of  which  the  author 
is  evidently  unaware)  who  will  be  unpleasantly  impressed 
by  some  features  of  the  book.  The  objects,  methods,  and 
results  of  the  '  higher  criticism  '  in  its  present  stage  are  still 
urealised  by  the  author,  who  even  fancies  that  he  has  dis- 
covered a  new  historical  argument  for  the  unity  of  the  book 
by  the  aid  of  the  Assyrian  inscriptions.  The  argument 
applies  directly,  indeed,  only  to  chaps,  xiii.,  xiv.,  xxi.  i-io, 
and  xxxix.  6  ;  but  it  has  evidently  a  certain  indirect  bearing 
on  the  authorshi[)  of  chaps,  xl.-  Ixvi.  I  am  m\-self  prox'isionally 
at  least  satisfied  with  the  theory  which  Sir  Edward  Strachey 
has  advocated  with  regard  to  chap.  xxi.  i-io,  but  the  probletns 
of  chaps,  xiii.,  xiv.,  xxxix.  6,  and  xl.-lxvi.,  are  not  so  easily 
solved  (see  vol.  i.  pp.  Si,  239),  and  must  still  be  left  to  what 
is  with  no  disparaging  allusion  called  the  'higher  criticism.' 
It  is  painful  to  ha\e  to  utter  the  truism  that,  though  common 
sense  has  much  to  do  with  science,  it  is  a  trained  and  culti- 

'  See  vol.  iv.  of  KUicott's  Commentary  for  English  Readers,  1884. 

^  yaaish  History  and  Politics  in  the  Timet  of  Sargon  and  Sennacherib,  1874. 


2  86  ESSAYS. 

vatcd  common  sense  which  is  required.  Many  as  arc  the 
faults  of  German  writers  on  the  Bible  ;  a  disret^ard  of  the 
necessity  of  philoloLjical  traininj^  is  not  one  of  them.  lUit  I 
cannot  allow  myself  to  part  from  so  sympathetic  a  work  in 
the  tone  of  complaint.  Let  me  rather  quote  a  passage  with 
which  I  am  in  the  heartiest  agreement,  and  which  well  ex- 
presses one  of  the  primary  requisites  both  of  the  commen- 
tator upon  Isaiah  and  of  his  reader.  '  If  we  will  be  rational, 
no  less  than  if  we  will  be  Christian,  we  must  steadily  re- 
cognise the  reality— the  objective,  independent  reality — of 
that  communication  which  Isaiah  was  thus  qualified  to  be- 
come the  recipient  of  How  this  could  be,  how  God  reveals 
His  mind  and  will  to  men,  how  the  poetic  or  other  human 
faculty  gives  form  and  expression  to  truths  not  imagined  nor 
discovered,  but  communicated  from  on  high — this  can  never 
be  exjilained  :  an  explanation  is  a  contradiction  in  terms,  an 
assertion  that  the  Infinite  is  definable,  that  the  Superhuman 
is  subject  to  the  laws,  and  expressible  in  terms,  of  the  human ' 
(pp.  S7,  88). 


NOTE. 

Amonj]f  minor  Cin^r/t'ca/  works  on  Isai.^h,  both  Continental  and  Eng- 
lish, the  following  seem  to  have  a  claim  to  be  mentioned  : — 

K.  V.  K.  Rosenmiiller:  Jcsaicr  vaiicinia  amiotaiionc  pcrpetua  illus- 
travit  E.  F.  C.  R.     3  vols.     Lips.     1811-20. 

T.  Roorda.  Annotationcs  ad  vaticinia  Jcs.  i.-ix.  6,  in  Juynboll's 
Oriaitalia,  i.  67-174.     Amstel.  1S40. 

C.  V.  Caspari.  Bciirat^c  zur  KinlcUung  in  das  Buck  Jcsaja,  Berlin, 
1848.     [Conservative  :  thorough  to  a  fault.] 

Ucbcr  den  syrisch-cphraimiiischcn   Kricg  untcr  Jo/ham  utid 

Ahaz  (1849). 

E.  Meier.  Dcr  Prophet  Jcsaja.  Erste  Ilalftc  [cc.  i.-xxiii.]  Pforz- 
heim, 1850.     [School  of  Ewald.] 

S.  I).  Luzzatto  (died  1865).  11  Prflfeta  Isaiaiiolgarizzatoc commcniaio 
ad  uso  dcgli  Isracliii.     I'adova,  1855-67. 

[An  Italian  translation  with  a  Hebrew  commentary.  Acute  and  very 
suggestive.] 

L.  Reinkc.  Die  messianischen  Wcissagungcn  bei  den  grosseu  uiid 
klcincn  Prophcten  dcs  Alten  Testaments.  Giessen,  1859-62.  [Roman 
C.itholic  ;  learned  and  accurate.     Vols.  i.  and  ii.  refer  to  Isaiah.] 

V.  F.  Ochler.  Der  Kneeht  Jehova's  im  Deuterojesaia.  Stuttgart, 
1865. 

\Not  by  the  author  of  the  w  cll-known  Old  Testament  Theology.,  but 
from  a  kindred  point  of  view.  Contains  a  commentary  on  all  the  pas- 
sages relative  to  the  '  .Servant  of  Jehovah.'] 

L.  Scincckc.  l^er  Evangelist  des  Alten  Testaments.  l.tijv.ig,  1870. 
[Accepts  the  unity  of  chaps,  xl.  Ixvi.,  but  dates  the  book  at  the  close  of  the 
Babylonian  ICxile  ;  the  author,  howcxcr,  is  placed  in  Palestine.     A  sug- 


ESSAYS.  287 

gestlve  commentary,  though  xis/ortc  is  not  in  philology.  Comp.  Richm's 
review  in  Thcoloi^ischc  Studicn  und  KritikcH^  1872,  pp.  553-578.] 

B.  Stade.  Dc  Isin'cr  Vatichiiis  ACthiopicis  Diatribe.  Leipzig,  1873. 
[A  learned  philological  and  historical  commentary  on  chaps,  xvii.  12-14, 
xviii.,  and  xx.J 

A.  Hildebrandt.  Judo's  Verhiilttiiss  zu  Assyricn  in  Jcsajds  Zeit 
nach  Keilinschriftcnund  Jesaia7iischen  Prophetieen.  Marburg,  1874.  [A 
suggestive  but  premature  illustration  of  Isaiah  from  the  Assyrian  m- 
scriptions.] 

Art.     'Jesaja  Cap.  xl.-lxvi.     Eine  Bitte  um  Hiilfe  in  grosser 

Noth.'     Zeitschrifl  fiir  luthcrischc  T/teologie,  1876,  pp.  1-60. 

Aug.  Klostermann.  Art.  'Jesaja'  in  Herzog's  Real-encyclopddic,  vol.  vi. 
[Arbitrary,  but  suggestive.] 

H.  Oort.     'Jesaja  xl.'     Thcologisch  Tijdschriff,  1876,  p.  528,  &c. 

A.  Kohut.  '  Antiparsische  Ausspriicheim  Deuterojesaias.'  Zeitschr. 
d.  d.  m.  Gcs.  1S76,  pp.  709-722.  [A  wild  attempt  to  show  tliat  II.  Isaiah 
is  pervaded  by  an  anti-Zoroastrian  tendency.  Answered  by  de  Harlez  in 
the  Revue  des  questions  historiqucs^  April  1877,  and  Malthes  in  the 
Theologisch  Tijdsehrift,  Nov.  1S77.] 

J.  H.  Scholten,  '  De  lijdende  knecht  Gods,  Jes.  liii.'  Theologisch  Tijd- 
schriff, 1878,  p.  117,  &c. 

Ed.  Reuss.  Les  Prophlies,  2  vols.,  Paris,  1876.  [Arranged  chrono- 
logically with  introductions,  and  short,  very  clear  footnotes.  The  pul)- 
lication  was  postponed  by  the  Franco-Prussian  war.  From  a  'liberal' 
point  of  view.] 

Friedr.  Kcistlin.  Jesaia  und  Jeremia.  Ihr  Leben  und  Wirken  aus 
ihren  Schriften  dargestellt.  Berlin,  1879.  [A  re-arrangement  of  the 
'genuine'  prophecies,  with  historical  illustrations.] 

Lagarde's  Scniitica  and  a  few  articles  in  journals  by  Kleinert  and 
others  have  been  referred  to  already. 

To  the  English  works  mentioned  above,  and  in  the  course  of  the 
commentary  (for  Perowne,  see  on  chap.  viii.  16;  Taylor,  on  viii.  21  ; 
Sayce,  on  x.  5,  &c.  ;  Urwick,  Neubauer  and  Driver,  on  lii.  13,  &c.)  add  :• — 

G.  Vance  Smith.  The  Prophecies  relating  to  Nirievch  and  the  Assy- 
rians. Lond.  1857.  [One  of  the  first  attempts  to  utilise  the  Assyrian 
monuments.] 

R.  Payne  Smith.  The  Authenticity  and  Messianic  Interpretation  oj 
the  Prophecies  0/  Isaiah  vindicated  in  a  Course  0/  Sermons  preached  be/ore 
the  University  of  Oxford.  Oxford  and  London,  1862.  [A  useful  intro- 
duction to  the  Messianic  prophecies,  from  Hengstcnberg's  point  of  view; 
the  lines  of  Jewish  interpretation  are  well  sketched.] 

J.  M'Gill.  'Ciitical  Remarks  on  Isa.  xviii.  i,  2,'  m  Journal  of  Sacred 
literature,  1862,  pp.  310  324.  [The  work  of  an  eminent  Professor  of 
Oriental  Languages  at  St.  Andrews  (see  Dr.  Pusey's  Daniel)  ;  retrograde 
e.xegesis.] 

Rowland  Williams.  The  Hebreiu  Prophets  translated  afresh  from  the 
Original.  2  vols,  [each  containing  a  part  of  Isaiah].  Lond.  1866-71. 
[Very  complete  in  its  plan,  combining  as  it  does  the  literary,  historical, 
philological,  and  theological  points  of  view.  Its  chief  merits  are  analo- 
gous to  those  of  Sir  E.  Strachey's  book  noticed  above  ;  the  philology  is 
eccentric  and  unsound.  The  view  of  prophecy  resembles  in  its  vagueness 
that  held  by  Ewald.] 

Stanley  Lcatlies.  T!ie  Witness  of  the  Old  Testaincnt  to  Christ ;  being 
the  Poyle  lectures  for  1868.  Lond.  1868.  [An  appendix  on  the  argu- 
ment from  style,  which  betrays  a  grave  misconception  of  its  nature— see 
above,  p.  232— is  the  re^ison  for  mentioning  this  pleasingly  written  popu- 
lar work.] 


2  88  ESSAYS. 

T.  K.  Clieyne.  Notes  a7id  Critiiisms on  (he  Hebre^v  Text  of  Isaiah 
Lond.  1868. 

The  Book  of  Isaiah  Chfonolop'cai/y  affatti^eii.     Loncl.  1870. 

C.  Taylor.  'An  Interpretation  of  DM3  HT','  in  Jouniat  of  I'hiloloi^y^ 
1S79,  pp.  62  66.  [Tliinks  tliat  'the  word  required  is  one  wliirh  describes 
a  f>assi7'e  condition  of  wonderment,'  on  account  of  the  followinj^  clause  ; 
and  sugj;ests  'so  shall  he  aj^ast,  or  aghast,  many  nations,'  making 
m?  -  nrn' ;  comp.  onn,  Ki.  10.  But  the  meaning  of  onn  is  doubtful, 
if  indeed  the  text  is  correct.] 

H.  Kriiger.  Essai  stir  la  ihc'ologie  (T ^sai'e,  xl.-lxvi.  Par.  iSSi.  [A 
faithful  and  sympathetic  study  of  the  religious  ideas  of  II.  Isaiah,  well 
atlapted  for  English  students.] 

W.  H.  Cobb.  'Two  Isaiahs  or  One?' in  Bibliotheca  Sacra,  1881, 
p.  230,  <S:c.  ;  1882,  p.  104,  &c.  [.See  above,  p.  253,  jiote.  If  the  critical 
value  of  the  conclusions  is  but  slight,  the  tables  will  still  be  useful  com- 
panions to  the  student  of  the  text  of'  Isaiah.'] 

'  The  Integrity  of  the  Book  of  Isaiah,'  in  Bibliotheca  Sacra, 

1882,  p.  519,  &c.     [Oq  the  traditional  side.] 

\V.  Robertson  Smith.  The  Prophets  of  Israel  and  their  Place  in 
History  to  the  Close  of  the  Eighth  Century  B.C.  Edinburgh,  1S82.  [I'leshly 
written,  learned  and  suggestive,  this  work  stands  alone  in  our  higher 
theological  literature.  The  author's  arrangement  of  the  proj^hecics  of 
Isaiah  diftcrs  considerably  from  my  own,  owing  to  his  rejection  of  the 
theory  of  an  invasion  of  Judah  by  Sargon.     See  above.  Essay  1.] 

S.  M.  Schiller-.Szinessy.  An  Exposition  of  Isaiah  \\\.  13,  14,  \t,,anii 
liii.  Cambridge,  1882.  [The  subject  of  the  jirophecy,  Israel,  as  repre- 
sented by  the  pious  in  his  midst,  culminating  in  the  Messiah.] 

E.  H.  I'lumptre.     'An  Ideal  Biography  of  Isaiah,'  in  Expositor,  1883. 

To  these  must  be  added  the  primitive,  unconscious  commentators,  to 
whom  the  present  work  has  been  so  largely  indebted,  and  of  whom  we 
have  by  no  means  heard  the  last.  Three  deserve  to  be  mentioned  with 
special  honour,  though,  inasmuch  as  (like  most  of  the  Hebrew  chroniclers) 
they  wrote  anonymously,  they  can  only  be  entered  under  the  names  of 
their  translators. 

George  Smith.      The  Assyrian  Eponyin  Canon.     Lond.  1875. 

Ilistoiy  of  Sennacherib  ;  translated  from  the  cuneiform  inscrip- 
tions.    Edited  by  A.  H.  Sayce.     Lond.  1878. 

E.  A.  Budge.  History  of  Esar- 1 laddon  ;  from  the  cuneiform  inscrip- 
tions.    Lond.  1880. 

(For  further  references,  see  the  present  work  passim.  The  time  has 
hardly  come  for  a  critical  conspectus  of  Assyriological  literature.) 


XL     IL  ISALMI    AND    THE    INSCRIPTIONS. 


Wf.  have  now  traversed  most  of  the  subjects  dircctl)-  or 
indirectly  connected  with  the  interjiretation  of  Lsaiah,  and 
with  the  foregoing  rapid  survey  of  the  history  of  the  exec^esis 
of  the  book  it  would  seem  as  if  we  had  reached  oiu'  goal. 
All   that    reniaincil    wouUl    be    in    that    case    to   resume    the 


KSSAVS.  2  89 

*  gathering  up  '  of  the  '  fragments  '  which  might  ha\e  escajjed 
insertion  in  the  commentary.  But  before  taking  this  last 
step,  1  must  return  to  a 'fragment'  of  moie  than  ordinary 
significance,  which  has  already  found  a  place  at  the  end  of 
the  first  volume.  It  relates  to  a  discovery  which  not  only 
throws  great  light  on  some  of  those  passages  which  '  remain 
vague  and  obscure  till  we  know  the  circumstances  under 
which  they  were  written  '  (p.  224),  but  also  has  a  special  bear- 
ing on  the  great  question  (too  great  to  be  entered  upon  here) 
of  the  limits  or  conditions  of  prophecy. 

The  remarkable  favour  shown  to  the  Jewish  exiles  by  Cyrus 
has  long  attracted  the  attention  of  students.  Was  it  dictated 
by  political  motives  ?  such  is  the  first  possibility  which  pre- 
sents itself.  In  reply,  it  must  be  observed  that  if  gratitude 
had  any  influence  on  the  action  of  Cyrus,  it  can  only  have 
been  as  *  a  lively  sense  of  favours  to  come.'  The  statement  of 
the  prophet  in  xlv.  13  ('  He  shall  build  my  city,  and  mine 
exiled  ones  shall  he  send  home,  not  for  price,  and  not  for 
reward  ')  precludes  us  from  supposing  that  his  countr)-men 
were  conscious  of  having  placed  Cyrus  under  an  obligation. 
The  accuracy  of  the  prophet,  however,  is  not  in  the  least 
disparaged  by  the  hypothesis  that  one  of  the  secondary 
motives  of  the  Persian  was  the  belief  that  the  restored  Jews 
would  form  a  useful  outpost  in  a  distant  part  of  his  dominions. 
This  leaves  us  free  to  maintain,  with  the  prophet,  that  the 
determining  motives  of  Cyrus  w^ere  religious  ones  ;  and  this 
view^  of  the  case  has  appeared  to  be  confirmed  by  the  history 
of  Persian  religion.  The  description  of  Ormazd  in  such  an 
early  document  as  the  inscription  of  Darius  referred  to  in  the 
note  on  xlv.  7  might,  from  the  purity  of  its  monotheism,  have 
been  penned  by  a  Jewish  prophet  in  honour  of  Jehovah.  It 
would  have  been  quite  in  the  spirit  of  the  highest  Old  Testa- 
ment revelations  to  regard  such  homage  to  Ormazd  as  un- 
consciously offered  to  the  true  God  Jehovah  (vol.  i..  p.  261), 
and  a  devout  monotheist  like  Cyrus  as  only  needing  some 
one  to  '  teach  him  the  way  of  God  more  perfectly.'  Such  a 
friendly  guide  it  was  natural  to  discover  in  the  author  of  the 
prophetic  passages  relative  to  Cyrus,  which,  as  I  have  sug- 
gested elsewhere,  may  be  plausibly  viewed  as  an  apologia  for 
the  Jews  and  their  religion  addressed  to  their  conqueror.' 
The  prophet  himself  does  not  as  \-et  look  upon  Cv'rus  as  a 
full  adherent  of  the  true  religion,  but  he  cherishes  the  firm 
conviction  that  Cyrus  will  become  such  at  no  distant  day. 

But  now  comes  Sir  Henry  Rawlinson's  discovery  among 

•  The  view  is  equally  admissible,  whether  the  standing-point  of  the  author  of  the 
litter  chapters  be  acti'.ajly,  or  only  idf-ally,  at  the  close  of  the  Exile. 

VOL.    II.  U 


290  KSSAVS. 

the  latest  treasures  from  Hab}lon,  and  throws  the  gravest 
doubt  not  only  on  our,  but  on  what  we  have  supposed  to 
be  t/ie  prophet's,  estimate  of  Cyrus.  It  represents  him  as  a 
complete  religious  indifferentist,  willinj^f  to  <^o  through  any 
amount  of  ceremonies,  to  soothe  the  prejudices  of  a  susceptible 
population.  Fresh  from  the  pages  of  II.  Isaiah,  it  is  difficult 
to  realise  that  Cyrus  was  caj^able  of  this.  Me  there  appears 
like  an  idealised  David,  a  '  man  after  God's  own  heart  '  in  the 
fullest  sense  of  the  English  phrase.  His  conquest  of  Babylon 
is  the  signal  for  an  iconoclasm  which  marks  the  downfall  of 
the  false  religions.  '  Bel  boweth  down,  Nebocroucheth  ;  their 
idols  are  given  up  to  the  beasts  and  to  the  cattle  '  (xlvi.  i) — 
such  is  the  vision  before  the  prophet's  inner  eye.  Not  so, 
says  the  *  broad '  and  politic  Cyrus.  '  The  gods  dwelling 
within  them  to  their  places  I  restored  '  (///  asib  libisunu  ana 
asrisitnu  utir)  \  'daily  I  addressed  Bel  and  Nebo  that  the 
length  of  my  days  they  should  fulfil  ;  that  they  should  bless 
the  decree  of  my  fate,  and  to  Merodach  my  lord  should  say 
that  Cyrus  the  King  thy  worshipper  and  Cambyses  his  son 
.  .  .'  {yo])ii  sai/i  makhar  Bel  va  A'abu  sa  araku  yoiuiya  iita>nu 
litibkaru  adnata  dioikiya  va  ana  Mardnk  bilya  ligbu  sa  A'nras 
sarrn  palikhika  va  Kanibuziya  ablusu.  ...).' 

The  authenticity  and  accuracy  of  the  newly  discovered 
inscription  are  self-evident.  The  concessions  of  Cyrus  to 
idolatrous  polj'theism  are,  indeed,  just  what  might  have  been 
expected,  were  it  not  for  the  strong  language  of  the  prophet. 
They  are  but  txpical  examples  of  the  practice  of  the  Persian 
rulers.  Cyrus  in  Babylonia  is  the  pattern  of  his  son  Cambyses'' 
and  even  of  the  religk)us  Darius  in  Egypt.  But  we  cannot 
admit  the  accuracy  of  the  inscription  without  detracting 
somewhat  from  the  accuracy  of  the  inspired  prophet.  This 
is  no  doubt  painful  to  a  reverent  mind,  but  here,  as  ever, 
iruth  is  the  healer  of  its  own  wounds.  Has  not  Wisdom 
already  been  justified  of  her  children  ?  Throughout  our  study 
of  Isaiah  have  we  not  noticed  '  a  gracious  proportion  between 
the  revelation  vouchsafed  and  the  mental  state  of  the  person 
receiving  it '  ?  There  is  no  defect  implied  in  the  revelation, 
but  only  in  the  rcceptivcncss  of  the  human  organ.  The 
admission  of  this  relative  defect  involves  no  moral  disparage- 

'  These  are  the  last  connected  words  in  the  inscription.  I  here  follow  the  word- 
for-word  translation  of  .Sir  H.  Rawlinson  ;  in  voL  i.,  pp.  304-5,  I  gave  his  more 
rcidable  alternative  version.  Tiie  traiisliteralion  is  also  that  of  the  Nestor  of  Assyrio- 
logists  ;  it  dLfTers  in  many  technical  points  from  that  with  which  we  are  familiar.  See 
Art.  II.  in  'Journal  of  l\<>\ul  A siiitic  Soc.  y.\\\.  1880,  j)j).  70-97. 

'  In  thi-.  reference  to  the  relijjious  jxjliey  of  Canibvses  I  follow  the  contemporary 
hieroglyphic  account,  which  differs  considerably  from  that  of  Herodotus.  Sec 
Uriipsch.  History  of  I'gypt,  ii.  297,  and  comp.  Dr.  Hirch,  Rede  Lecture  (1879), 
p.  40. 


ESSAYS.  291 

ment  of  the  latter.  In  the  case  before  us,  for  instance,  the 
prophet  overrates  Cyrus  just  because  he  is  so  completely  a 
prophet.  His  character  is  too  simple,  too  religious,  for  him 
to  realise  a  mental  state  so  mixed,  a  policy  so  complicated 
with  non-religious  considerations.  He  cannot  distinguish 
between  the  king  and  the  man,  between  a  public  and  private 
character.  He  cannot  form  a  conception  of  a  religious  indif- 
ferentist.  He  will  have  '  no  bowing  in  the  house  of  Rim- 
mon.' ' 

It  is  unfortunate  that  the  cylinder-inscription  is  too  im- 
perfect to  clear  up  the  history  of  the  fall  of  Babylon  ;  but 
the  deficiency  is  supplied  by  another  cuneiform  text,  for  the 
decipherment  of  which  we  are  indebted  to  Mr.  T.  G.  Pinches.'' 
The  text  is  arranged  in  the  form  of  annals,  and  covers,  includ- 
ing the  fragmentary  portions,  the  whole  of  the  reign  of  Nabu- 
nahid  or  Nabonidus,  the  last  of  the  Kings  of  Babylon.^  The 
chief  point  of  interest  in  it  is  that  it  shows  how  it  was  that 
Cyrus  found  Babylon  so  easy  to  conquer.  Nabonidus,  in 
fact,  spent  the  last  years  of  his  reign  idling  in  his  palace 
near  Babylon,  while  his  son  was  with  the  army  in  Accad  (the 
northern  part  of  Babylonia).  He  even  neglected  the  due 
worship  of  the  gods,  thereby  giving  great  dissatisfaction  to 
the  priests.  Not  until  his  seventeenth  year  did  he  rouse 
himself  from  his  inaction.  It  was  under  the  pressure  of  fear. 
There  had  been  a  revolt  among  the  people  of  '  the  lower  sea  ' 
{i.e.  the  Mediterranean).  Then  he  began  to  think  of  his 
neglected  gods,  for  the  text  records  that  '  the  god  of  Bel  came 
forth ' — i.e.  probably  the  image  of  Merodach  was  carried 
round  in  procession  (see  on  xlvi.  i).  The  images  of  the  temples 
of  other  cities  were  also  brought,  especially  those  of  Accad, 
and  this  explains  a  statement  of  Cyrus  in  the  former  in- 
scription that  he  had  restored  the  gods  of  Sumir  and  Accad 
to  their  places.  Another  revolt,  which  occurred  in  the  last 
year  of  Nabonidus,  was  still  more  favourable  to  Cyrus  ;  it  was 
among  the  people  of  Accad.  Four  months  after  this,  Cyrus 
descended  to  Babylon,  and  took  it,  without,  as  it  would  seem, 
even  a  street- battle.''  He  then  began  that  policy  of  religious 
conciliation  which  is  to  readers  fresh  from  Isaiah  so  unavoid- 
able a  surprise. 

'  I  have  nlready  remarked  that  the  slight  inaccuracy' in  x.  10  (see  my  note)  is  a 
parallel  to  the  case  before  us.     See  also  on  xx.wi.  10. 

2   T.  S.  B.  A.,  vol.  vii.  j^p.  139-176. 

5  So  Mr.  Pinches,  in  opposition,  however,  to  Sir  H.  Rawlinson,  who  thinks  that 
the  years  belong  to  the  reign  of  Cyrus. 

••  It  was  on  the  i6th  of  the  Babylonian  month  Dumua  (Tanimuz).  On  the  15th, 
corresponding  to  Midsummer  Day,  there  was  a  religious  festival,  of  the  nature  of  a 
marriage-feast,  and  probably  of  an  orgiastic  character  (comp.  Dan.  v.).  See  Mr.  Bos- 
cawen's  letter  in  AthencEum,  July  9,  188 r. 


292  ESSAYS. 

A  minor  point  which  is  finalK'  settled  by  the  cylinder- 
inscription  is  the  c^cnealojj^y  of  C\'rus. 

The  line  of  descent  from  Acha;mencs  to  C>'rus  is,  i. 
Achajmcnes,  2.  Teispes,  3.  Cyrus,  4.  Cambyses,  and  5.  Cyrus. 
Teispcs,  it  will  be  remembered,  is  also  mentioned  both  in 
Herodotus  (vii.  1 1)  and  in  the  Behistun  inscription  of  Darius ' 
among  the  ancestors  of  the  latter  king. 

Sepie7nber  icSo. 

2. 

The  above  results  would  be  sufficiently  important,  were  it 
certain  (as  I  have  hitherto  assumed  it  to  be)  that  C}'rus  was 
a  Zoroastrian  believer  ;  and  as  soon  as  we  have  put  aside  our 
preconceived  opinion  respecting  Cyrus,  we  can  see  that  they 
arc  in  themselves  plausible.  Prof.  Sayce,  indeed,  appears  to 
think  that  the  theory  of  Cyrus's  indiffcrcntism  is  excluded 
by  the  religious  veneration  with  which  he  speaks  of  the 
Babylonian  deities.  But  is  it  not  a  characteristic  of  primitive 
jiaganism,  as  opposed  to  the  full  Biblical  religion,  that  it 
permits  the  most  various  forms  of  belief  to  exist  peaceably 
side  by  side  ?  I  for  m\'  part  can  see  nothing  more  wonderful 
in  the  religious  tolerance  of  Cyrus  than  in  that  of  any  other 
primitive  pagan  monarch.  The  really  surprising  fact,  which  I 
have  not  here  to  consider,  is,  that  this  primitive  tolerance 
does  now  and  then  give  way  to  a  violent  spirit  of  religious 
centralisation  ;  e.(^.  in  the  noted  case  of  Antiochus  Ejiiphanes. 
But  such  instances  belong  to  the  decline  of  a  civilisation.  And 
certainly  if  Darius,  who  makes  such  a  parade  of  his  Zoroas- 
trian faith,  adopted  the  policy  of  religious  indifferentism  in 
Egypt,  it  is  difficult  to  see  why  Cyrus  (even  though  a  less 
fervent  Zoroastrian)  should  not  have  done  so  in  Babylonia 
and  Palestine.  But  the  main  result  of  Prof  Sayce's  recently 
])ubli.shed  study  on  the  inscription  ^  is  independent  of  this 
incidental  expression  of  opinion  ;  and,  startling  as  it  is,  it 
mu.-t,  I  am  sure,  meet  with  general  acceptance.  I  ought 
to  add  that  M.  Ilalevy  (so  well  known  in  connection  with 
Semitic  inscriptions)  has  simultaneously  come  to  virtually  the 
same  conclusion.''  The  point  is  this,  that  Cyrus,  though  of 
Arjan  origin,*  was  in  all  probability  not  a  Zoroastrian  at  all. 
Before,  by  his  victory  over  Astyages,  he  became  king  of  the 
Medes  and  Persians,  he  was,  in  right  of  his  birth,  king  of 
'Anzan'  (the  native  name  for  l\lam,  =  Susiana).  'I  am 
Kuras,'   he    says,   '  son   of   Cainhuziya,    great    king,    king   of 

'  K.  F.,  vii.  87. 

'  Letter  in  ihe  Academy,  October  i6,  1880,  pp.  276-7. 

••  'Cvrub  cl  le  retoiir  de  Texil,'  in  Rr^uf  da  t'tiidcf  jtiixcs,  N'o.  i.  1  p.  41-63. 

*   I  lis  Hiimc,  however,  is  probably  nrn-.\r_\an  :  sec  below,  on  xliv.  28 


ESSAYS.  293 

Susiana,  grandson  of  Kuras,  great  king,  king  of  Susiana, 
great-grandson  of  Teispes,  great  king,  king  of  Susiana.'  Now, 
Susiana  or  (speaking  loosely)  Elam,  as  the  merest  tyro  in 
Assyriology  knows  (witness  the  names  Kudur-mabug,  Kudur- 
nankhundi,  and  the  annals  of  Assurbanipal),  was  peopled  by 
a  non-Aryan  and  idolatrous  race.^  Teispes,  the  Acha^mcnian 
(see  above),  was  no  doubt  a  Persian,  and  therefore  an  Aryan, 
but  he  and  his  band  of  fellow-Aryans  found  for  themselves  a 
new  home  among  a  non-Aryan  people.  '  The  main  bulk  of 
their  relatives,'  as  Prof.  Sayce  remarks,  '  seem  to  have  been 
left  behind  in  Persis,  and  we  cannot  wonder,  therefore,  that 
the  invaders  of  "  Anzan  '  [Elam]  should  have  intermarried 
with  the  old  inhabitants  of  their  new  home,  and  adopted  their 
religious  ideas  and  art.'  This  is  not  a  mere  hypothesis.  It 
is  expressly  stated  by  Darius  in  the  famous  Bchistun  inscrip- 
tion that  Gomates,  the  first  pseudo-Smerdis,  had  destroyed 
the  Zoroastrian  temples  {R.  P.,  vii.  91).  This,  as  Prof. 
Sayce  has  well  pointed  out,  would  have  been  an  absurd  act 
in  the  pretender,  if  Cyrus  and  his  sons  had  been  pure-blooded 
Zoroastrians.  Darius,  on  the  other  hand,  was  (to  use  his  own 
words)  'a  Persian,  son  of  a  Persian,'  and  naturally  enough 
a  strong  Zoroastrian  both  in  belief  and  in  policy.  He  '  be- 
longed to  the  elder  branch  of  the  family  which  had  remained 
behind  in  Persis,  while  the  younger  branch  had  sought  a 
new  kingdom  among  the  non-Aryan  population  of  Elam.' 
Another  documentary  evidence  pointed  out  by  Prof.  Sayce, 
is  the  peculiar  expression  used  by  Darius  in  speaking  of 
Veisdates,  the  second  pseudo-Smerdis.  He  does  not  say  that 
Veisdates  was  a  Persian,  but  that  he  was  '  a  man  who  dwelt 
(in  a  certain  town)  in  Persia.'  His  followers,  too,  are  stated 
in  the  proto-Medic  text  to  have  been  not  Persians,  but  the 
old  '  families  of  "  Anzan  "  [Elam].' 

We  can  now  appreciate  the  force  of  the  strange  silence  of 
Cyrus  in  the  cylinder-inscription  with  regard  to  Ormazd,  the 
.supreme  God  of  Zoroastrianism,  to  whom  Darius  so  constantly 
and  devoutly  refers.  The  cause  is  one  which  it  is  a  little 
painful  to  admit.  Cyrus,  on  whom  the  prophet  of  Jehovah 
lavishes  such  honourable  titles  ;  Cyrus,  who,  the  prophet  even 
appears  to  hope,  may  be  won  over  to  the  true  faith,  and 
become  a  conscious  fellow-worker  with  God  ;  is  a  polytheist 
and  an  idolater.  Still  the  inscription,  when  rightly  under- 
stood, is  not  in  conflict  with  the  prophecy,  but  only  with  a 
gloss  upon  the  prophecy.  Nebuchadnezzar,  though  an 
idolater,  is  called  in  Jeremiah  (xxv.  9,  xxvii.  6,  xliii.  10)  '  My 

•  Conip.  Mr.  S.iycc's  pa]ier  on  '  The  Languages  of  the  Cunoiforni  Inscripliotis  of 
Ei.uii  and  Mcdi.i,'  in  Traits.  Soc.  Dibl.  Arch.  iii.  465-485. 


294-  ESSAYS. 

Servant  ; '  and  the  conversion  of  idolaters  to  the  true  faith  is 
the  standing  hope  of  the  prophets.  The  pecuh'arity  of  II. 
Isaiah  is  that  in  it  the  conversion  of  an  individual  king  is 
hoped  for,  whereas  elsewhere  the  prophecy  of  conversion  is 
vague  and  general.  Yet  it  should  be  remembered  that  the 
conversion  of  Cyrus  is  only  a  hope,  not  an  assured  certainty, 
and  that  all  prophecy  relative  to  events  in  the  spiritual  sphere 
is  limited  by  the  possibility  of  the  moral  resistance  of  the 
persons  prophesied  of. 

The  shock  may  be  painful  ;  but,  as  I  have  said  before, 
truth  heals  its  own  wounds.  Our  loss,  if  loss  it  be,  is  com- 
pensated by  a  greater  gain.  It  has  often  been  said  that 
the  Old  Testament  religion  has  been  deeply  influenced  by 
Zoroastrianism  ;  and  though  I  have  repeatedly  had  occasion 
to  combat  this  view  (see  notes  above  on  xxvi.  19,  xlv.  7  ;  also 
/.C.A.,  p.  130),  I  could  not  anticipate  such  a  complete  docu- 
mentary refutation  of  it.  We  now  know  that  the  Ary^i  and 
Zoroastrian  element  did  not  obtain  supremacy  in  the  Achae- 
mcnian  empire  till  the  accession  of  Darius,  too  late  to  exert 
any  marked  influence  on  Jewish  modes  of  thought.  M. 
Halevy  remarks  that  the  case  of  the  Persian  religion  is  ana- 
logous to  that  of  the  Persian  language,  which  had  no  political 
importance  in  the  empire  of  the 'great  king;''  and  further  that, 
'  in  spite  of  the  long  residence  of  a  Persian  dynasty  at  Susa, 
the  name  of  Ahuramazda  was  so  repugnant  to  the  Susians 
that  the  Susian  redactor  of  the  Behistun  Inscription  adds  the 
descriptive  term  '•  God  of  the  Aryans."  ' 

Of  direct,  circumstantial  illustrations  of  II.  Isaiah  from  the 
newly-found  inscriptions  I  am  not  able  to  indicate  many  (see 
notes  on  xiii.  17,  xlv.  2).  Knobel,  no  doubt,  would  have 
found  more  ;  and  M.  Halevy 's  microscopic  eye  has  discovered 
points  of  contact  in  chaps,  xiii.-xiv.  23,  xlv.  1-7,  xlvi.,  from 
which  he  thinks  he  can  determine  the  date  of  those  prophetic 
passages.  I  venture  to  think  that  this  part  of  his  able  and 
stimulative  jiapcr  docs  not  show  much  evidence  of  sound 
judgment.  Why  not  be  content  with  the  one  great  result 
rel^tive  to  the  religious  position  of  Cyrus  ?  ^ 

October  1880. 

'  .Ar.-imaic  \v.-\s  the  offiiial,  as  well  as  the  commercial  lanpuage. 

'  Dr.  Kiienen  [Hihbert  lectures,  1882,  pp.  135-6,  321-2)  disputes  the  soundness  of 
the  hi'-torical  results  .nssuiufd  above,  partly  on  a  priori  grounds,  and  partly  on  the 
authority  of  M.  Opport,  who,  however,  is  too  fond  of  isolation  to  l>e  a  safe  guide. 
The  gloss  in  the  British  Museum  Corpus  of  .Assyrian  Inscriptions  (ii.  47.  18),  peremp- 
torily declares  that  .Anduan  (pronounced,  as  it  slates,  Anzan)  signifies  Klamtuv,  i.e. 
Elam  (Saycc,  Trans.  Soc.  Bibl.  Arch.,  1874,  p.  475). 


295 


LAST   WORDS    ON    ISAIAH. 


2vvaydy(T(  tu  Trfpirra-tvirnin-a  KXacrnnTa,  "fd  fxr)  n  ano\r]Tai. 
(Evang.  D.  Joann.  vi.  12.) 

On  ii.  6  (vol.  i.  p.  17).  The  suggestion  that  'the  law  of  (min) 
may  have  fallen  out  before  '  thy  people  '  (njDi;)  is  worth  considering 
(Gratz,  Die  Psalmen,  \.  138).  Hitzig's  arginnent  for  taking  the  first 
clause  as  a  continuation  of  the  address  in  tr.  5,  is  not  without  force, 
only  (di^)  cannot  mean  'nationality.' 

On  iii.  3  (vol.  i.  p.  22).  '  Expert  enchanters  '  continued  to  be  in 
request  down  to  the  Tahnudic  period,  if  not  later.  Diseases  were 
cured  partly  by  simple  remedies,  but  partly  also,  as  was  thought,  by 
the  use  of  magical  formulae  of  amulets  (comp.  v.  20.  Comp.  Eders- 
heim.  Life  of  Jesus  the  Messiah  (ed.  i),  ii.  769-773. 

On  iv.  2  (vol.  i.  p.  28).  Prof  de  Lagarde's  note  on  this  passage 
in  his  Semitica  is  not  remarkably  lucid.  How  nin''  HDV  and  pXn  ns 
can  be  antithetical,  consistently  with  the  synonymous  predicates,  is 
more  than  I  can  understand.  Nor  does  the  learned  professor  attempt 
to  explain  the  nOTSn  n)DV  of  <^jen,  xix.  25,  which  must  of  course  have 
included  the. fruits  of  cultivated  soil;  and,  as  I  have  remarked  in  the 
commentary,  the  opposite  of  the  Talmudic  phrase  '  field  of  Baal '  (see 
below)  is— not  '  fruit  of  the  land  '—but  '  field  of  fountains.'  Still, 
as  one  reviewer  of  the  Semitica  '  has  been  attracted  by  Prof  de 
Lagarde's  explanation,  I  will  quote  a  few  more  sentences.  '  nin^  nOV 
and  pxn  ns  are  evidently  opposed  ....  nttV  is  that  which  grows 
without  cultivation  ;  it  is  said  of  hair,  of  wood,  of  the  ab'J?  of  the  field. 
Lev.  xiii.  37,  Eccl.  ii.  6,  Gen.  ii.  5.  If  we  were  not  in  tlie  region  of 
the  religion  of  Jahwe,  a  formula  would  be  used  which  is  still  current 
among  Semitic  people,  in  order  to  define  the  word  rxo^  still  more 
distinctly  as  to  auTo/tarcus  4>^iv.  hv2r]  IT*?  of  the  Gemoro  is  the 
antithesis  to  fn^r^'H  JT-a  of  the  Mishno  {iVloed  kato/i,  ii.  11,  i  ;  comp. 
Buxtorf,  2412.)  "Baal's  land,"  according  to  Wetzstein  {Z.D.M.G.  xi. 
489),  means  in  Arabic  land  which  is  nourished,  not  by  springs,  but 
the  rain  of  heaven  ;  "  Baal's  fniit,"  that  which  grows  on  such  land  ' 
[comp.  Lane,  Arabic  Lexicon^  s.v.  baHuii\ 

On  chap.  vi.  (vol.  i.  p.  39).  A  parallel  to  '  Holy,  holy,  holy,'  is 
suggested  by  Friedrich  Delitzsch  in  the  thrice-repeated  'gracious,' 
'   Dr.  Ebcih.ird  N'csltc,  in  Schiirev's  f.ileraliirzcitung. 


296  l.AST    WOK  US    ON    ISAIAH. 

and  'may  Uiey  be  at  hand'  {assiir,  Ii,/ni/>u)  uttered,  the  one  at  the 
beginning,  and  the  other  at  tlie  end,  of  Assyrian  intercessory  chants. 
( ll'o  lag  das  Farad  if  si  p.  253.) 

On  vi.  2  (vol.  i.  p.  37).  'Seraphim  were  standing  above  him.' 
This  suggests,  as  my  friend  Mr.  Tomkins  remarks,  the  symbolic 
ura^i  or  royal  serj>ents  above  the  enthroned  god,  and  the  figure  of  the 
heaven  over  all  in  I'.gyptian  .scenes  of  worship.  But  it  only  suggests 
a  distant  analogy,  for  the  winged  seraphim  had  no  fixed  i)Osition  like 
the  ursi,  but  hovered  rather  than  stood.  A  more  interesting  parallel 
is  that  of  the  Egyptian  seref  (see  Mr.  Tomkins  in  my  Isaiah,  ed.  2, 
]).  284) — interesting,  however,  not  so  much  for  the  light  which  it  throws 
upon  Isaiah  as  for  its  bearing  on  the  general  question  of  the  affinities 
of  the  sera]^h-myth.  That  the  seraj^him  and  the  cherubim  were 
of  kindred  origin  may  be  surmised  from  the  Bible  itself.  Ezekiel 
transfers  an  important  detail  from  Isaiah's  picture  of  the  seraphim  to 
his  own  description  of  the  cherubim  (conip.  Isa.  vi.  2,  Ezek.  i.  11), 
and  the  two  figures  are  found  in  Rev.  iv.  8.  So,  in  Egypt,  the  seref 
represented  at  Beni  Hassan  with  other  marvellous  composite  creatures 
of  the  time  of  the  12th  dynasty  (Rosellini,  i.  pi.  xxiii.)  evidently 
corresponds  quite  as  much  to  the  cherub  as  to  the  seraph  :  it  is,  in 
fact,  a  winged  hawk-headed  lion.  We  find  the  seref  again  in  a 
demotic  papyrus  of  the  age  of  Augustus,  where  he  is  described  as 
having  '  a  beak  as  of  an  eagle,  an  eye  as  of  a  man,  strong  sides  as  of 
a  lion,  scales  as  of  a  fish  (or  turtle?),  venom  as  of  a  serpent,'  and  as 
'seizing  [his  prey]  in  his  claws  in  an  instant,  and  taking  them  above 
the  top  of  the  clouds  of  heaven.' '  A  description  which  resembles 
that  of  the  divine  bird  Zu  in  the  primitive  Babylonian  mythology — 
'the  cloud  or  storm-bird,  the  lion  or  giant  bird,  the  bird  of  prey,  the 
bird  with  sharp  beak.'  Thus  the  myth-making  imagination  in  Egypt 
flits  from  bird  to  quadruped  precisely  as  it  does  in  Mesopotamia  and 
Palestine.  Mr.  Tomkins  well  reminds  us  that  the  kiriibu  (cherub) 
of  the  portal  of  the  Babylonian  Hades  is  addressed  as  '  the  bull 
begotten  by  the  god  Zu '  (the  storm-bird). "•' 

The  explanation  of  the  vague  distinction  between  seraphim  and 
cherubim  is  a  simi)le  one.  As  we  have  seen  already,  they  were  at 
their  origin  the  mythic  expressions  of  kindred  i)hysical  phenomena. 
I'rof.  Friedrich  Delitzsch,  a  gifted  son  of  the  great  commentator  on 
Isaiah,  has  lately  pronounced  a  decisive  oi)inioii  in  favour  of  this 
thesis  from  an  Assyriological  point  of  view.  His  words  are,  'That 
the  cherubim  were  originally  a  personification  of  the  clouds,  and  the 
seraphim  of  the  serpent-like  flashes  of  lightning,  the  mythological 
texts  [)ublished    in  vol.  iv.    [of  the   British    Museum    Collection   of 

'   Kcvillout,  Rciiie  ^Kyplifinie,  1880,  p.  58  ;  1881,  p.  86. 
'  LcnoriiKint,  l.a  origines  de  ihislviic,  vol.  i.  p.  1 1<\ 


LAST    WORDS    ON    ISAIAH.  297 

Ciineifonn  Iiiscriptions\  hardly  permit  a  doubt.' '  As  the  article  in 
which  I  have  given  the  grounds  for  my  own  similar  view  as  regards 
the  cherubim  is  buried  in  an  encyclopaedia,  and  even  escaped  the 
notice  of  Lenormant,^  I  will  quote  the  substance  of  it  here,  with  an 
occasional  glance  at  Prof.  Delitzsch's  more  recent  investigation.  The 
interest  of  any  illustration  of  the  popular  beliefs  of  the  Israelites  (so 
closely  akin  to  those  of  their  neighbours,  and  by  this  kinship  almost 
compelling  us  to  a  '  supernaturalistic '  conception  of  Old  Testament 
prophecy)  may  serve  for  an  additional  excuse,  if  excuse  be  needed. 

The  late  M.  de  Saulcy  was  of  opinion  that '  the  vast  field  of  hypo- 
theses will  always  remain  open  '^  with  regard  to  the  cherubim.  Thanks 
to  the  students  of  cuneiform,  we  are  no  longer  shut  up  to  this  melan- 
choly admission  ;  something,  at  least,  can  be  affirmed  as  positively 
certain.  The  only  difificulty  arises  from  the  fact  that  the  statements 
of  the  Old  Testament  are  not  |)erfectly  uniform.  Let  us  turn  in  the 
first  instance  to  its  poetry,  which  is  often  (like  its  prophecy)  the  reposi- 
tory of  popular  mythic  expressions.  In  Ps.  xviii.  10  (2  Sam.  xxii,  11) 
Jehovah  is  described  as  '  riding  upon  a  cherub,'  but  in  the  parallel 
line  as  '  swooping ' — an  expression  which  suggests  the  idea  of  the 
flight  of  an  eagle  (comp.  Deut.  xxviii.  49,  Jer.  xlviii.  40,  xlix.  22). 
Putting  the  two  phrases  together,  we  may  conclude  that,  according  to 
one  side  of  the  myth  (retained  by  inspired  writers  as  a  part  of  their 
imaginative  apparatus)  the  cherub  was  the  eagle- winged  bearer  of 
the  deity.  This  result  would  seem  to  justify  connecting  the  word  with 
the  Assyrian  kurUbu,  a  synonym  ol  kurukku  ox  karakkii,  the  '  circling' 
bird— i.e.,  according  to  Friedrich  Delitzsch,^  the  vulture.  On  the 
other  hand,  Ezekiel  gives  the  myth  a  somewhat  different  turn.  In  a 
passage  evidently  full  of  popular  phraseology  (xxviii.  13-16),  though 
agreeing  with  the  psalmist  in  mentioning  but  one  cherub,  the  propliet 
describes  him  as  '  walking  in  the  midst  of  stones  of  fire '  (thunder- 
bolts ?),  and  as  extending  his  wings  over  '  the  holy  mountain  of 
Elohim  '  ;  in  other  words,  as  a  land-animal,  the  attendant  and  guard, 
rather  than  the  bearer,  of  the  deity.  And  in  the  fuller  account  of 
Paradise  in  Genesis,  '  the  cherubim  '  (implying  a  baud  of  cherubs)  are 
stationed  '  with  (or   near)  the  blade  of  the  turning  sword  '  {i.e.  the 

1    Wo  lag  das  Paradiesl  (1881),  p.  155. 

*  Encyclop.  Brit.  vol.  v.  (1876),  art.  'Cherubim'  ;  comp.  Lenormant,  I.cs  ori^ina 
(1880),  chap.  iii.  (Prof.  Friedr.  Delitzsch  dissents  from  this  view,  which  is  ol"  course 
no  more  than  a  plausible  hypothesis.  He  does  not  distinctlv  recognise  the  two  sides 
of  the  myth  found  in  the  Old  Testament  writings,  which  M.'  Lenormant  and  myself 
have  independently  sought  to  explain.  He  says",  'All  that  we  know  [from  the  Old 
Testament]  IS  that  the  cherub  m  were  -winged;  but  whether  thev  were  like  birds,  or 
four-footed,  or  like  men,  remains  obscure'  (  Wo  lag  das  Paradie's?  p.  i^o).  But  Ps. 
xviii.  and  Ezek.  xxviii.  seem  to  authorise  a  more  definite  statement  ;  and  at  any  rate, 
Del.  has  himself  pointed  out  that  the  Hebrew  conception  of  the  cherub  as  the'bearer 
of  the  deity  may  have  its  parallel  in  the  notion  of  the  '  throne-bearers  '  in  Babylonio- 
Absyrian  mythology  (see  e.g.  the  Deluge-story,  col.  ii.,  1.  44). 

•>  Histoire  de  I  art  jiidaii]ue,  p.  24. 

■*  Assyriscite  Siudieii,  Heft  i.  (1874),  pp.  107-S. 


298  LAST    WORDS    OX    ISAIAH. 

lightning — the  Babylonian  analogue  has  been  long  ago  pointed  out  by 
M.  Lenormant)  'to  guard  the  way  to  the  tree  of  life '(Gen.  iii.  24). 
Now,  according  to  a  talismanic  inscription  copied  by  M.  Lenormant, 
kirubu  is  a  synonym  for  the  steer  god,  whose  winged  image  filled  the 
{)lace  of  guardian  at  the  entrance  of  the  .\ssyrian  palaces  ;  and  in  the 
imaginative  description  penned  by  Ezekiel  in  Mesopotamia,  one  of 
the  four  faces  of  a  cherub  (only  two  are  spoken  of  in  Ezek.  .\li.  18) 
is  that  of  an  ox  (Ezek.  i.  10).'  We  should,  therefore,  I  venture  to 
think,  connect  the  word  'cherub'  (/^'r/7M)  primarily  with  the  Assyrian 
kirubu,  but  also,  as  proposed  above,  with  kurubu.  The  two  forms 
are  admitted  to  be  connected,^  and  are  obviously  expressive  of  some 
quality  common  to  the  king  of  birds  and  the  colossal  steer.  What 
that  quality  is,  has  at  length  been  determined.  An  Assyrian  list  of 
synonyms  contains  the  equation  (immediately  after  the  words  for 
king  and  queen,  lord  and  lady)  ka-ru-bu  —  ru-bu-u  :  karubu  is  there- 
fore a  synonym  for  rubu  '  great,  exalted,  majestic,'  and  the  root- 
meaning  is  '  to  be  great,  powerful.' 

But  we  have  not  exhausted  the  mythic  parallels  of  the  cherubim. 
The  winged  genii  found  in  the  Egyptian  temples  have  often  been 
adduced.  '  Like  the  cherubim,'  remarks  Lieblein,  '  they  are  always 
in  couples.'^  Their  name  in  Egyptian  is  not  known  ;  but  Mr.  le  Page 
Renouf  has  found  '*  in  a  very  old  portion  of  chap.  136  of  the  'Book 
of  the  Dead '  the  word  xerefu,  which  means  the  lion  forms,  symbolic 
of  the  cosmic  forces,  which  the  Osiris  sees  in  his  celestial  journey. 
This  is  at  any  rate  an  interesting  approximation  to  the  Hebrew  word  ; 
but  the  Assyrian  evidence  destroys  its  claim  to  be  regarded  as  the 
etymology.  The  winged  ypim^s,  too,  inevitably  suggest  a  compari- 
son with  the  cherubim  both  as  to  their  name  and  as  to  their  twofold 
function  of  guardians  and  bearers  of  the  deity  (Herod,  iv.  13,  iii.  106, 
yEsch.  Prom.  395).  Still  closer,  at  any  rate  to  one  form  of  the  cherub 
myth,  is  the  parallel  offered  by  the  (non-Semitic)  Elamites,  who  placed 
images  of  a  steer-god  at  the  entrances  of  their  palaces  and  temples. 
Assurbanipal  boasts  that  he  'broke  the  winged  lions  and  bulls  watch- 
ing over  the  temples  and  removed  the  winged  bulls '  {R-P-,  i.  86). 

The  origin  of  the  word  cherub  has  now  been  made  clear,  and  the 
place  of  the  conception  in  the  great  family  of  myths.  The  meaning 
is  not  more  difficult  to  discover  than  that  of  the  seraphim.  The 
cherubim  are  either  the  storm-clouds,  or  (as  Prof.  Ticle  suggests)  the 
cloud  masses  which  seem  to  guard  the  portals  of  the  sky,  and  on 
which  the  sun-god  appears  to  issue  forth  at  break  of  day.  This  will 
account  for  the  expressions  used  of  the  cherubim  both  of  the  heavenly 

'   Ezek.  X.  14  seems  to  be  comipt  ;  the  correction  is  suggested  by  i.  lo. 

'  So  Delilzsch  {op.  cil.)  :  '  Kuriihii  ist  gcwiss  wurzclvcrwaiult  mil  assyr.  ki-ru-bu.' 

^  Rerhrrches  sitr  la  chrnnolope /f;vptiinnc  iChr\s\\.\n\,\.  1873),  p.  131. 

♦  /'loucJiiig'.  o/Soc.  I'/Fib/.  An/i.  May  6,  1884. 


LAST    WORDS    ON    ISAIAH.  299 

and  of  the  earthly  'habitation  '  of  Jehovah— expressions  taken  up,  as 
it  would  seem,  by  the  inspired  writers  from  the  folklore  of  their  times. 
The  symbolic  value  of  these  striking  creations  of  the  fancy  was  too 
great  to  be  lost.     As  a  kindred  poet  says  : — 

Per  questo  la  Scrittura  condiscende 

A  vostra  facultate,  e  piedi  e  mano 

Attribuisce  a  Dio,  ed  altro  intende  ; 
E  santa  Chiesa  con  aspeito  umano 

Gabriel  e  Michel  vi  rappresenta, 

E  I'aUro  che  Tobia  rifece  sano.' 

The  reader  will  observe  two  striking  omissions  in  the  above  ;  the 
cherubim  of  the  ark  are  not  adduced  as  authorities,  nor  is  any  special 
weight  attached  to  Ezekiel's  description  in  the  so-called  Merkdbah. 
My  object  was  to  ascertain  the  popular  mythic  conception,  as  it  is  inci- 
dentally expressed  in  the  Old  Testament.  In  the  description  of  the  ark 
(to  which  Lenormant  refers  for  his  view  of  the  cherubim  as  bird-like), 
and  in  Ezekiel's  vision  the  shaping  power  of  a  wisely  directed  ima- 
gination has  modified  the  original  mythic  date.  In  a  later  passage  of 
Ezekiel  (see  above),  the  prophet  evidently  speaks  as  the  mouthpiece 
of  his  people,  but  in  chap.  i.  he  starts  from  a  foreign  version  of  the 
cherub,  and  developes  it  in  his  own  way.  He  might,  indeed,  as  well 
have  called  these  creatures  of  wonder-land  '  nirgalli '  as  '  cherubim,' 
for  by  their  outward  form  they  equally  suggest  the  winged  lion  and 
the  winged  bull.^  'It  seems  as  if  Ezekiel  sought  to  outdo  the 
Assyrian  and  Babylonian  artists  ;  as  if  the  true  religion  were  to  outdo 
its  rivals  even  in  its  symbolism.'^ 

On  chap.  vi.  (Isaiah's  humanised  seraphim).  The  winged  lions 
(nirgalli)  of  the  Assyrian  portals  sometimes  have  human  figures  as  far 
as  the  waist  (see  Vigouroux,  La  Bible,  &c.,  iv.  348,  pi.  Ixxii). 

On  chap.  vii.  (vol.  i.  p.  42).  Prof,  de  Lagarde  expresses  with 
great  cogency  the  view  that  this  chapter  is  the  work  of  a  later  editor. 
He  calls  it  'ein  cento  aus  echten,  aber  musterhaft  ungeschickt 
zusammengeflickten,  ausspriichen  des  Isaias'  {Set/iitica,  i.  9-13). 

On  vii.  13  (vol.  i.  p.  46).  My  theory  is  that  the  royal  princes 
(not  the  '  princes '  of  the  Auth.  Vers,  of  Jeremiah)  formed  a  kind  of 
order,  distinct,  nominally  at  any  rate,  from  the  DntJ*,  that  they  held 
high  positions  in  the  State,  and  in  Jeremiah's  time  exercised  the  royal 
function  of  judgment  (Jer.  xxi.  n,  12  ;  comp.  on  Isa.  i.  10).  Further, 
that  during  the  reign  of  Josiah,  the  DnB'  (a  term  which  probably  in- 
cludes representatives  of  the  people),  and  the  royal  princes,  were 
both  equally  chargeable  with  grave  offences  (Zeph.  i.  8).  Here  was  no 
doubt  the  germ  of  a  possible  oligarchy.  It  appears  from  Brugsch's 
History  that  the  same  germ  existed  in  Egypt.      Normally,  this  royal 

'  Dante,  Paradtso,  iv.  43—48. 

'  Vigouroux,  La  Bible  et  les  difcouvertes  moderttes,  iv.  338. 

'  Cheyne,  '  The  Prophecieb  of  Ezekiel,'  in  The  Clerical  World,  No,  i,  p.  8, 


300  LAST    WORDS    OX    ISAIAH. 

order  would  supply  the  counsellors  and  officials  of  the  king  ;  abnor- 
mally, they  would  (allying  themselves  jierhaps  with  the  D^TJ*  of 
non-royal  origin)  convert  the  king  into  a  kind  of  moire  dti  palai:. 
It  has  been  objected  by  Mr.  Simco.x  {^Church  Quarterly  Revie^v,  July 
1880)  that  the  massacres  of  Jehoram,  Athaliah,  and  Jehu  would  have 
left  but  few  royal  princes  remaining.  But  is  this  so  certain  ?  '  David, 
according  to  2  Sam.  v.  14-16,  had  no  less  than  eleven  sons  born  in 
Jerusalem  ;  and  in  Zech.  xii.  12  a  sort  of  secondary  royal  family  is 
mentioned,  co-ordinately  with  the  hou.se  of  David,"  viz.,  "  the  house 
of  Nathan  '"  (I.C.A.  p.  88).  It  seems  to  me  that  if  all  the  legitimate 
descendants  of  all  the  kings  and  kings'  sons  be  included,  the  '  house 
of  David '  (which  ought  strictly  to  include  the  '  hou.se  of  Nathan,' 
comp.  Luke  iii.  31)  would  be  too  numerous  and  widely  si)read  to  be 
destroyed.  Besides,  the  descendants  of  the  long-lived  Uzziah  would 
have  grown  up  by  the  time  of  the  Syrian  war. 

On  vii.  14  (vol.  i.  p.  48).  The  '  sign '  of  Immanuel.  Prof.  Robert- 
son Smith  adopts  the  e.xplanation  of  Roorda  and  Kuenen,  '  that  a 
young  mother  who  shall  become  a  mother  within  a  year  may  name 
her  child  "  God  with  us  :  "  '  and  he  remarks  elsewhere  that  viii.  3,  4 
is  a  parallel  prophecy,  with  'a  similar  and  ([uite  unambiguous  sign' 
{T/ie  Prophets  of  Israel^  pp.  272,  425),  There  is,  of  course,  no  doubt 
that,  in  some  sense,  the  birth  of  Maher-shalal-hash-ba/  may  be  called 
a  'sign  '  (see  commentary,  ad  loc.) ;  the  only  difference  between  my- 
self and  Prof  Smith  is  as  to  whether  'sign'  in  vii.  14  is  to  be  used  in 
a  different  sense  from  that  in  which  it  is  used  in  vii.  11  ;  whether  it 
is  probable  that  Isaiah  offered  Ahaz  a  wonderful  '  sign  '  in  vii.  1 1,  and 
finally  gave  him  one  of  a  lower  and  cjuite  ordinary  kind.  I  cannot 
see  that  this  is  probable.  Prof  Smith  does  not  offer  an  explana- 
tion of  '  thy  land,  O  Immanuel,'  in  viii.  8. 

On  ix.  6  (vol.  i.  p.  61).  Such  an  elaborate  sentence-name  as 
l.uzzatto  supposes  would  not  be  natural  in  Isaiah's  time,  though  it  might 
be  in  that  of  the  writer  of  Chronicles,  who  distributes  the  sentence — 
'  I  have  given  great  and  high  help  ;  I  have  spoken  visions  in  abun- 
dance 'among  '  the  imaginary  sons  of  Heman,'  giving  a  fragment  of  it 
to  each  (i  Chron.  xxvi.  4).  Del.  remarks  {Academy,  April  10,  1880) 
that  the  oldest  Assyrian  sentence-name  which  he  has  met  with  is 
Abu- ina-ekalli-lilbur,  '  May  the  father  become  old  in  the  palace.' 

On  X.  4.  For  the  pointing  Osir  in  Ex.  vi.  24  comp.  the  undoubted 
Osir  in  Ph(enician  proi)er  names,  e.g.,  .^bdosir,  Osirsamar  ;  and  for 
Khur  in  1'A'.  xvii.  10  comp.  the  Phten.  Khur  or  Khor. 

On  x.  9  (vol.  i.  p.  70).  Kadesh,  on  the  Orontes,  the  southern 
capital  of  the  Hittites,  hod  a  Semitic  name  ;  hence  a  slight  presumj)- 
tion  that  the  northern  capital  had  one  too.  Friedrich  Delitzsch 
{ParaJies,^.  268)  thinks  that  C'archemish  is  of  .Aramaic  origin  :  he 


LAST    WORDS    ON    ISAIAH.  3OI 

analyses  it,  after  G.  Hoffmann,  into  K^'-p  T]-i3  '  fortress  of  Mish,' 
on  the  ground  that  the  earher  name  of  Oropos  {i.e.  Carchemish  ?) 
was  Tehnessus  (or  Tehiiissus),  i.e.  e>>'>^  'pn,  '  heap  of  Mish '  (the 
'  fortress  '  having  at  last  become  a  'ruinous  heap'). 

On  xiii.  10  (vol.  i.,  p.  84).  One  may  ask  Lenormant,  Why  should 
not  more  than  one  brilliant  constellation  have  been  called  k's'iR  We 
can  thus  give  a  natural  explanation  of  the  plural. 

On  xiv.  4-21  (vol.  i.  pp.  88-93).  O'l  the  elegiac  form,  see  Dr. 
Budde,  in  Stade's  Zeitschrift,  1882,  pp.  12-14,  ^vho  has  proposed 
various  emendations  to  restore  symmetry  to  the  song.  Comp.  Bickell, 
Cormina  vet.  Test,  metiicc.,  p.  202. 

On  xiv.  8  (vol.  i.  p.  88).  M.  Pognon,  Assistant  Consul  of  France 
at  Beirut,  thinks  he  has  found  the  site  of  a  timber-yard  vi'here  Nebu- 
chadnezzar had  trees  cut  down  to  be  sent  to  Babylon.  At  any  rate, 
the  two  inscriptions  he  has  found  on  the  rocks  of  a  valley  (Wady 
Brissa)  on  the  E.  slope  of  Lebanon  are  chiefly  concerned  with 
building  operations  in  Babylon.  {The  Times,  Jan.  1884). 

On  xiv.  13,  14  (vol.  i.  pp.  90,  91).  The  similarity  and  the  con- 
trast of  the  general  Oriental  and  the  Israelitish  view  of  royalty  will 
be  manifest.  Some  Israelitish  kings  had  not  even  a  shadow  of  divinity 
(Hos.  viii.  4).  The  Davidic  king,  no  doubt,  approaches  the  honour 
accorded  to  the  Babylonian  and  Assyrian  kings  ;  he  is  called  Jehovah's 
son  (2  Sam.  vii.  14,  Ps.  Ixxxix.  27),  but  so  too  is  the  people' of  Israel 
(Ex.  iv.  22,  Jer.  xxxi.  9,  Hos.  xi.  i).  It  is  only  the  Messiah  who  is 
described  somewhat  as  the  neighbouring  peoples  would  describe  their 
kings— not  only  as  'my  companion  and  the  man  who  is  my  neighbour  ' 
(Zech.  xiii.  7,  pronouncing  reH),  but  even  'el  gibhor  (ix.  7,  Hebr.  6). 
The  proto-Babylonians,  however,  sometimes  went  so  far  as  to  prefix 
the  determinative  of  divinity  to  the  names  of  their  kings.  Two 
examples  of  this  are  given  by  Prof  Sayce,  T.S.B.A.  v.  442  ;  comp. 
Lenormant,  Etude  sur  quelques parties  des  syllabai?-es  cuneiformes,  p.  14. 

On  chaps,  xv.  xvi.  (vol.  i.  p.  97).  I  have  endeavoured  to  do 
justice  to  the  various  textual  phenomena,  and  I  do  not  see  how  the 
conclusion  can  be  resisted.  Wellhausen  with  much  ])robability  assigns 
the  original  prophecy  to  ihe  period  of  Jeroboam  II.  and  Uzziah,  since 
it  presupposes  that  J udah  is  a  rather  powerful  kingdom  (/;>/rir/.  Brit., 
art.  'Moab  ').  But  to  give  the  reader  the  opportunity  of  hearing  the 
other  side,  I  quote  here  Dr.  Weirs  view  as  to  the  authorship  of  the 
prophecy,  from  the  manuscript  notes  lent  to  me.  On  xvi.  1-5,  he 
confirms  the  opinion  I  have  myself  expressed  ;  his  suggestion  in  the 
words  italicised  would,  I  think,  carry  more  weight  were  it  accom- 
panied by  a  literary  analysis.  But  from  this,  Dr.  Weir  prudently 
abstained. 

'Assuming,  therefore,  that    the    two    concluding  verses    of  this 


302  LAST    WORDS    ON    ISAIAH. 

prophecy  are  from  Isaiah,  is  the  rest  of  it  also  originally  his,  or  is  it 
to  be  assigned  to  another  and  an  older  author?  The  majority  of 
modern  expositors  are  disposed  to  adopt  the  latter  alternative  ;  and 
Hitzig,  followed  by  Maurer,  had  made  an  elaborate  attempt  to  prove 
that  the  real  author  of  the  prophecy  is  Jonah,  and  that  we  have  a 
Scriptural  reference  to  it  in  2  Kings  xiv.  25.  The  style,  it  is  said, 
differs  considerably  from  that  of  Isaiah  ;  the  frequent  repetition  of 
*3  and  |3  ^U  has  been  specially  noted  ;  also  the  accumulation  of 
geographical  names.  No  trace  here,  it  has  been  said,  of  Isaiah's 
light  and  rapid  march — of  his  bold  transitions  and  combinations  ; 
the  stream  of  thought  flows  tediously  and  heavily  along,  and  cause 
and  consequence  are  marked  with  cumbrous  accuracy.  It  must  be 
allowed  that  these  remarks  are  not  altogether  groundless.  The  style 
of  the  prophecy  certainly  differs  in  some  parts  from  the  usual  style 
of  Isaiah's  compositions  ;  though  none  but  an  impatient  and  fastidious 
critic  would  pronounce  it  heavy  and  tedious.  To  account  for  this 
difference,  it  is  to  be  observed  that  there  is  in  this  prophecy  a  more 
copious  outflow  of  sympathetic  emotion  than  we  usually  find  in  the 
earlier  prophecies  of  Isaiah,  arising  probably  in  part  from  the  historical 
relationship  which  subsisted  between  Israel  and  Moab  ;  and  such 
emotion  is  quite  inconsistent  with  the  light  and  rapid  march  which 
some  critics  desiderate  here.  And  if  this  is  not  thought  to  furnish 
an  adequate  explanation  of  all  the  alleged  peculiarities,  there  is  no 
reason  why  we  should  refuse  to  avail  oi4r selves  of  the  hypothesis  that 
some  of  the  verses,  especially  in  the  fifteenth  chapter,  fnay  have  been 
quoted  from  an  earlier  prophecy} 

'  Granting  this,  it  appears  to  me  ver)'  certain  that  the  prophecy  is 
substantially  from  the  pen  of  Isaiah.  The  middle  stanza  (xvi.  1-5) 
is,  I  should  say,  unquestionably  Isaiah's.  In  the  last  stanza  the  de- 
scription of  the  vine  of  Sibmah  may  be  brought  into  comparison 
with  v.  1-6,  and  the  prominence  given  to  the  '  pride '  of  Moab  as  the 
cause  of  Moab's  fall  is  just  what  we  should  expect  from  the  author 
of  chap.  ii.  In  the  first  stanza  (chap,  xv.)  also  there  are  indications 
not  obscure,  of  the  hand  of  Isaiah,  as  in  the  latter  part  of  v.  6,  and 
in  the  closing  words  of  the  stanza  (nOv.?  in  the  construct  state 
being  found  only  in  Isaiah— com  p.  iv.  2,  x.  20,  xxxvii.  3).' 

On  XV.  6  (vol.  i.  p.  99).  '  The  waters  of  Nimrim.'  Seetzen  had 
already  identified  Nimrim  with  the  lower  part  (still  called  Nahr 
Nimrin)  of  the  Wady  pointed  out  (see  note  in  vol.  i.)  by  Consul 
Wetzstein,  the  luxuriant  meadows  of  which  form  a  strong  contrast 
with  the  gloomy  scenery'  of  the  Wady  en-Numeira.  As  to  the  mean- 
ing of   the  name  Nimrim,  it  is  rather  tempting  to  connect  it  wilh 

'    The  italicb  arc  the  editor's. 


LAST    WORDS    ON    ISAIAH.  303 

Arab,  nainir,  Assyr.  naniri  '  transparent,'  and  to  suppose  that  Beth 
Nimra  derived  its  name  from  the  waters.  But  it  has  been  pointed 
out  that  there  are  other  places  with  names  from  the  same  root,  and 
that  in  olden  times  there  were  divisions  of  Arab  tribes  bearing  names 
(Namir,  Anmar,  Nomeyr)  strongly  suggestive  of  the  panther.  The 
Syriac  writer,  Jacob  of  Sarug,  also  speaks  of  bar  nemre,  '  the  son  of 
panthers,'  as  a  false  deity  of  Harran.  I  find  it  therefore  impossible 
to  resist  the  conclusion  that  in  Nimrim,  as  well  as  in  the  other  cases, 
there  is  a  reference  to  the  panther.  What  this  panther  is,  will  be 
clear  to  those  who  are  convinced  by  Mr.  M'Lennan's  evidence,  that 
in  widely  separated  countries  a  primitive  form  of  worship  prevailed 
called  by  him  totemism — i.e.  '  animals  were  worshipped  by  tribes  of 
men  who  were  named  after  them  and  believed  to  be  of  their  breed.'  It 
is  certain  that  the  ancient  Semitic  pepples  worshipped  many  animal 
gods,  and  the  most  reasonable  view  is  that  these  were  totems  or 
animal-fetishes.  Such  a  totem  to  some  of  the  Semitic  clans  of  Syria 
and  Arabia  was  apparently  the  panther,  and  from  this  panther  the 
places  called  Nimra,  Nimara,  &c.,  naturally  derived  their  names. 
(See  further  below,  on  Ixv.  4.  Ixvi.  3,  17).  So  Prof  Robertson  Smith, 
to  whose  important  paper  in  \\itJon7-nal  of  Philology  for  1880  I  refer 
the  reader.  I  do  not,  however,  see  that  there  is  a  radical  difference 
between  him  and  Graf  Baudissin  as  to  the  import  of  the  animal 
deities  of  the  Semites ;  for  it  must  be  remembered  that  the  planets 
were  regarded  by  primitive  man  (comp,  the  Accadian  term  for  the 
planets, ///^fl-/ — i.e.  'a  kind  of  carnivorous  quadruped,'  Lenormant) 
as  having  a  qiiasi-djiwadX  existence. 

On  xvii.  8  (vol.  i.  pp.  106-7).  Dr.  Stade  ((?^.r<r/%.  des  Volkes  Israel, 
188 1,  p.  184)  and  Prof  Robertson  Smith  {The  Old  Tesfa?nent  iti  the 
Jewish  Church,  p.  226)  have  recently  revived  the  opinion  that  the 
word  Ashera  is  not  the  name  of  a  goddess,  but  means  '  a  pole,'  and 
that  this  pole  was  the  symbol  of  the  sacred  tree,  which  stood  on  or 
near  the  altars  of  the  'high  places.'  This  seems  to  be  opposed,  not 
only  by  the  occurrence  of  Asher  in  Hebrew  literature  (most  probably 
to  be  explained  on  the  analogy  of  Gad,  as  originally  a  divine  name), 
but  also  by  passages  of  the  Old  Testament  literature  (see  i  Kings 
XV.  13,  2  Chron.  xv.  16,  2  Kings  xxi.  7,  where  an  image  of  the 
Ash^rah  is  spoken  of  ;  2  Kings  xxiii.  4,  7,  where  we  find  vessels  and 
tents  for  the  Asherah  ;  i  Kings  xviii.  19—'  the  prophets  of  the  Baal  and 
the  prophets  of  the  Asherah').'  The  truth  is  that  the  word  Asherah 
has  a  twofold  value  in  the  Old  Testament,  i.  as  a  divine  name,  and  2. 
as  a  material  symbol  of  a  divinity. 


1  I  take  these  references  from  Graf  Baudissin's  ven.-  complete  artiile  '  Aschera  '  in 
Herzog's  Realencyclopadie,  2nd  ed.,  i.  719-25. 


304  LAST    WORDS    ON    ISAIAH. 

On  xvii.  10  (vol.  i.  [).  loS).  In  illustration  of  the  Adonis- i^lants 
I.agarde  refers  to  Low's  Araimiische  Pfianzennamen,  pp.  201,  380. 

On  chap,  xviii.  (vol.  i.  p.  no).  In  an  essay  on  this  chapter 
{Friefids'  Quarterly  Examiner,  Oct.  1881),  Mr.  Hodgkin,  the  historian 
of  the  Goths  in  Italy,  has  attempted  a  new  theory  of  the  meaning, 
based  upon  a  careful  study  of  Brugsch-Bey's  History  of  Egypt.  He  con- 
cludes '  that  in  this  chapter  the  prophet  warns  the  world-shadowing 
kings  of  Ethiopia  of  the  insecure  tenure  by  which  they  hold  their 
empire.  They  may  send  despatch-boat  after  despatch-boat  down  the 
Nile  to  summon  their  vassals  of  the  Delta  to  their  intended  campaign 
against  Assyria,  campaigns  which  are  to  be  commenced  at  least  upon 
the  often-devastated  soil  of  Palestine.  All  will  not  avail  them  .... 
Summer  and  winter  will  pass  over  the  unburied  corpses  of  the  Ethio- 
pians and  their  Egyptian  subjects  in  the  land  of  Israel.'  This  theory, 
as  well  as  the  older  one  that  the  Jews  are  a  nation  referred  to  in  vv. 
2,  7,  is  due  to  a  want  of  tact  in  dealing  with  the  peculiar  phraseology 
of  these  verses. 

On  xviii.  2  (vol.  i.  p.  in),  'vessels  of  papyrus.'  Compare  i1/^ 
jiwires  da  due  de  Rovigo,  i.  94  :  '  On  donna  la  lettre  a  porter  a  un  fellah 
qui  ne  prit  pas  d'autre  moyen,  pour  ex^cuter  sa  commission,  que  de 
lier  ensemble  deux  bottes  de  joncs,  sur  lesquelles  il  se  pla^a  assis  c\ 
la  turque,  avec  sa  pipe  et  un  peu  de  dattes,  ne  prenant  que  sa  lance 
pour  se  defendre  centre  les  crocodiles,  et  une  petite  rame  pour  se 
diriger.  Place  ainsi  sur  cette  frele  embarcation,  il  s'abandonna  au 
cours  du  fleuve,  et  arriva  sans  accident.' 

On  xxi.  i-io  (vol.  i.  pp.  125,  6).  Prof.  Sayce  {Fresh  Light  from 
the  Ancient uMojiin/ients,  1884,  p.  181)  regards  the  invasion  of  Baby- 
lonia by  Elam  and  Media  there  referred  to  as  the  invasion  of  Cyrus, 
and  describes  this  as  '  a  most  interesting  testimony  to  the  accuracy  of 
the  Old  Testament  records.'  In  the  next  paragraph  he  observes  that 
the  inscriptions  have  proved  that  Babylonia  was  not  taken  by  siege, 
but  that  it  opened  its  gates  to  the  general  of  Cyrus  long  before  he 
came  to  it.  He  forgets  to  notice  that  this  is  not  in  harmony  with  the 
description  in  Isa.  xxi.  i  — 10,  where  Babylon  is  rei)resented  as  taken 
by  storm,  and  its  defenders  as  summoned  hastily  from  a  banquet, 
reminding  us  of  Dan.  v.  He  does,  however,  make  the  suggestive 
remark  that  '  the  siege  of  Babylon  described  by  Herodotus  [and  in 
1  )an.  v.  ?]  really  belongs  to  the  reign  of  Darius,  and  has  been  trans- 
ferred by  tradition  to  the  reign  of  Cyrus,  and  that  the  late  Mr. 
J^osanquet  was  right  in  asserting  that  the  Darius  of  the  Book  of 
Daniel  is  Darius  the  son  of  Hystasi)es.'  The  natural  inference  from 
Prof.  Sayce's  point  of  view  would  surely  be  that  Isa.  xxi.  i-io  refers 
to  the  siege  of  Babylon  by  Darius  in  521  (on  which  .see  G.  Smith's 
Babylonia,  p.   119).      iWil   win' dcjcs   he  conlltx'   his   view   to  literal 


LAST    WORDS    ON    ISAIAH.  305 

historical  correspondences  ?  why  not  also  look  at  the  neglected  re- 
quirements of  exegesis  ?  And  this  brings  us  back  to  the  very  point  to 
which  I  have  tried  to  bring  the  discussion  in  Introd.  to  xxi.  r-io. 

On  xxii.  17  (vol.  i.  p.  137).  The  view  of  13|,  as  a  vocative  (so 
Pesh.,  A.  E.,  Kimchi,  Hitz.,  Ew.)  certainly  gives  more  force  to  the 
passage  than  any  other.  The  omission  of  the  article  under  the  ex- 
citement of  feeling  ought  not  to  need  a  justification  (comp.  Isa.  i.  2, 
Job  xvi.  18). 

On  xxvi.  8  (vol.  i.  p.  154).  The  phrase,  the  'Name,'  or  'Face,' 
of  Jehovah  is  an  innocent  loan  from  the  current  Semitic  theology. 
The  Semitic  deities  in  general  were  not  triads  but  duads.  They  were 
originally  the  productive  powers  of  nature,  and  were  grouped  in 
couples  of  male  and  female  principles,  under  the  names  of  Baal  and 
Baalath  (or  Baaltis),  and  Ashtar  (or  Ashtor)  and  Ashtoreth,  or  by  a 
cross-division,  Baal  and  Ashtoreth.  In  Eshmunazar's  inscription 
(vii.  8,  9,  Schlottmann),  the  king  and  his  mother  say  that  they  have 
built  two  houses  or  temples,  the  one  '  to  the  Baal  of  Sidon,'  and  the 
other  '  to  Ashtoreth  or  (Astarte),  the  Name  of  Baal.'  (Ewald's  ren- 
dering— '  To  Ashtoreth  of  the  name  of  Baal,'  and  Dillmann's  '  To 
the  heavenly  Ashtoreth  (wife)  of  Baal,'  seem  to  me  unnatural.)  It  is 
remarkable  that  they  should  have  built  two  temples.  This  shows 
that  the  Phoenicians  had  no  '  monotheistic  instinct,'  at  any  rate  in  the 
fourth  century  B.C.  The  compiler  of  the  Book  of  Kings,  however, 
can  speak  indifferently  of  '  the  house  of  Jehovah  '  and  of  '  a  house 
(built)  unto  the  name  of  Jehovah'  (i  Kings  iii.  i,  2).  Compare 
Ginsburg's  note  on  the  Ashtar-Chemosh  of  the  Inscription  of  Mesha 
{The  Moabite  Stone,  187 1,  p.  43). 

On  xxvi.  19  (vol.  i.  p.  157).  'Dew,'  more  strictly  'night-mist'; 
see  on  xviii.  4.  Hosea  xiv.  5  is  a  closer  parallel  than  I  have  stated. 
In  Hos.  xiii.  15  the  parching  sirocco  destroys  all  vitality  ;  there  has 
been  no  counteracting  '  night-mist '  as  in  the  hottest  part  of  the  dry 
season  of  Palestine.  After  an  interval,  Jehovah  promises  to  heal 
(Hos.  xiv.  4),  and  to  be  'as  the  dew '(or  night-mist)  unto  Israel. 
Clearly  a  '  dew  of  lights,'  as  explained  in  my  note,  expresses  what  is 
in  Hosea's  mind. 

On  xxviii.  18  (vol.  i.  p.  167).  Wellhausen  remarks  in  his  note  on 
the  meaning  of  kapper  'to  atone'  {Geschichte  Israels^  ed.  i,  p.  66  ; 
omitted  in  ed.  2),  that  Isa.  xxviii.  18  must  be  passed  over,  as  the 
word  is  quite  strange  in  this  passage,  and  the  supposed  meaning  '  to 
obliterate '  cannot  be  proved.  Prof.  Robertson  Smith,  however,  takes 
as  the  primary  meaning  of  the  word,  not  to  'cover,'  but  '  to  wipe.'  ' 
This  view,  if  accepted,  will  justify  the  rendering  doubted  by  Well- 

'   The  Old  Testament  in  the  "Jewish  Church,  ijp.  438--9 
VOL.    II.  X 


306  l.AS'i'    WURDS    ON    ISA  I  Air. 

hausen,  but  the  correction  ado])tcd  in  the  text  still  remains  a  very 
natural  one. 

On  XXX.  22  (vol.  i.  p.  178).  It  is  remarkable  that  in  this  prophetic 
description  of  the  break  with  Israel's  past  which  must  precede  the 
conferring  of  God's  best  gifts,  nothing  is  said  of  the  destruction 
of  the  high  places.  It  is  only  by  inference  that  we  can  assume  the 
tacit  opposition  of  Isaiah  to  the  ancient  custom  of  wonshipping  at 
the  local  sanctuaries — an  inference  drawn  partly  from  Isaiah's  stress 
on  the  supreme  importance  of  Mount  Zion  (ii.  2,  3,  xxviii.  16,  xxix.  8), 
and  partly  from  the  more  or  less  complete  temporary  abolition  of  the 
high  places,  decreed  if  not  accomplished,  by  the  prophet's  royal 
friend,  Hezekiah.  Considering  Isaiah's  reserve,  is  it  not  more  than 
probable  that  Dathe,  Roorda,  and  Kuenen  are  right  in  reading  'the 
sin  (of  Judah)' (/'//rt'/'/rt'//')  instead  of  'the  high  places  '  (AFwr7///)  in 
Mic.  i.  5  ? 

'  The  plating  (or  overlaying)  of  thy  golden  images.'    This 

phrase  suggests  the  true  meaning  of  '  ephod  '  in  narrative  passages 
(except  I  Sam.  ii.  18,  xxii.  18,  and  in  Hos.  iii.  4),  viz.  'plated  image.' 

On  xxxviii.  13  (vol.  i.,  p.  230).  Hezekiah  appeals  to  Jehovah 
against  Himself  Comp.  Koran,  Sura  ix.  119,  'they  bethought  them 
that  there  was  no  refuge  from  God  but  unto  Him.' 

On  xxxix.  6  (vol.  i.  p.  240).  Dr.  Delitzsch,  in  his  review  of  vol.  i., 
has  the  following  remark  :  '  The  parallel  from  Isaiah's  contemporary, 
Micah  ("Thou  shalt  go  to  Babylon,"  iv.  10)  he  passes  over  very  lightly ; 
"Babylon  is  mentioned  there  only  as  a  part  of  the  Assyrian  empire." 
Certainly,  but  as  the  ruling  city  of  the  empire  of  the  world,  though 
I  hat  empire  be  held  at  the  time  by  Assyria.'  But  how  is  it  possible 
for  Babylon  to  be  mentioned  as  at  the  same  time  a  part  of  the  Assyrian 
empire,  and  a  symbol  of  the  capital  of  the  imperial  power  aTrXaJs? 
The  two  significations  of  Babylon  cannot  surely  be  combined.  One 
is  also  entitled  to  ask  what  evidence  there  is  for  this  symbolic  use  of 
the  term  Babylon  at  so  early  a  date?  It  is  true  that  'the  River' — 
/>.,  the  Euphrates — is  used  once  in  Isaiah  (viii.  7)  to  represent  the 
Assyrian  empire  ;  but  this  is  not  a  parallel  case,  the  expression  being 
chosen  simply  in  order  to  produce  a  striking  poetical  figure.  See 
my  note  on  Mic.  iv.  10  in  the  Cambridge  School  edition  of  Micah, 
where  the  hypothesis  of  interpolation  is  advocated,  but  not  on  any 
arbitrary  ground. 

On  xl.  15  (vol.  i.  ]).  249).  Add  to  the  two  psalm-passages  quoted 
in  note  Ps.  Ixv.  6,  reading  n^^x  for  q^^  (Gratz  after  the  Targum). 

On  xlv.  14  second  half  (vol.  i.  pp.  297-8).  This  voluntary  servi- 
tude is  yet  not  servile  ;  the  symbol  reminds  us  of  xliv.  5  (clauses  i 
and  3).  Comp.  St.  Athanasius,  '  Because  of  our  relationship  to  Hi.^ 
(Christ's)  body,  we  too  have  become  God's  Temple,  and  in  consc- 


/ 


LAST    WORDS    ON    ISAIAH.  307 

quence  are  made  God's  sons,  so  that  even  in  us  the  Lord  is  worshipped, 
and  beholders  report,  as  the  Apostle  says,  that  God  is  in  them  of  a 
tni*^h  '  {Select  Treatises,  Oxford  transl..  Part  I.  p.  241).  The  direct 
reference  of  course  is  to  i  Cor.  xiv.  25,  but  St.  Paul  is  not  improbably 
alluding  to  the  prophecy — he  says  that  the  heathen  visitor  '  shall 
worship  God,' but  clearly  means  'God  in  the  Church,' as  St.  Atha- 
nasius  explains  (comp.  my  note  on  Isa.  I.e.). 

On  11.  6.  Prof  H.  L.  Strack  remarks,  '  Would  not  the  moth 
(u>j;)  be  a  more  likely  animal  to  select  for  an  image  of  perishableness 
(comp.  Job  iv.  19,  xxvii.  18)?'  He  would  explain  as  Delitzsch. 
But  in  Job  xxvii.  18  we  should  rather  read  K'^aDV  '  a  spider,' with 
Sept.  (one  of  two  renderings),  Pesh.,  Merx,  and  Hitzig.  A  single 
passage  of  Job  does  not  outweigh  the  Semitic  parallels  cited  in  my 
note. 

On  lii.  13,  (Sec.  (The  portrait  of  the  Servant.)  A  combination 
of  influences,  both  Biblical  and  Platonic  (comp.  above,  p.  194, 
note '),  seems  to  have  produced  the  outer  form  of  a  remarkable 
passage  in  the  Wisdom  of  Solomon  (ii.  12-21),  which  has  been  too 
much  overlooked,'  and  which  reminds  us  of  a  similar  echo  of 
prophecy  in  the  Sibylline  Oracle  on  the  Kop-q  and  her  royal  child 
(see  on  chap,  xi.,  vol.  i.  p.  75). 

On  liii.  10.  'It  pleased  Jehovah.'  A  poet's  words  often  have 
deep  and  true  meanings,  of  which  he  was  not  himself  conscious, 
but  which  he  would  certainly  not  have  disowned.  Such  a  meaning 
of  the  prophet's  expression  has  been  pointed  out  by  Dr.  Weir. 
'  Obs.,  it  is  not  God,  but  Jehovah.  We  thought  him  smitten  by 
Elohim  {v.  4)  ;  but  no.  It  was  by  Israel's  God  and  for  Israel's 
sake.' 

Wellhausen  denies  that  D^N  in  this  passage  has  the  sense 

of  'guilt-offering  ' ;  it  means,  he  says,  simply  the  guilt  which  is  borne 
by  the  innocent  for  the  guilty.^  As  a  commentator  on  Isaiah  I  am 
not  called  upon  to  discuss  the  theory  at  the  root  of  this  bold  nega- 
tion ;  but  I  will  frankly  admit  that  I  agree  with  Ritschl  that  it  is 
difficult  to  say  why  the  word  q^»x  should  be  particularly  used  here, 
and  that  the  '  simpler  solution  '  mentioned  at  the  end  of  my  note  on 
the  clause  (p.  51)  commends  itself  to  my  judgment.  If  we  adopt  it, 
however,  must  we  take  the  Grafian  hypothesis  as  to  the  Levitical 
legislation  into  the  bargain  ?  We  must  either  do  this,  or  else  sup- 
pose that  this  body  of  laws,  though  in  existence,  was  not  very  widely 
known.  Against  the  extreme  view  entertained  by  Wellhausen  on 
the  point  immediately  before  us  (viz.  that  '  sin-offerings '  or  '  guilt- 
offerings  '  were  absolutely  unknown  prior  to  the  Exile),  it  may  cer- 

'   Not,  however,  I  observe,  by  Dr.  Mozlev  [Essays,  ii.  124). 
-  Wellhausen,  Gescliic/i/c  Israels,  i.  76. 


3o8  LAST    WORDS    ON    ISAIAH. 

tainly  be  urged  (without  laying  any  stress  on  Isa.  i.  1 1  or  2  Kings 
xii.  17)  that  in  Hos.  iv.  8,  Ps.  xl.  6,  there  are  probably  references  to 
the  sin-offering,  and  probably  in  Prov.  xiv.  9  (see  Delitzsch  and 
Nowack)  to  the  guilt-offering.  Moreover  in  the  passage  quoted 
from  the  exile-prophet  Ezekiel  (xl.  39)  there  is  nothing,  as  Del. 
remarks,^  to  indicate  that  the  sin-offering  and  the  guilt-offering  were 
of  later  introduction  than  the  burnt-offering,  in  combination  with 
which  they  are  mentioned.  Nor  are  the  supposed  novelties  referred 
to  at  all  more  frequently  by  the  later  writers.  Sin-offerings  are 
mentioned  twice  (Neh.  x.  34,  2  Mace.  xii.  43) ;  guilt-offerings  only 
once  (Del.  says,  not  even  once  ;  but  in  Ezra  x.  19,  we  should  pro- 
bably point  D^OEf^N  with  Gratz,  Gesch.  der/uden,  ii.  2,  p.  133). 

On  Ixiii.  6.  Two  of  the  oldest  St.  Petersburg  MSS.  (dated  916 
and  1009  respectively)  agree  with  the  ordinary  printed  text,  but  in 
the  former  3  has  been  altered  prima  viayiu  into  3.  See  Strack, 
Zeitschr.  f.  luth.  Theol.  1877,  p.  51. 

On  Ixiii.  16,  'for  Abraham  taketh  no  notice  of  us.'  My  note 
requires  supplementing  in  two  points.  First,  granting  that  the 
speaker  does  not  intend  (as  Dr.  Weir  supposed)  to  deny  that  Abraham 
and  Jacob  can  'take  notice'  of  their  descendants,  what  precisely  is 
his  meaning?  Calvin  supposes  the  argument  to  be  similar  to  that 
in  xlix.  15  ;  '  potius  enim  naturse  jura  cessabunt,  qu^m  te  nobis 
patrem  non  prsebeas,'  but  is  ''3  ever  '  though,'  unless  perhaps  when 
its  clause  stands  first  ?  It  is  better  to  follow  St.  Jerome,  and  ascribe 
the  inattention  complained  of  on  the  part  of  the  patriarchs  to  the 
degeneracy  of  their  descendants  ;  to  apply  the  language  of  Deut. 
xxxii.  5,  the  Jews  of  the  Exile  were  '  their  not-children  ' — VJ3  N7 — 
i.e.  the  very  reverse  of  their  children.  The  next  question  is,  whether 
the  prophet  himself  is  to  be  supposed  to  endorse  the  words  which 
he  utters  in  the  name  of  the  people,  or  whether  he  simply  conde- 
scends to  the  popular  phraseology.  On  reconsidering  my  note  it 
appears  to  me  that  the  former  view  is  perfectly  tenable.  The  fact 
that  the  continued  interest  of  the  'saints'  in  human  affairs  was  a 
belief  of  the  later  Jews  (comp.  Matt,  xxvii.  47,  49,  and  the  Talmudic 
legends)  should  not  blind  the  historian  to  the  evidence  of  its  anti- 
(]uity  (nor,  I  may  add,  to  the  traces  of  it  in  the  New  Testament — 
see  Luke  xvi.  25-31,  ix.  30,  31,  John  viii.  56,  on  which  see  Godet, 
Rev.  vi.  9-11)-  Nor  can  we  fairly  appeal  to  those  mythic  expres- 
sions, such  as  the  Face  and  the  Arm  of  Jehovah,  and  perhaps  the 
'hewing  Rahab  in  pieces,' which  are  symbols  of  ideas  and  pheno- 
mena not  to  be  adequately  expressed  in  human  language  ;  for  since 
the  saints  are  still  literally  human  beings,  that  which  is  predicated  of 

'   Dcli'.zsch,    '  Pentatcuch-kritischc    Stiidicn,'   i.,   in    LutharcU's    Zeitschrift,    1880, 


LAST    WORDS    ON    ISAIAH.  3Cg 

them  must  also  be  intended  literally.  This  belief  in  the  sympathy 
of  the  '  saints '  corresponds  to  that  in  the  intercession  of  angels, 
which  we  have  found  already  in  li.  9,  Ixii.  6,  and  which  is  also  pre- 
supposed in  Job  V.  I  (read  'holy  ones,'  i.e.  angels,  for  'saints,' 
xxxiii.  23  (read  'angel'  for  'messenger').  It  is  true  that  these 
beliefs  are  not  brought  prominently  forward  ;  they  have  their  roots 
too  deep  in  popular  feeling.  But  the  evidence  of  their  existence 
should  not  be  overlooked  by  the  historian  of  dogma. 

[If  I  may  refer  to  Calvin  again,  it  is  interesting  to  notice  how 
his  exegetical  honesty  is  balanced  by  his  anxiety  not  to  support  the 
practice  of  invoking  the  saints.  He  admits  that  our  passage  by 
no  means  proves  that  the  faithful  departed  have  no  more  interest  in 
human  affairs,  but  he  thinks  it  necessary  to  give  a  strong  practical 
caution  against  invoking  them.  Stier,  quoting  Calvin's  concession, 
admits  with  equal  candour  that  '  grade  das  Nicht-anerkennen  setzt 
eber  ein  Kennen,  das  Nichtfiirsorgen  doch  ein  etwelches  Wissen  um 
die  Nachkommen  voraus.'] 

On  Ixvi.  17,  '  after  One  in  the  midst.'  A  reference  to  the  v.or- 
ship  of  Tammuz  or  Adonis  is  perfectly  consistent  with  the  composi- 
tion of  the  prophecy  in  Palestine.  There  are  several  certain  or 
highly  probable  allusions  to  this  cultus  in  the  prophets.  Ezekiel 
(viii.  14)  expressly  refers  to  the  women  who  sat  at  the  gate  of  the 
outer  court  of  the  temple  '  weeping  for  the  Tammuz  '  {i.e.  the  divi- 
nised sun  of  autumn).  The  refrain  of  the  Adonis-dirge  is  probably 
preserved  in  Jer.  xxii.  18  (where,  however,  'his  glory,'  parallel  to 
'  my  sister,' can  hardly  be  correct);  and,  in  Isa.  xvii.  10,  we  have 
already  traced  an  allusion  to  the  Adonis-gardens.  After  the  restora- 
tion of  the  Jews,  we  find  the  name  Tammuz  (in  imitation  of  the 
Babylonians)  given  to  the  fourth  Hebrew  month.  The  cultus  of 
Adonis  lingered  on  at  Bethlehem  even  in  the  Christian  period, 
according  to  St.  Jerome.^  In  the  passage  before  us,  the  prophet 
says  nothing  of  the  'weeping'  for  Adonis,  and  Ezekiel,  who  men- 
tions the  '  weeping '  of  the  Hebrew  devotees,  is  silent  as  to  the 
procession. 

On  Ixvi.  19.  '  Put  and  Lud  that  draw  the  bow.'  The  points  of 
my  note  are  these:  i.  that  Pul  (the  received  reading)  occurs  nowhere 
else  in  the  Old  Testament,  whereas  Put  (the  reading  of  the  Septua- 
gint)  does,  and  that  in  connection  with  Lud,  2.  that  Lud  being  a 
N.-African  people  (see  note),  it  is  reasonable  to  suppose  that  the 
nation  coupled  with  it  is  also  N.-African.  From  the  extreme  south 
of  Spain  to  northern  Africa  is  an  easy  transition,  but  I  admit  that 
Tubal  and  Javan  do  not  follow  quite  naturally.     True,  the  names  of 

'  Opera,  ed,  Ben.,  iv,  564  (ep.  xlix.  ad  Paul). 


3IO  I-AST    WORDS    ON    ISAIAH. 

places  are  not  always  given  in  geographical  order.  But  it  is  quite 
possible  that  Wetzstein's  emendation  (palaeographically  a  slight  one) 
of  Pul  into  Pun  {i.e.  Carthage)  is  correct.  From  Carthage  to  Asia 
Minor  (assuming  with  Wetzstein  that  Lud  means  Lydia)  is  a  natural 
transition,  and  Javan  and  the  maritime  countries  follow  then  as  a 
matter  of  course.  [My  friend,  Mr.  Sayce,  is  so  impressed  with  the 
necessity  for  bringing  these  geographical  references  into  a  natural 
order  that  (in  a  private  communication)  he  boldly  identifies  *  Pul ' 
with  the  '  Apuli '  of  Central  Italy.  He  remarks,  '  I  do  not  admit 
that  "  Lud  "  is  a  N. -African  people  in  Ezek.  xxx.  5.  It  there  means 
the  Lydian  soldiers  by  whose  help  Psammetichus  made  Egj'pt  inde- 
pendent of  Assyria,  and  his  successors  maintained  their  power. 
Lud/w,  Gen.  x.  13,  is  distinguished  from  Lud  (Lydia)  in  v.  22. 
These  Ludim  are  the  Lydian  soldiers  by  whom  the  power  of  the 
Saitic  dynasty  was  maintained.'  Dr.  Stade  gets  rid  of  these  Ludim 
in  Gen.  I.e.  and  Jer.  xlvi.  9,  by  emending  the  word  into  Lubim 
'Libyans.'     {De pop?do Javan,  G\Q%sex\,  1880.)] 


INDEX. 


I.  GENERAL. 


A  BEN  Ezra,  see  Ihn  Ezra 

Adonis,    mylh    of,    i.     io8;    ii.     Ii6, 

127-8,  309 
Alexander,    Dr.    ].  A.,   i.    225,  note'-; 

ii.  283 
xVIphabets,    various,    used    in    Hebrew 

writings,  ii.  236 
Amorites,  supposed  reference  to,  ii.  150 
Anath,  Semitic  goddess,  i.  74  note ' 
Anemone,  etymology  of,  i.  108 
Angels,  belief  in  guardian,  i.  148 
Animals,  figures  from,  i.  184 
Apolos^ia,  Jewish,  in  II.  Isaiah,  i.  291  ; 

ii.  289 
Apulians,  supposed  reference  to,  ii.  310 
Arab  belief  in  the  soul,  ii.  133  iiote^ 
Arab  poets  in  Spain,  ii.  226 
Aramaic,  prevalence  of,  i.  165,  212 
Arnold,  Mr.  Matthew,  i.  156,  264;  ii. 

208,  217 
Aroer,  i.  105 
Ashdod,  siege  of,  i.  122 
Asherah  and   Ashtoreth,  worship  of,  i. 

10, 106-7 ;  "•  303 

Assurbanipal,    Assyrian    king,    i.    217, 

291 
Assyrian,  illustrations  from,  i.    13,  17, 

32,  44,  45,  68,  71  et passim 
Assyrian  kings,    their   boastfulness,    i. 

219 
Astronomy,  Babylonian,  i.  308  310 
Athanasius,  St.,  ii.  306 
Atonement,  vicarious,  ii.  209,  210 


Bahylon,  captures  of,  i.  126;  ii.  291, 

304 
Babylonians,  religious  sentiment  of,  i. 

309 
Bclshazzar,  feast  of,  i.  128;  ii.  291 
Bcllis,  supposed  mention  of,  i,  67  ;  ii, 

144 


Bickell,  Dr.,   i.   70,   76,  88,  195-200, 

230;  ii.  168,  173 
Hirks,  Prof.,  i.  202  ;  ii.  283,  285 
Bochart,  ii.  274  note  ^ 
Book  of  the  Dead,  quoted,  ii.  31 
Bosanquet,  Mr.,  thechronologist,  i.  227 
Boscawen,    Mr.,   i.    229,   235-6,    277; 

ii.  128 
Bradley,  Dean,  ii.  227 
Bunsen,  Baron,  on  chap,  liii.,  ii.  39 


Calvin,  ii.  273,  308 

Cambyses,  religious  policy  of,  ii.  290 

Captivity,    Babylonian,     reference    to, 

i.  239  ;  ii.  306 
Carchemish,  site  and  importance  of,  i. 

70 ;  name  of,  ii.  300 
Chaldreans,  origin  of,  i.  142  ;  name  of, 

ii-  153   . 

Chateaubriand,  on  job,  ii.  259 
Cherubim,  signification  of,  i.    38,    115, 

218  ;  ii.  159,  296-9 
China,  Jesuit  missionaries  in,  ii.  22 
Chronology  of  Isaiah's  period,  i.  202  ; 

ii.    185  (see   also    table    prefixed    to 

vol.  i. ) 
Conjecture,    necessity    of    critical,     ii. 
.  -3778 

Consciousness,  belief  in  double,  ii.  133 
Cook,  Canon,  i.  116-7 
Covenant,  religious  use  of  the  term,  i. 

273;  ii.  7,  59.  Ill 
Cox,  Dr.  S.,  ii.  237 
Crane,  character  of  its  note,  i.  231 
Cyrus,  genealogy  of,  ii.  292 
—    religious    policy    of.    i.    304  -6  ;  ii. 

28S-294 


Darius,  religious  position  and  policy 
of,  ii.  290,  20^ 


312 


INDEX. 


DAV 

David,  house  of,  i.  46,  75  ;  ii.  299-300 

Davidson,  Prof.  A.  B.,ii.  214,  224,  232 

Davidson,  Dr.  S.,  ii.  186,  258 

De  Dieu,  ii.  161,  274 

Deity,  belief  in  manifoldness  of,  i. 
180 ;  ii.  305 

Delitzsch,  sketch  of,  ii.  282 

—  Friedr.,  i.  134,  169,  210;  ii.  139, 
150.  157,  159 '.^•c. 

Dew,  meaning  of,  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, i.  1 13  ;  ii.  305 

Drechsler,  sketch  of,  ii.  281 

Driver,  Prof.  S.  R.,  ii.  147,  161, 
162,  172  &c. 


Edersheim,  Dr.,  ii.  229  note'-,  295 
Egypt,  Semitic  influence  on,  i.  119 
Egyptian,  illustrations  from,  i.  60,  62, 

99,  114-119,177;  ii.  T,i,i2Zet passim 
Egyptians,  their  view  of  the  next  world, 

i.  89  uote^  ;  ii.   1 32-3 
Ephod,  meaning  of,  ii.  306 
Eunuchs,  Israelitish,  ii.  64 
Ewald,  sketch  of,  ii.  279-80 
Ezekiel,  compared  with   II.    Isaiah,  ii. 

252 


Family-idea,    the,    predominant     in 

Hebrew  society,  i.  21 
Fasting,  history  of,  ii.  78 
Felix,  Minucius,  ii.  234 
Forgiveness,  doctrine  of,  i.  161,  194 
Fulfilments,  circumstantial,  ii.  196  &c. 


Gad,  traces  of  worship  of,  ii.  iiS 

Gesenius,  sketch  of,  ii.  277 

Glosses,  in  Hebrew  text,  i.  20,  21,  44, 

50,    53-4,    171,    174;    ii.    106,   III, 

154,  239 
Goldziher,  Dr.,  i.  93  ;  ii.  109 
Gratz,    Dr.,    ii.    150,     152,    159,    222 

note^,  &c. 
Greene's  '  Hebrew  Migration,'  quoted, 

ii.  225  )iote^ 
Grotius,  ii.  39,  274 


IIali!:vy,  M.,  on  the  Cyrus-inscri])- 
tions,  ii.  292-4 

Hardening,  judicial,  i.  40  ;  ii.  2 

Heilprin,  Mr.,  i.  135 

Henderson,  Dr.,  ii.  283 

Hengstcnberg,  sketch  of,  ii.  280-I 

Ilczekiah,  is  he  chargeable  with  selfish- 
ness? i.  241 

—  Song  of,  its  relation  to  Job,  i.  228 

High  places,  i.  20,  104,  211 


KIM 


Hincks,  Dr.,  i.  202 

Hitzig,  sketch  of,  ii.  278 

Hivites,  mention  of,  i.  107;  ii.  150 

Hodgkin,  Mr.,  i.  no;  ii.  304 

Holiness,  conception  of,  i.  3,  28,  38,  63 


j   Ikn  Ezra,  sketch  of,  ii.  271 
I   Idolatry,  i.  18,  20,  71,  106  7 
I   Immanuel,  i.  47-49 
I   — ,  Dr.  Bredenkamp  on,  i.  42 

— ,  Bishop  Lowth  on,  ii.  277 
I   Immortality,  i.  151,  233 

Incarnations,  kings  regarded  as  divine, 
i.  90  ;  ii.  301 

Isaiah  in  the  light  of  history,  ii.  177 

—  not    arranged    chronologically,    ii. 
179 

—  partly  made  up  of  small  collections 
of  prophecies,  ii.  187 

—  two  parts  of,   compared  philologi- 
cally,  ii.  254 

—  links  between  two  parts  of,  ii.  246-8 

—  second  part  of,  its  arrangement,  ii. 
189-191 

—  — ,  its  Palestinian  references,  ii. 

225-8 
— ,  its  few  Babylonian  allusions, 

ii.  232 


Jasiiek,  Book  of,  i.  283 
Javan,  ii.  130 
Jehovah,  day  of,  i.  83 

—  prophetic  interpretation  of  name,  i. 

254 

—  God  of  the  world,  i.  24 

—  meaning  of  his  return  to  Palestine, 
i.  244 

Jeremiah,  a  type  of  'the  Servant,'  ii. 

26 
— ,  compared  with  II.  Isaiah,  ii.  251 
Jerome,  St.,  ii.  269-270 
'Jewish    interpretation    of    prophecy, 

the  phrase  criticised,  ii.  272 
Job,  date  of,  ii.  243  note ' 

—  its  affinities  with   Isaiah,  ii.  44,  45, 
132-3,  203  note^,  243,  250,  259-26S 

Joel,  date  of,  ii.  243  uote^ 

Jonah,  a  symliol  of  Israel,  ii.  26,  201 

Judaism,  is  it  a  proselytising  religion? 

i.  284  note ' 
Judges,  power  of,  in  Judah,  i.  5 
Judgment,  doctrine  of,  i.  10,  83,  144 
Justification,  meaning  of,  ii.  27,  52 
Justin  Martyr,  i.  48  ;  ii.  120,  165 


Kav.  Dr.,  sketch  of,  ii.  283-5 
Kimchi,  David,  ii.  271 


INDEX. 


O'O 


KIK 

Kir,  locality  of,  i.  134 

Kleinert,  Dr.  Paul,  i.  265  ;  ii.  7,  233 

Klostermann,    Dr.,  ii.  87,  96,    162-3, 

171,  2T,o  note'^,  239,  282 
Knobel,  sketch  of,  ii.  282 
Koppe,  ii.  278 
Koran,  referred  to,  i.  16,  19,  24,   113, 

153,   200,   243,   254,    264,    294;  ii. 

30,  76,  119,  124,  306 
Kuenen,   Dr.,   i.    124,    198,  203,   215, 

217  ;  ii.  153,  163,  191,  211,  284 
—    his  Hibbert   Lectures,  ii.  163,  294 

note  '■' 


Lagarde,    Prof,    de,    i.    65,    67,    76, 

107-8,  303  ;  ii.    127-8,    143-5.  150. 

165,  237,  239,  240,  295,  299 
Land,  Dr.,  ii.  4,  69 
Land-tenure,  Hebrew  law  of,  i.  31 
Lenormant,  M.,   i.    207,  209,  254;  ii. 

297  &c. 
LigJht,  pr£e-solar,  i.  157 
Lilith,  or,  the  night-hag,  i.  197 
Lowth,  Bishop,  sketch  of,  ii.  276-7 
Lydians,  supposed  mention  of,  ii.  129, 

310 
Lyra,  Nicolas  de,  ii.  270 


Magic,  i.  17,  22,  46,  56,  308;  ii.  295 

Martensen,  Bishop,  i.  9 

Martineau,  Dr.  James,  ii.  263 

Maurice,  F.  D.,  ii.  196 

Medes,  use  of  term,  i.  85 

Mercerus,    a   French  commentator,   ii. 

Merit,  Jewish  doctrine  of,  ii.  109-I10 
Merodach,  Babylonian  god,  i.  158,  302 
Merx,  Dr.,  ii.  270-I 
Messiah  and  Messianic,  meaning  of,  ii. 

198,  222-3 
— ,  the  suffering,  ii.  217- 224 
Milman,  Dean,  ii.  276-7 
M'ni,  traces  of  worship  of,  ii.  118 
Moabite  Stone,   referred    to,   i.    97-8, 
104,    207,    300  ;    ii.    149,    305  (also 
Addenda) 
Moloch,  sacrifices  to,  i.   182  ;  ii.  70 
Mozley,  Dr.,  i.  230;  ii.  267-8,  307 
Musculus,  a  commentator,  ii.  273 
Myrtle,  late   references  to,  i.   258 ;  ii. 

226  note- 
Mythology,    embodied    in   popular  re- 
ligious phrases,  i.  6,   9,   12,  23,  38, 
54,  84,  86,  95,  158,    180,    197,  233, 
246,  269,  294  ;  ii.  31 


Nakomdus,  fall  of,  ii.  291 


RAS 

Naegelsbach,  sketch  of,  ii.  283 
Names,  symbolism  of,  i.  56,  169 
Nature,  regeneration  of,  i.  19,  77,  172, 

188  ;  ii.  120-1 
Nebo,  Babylonian  god,  i.  302 
Nebuchadnezzar,  ii.  301 
Neubauer,  Dr.,  i.  53  ;  ii.  172,  272 
Nisroch,  obscure  name  of  Assyrian  god, 

i.  224 


Olympus,     Oriental     equivalents     of 

Mount,  i.  16,  91 
Onias,  temple  built  by,  i.  115 
Origen,  referred  to,  ii.  7,  22g  note^ 
Origenists,  doctrine  of,  on  evil  spirits, 

Osiris,  supposed  mention  of,  i.  67  ;  ii. 
194  fioie ',  300 


Palmer,  Prof.  E.  H.,  i.  102 
Papyrus,  the,  i.  iii,  117,  199 
Parallel  passages,  critical  study  of,  ii. 
241,  &c. 

—  argument  from,  ii.  234 
Pauthier,  M.,  ii.  21 

Payne  Smith,  Dean,  ii.  70,  233,  252, 
2S7 

Pellicanus,  a  commentator,  ii.  273 

Perowne,  Dean,  i.  56 ;  ii.  142,  226 
7iote  ■ 

Phoenician,  illustrations  from,  i.  92, 
104,  107,  140,  154  ;  ii.  69,  153 

Pillars,  erection  of  to  Jehovah,  not  for- 
bidden, i.  120 

Plumptre,  Dean,  i.  13,  290;  ii.  2S5, 
288 

Predestination,  a  Semitic  doctrine,  i. 
28,  292  ;  ii.  II 

Prophecy,  i.  26,  36,  226,   242  ;  ii.  290 

—  creative  and  self-fulfilling,  i.  63,  76, 
268  ;  ii.  3,  II,  177  7ioU  * 

—  fictitious  Assyrian,  i.  291 -2 

—  Egyptian,  i.  85  note^,  118 
Prophetic  writers,  their  self-abnegatiun, 

ii.  241 
Psalms,   Christian  element  in  the,    ii. 
197,  &c. 

—  imprecatory,  ii.  202 
Punishment,   everlasting,    doctrine   of, 

ii.  133-4 
Pusey,  Dr.,  ii.  51  note\  131,  139  140, 
167-8 


Queen-mother,  rank  of,  i,  47 


Rashi,  ii.  270-1 


3H 


ixi)i:x. 


Rawlinson,  Sir  llcnry,  i.  202,  304  ;  ii. 

2S9-290 
Remnant,  doctrine  of,  i.  10;  ii.  13 
Kenouf,  Mr.  le  Page,  i.  iiS,  215,  29S 
Resurrection,  doctrines  of,  i.  157 
Righteousness,    meanings   of  terni,    in 

II.  Isaiah,  i.  266,  294  ;  ii.  1,8 
Rig-veda,  quoted,  i.  ^^ 
Rochester,  Earl  of,  ii.  208 
Roman  Catholic  exegesis,  ii.  272 
Row,  Prebendary,  ii.  lOi 
Riickert,  Frederick,  ii.  189 
Rutgers,  Dr.,  i.  199,  272,  274;  ii.  4 


Saadyah,    i.    294;  ii.    39,    165,    170, 

269 
Sabbath,  history  of,  ii.  62-3 
Saints  and  angels,  doctrine   of,   ii.   31, 

108-9,  309 
Salvation,  meaning  of,  i.  80 
Samaria,  supposed  second  kingdom  of, 

i.  45 
Sargon,  did  he  invade  Judah  ?  i.  6S-9, 

203-4;  ii.  181,  183-5 
Saycc,   Prof.,  i.  68,  203,  211,  213  ;  ii. 

130,  292-3,  &c. 
Schiller-Szinessy,  Dr.,  i.  264  no/e^;  ii. 

266,  288 
Schrader,  Dr. ,  i.  1 1 ,  68,  205-8, 235,  &c. 
.Schultens,  Albert,  ii.  275 
Scripturists,  see  Soferim 
Sennacherib,  his  invasion  of  Judah,  i. 

189,  201,  &.C.  ;  ii.  183 
—  his  character,  i.  205 
Septuagint,  critical  value  of,  ii.  239 
Seraphim,  i.  37-8  ;  ii.  296 
'  Servant  of  Jehovah,'  special  meaning 

of  the  phrase,  ii.  211-217 
Sheol,  i.  32,  89-92,  229;  ii.  132-4 
Sibylline  oracles,  i.  75  ;  ii.  307 
Siloam,  inscription  of,  i.   72  nole,  136 
Sinim,  land  of,  ii.  20-23 
Smcrdis,  pseudo-,  ii.  293 
Smith,    Prof.    Robertson,   i.   67  8,  S3, 

169;  ii.  112,  124,    145-6,  154,  280, 

300,  303,  305 
Soferim,  i.  21  ;  ii.  228-231 
Solomon,   Snng  of,  supposed  meaning 

of,  ii.  201 
Souls,  primitive  theory  concerning,  ii. 

•32 

Spirit,  doctrine  of  the,  ii.  7,  105-6 

Stade,  Dr.,  i.  107  ;  ii.  154,  303,  310 

Stanley,  Dean,  i.  30  ;  ii.  194 

Stars,  once  regarded  as  animated,  i.  12 

Stcinthal,  Dr.,  ii.  31  /to/e  ' 

Sticr,  sketch  of,  ii.  282 


AOK 

Stones,  sacred,  i.  166  ;  ii.  71 
I  Strachey,  Sir  E.,  i.  76,  109,    123,  16^. 
I        180,  238-240,  255  ;  ii.  285 
Strack,  Dr.  H.  L. ,  ii.  156,  240,  307 
Strauss,  Dr.  F. ,  ii.  197,  2H 
Stuart,  Dr.  Moody,  ii.  229,  246 
Style,  argument    from  diversity  of,   ii. 

232-3 
Swift,  character  of  its  note,  i.  231 
Swine,     flesh    of,     why    forbidden,  ii. 

I15-6 
Sword,  mystic  Divine,  i.  158,  195 


Tabernacles  (or  Booths),  Feast  of, 
i.  181 

Tattooing,  supposed  allusion  to,  i.    284 

Tertullian,  ii.  ig^  tio/e\  234 

Text,  relatively  weak  authority  of 
Hebrew,  ii.  235-7 

Thothmes  III.,  his  conquests  in  Pales- 
tine, i.  99 

Tiele,  Prof.,  i.  38,  107,  139 

Tirhakah,  is  the  name  correct?  i.  no 

Toilette,  Hebrew  ladies',  i.  24 

Tomkins,  Rev.  H.  G.,  ii.  156,  296 

Torments,  future,  ii.  132-4 

Totem-worship,  relics  of  Semitic,  ii. 
123-4,  303 

Transcription,   sources  of  error  in,  ii. 

235  6 
Trench,  Archbishop,  i.  4,  269 
Trent,  Council  of,  ii.  272 
Types,  ii.  195 


U.N  ION,  mystic,  i.  8,  286,  297 


ViTRiNGA,  sketch  of,  ii.  275 
Vogiie,  M.  de,  ii.  235-6 


Wei.i.hausen,  Dr.,  i.    169,  170,  224; 

ii.  154,  159,  184-5,  301 '  307 
Williams,  Dr.  Rowland,  i.  179,  238 
Wines,  Mesopotamian,  ii.  226  »oU  ' 
Woman,  honour  paid  to,  in  Messianic 

descriptions,  i.  274 
Wordsworth,  Prof.  J.,  ii.  158 


Zechariam,  date  of  latter  part  of,  ii. 

243  no/e\  245  no/e* 
Zinzendorf,  Count,  ii.  215  iiofe* 
Zoroastrianism,  its  relation  to  Judaism, 

i.    76,    151,    157,    24S,  261,  294;  ii. 

120-I,  126,  ?94 


INDEX. 


15 


II.  PASSAGES,  CHIEFLY  BIBLICAL,  ILLUSTRATED. 


*^*  The    first    numerals  refer 
volume  and  page.     The  list  is,  of 

Gen.  i.  2,  i.  146 

Ex.  vi.  24,  25,  ii.  144 

—  xxiii.  20-23,  i^-  '05 

—  xxxiii.  14,  ii.  105 
Numb.  xiii.  33,  ii.  166 
Deut.  xvi.  21,  22,  i.  120 

—  xxxii.  8,  i.  148 
Judg.  X.  16,  ii.  105 
I  .Sam.  xiv.  47,  ii.  57 

—  xxviii.  14,  15,  i.  89 

1  Kings  ix.  (Jehu),  i.  237 

—  xviii.  5,  i.  18 

2  Kings  iii.  25,  i.  97 
2  Chron.  xxxvi.  22,  23,  i.  305 
Ezra  x.  19,  ii.  308 
Job  xi.  6,  ii.  295 

—  xi.  7,  8,  i.  46 

—  xiv.  21,  22,  ii.  loS  tiote'\  133 

—  xvi.  17,  ii.  49 

—  xix.  25,  ii.  161 

—  xxvi.  12,  13,  i.  158 

—  xxvii.  18,  ii.  307 

—  xxxviii.  5,  i.  247 

—  xxxviii.  6,  i.  166 
Psalm  ii. ,  ii.  199 

—  ii.  7,  i.  263 

—  xvii.  15,  i.  7 

—  xviii.  ii.  201 

—  xviii.  36,  ii.  74 

—  xviii.  50,  ii.  198 

—  xxii.,  ii.  14,  15,  197  }iote\  202- 

—  xxii.   15,  ii.  121  }!ote^ 

—  xxii.  16,  ii.  197 

—  xxii.  26,  29,  i.  150 

—  xxxi.  (authorship),  ii.  192  iiolc- 

—  xxxiv.,  ii.  197  i2ote'^ 

—  xxxv.,  ii.  202 

—  xli. ,  ii.  202 

—  xiv.  6,  i.  62  fiote  ' 

—  xlvi.-xlviii.   (Isaianic   affinities 
ii.  245 

—  xlvi.  4,  i.  53,  193 

—  xlviii.  2,  7,  i.  193 

—  xlix.  12,  i.  137 

—  Ii-  14.  "•  75 

—  Iv.  ii.  202 

—  Ixi.,   Ixiii,    (authorship   oQ,    i. 
note '' 

—  Ixv.  6,  ii.  306 

—  Ixxii. ,  ii.  199-  200 

—  Ixxviii.  25,  i.  71 

—  Ixxxii.  i.  148 

—  Ixxxiii.  8  (9),  i.  121 

—  Ixxxvii.,  ii.  200 
• —  Ixxxix.,  ii.  60 


to  the  chapter  and  verse  ;  the  second  to    the 
course,  very  incomplete,  but  will  repay  study. 

Psalm  Ixxxix.  10,  ii.  31 

—  Ixxxix.  27,  ii.  41 

—  xci.  9,  i.  262 

—  cii.,  ii.  20I-2 

—  cii.  28,  i.  255 

—  cvii.  3,  ii.  16,  165 

—  ex.  I,  i.  6t^,  ii.  200 

—  cxviii.  22,  i.  166 

—  cxix.  36,  ii.  75 

—  cxlyii.  4,  5,  i.  252 
Prov.  ix.  10,  i.  251 
Eccles.  xii.  5,  i.  137 
Jer.  ii.  31,  i.  299 

—  yi.  13,  ii.  75 

—  ix.  2,  ii.  192 

—  XV.  I,  ii.  209 

—  xxi.  II,  12,  i.  46 

—  xxi.  13,  i.  134 

—  xxvi.  21,  i.  22 

—  xlviii.  12,  13,  i.  103 

—  xlviii.  32,  33,  i.  102-3 
Lam.  V.  22,  ii.  55 
Ezek.  i.  10,  ii.  298 

—  vi.  2,  3,  ii.  226 

—  viii.  10,  II,  ii.  123 

—  X.  14,  ii.  298 

—  xii.  II,  i.  56 

—  xxviii.  13-16,  ii.  297 

—  XXX.  17,  i.  120 

—  xxxii.  27,  i.  89 

—  xxxiii.  24,  ii.  28-9 

—  xxxvii.  i-io,  i.  156 

—  xl.  39,  ii.  308 
Dan.  iv.  13,  ii.  99 

—  vii.  13,  ii.  187 
Hos.  ii.  13,  ii.  63 

—  vi.  2,  i.  156 

—  xii.  4,  5,  ii.  109 

—  xiv.  5,  ii.  305 
oQ,       Joel  iii.  14,  i.  134 

Am.  viii,  10,  ii.  127  iiote'^ 
Jonah  iv.  11,  i.  161 
Mic.  i.  5,  ii.  306 

—  i-  7,  ii-  74 

—  iv.  1-4,  i.  15 

—  iv,  10,  i.  240,  ii.  306 
257       —  V.  5,  i.  240,  266 

Hab.  iii.  8,  ii.  126 
Zeph.  ii.  I,  ii.  155 
Zech.  ix.  9,  ii.  221-2 

—  X.  II,  i.  74 

—  xii.  I,  i.  266 

—  xiii.  7,  ii.  163 

—  xiv.  16-19,  i.  121 
Mai.  i.  II,  i.  120,  261 


i6 


i\i»i;x. 


Mai.  iii.  i,  i.  266 

—  iii.  17,  i.  263  note- 
Matt.  iii.  9,  i.  284 

—  viii.  II,  i.  150 

—  -xxvi.  13,  ii.  65 
Mark  ii.  10,  1 1,  i.  194 
Luke  xiii.  n,  i.  134 
John  xviii.  5,  6,  i.  255 

—  xviiii.  37,  ii.  60 
Acts  viii.  27,  ii.  64  note 
Rom.  XV.  16,  ii.  130 


I  Cor.  xiv.  25,  ii.  307 
Gal.  iv.  I,  i.  263  tioW 

—  vi.  17,  i.  284 
Phil.  iv.  7,  i.  153 

1  Tim.  iv.  10,  i.  80 

2  Tim.  i.  10,  i.  233 
Heh.  iv.  12,  ii.  12 

—  xi.  12,  ii.  28 
Rev.  i.  5,  ii.  60 

—  vi.  16,  ii.  34 

—  xxi.  10,  i.  246 


apoc:rypha,  etc. 


1  Mace.  iii.  45,  i.  146 

—  X.  51  66,  i.  115 

2  Mace.  viii.  30,  i.  194 
Sirach  xxxviii.  i,  ii.  57 

—  xxxix.  4,  ii.  262 

Wisd.  Sol.  ii.  12-31,  ii.  307 

—  xi.  20,  i.  248 


I   Barueh  iv.,  ii.  17 
—  vi.  18,  i.  293 
I   Enoch  V.  9,  ii.  120 
'   Pirke  Aboth  iii.  16,  i.  i; 
I   —  iii.  25,  iv.  23,  i.  150 
I   Sola  ix.  14,  ii.  97 


III.  ILLUSTRATIONS   FROM   LITERATURE. 


lUirns,  i.  36 

Calderon,  ii.  212 

Coleridge,  i.  56 

Dante,   i.    24,    72,    151,   247,   265 

69,  73,  102,  108,  212,  261 
Dryden,  i.  261 
Emerson,  i.  271 

Cloelhe,  i.  36,  52,  278;  ii,  261-2 
Hawthorne,  ii.  229 
Heine,  ii.  64 

Herodotus,!.  112,  217;  ii.  122 
Homer,  i.  35,  147,  183,  307 
Horace,  ii.  157 
Juvenal,  i.  220 
Leopardi,  ii.  263 
Lueian,  i.  89 


.Maeaulay,  i.  158 

Marlowe,  i.  12 

Milton,  i.  16,  60,  197,  228,  247,  -:93 

Pascal,  i,  265 

I'ersius,  i.  65 

Plato,  i.  108;  ii.  194 

Rovigo,  due  de,  ii.  304 

Seneca,  ii.  194,  224,  234 

Shakspere,  i.  18  ;  ii.  17,  170,  234 

Spenser,  ii.  8 

Thucydides,  i.  256 

Virgil,  i.  53,  88,   179,   192  ;  ii.  62,  85; 

128 
Wordsworth,  i.  12,  53 
Young,  i.  255 


IV.  ETYMOLOGIES,  ETC.  {Incomplete.) 


.\draminelech,  i.  225 
.\hrim.in,  ii.  218  noU- 
.\riel,  i.   169;  ii.  155 
AsnapjK-r,  ii.  139 
Caleb,  ii.  123 
Chisleu,  i.  84 
Cyrus,  i.  290- 1 
Ksar-haddon,  i.  225 
Jesluirun,  i.  283 
Moses,  ii.  142 
Nimrini,  ii.  302   ^ 


Rab-saris,  i.  210 
Rab-shakeh,  i.  210 
Kahab,  i.  176  ;  ii.  31 
Sabaoth,  i.  5,  1 1-14 
Sarezer,  i.  225 
Sargon,  i.  123 
Sennacherib,  i.  210 
Sepharvaim,  i.  216-7 
Shaddai,  i.  83;  ii.  14S 
Tartan,  i.  123 
Topbcth,  ii.  156 


INDEX. 


'7 


a\»N  '  hyrenas  '  ii.  148,  2SS 
—  '  far  lands'  ii.   162 

nrx  ii.  307-8 

nna  i.  267  note''  ;  ii.   162 

hhi  ii.  151 

•^\X^  ii.  168 
r\\T\  ii.  167 

^.nt  »•  172-3 
f^nn  ii.  150 
"ix^  i-  193 

^3;  i-  179 

"15?  ii.  154,  210  note-'-,  305 

nna  ii-  298 
'?^-)3  ii-  150 
DnVlp  ii.  116 
t33L*'rp  i-  264 

Sn?  ii.  159 


p:  ii.  149 

JJp  i.  261  ;  ii.   153 

no^y  i-  47;  ii-  139-141 

-I^C'U  ii-   169 

nio!?:f  ii.  142-3 
nsi?  ii.  149 

D«5-|  i.  196 
DipD"!  ii.  159 
D''a-Ib'  i.  37 
S^\$  i.  83  ;  ii.  14S 

n-in:?'  n-ic*  ii-  166 

-\r\^  ii.  164 
••BJi^  ii.  161 

nnin  i.  5. 55 

Nifal  tolerativum,  ii.  1 68 
Precative  perfect,  ii.  162 
Semitic  compounds,  ii.  142 
Suffix  t'or  em  3  s.  m.,  ii.   141,   16S 
Vav  of  association,  ii.  139 


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GAYLORD 

PRINTEOINUSA 

